Bw Plus Sonora Oaks Hotel & Conference Center

The room smelled of the smoking area right outside the window, and I felt unsafe there with my children. A flimsy connecting door had no security chain, and its deadbolt was wobbly. The walls were so thin I could hear every curse, fart, snort, and moan from the strangers next door. I know far more about them than I wanted to. The hotel really needs better soundproofing between adjoining rooms. Staff were friendly and breakfast tasted good, but neither made up for the noise and lack of security.

This is a beautiful hotel in a convenient spot, and it could easily have been a five-star stay for me with better Wi-Fi and customer service. Some front desk agents were inconsiderate and needlessly disrespectful, which isn’t what I expect from a hospitality job. I had connectivity trouble in a room in the back building a year ago and was told it would be fixed soon. I got a room in that building again on my second visit, and the same Wi-Fi problem was still there. They had the whole year to address it, so it’s disappointing. That’s why I gave the hotel two stars. They seriously need to do better.

The key cards kept dying, so I had to get replacements again and again. That got pretty annoying. I’d asked for frequent automatic room cleaning when I arrived, since they mentioned some guests don’t want it. But after three full days there was still no cleaning, and I had to request it. At Marriott and other upscale hotels I’m used to cleaning every other day, and there didn’t seem to be any automatic schedule despite my request. I also had a package delivered to the hotel. When I asked the front desk attendant about it, she said it wasn’t there. I checked my Amazon order status, saw it was marked delivered, and told her. She looked again and found it. If I’d just taken her word for it, I wouldn’t have received the package. She shouldn’t have said definitively that it hadn’t arrived.

The kitchen and service staff worked hard, keeping the food stocked and clearing tables quickly despite the setup. The front desk was excellent too, friendly and quick with check-in. The room and bathroom look renovated, with new, well-kept fixtures. Sound insulation between rooms was very good, and the overall style was what I expected from a Best Western Plus. The restaurant struggled when it was busy. During the days after Christmas, with tourists and families coming up the mountain to ski, there weren’t enough indoor tables and chairs for the breakfast crowd. The entry area was cramped for people coming in, lining up, and others trying to leave. Outdoor seating wasn’t usable in winter, and the cold mornings made eating outside impractical, so people ended up taking food back to their rooms. Some of the room hardware still felt unfinished despite the surface renovation. The bathroom exhaust fan didn’t work at all, leaving odors and humidity with nowhere to go. We had to open the balcony door or room door to get air moving, which wasn’t practical on cold winter nights. The room door also banged loudly against the frame when it shut, rather than closing quietly and smoothly. Several times early in the morning, I was woken by a neighbor across the hall or next door opening and closing their door four or five times.