Here's why we gave the experience 3 stars;
First of all, when we booked the hotel, neither Trip.com nor The Aster, Los Angeles, mentioned anything about the rooftop being closed on the dates we booked. On May 13 and May 14, we stayed in room 3 0 6. The hotel pictures showed and bragged about having a rooftop and plenty of pics of people there, and nowhere was revealed anywhere on their website or Trip.com that would not be available on those dates. When we reached out to Trip.com, they pretty much said that the rooftop amenities weren't listed as part of our package. Really Trip.com? You have to list the rooftop as the amenity... Got it. That was so lame a response. Everyone knows people book due to the pictures, and this was a seriously lame response from the Trip.com customer support personnel. We decided to save our opinion for this review.
The Aster had nice people, but it's hard to believe the availability missing on their website is a detail they would miss. Their hotel has impeccable detail and design. One can only surmise they conveniently left out the information because people would obviously not book there and go somewhere else. I told the front receptionist this as we were checking in. She mentioned, well, it said it on *******. But we didn't book through *******, we booked through Trip.com. And those specific details were not evident. After July 1st the Government is getting stricter on transparency with hotels having to mention things so we missed this window, but we're happy to hold hotels like The Aster accountable:-)
Also, on Wednesday, we checked out, and they had a fire alarm drill test that lasted about 10 minutes. They forgot to mention another minor "inconvenience" when we booked on their website. It was at 10 am. It wasn't so bad, but to state the obvious, they left out the ability for customers to decide by not making that information transparent during the booking process. It's not like the fire department or tech people didn't schedule that in advance.
1. If you book through Trip.com, please make sure you specify, call their customer support, and get it in writing. The clickbait and pictures seem shady and sketchy and reflect a lack of credibility in the process.
2. Trip.com asked which room we wanted to be in. When we picked the room, we picked the city-view balcony. But we got put in the poolside view instead. It wasn't bad, but that was missing in the booking details that Trip.com sent to The Aster. My fiance ended up being okay with the poolside view, but it should have been in the booking details via Trip.com. So please, please make sure you watch this if you book through them and call the hotel in advance.
Lastly, the decor, valet, and, in general, the service people were very nice and thoughtful. We would give them 5 stars.
