The Stamford Plaza is not a 5-star hotel. It's a 3-star hotel that somehow received a 5-star rating. I had two issues during my stay:
Concern 1: The facilities are outdated and cheap. The hotel lobby was dark and uninviting. In the hallways, the carpets were stained and frayed. In the room, the door paint was peeling and some of the light fixtures didn't work. The toilet seat in the bathroom was loose and shower water spilled onto the floor. And on top of all of this, hotel management plastered advertisements for a local steak restaurant throughout the hotel on the elevator doors, much like you'd see on a budget airline. Within ten minutes of arriving, I was surprised by the dismal shabbiness of the hotel.
Concern 2: The staff was disorganized and unprofessional. On my third day of what was supposed to be a four-night stay, the front desk called and informed me that all guests would have to leave the hotel that day. The hotel had decided to become a coronavirus quarantine hotel the next day. Nobody mentioned this when I made the reservation nor when I checked in. Unfortunately, the manager's suggested remedy was a non-starter: to move me to another Stamford hotel 25 minutes away. I gather that the manager was just as surprised by the announcement as I was. Still, the indifference and lack of urgency that he and other staff demonstrated suggested to me that customer service is simply not a priority at the Stamford Plaza, which I find unacceptable from a 5-star hotel.
