Hotel Shangri-La in Los Angeles

Great location, terrible customer service, scam room charges. First problem was the suite that I booked was suddenly not available and they tried to put me into a basic room at the same rate claiming they were overbooked (always a red flag). Then they had to "upgrade" me to a nicer room, which they of course charged me for. They then proceeded to bill me for mini-bar charges which I didn't incur and bill me for a second room night which I didn't stay for and never agreed to stay. They were no help discussing these charges in person and left it up to my credit card to deal with them.

Somewhat of a sour experience. Upon arrival & getting to the door. I was immediately charged additional $49 for a gratuity & odd as gratuities are paid for after service, I may have given more, but based on the service that I received the $48 would have been too much. Now for the meal it was returned twice both times it was cold & some of which was uneatable. After the meal we had a waiter present me with meal tab indicating I owed an additional $60 holding us hostage & very embarrassing. Definitely not worth the $95 a person for a meal that wasn't worth $40.
Upon going up stairs to the upper level I immediately steered to a very cold area of the roof where all there were sitting on plastic furniture. A bazar area of the roof with minimal space. Walking around to another area, and meeting the same person who originally steered me to the plastic area was at the door who explained that the club was over capacity and & entry was not allowed, & couldn't get into the area I prepaid tickets for the the area in the photos when ordering. so my experience was that for a make shift club that you spend over $500 was less then enjoyable.
The entertainment industry will hear of this experience. Oh HAPPY NEW YEARS

I was in the resort industry for 30 years, and I've never seen customer service ignore the rules of hospitality like these guys. I wish I could say more for them, because I like the place a lot. Santa Monica usually has the best service in all of LA besides Beverly hills. The shangri-la staff seems impeccable, however, I brought a friend to have a drink and they made us check her bags at the front desk while reassuring her everything would be safe in their care. We found out later that they took something out of her bag. When she called to have them find it, they hung up on her. She kept calling back and getting more angry until they stopped answering the phone. In all my years of hospitality, and all my time in Santa Monica, I've never seen worse treatment of a customer. I gave them a few stars because the place is very nice. But they need to send their staff to customer service training. They treated her terribly, and it was painful to watch.