Pardon the dust at this inn and you'll enjoy some classic luxury suite hospitality. The Buena Park Grand Hotel & Suites was once an iconic Embassy Suites destination spot followed by Radisson Hotels holding the keys to this majestic mission-style place just a 1/4 mile walk from Knott's Berry Farm. I found crews hard at work doing some much needed and overdue facility renovations to this old building. If you don't mind the dust, you and your kids might like this place during your visit to the Entertainment Zone...And yes, the hot water line works! Booking and Reservation...I booked third-party via my airline thanks to a generous 2,000 point rewards bonus and a $139 base room rate offer with free cancelation with $158.74 total for a Friday night's stay at a tourist location...not a bad deal! To compare, several of the other destination hotels were pricing well over $200-$250 for the same night. The airline's rewards bonus payback was also worth almost 19% of the total bill in value that I can use toward future flights...Another great deal! Arrival...The Grand is located in the heart of Buena Park's Entertainment Zone along Beach Boulevard with easy access to/from State Highway 91. There is a wide selection of restaurants within walking distance including family-friendly spots like McDonald's, IHOP, Outback Steakhouse, and Claim Jumper. Subway Sandwiches too if want to take some grub back to the room. Numerous public transit bus routes also pass through this area including LA Metro's Route 460 that links travelers to Downtown Los Angeles to the north and the Disneyland Resort area to the south. I arrived via a public bus and the iconic mission structure provided an inviting greeting. The structure also has a mission-style clock tower that appeared to not be functioning; however the rest of the exterior and landscaping appeared to emulate the glory of the Embassy Suites days. The Lobby...The open air, high ceiling Spanish-theme lobby appeared to have remained untouched and preserves the hotel's classic theme. From the lobby, one can ascend to their hotel floor via one of two hydraulic elevators. The hotel's outdoor atrium can be accessed across the lobby. On the glass doors leading into the meeting room areas from the lobby, building permit signs depict that facility renovations are well under way...one project involving a replacement of their HVAC system. Check-in...Went smoothly and the young man who checked me was very friendly. They located my reservation and checked my ID. The Grand held a $150 incidentals deposit, payable at check-in. No resort fee. Another incentive was free guest parking for one car with additional cars at only $15/night. As one can easily walk to Knott's from the hotel, compare that to $50 preferred parking at the amusement park! The hotel enforced its guest parking via a printed parking voucher; they also documented the description and license plate of the vehicle to be parked. As I've mentioned, I took the bus; thus
This is a really dated property! Staff was really nice, gym had a nice treadmill and the breakfast was ok. But the room was really old and needs an update big time. I was here for business but it seemed close to Disney. I would look for a different hotel.
BEWARE! What a pretty nightmare this hotel stay was. When I booked a much needed vacation I happened to use card with a low limit instead of my main card. Most hotels don’t have an issue switching cards without fuss. Not here!!! This one took a LOT of working to do so, then charged over $1400 on my card, had to go back down and get at least one taken off then their system went right ahead put it right back on my card. Hours and hours of phone calls and front desk visits per day, all for what should have amounted to a $600 stay (including taxes and $25 per night valet). The staff there were all warm, welcoming, and did their best to make everyone’s stay smooth and easy. So I don’t believe this was their fault in the least, but rather a techno issue or something else. They really worked hard to try settle this but the accounting system continued to ruin our time. The food was meh. An effort is being made at providing something unique, with many of the dishes, but they were lacking flavor, proper temperature and seasoning. We got the onion tart (which was not a tart but more of a croissant/roll and it was stone cold in the middle) and the “gnocchi” as starters. The purple dumplings more resembled Spätzle than gnocchi and were barely there, swimming in a pool of a relatively flavorless broth and a bunch of tiny tomatoes and peas with shavings of Parmesan. I remarked that it was something I might come up with if there was nothing else in the fridge and I was desperate (but I’d still have seasoned it better). The salad wasn’t much better. Again, warm-ish and we were sitting right next to the kitchen, with only one another table being served. Everything needed more seasoning and the chicken on my salad as so dry and overcooked I couldn’t finish it. But the service was wonderful. The pool is lovely but no hot tub means swimming with (likely) urinating children is your only option. Plenty of seating and towels, and a lot of security to get into the pool was over the top considering you have to have a room key just to get to the floor it’s on. No room service. Weird. Bar was good! Valet was excellent, and actually having help with our numerous bags was a welcome change. So I’m rooting for the staff, but Hilton, you need to get it together because YOUR BS ruined my whole vacation then made me too broke to do anything about it. NEVER. AGAIN.