The National Conference Center

Reviews 4

SH

Shan S

I am actually quite displeased with my employer for sending its valued employees to this location. I am livid as I write this review so I will try my best to leave out the emotions and only provide useful information. As mentioned by numerous other guests, navigating this place at first is absolutely ridiculous. The directions posted seem like math equations and Im often wondering if I need to solve for X to find my destination. However, I have been successful in locating my room and the dining hall twice now so I suppose it gets easier with time. No, there are not employees walking around helping guests find their destinations. Havent seen a single one. Only see wanderers with maps in their hands and 3 bags in tow, frustrated and defeated while attempting to get where they need to go. Unlabeled doors, awkward hallways and never ending staircases leading to nowhere. My second complaint is the amount of hidden steps and lack of signage warning of the same. I fell stepping out of my shower due to its awkward placement and elevated step and have had shooting pains in my ankle since last night. Additionally, coming out of the public restrooms there is a 3 or 4 inch step without warning. You can easily find uneven tiles all throughout the "tunnels" and it never fails that you can find someone going into a quick shuffle trying to keep their balance. This place is a liability suit waiting to happen. Guaranteed. Approximately 4-5 TV channels are considered "digital" and actually come in. The rest do not. If you enjoy PBS only, this place is for you. Finding out they have initiated replacements for some rooms does nothing for my satisfaction. Nor does telling your guests that the purpose of the center is to network and spend little time in your room. The rooms are small and awkward but Im not here to live a lavish lifestyle so Im not concerned. The wifi does not work in my room. Hasnt even been an option for me to select. Yet they classify this as an amenity? The largest and most disappointing complaint I have is the noise of my air conditioner and the handling of my complaint. I was jolted awake every hour while attempting to get a good nights rest to prepare for rigorous training. The noise that comes from the air conditioning shutting off and turning back on cannot be described adequately. Each time I could have sworn someone was busting through the wall or my door. I got maybe a grand total of 3 hours of sleep and found it extremely hard to focus. Apparently this is a common complaint as my employer was already aware. They advised me to call the front desk so that they may move me or replace it so I did. The rep on the phone was very kind and stated it might have something trapped in it (no...) or it might be on its last leg (yes...) so she sent a maintenance worker. He arrived a few moments later, told me the sound was completely normal and "sorry I couldnt help you out." And that was that. Keep in mind, I like a constant noise at night, I hate silence. I sleep with a white noise sound machine and I STILL was jolted awake every hour. Im not even concerned with the constant grinding noise it makes at all times. I simply wanted to sleep as any other professional would request when in a performance based training session. Im not quite sure how I will make it another 4 nights without sleep and expect to excel in my training and final exams. With that being said, a response from the GM or whoever else telling me they are "disappointed with my review" or that they have "initiated renovations" or any other remark will not suffice. Action should have been taken and has not. I have never experienced a nightmare like this while traveling. I cant imagine employers who pay to send their employees to the NCC will continue to ignore the numerous complaints it receives for much longer. Very disappointing. Edited to add - the cleaning service somehow managed to allow an important stuffed animal (packed by my 3 y/o) to fall under the bed in a corner to where I had to roll the bed out to find it. It was on my pillow this morning.

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JO

Joe Delgado

Summary: Place is gigantic. Meeting rooms are meh. Serves its purpose. Food was fantastic. Rooms are some of the worst I have been in, and I have been everywhere. ---> First off this place is MASSIVE. There are several buildings and they are all connected underground via tunnels. The actual meeting area is a typical room with a wall divider. The breakfast and lunches were fantastic and why I gave this 3 stars. But the sleeping arrangements feel like a bad college dorm. Very claustrophobic, shower was GROSS, alarm clock literally fell apart (front face fell off) when I moved it, I went to plug in a CPAP and the entire outlet shifted. There is a bar that is very nice called The Black Olive. This is no exaggeration: this place is so big when I went to my room it looked like I was walking in an abandoned mall. There was NO ONE around, it is not that there wasnt anyone there it was just that it was so big the guest count seemed super diluted. You do feel like you have the whole building to yourself.I may have seen 2 people total on my way to my room which was a 5 min walk from the lobby. The lobby staff were wonderful. Very helpful. They had a guy there standing by so that after you check in he can give you directions on how to navigate to your room. Google maps will get you lost trying to get there by the way. You wind up at a school. You need to keep going after Google says "you have arrived" and keep an eye out for a sign that shows where to turn. Great for day meetings and social event afterwards, just dont stay there.

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SA

Sarah Gerhardstein

I stayed at this facility last month for a business meeting. I dont care that the rooms are small and sparse but the tub in the room was so narrow that I couldnt shower without the curtain touching me. That is a horrible experience. The bathrooms need to be configured properly for hygiene - a larger tub or at least a curved curtain rod set out from the tub so there is ABSOLUTELY no chance of the curtain touching you during a shower. I understand the rooms were not originally designed to include bathrooms but this is unacceptable. Also, my room had a strong pungent smell. I had to call for housekeeping to spray it everyday so it was just bearable for sleeping. I would have changed rooms but the campus is laid out in such a confusing way that I wanted to stay close to co-workers in order to keep from getting lost. Additionally, there are signs for directions in certain buildings but not nearly enough and the ones there are not helpful enough. Otherwise intelligent people are quickly reduced to the status of small children lost in a corn maze with no way of finding the needed destination due to the ridiculously convoluted layout of the property. Signage needs to be greatly improved and added to the entire campus since a room 3 minutes away should not take 35 to reach causing you to be late for meetings when you should have been early. The hotel staff seems too accustomed to the campus to realize how much help guests need with directions.

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DA

Dana Boyette

Just came back from a 2 night stay at the National Conference Center. Very nice and VERY clean. Very helpful staff. Very good food. Covered parking. Lots of hallways, others call them tunnels but they are hallways. Open and plain but have plenty of helpful maps and signs to get you around. If you can, upcharge to a suite. You have way more space, two flat screen TVs, couch, two AC/heat units. Nice clean bedding and new carpet. A full size mirror, which Ive never seen before in a hotel. My only issue was an ICE MACHINE! The second night, the break stations were closed early and we walked all over that place for ice. We ended up going to the dining area and getting ice from the drink station. And when we called to see if there was a refrigerator in the suite we were told yes and there was no refrigerator. I understand about the place being for meetings and socializing with others but sometimes after an all-day conference, you want to chill in your room with a nice cold drink with ice. But over all I was pleasantly surprised how nice,quiet and clean this place was. Im a clean freak and very OCD and I give it a thumbs up!

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