Comparing Anaheim Plaza Hotel and Desert Inn

We have only stayed at Desert Palms. We really liked it for the short walk and free breakfast every morning and it was decent. Although, towards the end we did get sick of it. We would stay there again.
Desert Palms is not the Desert Inn & Suites. Palms is around the corner of DCA on W Katella. DI&S is on S Harbor, right across from the DLR entrance.
 
We've stayed at the Anaheim twice. The front desk left a lot to be desired when we were there last September. The water pressure and temperature was also lousy in the shower during both visits. However, the walk isn't bad and the rooms are fine. We would probably stay there again if the price was right.
 
@lalasmama and @tsumgirl
Aside from the lighting in the breezeways, is there anything in particular you'd like me to be looking for?

I'm really curious about the conditiom of the room--I'm not expecting the Hilton at this price, but I don't want grungy. I've also seen mention of $20 Wal-mart floor lamps as the only lighting in some of the rooms. So I guess my interest/concern is the room: cleanliness, everything in reasonable repair, how yucky the bottom of your socks get. And if there's any sort of billing issues, and if you were given the room you expected.

Clearly I have some minor anxiety leaving my not-wonderful-but-very-cheaply-reasonable Desert Inn, lol. Fear of the unknown and all that!
 
I'm really curious about the conditiom of the room--I'm not expecting the Hilton at this price, but I don't want grungy. I've also seen mention of $20 Wal-mart floor lamps as the only lighting in some of the rooms. So I guess my interest/concern is the room: cleanliness, everything in reasonable repair, how yucky the bottom of your socks get. And if there's any sort of billing issues, and if you were given the room you expected.

Clearly I have some minor anxiety leaving my not-wonderful-but-very-cheaply-reasonable Desert Inn, lol. Fear of the unknown and all that!
I suspect it will be much the same as the DIS- not-wonderful-but-very-cheaply-reasonable!

I have never tried to attach photos while accessing this site from my phone, but I will do the best I can since I am not taking a computer this trip.
 


I'm really curious about the conditiom of the room--I'm not expecting the Hilton at this price, but I don't want grungy. I've also seen mention of $20 Wal-mart floor lamps as the only lighting in some of the rooms. So I guess my interest/concern is the room: cleanliness, everything in reasonable repair, how yucky the bottom of your socks get. And if there's any sort of billing issues, and if you were given the room you expected.

Clearly I have some minor anxiety leaving my not-wonderful-but-very-cheaply-reasonable Desert Inn, lol. Fear of the unknown and all that!

We are in a similar situation, except with moving to the Desert Inn & Suites on our upcoming trip....

We stayed at the Standford Inn & Suites on our last trip. The price was right, the room was large and the kids enjoyed the kids suite, the breakfast was ok, etc. There isn't anything that would keep us from staying there again, in fact we almost booked if for our trip next month. The only "negative" is the distance from the parks, last time we either walked to Toy Story and rode in from there or parked in Mickey & Friends each day.

We ended up finding a similar rate for Desert Inn & Suites for our upcoming trip. We were having the same kind of anxiety going from somewhere we know and are comfortable with to somewhere we have never stayed before. We are setting the expectation that we are going to have a smaller room and it sounds like the breakfast doesn't have as many options, but since distance was the only real "con"to our last stay we are going for it to eliminate that as an issue this trip.

It will be interesting to see which one we prefer after this trip and what things end up being more important to us next time around....
 
I'm really curious about the conditiom of the room--I'm not expecting the Hilton at this price, but I don't want grungy. I've also seen mention of $20 Wal-mart floor lamps as the only lighting in some of the rooms. So I guess my interest/concern is the room: cleanliness, everything in reasonable repair, how yucky the bottom of your socks get. And if there's any sort of billing issues, and if you were given the room you expected.

Clearly I have some minor anxiety leaving my not-wonderful-but-very-cheaply-reasonable Desert Inn, lol. Fear of the unknown and all that!

I missed that part the first time around- but I should tell you that we never, ever go barefoot or shoeless in a hotel... so I shan't be able to address that particular point for you. I will definitely pay attention to the rest!
 


@lalasmama and @tsumgirl : I will be there at Anaheim Hotel Oct 9-12. If that's early enough to help you make your decisions, I can make note of the lighting and the condition/location of my room for you.
Totally forgot the other question I had--I've heard that some of the rooms don't have regular locks. That is, they have the normal deadbolt, but not the additional "slide" or chain lock. (No idea on the right name for it; the locks that can't be unlocked from the outside.)

Thanks again!
 
Totally forgot the other question I had--I've heard that some of the rooms don't have regular locks. That is, they have the normal deadbolt, but not the additional "slide" or chain lock. (No idea on the right name for it; the locks that can't be unlocked from the outside.)

Thanks again!
:eek: I feel like I would have remembered that and freaked out! But I will double check when we go! (And if they don't, they'll be moving us to a room that does have an inside lock!)
 
Totally forgot the other question I had--I've heard that some of the rooms don't have regular locks. That is, they have the normal deadbolt, but not the additional "slide" or chain lock. (No idea on the right name for it; the locks that can't be unlocked from the outside.)

Thanks again!

At least some of the Anaheim Rooms have inside locks. We had kids from our group come back early and one girl went into her room to lay down, did the extra lock and fell asleep. When her roomates got back, they couldn't get into the room or wake her up. They had to get someone from maintenance to go get a special tool to open the door.
 
At least some of the Anaheim Rooms have inside locks. We had kids from our group come back early and one girl went into her room to lay down, did the extra lock and fell asleep. When her roomates got back, they couldn't get into the room or wake her up. They had to get someone from maintenance to go get a special tool to open the door.
Thank you! That gives me some comfort! I read it on a review somewhere (no idea where now!) that it lacked that "secondary lock" and that the family was robbed in the middle of the night. Sounds unbelievable/really unlikely to me, but I travel as a solo, petite woman, so I try to be as safey-aware as possible.
 
Thank you! That gives me some comfort! I read it on a review somewhere (no idea where now!) that it lacked that "secondary lock" and that the family was robbed in the middle of the night. Sounds unbelievable/really unlikely to me, but I travel as a solo, petite woman, so I try to be as safey-aware as possible.
Same here...petite woman and I'm starting to travel solo more frequently. The Anaheim Hotel was always ruled out prior due to safety concerns. I've heard bad reviews, but every hotel on Harbor has them at some point, so I started to realize the only way to know is to try it out myself. I'm hardly in the room anyway, so it doesn't hurt to try new places.
 
@lalasmama @tsumgirl - just checked in and there is NO upper/interior lock! I called to the front desk and they’re supposedly having maintenance come up and install one right now. They actually told me they’ve never had this mentioned to them before!! I find that hard to believe....

I am attaching phots- hope they come out right side up
This is supposedly an “executive room”. When I asked how it differs from a regular room they said it’s a touch larger and has two sinks in the vanity area

I did notice that this room does NOT have a balcony as all the other 2nd floor rooms that I have been in previously, did. (Sorry for the bad sentence structure)

There are exterior lights above the doorways but I’ll take a picture of that after dark so you can see better what it looks like.
 

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update: maintenance is here now installing an upper interior latch. He apologized that it “must have gotten overlooked” and said it’s not standard, and he seemed surprised that the first person who answered the phone when I dialed “0” seemed to think it was normal.
 
@ten6mom Thank you for the update! I'm so glad you made it there safely, and they were able to get the lock installed for you. I hope it didn't interfere with your plans.

It sounds busy at the parks, so I'm hoping for some pixie dust for you! Have a great vacation!
 
@lalasmama @tsumgirl - just checked in and there is NO upper/interior lock! I called to the front desk and they’re supposedly having maintenance come up and install one right now. They actually told me they’ve never had this mentioned to them before!! I find that hard to believe....

I am attaching phots- hope they come out right side up
This is supposedly an “executive room”. When I asked how it differs from a regular room they said it’s a touch larger and has two sinks in the vanity area

I did notice that this room does NOT have a balcony as all the other 2nd floor rooms that I have been in previously, did. (Sorry for the bad sentence structure)

There are exterior lights above the doorways but I’ll take a picture of that after dark so you can see better what it looks like.
Thank you for following up! And for the pictures! Hope your stay is good after they got the lock in!
 
And here are some more photos of the lightning after dark. It’s right at the corner of a heavily traveled intersection and the grounds and breezeways are well- lit. The lower levels have the plants in between sets of doors. Less street noise than many hotels because it is set back a bit from Harbor Blvd.
 

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And here are some more photos of the lightning after dark. It’s right at the corner of a heavily traveled intersection and the grounds and breezeways are well- lit. The lower levels have the plants in between sets of doors. Less street noise than many hotels because it is set back a bit from Harbor Blvd.
Thank you soooo much! I really appreciate all your updates. It's better lit than I imagined, and this has been very reassuring.
 
Thank you soooo much! I really appreciate all your updates. It's better lit than I imagined, and this has been very reassuring.
Safety wise I think it’s perfectly fine. Make no mistake- the building is definitely old! But I have stayed in some pretty sketchy places so this is adequate for me!

they do charge $15 a day parking, if you’re going to have a car here.
 

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