Clarion Hotel near Cal Expo

This place was terrible right from the start. It took forever to get checked in and the front desk clerk did not give us the correct Wi-​Fi login, nor did he give us any direction on how to get to our room. Once we finally found our room, we found that the air conditioner did not work and let’s just say maintenance was less than prompt.

If I could give 0 stars I would. Horrible rooms. Horrible staff. Stay away at all costs.

We were at 4 days of St Bernard shows. Our AKC judge friends room was burglarized on 4÷27÷13. We were there. Real Scarry Place. They lost over $ 3,500 in cash, jewelry, credit cards, ipad, and more. No secureity here. OMG, Stay Away, Dangerous place. Mid Eastern ownership/​management. Dirty, No security, no ice, just excuses. STAY SOMEWHERE ELSE. The Hilton is across the street. Stay there

Blue Room inside the Clarion Hotel.
So we had our Christmas party there because the company Christmas party was a JOKE!!!
The small group of us had the entire place to ourselves. ROCK ON
BUT, that was as good as it could get. There was only one bartender. He was a nice guy, but he spent most of the night walking back and forth after each drink. You could tell the bar was not set up to handle people with a heavy thirst.
Moving on, it took 12 minutes to get a drink that wasn’t generous with the alcohol. So I downed the «drink» in a couple minutes. Then wait another 10 – 15 minutes for another drink. Argh. So I had the genius idea to order 4 at a time.
Ordering food was the same. The only bartender had to make drinks and also take orders. Some of our group realized this and ordered food and their multiple drinks at the same time. YAY The garlic fries were the BOMB! I could not stop eating those bad boys.
THEN, a Big Band group starts to show up. I mean a real Big Band group. Did I say there was a Big Band. LOL We thought, cool, this could be fun.
Paratransit pulls up and begins to unload LOADS of old people. The place was then filled with geriatrics, us, A regular, a single bartender… And a partridge in a pear tree.
Needless to say, the service was slower and still weak. I decided to switch to beer as he couldn’t water those down.
We still had a blast, but they could have used a couple of bartenders and wait staff.

For the Blue Room: met up with a group to do karaōke here on a Tuesday night. The karaōke was great — excellent selection, good sound system, great KJ. The bar was awful. I ordered a margarita on the rocks with salt — not a complicated drink by many people’s standards. I don’t know what the hell the bartender put in my glass aside from the tequila I saw him pouring, but it was by far the worst margarita I’ve ever had — and I paid $ 7 for that crap. Blah. If you go here to drink stick with a bottle of beer or something on tap.

I can’t really speak too much about the hotel — I’ve never stayed there. What I’d really like to do is review the Blue Room Lounge, which is inside this hotel, and give it 5 stars. But it’s not listed so instead I can only share what I know about the hotel.
It used to be a really nice place — there are pictures in the bar of a beauty pageant held there in the 50’s — and it was a swinging place!
The grounds and bathrooms are clean, and the person on duty at the check-​in desk seems patient and helpful.
However, every time we go there, we spot a prostitute or two going in and out. It’s clear and obvious. I’m not just guessing. The other night she strutted through the lobby, went up to a guys room (you can see the hallway through the window by the pool) and knocked. He opened the door and did a little ‘covert’ glance up and down the hallway before he let her in. A bit later about 4 other guys showed up and got the same glance as he greeted them — wrapped in a towel around his waist.
I’m not a prude, but this doesn’t seem like a very safe environment and the hotel should really do something about it.

If only I could give this hole in the wall zero stars I would. Can I just say this place sucked!!!
Their customer service was practically non-​existent. From the moment I walked in I was greeted with a front desk who had no idea where our reservation was only to tell me the same sad excuse I heard for the next 3 days that they were just bought by another hotel and their computer system did not transfer their reservations correctly. We were there for an educational product training that was also being held at their hotel. Other people attending also had the same problem checking in and were told they had to provide another credit card to check in even though all of our rooms had been paid ahead of time. Not okay. They had lost our paperwork and reservation not us. By the way they found our check in information that was in a stack of papers on the second day of staying there. The were so unorganized. I mean I know mistakes happen, technology sometimes doesn’t run smoothly, but take responsibility for it. Don’t make the customer feel like it’s there fault things aren’t kosher. Don’t make the customer wait and wait and wait while you try to figure out what to do. If you can’t run a hotel because you don’t know what you are doing. Your employees don’t know what to do here’s an idea — DON’T OPEN! until you are ready.
Don’t open the bar one day, but not the next. Don’t have people behind the bar who don’t know how to make a drink or pour a beer. Don’t overcharge for items and then blame the customer and then not fix it until a confrontation breaks out. Don’t have a restaurant and no one to wait on the people. Don’t have the air conditioning running only in the lobby and the rest of the hotel is hotter than life. Don’t have a refrigerator in one room, a microwave in another, and neither in another. Don’t put someone in a room with a non-​working television or telephone say you are going to correct it and then don’t. Don’t hire employees who don’t respect women and can’t treat women the same as men.
I will never be back! I will tell everyone I know to never stay here. Even though I don’t live in California I travel for work and will make sure that none of my fellow colleagues ever stay here.

This would be your next best night of West Coast Swing Dancing for the month. Usually the 2^nd Saturday of the month. For updates and confirm the dates, call Frank/​Laurie at American Portable Dance Floor, 916−334−2733.
Frank Carricato and Laurie Retzlaff got together with some other West Coast Swing dance friends and decided to put on a WCS dance for the month. They just couldn’t get enough from the Capital Swing’s 3^rd Saturday dance.
which means good for us, more West Coast Swing dancing. They will also play music to dance Night Club 2 Step, Country 2 Step, Hustle, and Salsa.
It is in the Blue Room, the lounge of the Clarion Hotel, there is a bar to buy drinks, bathrooms are right around the corner, parking is easy with their own lot. Good AC, around 50+ dancers will come out. Guest DJ’s change each month. Cover is $ 5 from 8 pm-​12am