The range of complaints from the convention s largest delegation included mold, cockroaches, a broke

The Blake Hotel on South McDowell Street housed the California timber cruising delegation to the DNC. Many said that their $310 per night rooms included insects, mold and broken fixtures. Robert Lahser - rlahser@charlotteobserver.com
CHARLOTTE, N.C. Many members of the California delegation timber cruising at last week s Democratic National Convention weren t happy with accommodations at their main hotel, the Blake Hotel on South McDowell Street, saying it charged five-star rates for low-star rooms.
The range of complaints from the convention s largest delegation included mold, cockroaches, a broken lock, sparsely furnished rooms, stuck elevators, nonworking Wi-Fi in rooms, plaster still wet from renovations and a shower that nearly scalded one delegate s child because it had only one temperature ( nearly boiling ).
The hotel built in 1973 and operated under other names including the Adam s Mark has undergone recent renovations to its north tower and several floors in its south tower, Mecklenburg County records show.
The Blake wasn t the only Charlotte hotel to get poor reviews. Some guests disliked staying miles from uptown Charlotte, some as far away as Concord and Rock Hill. The Washington Times reported that bedbugs were a problem in some hotels, though the health department reports the paper cited were months or years old.
When California Democratic Party chairman John Burton left the convention early for a scheduled dental appointment, California Assembly Speaker John Perez joked Burton chose a root canal over staying at the Blake, according to media reports in California.
All the California delegates who spoke to the Observer made a point of saying that they enjoyed Charlotte and the convention. But, at $310 a night plus tax, they said, their lodging was well below expectations.
It was what you d expect a $89-a-night room to be, said Scott Dick, a delegate from Carmel Valley who hosts a radio show, The Tasty Planet, that reports on food, wine and travel. If it was $89 a night, it would have been no problem.
In his room, a towel rack was coming unbolted from the wall, and a sink was clogged for a day. A ride on the elevator was not a pleasant experience, he said. At one point, it took 20 minutes to get from the sixth floor to the lobby.
California state Sen. Ted Lieu, a delegate from Torrance, tweeted during the convention that he had to be moved to five different rooms before he found a suitable one. Two of them had showers timber cruising with only scalding-hot water. He got locked out of one room because the lock was broken.
Several delegates, including Dick and Forrest Williams of San Jose, complained that they d bought a breakfast package for $100 for the delegation s morning meetings and the food offering got skimpier by the day.
During one morning delegation meeting, California Attorney Gen. Kamala Harris mused that the delegates had traveled great distances to stay at the Hotel California, a reference to a 1977 Eagles song about a weary traveler enticed then trapped in a nightmarish luxury hotel.
If you had your house renovated and you met the requirements of the building codes, does that mean you d be completely happy with the work or the finishes? Bartl asked. The things that people react to in terms of the quality of their experience probably don t have to do with building codes.
But even the county health department has awarded the Blake s lodging area high marks in recent years. During the past three inspections, the hotel received only minor violations, such as caulk damage to sinks and dirty ice buckets, records show.
Six years ago, a highly private group of New York-based timber cruising investors bought the hotel, then still part of the Adam s Mark chain, and the adjacent office building, the Cameron Brown Building, for $47 million.
The buyers included members of the Chetrit family, which newspaper articles have said is one of the largest private landowners in Manhattan. The family and its affiliates have owned some of Leona Helmsley s properties and what is now the Willis Tower in Chicago.
Work did begin on the hotel, which was turned into a boutique hotel and renamed the Blake. Last year, the hotel was sold to a group called Carolina Hospitality Group LLC 2010. The new owner paid $24.3 million for the hotel and land, which has a tax value of more than $44 million, according to Mecklenburg County records.
One longtime tenant timber cruising in the office building said the hotel s reputation timber cruising has long been deteriorating. He said he tells out-of-town clients to stay elsewhere when visiting. The Sacramento Bee and staff researcher Marion Paynter contributed.
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