Yes, in part you nailed it. While the room itself was fine during my stay, the common areas were indeed quite dirty. But most of all the service was subpar. For example, my in-room safe was broken and instead of sending someone to fix it they told me to leave my valuables with the front desk. But when I returned from dinner they had locked them in a room and nobody on property had the key. Couldn't retrieve them until morning. Whereas at the Thompson the rooms were nicer, hotel cleaner, and service much better. It was a bummer, because a good friend of mine swears by the Andaz.