HotelChatter

Klaus,

I just wanted to share my disappointment with you.

A couple of friends and I stayed at your hotel in August, 2005

I'll give you a run down of our stay, but I have to tell you the worst of it first.

Worst of it

When we were leaving the hotel, after paying our bill, the gentlemen at the door were asking about our stay and we briefly expressed that we had experienced several bad situations.  You soon appeared at the front of our hotel, we had a cab waiting, but we took the time to share our experiences with you.  You took the bill and assured us it would be taken care of.

On the way to the airport, we discussed how a bottle of wine and a little courtesy would have saved you a lot of money and satisfied us, however, wasn't that wonderful what you did and that we would surely come back due to your commitment of making it right.

Then I am talking to my friend who ended up with the bill, and I find out the bill was not taken care of.

How disappointed I was again.

Below is a summary of our stay at your beautiful hotel.

We got there around 11 a.m. - too early to check-in.  We said that is fine, they held our luggage while we started our vacation in New York.

Our first frustration:

We arrived back at about 3 p.m. and they gave us our room.  When we got to the room, it had not been cleaned yet.  The bellman went to check on the situation and came back to inform us that no rooms were available at that time, but we could wait in the bar.  By that time, we had been out and about and were quite ready for our room and felt that since the hotel staff knew that we were there at 11 that a room should be ready.  We were offered a room on a lower floor, however, as you would surely know part of the wonder of your Hotel is the incredible view so we opted to wait for a room.  They eventually moved us into a suite with a roll-away.

Second frustration

We ordered a bottle of wine through room service, after waiting for some time, we called down to find the status.  I offered to go to the bar if that would be quicker and I believe we called a second time before the wine arrived.

Third frustration - same wine bottle.

We got our wine, since it was not opened for us, we went for the wine opener.  There was not one.  We called down to get one and they assured us we had one in our room above the refrigerator.  I assured them I looked, I then looked a second time, and they said every room should have one.  After promising them that we really really did not have one, one was delivered to us.

Fourth frustration - Same wine opener

When I opened the wine opener, the cork screw had nasty red stuff on it.  This was not like red wax from the top of a wine bottle, it was nasty.  After all the frustration we had already been through, I just sucked it up and cleaned it.  I promise it was weird and nasty.

Fifth frustration - final straw

Jason Holt, the manager on duty, was near the desk and we were telling him of the incidents and indicated that if we had wanted to stay at the Howard Johnson, we would have made our reservations their.  He promptly told us there was one right down the street and he would be glad to make arrangements.  I was taken aback, expecting him to crack a smile indicating his jest and when I asked "I hope you are kidding", he was not laughing.  At that point, I was infuriated and decided it was not worth the effort to deal with.  I was done and the hotel became just an overpriced room.

Refer back to "Worst of it"

I am frustrated with myself for taking this long to write to you, but have a business card that keeps surfacing reminding me to handle this.

I called several months back and was actually disappointed to find that Jason was still working there.