I was told on the phone that the internet is free with the room. Wrong.
It cost $12 per day.
Local calls are $1.50 each
Toll free calls are $2.00 each
Our waiter at the hotel restaurant picked up my wife's food with his bare hands, right in front of us. Oh, and he had a thick yellowish green fungus on his fingernail.
We got locked in the elevator
We got locked out of our room (keys just stopped working)
Housekeeping or someone came into our room (with DND on the door) while we were gone and used the phone.
They put the charge for the hotel on the wrong credit card and still haven't fixed it yet.


UGH

Call them until they correct EVERYTHING! That's bullshite, and make sure you remind them about the boycott and your deliberate decision to stay downtown.

Actually, Marky Mark ... those calls are about industry standard, but everything else is nuts!

Please tell me you refused the food.

Whenever I go to hotels, I use calling cards and pay phones. There are usually some in the lobby.

That restaurant thing... disgusting. Locked in, locked out, wrong charges... CALL. Again. And again. And again. It is their job to provide you with safe, sanitary, accessible accomodations. It is unfair and illegal to be charged for services used by someone else. And as for the wireless internet thing... always get things in writing. In the case of hotels, I know a few people who make a backup reservation just on principle. Even if their CC gets dinged for cancelling a reservation standing at the very desk, they prefer that to staying at an establishment which enticed them to reserve under false pretences. It's an extreme approach, but I seem to attract extreme types.

mark, as someone who handles customer "feedback" issues (ie: complaints) here are a few suggestions;
- call and ask to speak to the hotel's general manager. do not accept excuses only talk to the GM. politely demand to speak to him.
- introduce yourself, tell them when you stayed and that you had several issues. then, first question, ask the GM who their immediate supervisor is and how to contact them. again be polite but firm.
- then explain that you trust that you will not need to contact their boss because you are sure that they will resolve this issue to your satisfaction and explain to him the problems that you encounted.
-also never say "i'm never going to stay at your hotel again", they will be far more helpful if they think they can "save" you as a customer. if they feel they have "lost" your business regardless, they are less likely to "resolve" the problem. report is as if you are trying to help make them aware of a problem that they not have known about, a problem this is/has and will in the future negatively impact thier business. not as if you are really complaining.
- wait for their reply/response/apology and potential offer to resolve the problem.
- if their "reply/response/apology" is not satisfactory, do not hesitate to tell them what you consider a fair resolution for the poor service you received, but only ask for what is fair. it wouldn't surprise me if they comped your internet and parking since you feel that it it was misrepresented to you.

but, do let them know...

i agree. i did this once for a restaurant. i just told them that if i were the one running the restaurant i would like to be made informed of the situation, so i assumed that they would as well. they were very apologetic

So far, I can't get through to the manager. Just voice mail. I did get the meal, the internet and half of one day's room rate comped off before I left.

I just really need this charge taken off my debit card and put onto my credit card asap, ya know?

Thanks for all the advice, apples.

When my husband and I stayed a hotel to celebrate our one year anniversary, we were woken up at 4:00am to the sound of an alarm clock. in the room next door. and the window was open. (it was a beach-side place where the rooms all opened up to a courtyard.) there was no way to shut it off, no one at the front desk. and it got louder and louder until they finally came at 7am. Even though I pitched a fit, all we got out of the sleepless night was free parking (and what business does a hotel have charging $20 for parking anyway?!). grrr.

I think I'm gonna wait to see Rant when it's available on DVD. I hear Rosario Dawson does a kickin' good job, though...


~fff

that was almost....funny

Sorry you and your wife got mangled, Mark. In defense of Westin, I don't think I've ever had a bad experience with them. I've only stayed at their Boston, Atlanta and Key Largo properties however -- guess I'll be avoiding Cincinnati!

Hope you get everything straightened out. (and never use the hotel phone for outside calls, wherever you're staying)

Even if they're free? Cuz that's what I'm used to at the places I normally stay, like the Holiday Inn and Marriott and stuff---they give away free internet too. Heck, they even loan you a free range extender for your room if you need one.

And FTR, I called the GM today and relayed my stories (yet again). He was a great guy and comped off EVERYTHING for me--even the room service that I had no problems with and the $7 single serving mixed nuts--everything. All we're out now is the $3 for parking in the hotel garage.

Too bad it all came down the way it did, but it was a nice gesture on his part...

most hotels have some charge for local calls, usually $0.50-1.00, some are now even charging .10 per minute after 10 minutes connected, for local calls?!?!? crazy.

what confuses me is the internet thing. when i say at a fairfield inn (owned by marrriott) or most other "mid-price" hotels, i always get free high-speed internet, usually wireless but, the last several "high-end" hotels (fairmont, hyatt, marriott, disney, etc) always charge $9.99-12.99 per day, usually for wired high-speed. makes no sense to me...

I was staying in a motel in Syracuse NY once and I heard someone try the door and thought oh well they can't get in but then I heard a beep and the door opened and I was standing there going ummmmmm and they said oh I am sorry and left. A few minutes later the manager came up and asked if it was my room and I responded ahhh yeah. He said they had a computer crash and lost a lot of info. I guess they gave my room to someone else. I got to keep the room of course, but good thing I wasn't standing there in the RAW. Actually that could have been kind of funny.

I think the call thing is completely in line with what hotels do nowadays. Didn't you have your cell? That's a guaranteed free on the weekends, right?

The re-coding of the key happens so much that I don't think about it either. Granted, I'm on the road a lot but it just seems to be one of those things that needs to be done 5% of the time.

The rest is bunk! Complain away!

I did have my cell, but I'm used to having free calls in the room to at least local numbers, BTW, I'm roaming in Cincy so no call is free for me there. (I have a great carrier, but it's local to me and not anywhere in Ohio)

And the re-coding was because the guy who checked me in forgot to consolidate my two different reservations to one two-day-stay--which is also what caused the first day of my stay to get put on my debit card and not the CC I wanted it to go on...so major SNAFU on his part.

Holy crap! Charged for local calls?!?!? I have NEVER been charged for a local call from a hotel room. Maybe things are different here on the west coast.

I don't think it's a coastal thing.. I tried to research it some, but can't find hard numbers on how many hotels charge for outgoing local.. I'd say more than 90% of the places I stay charge..

Hmm, I guess I just get lucky.

i brought my laptop this weekend because the hotel websites said that they offered internet, and i'm used to free high speed wireless.

but the networks through the hotel were secure, and you *had* to use the hotel computer, which only worked with the tv, and it was $12 a day.

it would have been nice to look up a couple of directions, but for the most part, it wasn't a big deal. it would have sucked if we had been dependent on the internet in the hotel for other stuff.

i agree. i don't remember the last time i stayed at a hotel (@ any price) that had "free" local calls. it's usually .50 up to a dollar.

and the key thing, you have to be very careful with these "card keys" nowadays too, my money clip will demagnatize them (if i put the key in the same pocket) as has my cell phone on a few occasions.

Really, Aaron? Don't remember you mentioning this.

congrats, though!

pervs.

Aaron, you're in the Orchard, home of the cheeriest balls in the States. We can't let any open statement go untwisted.

Wait a minute, you're not in the states!!! You're in a province!!!

Yeah, umm, I think I just proved your point. <resisting urge to tell my little joke about how I am from Alberta because I know certain Canadians hate that joke so much>.