I’m currently at a conference in Atlanta. The conference is at the Four Seasons. I made my reservations for four nights back in mid-January. Good to go, right? Not so much.
The first sign of trouble came last Wednesday when the Four Seasons called two of my co-workers saying that they were over committed for Tuesday night and my co-workers had a couple options:
1.
Stay at the Four Seasons Sunday and Monday, move
next door to the Marriott Tuesday and come back Wednesday,
2.
Stay at the Four Seasons Sunday and Monday, move
next door to the Marriott for Tuesday and Wednesday, or
3.
Stay at the Marriott next door for all four
nights.
Then on Friday, after I was no longer in the office, I got
an email from the Four Seasons that started “Per our conversation …” Excuse me, but we never had a conversation,
you must be mistaken. The email went on
to say that I would be checking out on Tuesday and staying at the Marriott
Tuesday and Wednesday.
What?? I have a
reservation for four nights. You took my
reservation for four nights. Oh, but in
exchange for my trouble, I would get free internet (only for the two days at
the Four Seasons Atlanta, which my company would have paid for anyway) and 30% off on
spa services.
When we arrived for check-in Sunday, I was informed by the
man at the desk that they had me for two nights. I corrected him and let him know that my
reservation was indeed for four nights.
He gave me the same story about being over-committed for Tuesday. Here are some thoughts I shared with him on
this matter.
1.
Sending me an email is not an acceptable form of
notification, nor is it acceptable to be changing my reservation as I arrive,
2.
If you are over committed for Tuesday, tell the
guy arriving Tuesday to stay at the Marriott, it is unacceptable to KICK PEOPLE
OUT OF YOUR HOTEL!
Four Seasons, this isn’t your first rodeo, I get
that you have multiple groups, blah, blah, blah, but you should know how to
schedule these events better so you aren’t kicking nearly 100 people out of
your hotel. He told me my group made the
decision to move, I informed him that my group does not decide where I
stay. We went back and forth for a
while.
Finally I told the man that I would check in for the two
nights and speak with a manager later since I needed to get Miranda upstairs
for a nap (yes, the Four Seasons was not only kicking me out, but also my
husband and three year old daughter, classy).
He asks if I want one bed or two, and when I select two, he tells me
they are twin beds. Twin beds, whose freakin' hotel has rooms with twin beds? The
Four Seasons Atlanta, that’s who. OK, make
it a king. Oh yeah, and with my room keys, a note that says EVERYONE gets 30% off
spa services for March.
While we were out for dinner the hotel left an apology
letter, a bottle of Ginger Peach tea and a canister of spiced pecans as a
token to make up for their exceptionally poor planning. However, the tea and the pecans DISAPPEARED
the next day when housecleaning came.
SERIOUSLY!
The conversation with the manager didn’t go any better
Monday afternoon. Apparently if we were
willing to switch to one of the twin rooms, we wouldn’t have to move to the
Marriott. Yeah, but then I’d be crammed
in a tiny bed and I’d still have to pack up all our stuff and move which was
the most inconvenient part of this mess.
So then we come to Tuesday.
I have to get up extra early to get our bags all packed, but wasn’t
quite finished when it was time to head down for my meeting. I came up around 10:30 on a 5 minute break to
finish, but didn’t have time to take the bags to the concierge to hold since I
had to check out by noon and couldn’t check into the Marriott until 3pm. Nor did I call the bellman and let him know
my bags were ready, which was offered by the hotel. However, when I went up an hour later on my
next break, my bags were no longer in my room.
Yup, they took my bags out of my room and moved them to the Marriott
without my KNOWLEDGE OR CONSENT!
Unbelievable!
At this point I was glad to be leaving this hotel … done
with them. However, things haven’t been
fairing much better here at the Marriott.
When I walked up to my room I immediately noted that it was right next
to a stairwell, and maybe I’ve watched too much CSI, but the rooms right next
to the stairwell have a higher incidence of crime. Great.
Then, the room itself had a mildew/chemical smell that was making my
eyes burn. They were able to move me to
a different room on a different floor next to the elevator rather than the
stairs. Unfortunately it has the same
smell issue, but at least it’s not as strong as the other room. And my AC is periodically squealing. But at this point I am out of options. So I will suffer here for the next two nights
before making it home on Thursday.
Hey Four Seasons Atlanta, this experience is not exactly
what I would call 5 star service!
3 comments:
Wow. Simply wow. I'm assuming this is the Four Seasons downtown, and not the one up in Buckhead. I've stayed there once and wasn't impressed. I typically stayed at either the Westin or the Marriott, both right there.
Some quick thoughts that probably won't help, but since you are packin' a lawyer in your suitcase, some additional blanks can be filled in quickly...
1) All hotels have to post a synopsis of the local innkeeper laws in the room. Take a look at the summary in the hotel, that will help bound the following ideas.
2) When a hotel is oversold, they cannot typically evict existing guests without their consent. Getting your consent was probably key in their avoiding the legal restitution/accomodation they owe you.
3) If a hotel has to "walk" a reservation, they are required to put you up in comparable lodging at their expense. This varies somewhat by state.
4) I've only ever had to be the a-hole once in 15+ years of traveling -- in Nashville. I overstayed my reservation, the hotel walked a guest and my rate went up to the full RACK rate.
5) The flipside is that if you have the documentation from them for the guaranteed reservation, then you are generally in the clear. If you made your reservation through the conference (i.e., they booked a block of rooms, and then you are effectively subletting the room), then you are into a gray area -- know a lawyer?
6) Twin beds are for European hotels -- in Europe, and for really crappy American hotels that aren't right on Peachtree in downtown Atlanta and that have had the temerity to charge $250+ a night.
Finally:
7) How the heck were we almost in Atlanta at the same time?
In other words, grab a print of your confirmation, which ought to have some short-hand on the rate restrictions and send Ben off to raise bloody hell. The Four Seasons up in Buckhead is nicer from what I have been told, and you should probably get a free weekend for you guys out of this fiasco. I suspect that the manager was in such deep doo-doo with the overbooking that he was doing anything he could to clear out the hotel and avoid paying the lawful compensation owed to the displaced guests. A key word in there is "displaced" -- Ben can get the particulars of how to word the follow-up letter.
Other random thoughts:
- The Ninfa's on Andrew Young? Meh.
- The view from the Westin's rooftop revolving restaurant is better than the Marriott's.
- The Starbucks across Peachtree from the N1 MARTA station is the only Starbucks I've been to where you can get panhandled while waiting in line inside the store.
Final thought would be to get your corporate travel people involved in the dispute. Since it affected a bunch of you, this is an easy issue for them to go beat up on the Four Seasons corporate people over, and to try to get additional compensation.
I hope the rest of the trip is better!!
Seconding Bill's idea of getting your "travel people" involved - especially a "manager" of your corporate travel service. I have twice called in the manager of our travel service that handles all law firm accounts for her company and she is amazing. She is never talking to anyone at the actual hotel in question, she is immediately over their heads talking to executives at headquarters and she gets results.
Cheeses! (aka Jeezus!) That entirely sucks. I "third" the previous two messages and threaten contacting the Atlanta Better Business Bureau as well. Tread carefully but make as big and public a to-do out of this as the law allows. (Check with the lawyer you sleep with on a regular basis on this one.)
I wish you a much better stay for the rest of your time and a safe trip home as well.
Love,
Paula
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