Last fall, I went to a conference in a nearby city. Towards the end of the conference, there was a lunch event and I took off my coat and put it on the chair. Apparently, I got distracted when leaving and forgot it. I spoke to practically ever employee in the hotel, but all claimed no one had seen it. It was October in the midwest and I had to leave the event without my coat. I even had a later phone conversation with other hotel staff, but it could not be located. I couldn’t believe someone had stolen my coat. It wasn’t even a nice coat. It was over 15 years old!

I can appreciate #6′s point of view. It is always best to handle service issues with a polite approach. I know service employees can only work with the resources management will provide for them. Sometimes those resources aren’t enough to satisfy the guests. Experienced and responcible employees can usually handle a problem. However, if the employee can’t handle the situation for whatever reason, as a consumer, it is up to me to take it to the next level. Hopefully, if the employee is trained properly, he or she will bring it to management’s attention.

As a guest in a hotel or restaurant, I will never be held hostage by a disgruntled employee.

We have expectations when we stay in nice hotels. When these expectations aren’t met, for whatever reason, some guests try to find fault with anything and
everything.

Had you given the hotel management an opportunity to correct the issues at the time they occurred, I can assure you your stay would have been much more pleasant.

As for the late hour – it’s a hotel and a high-end one at that. Staff are employed to meet guests’ needs, both big and small. *shrug* It’s all part of the business.

I totally agree with the gist of the article – legitimate business owners want to know where they can improve with legitimate, civilly worded complaints and sometimes you’ll even get compensation from it. All around winner.

Particularly at a hotel that costs $400 a night you expect service and consideration. The hotel staff was flat out wrong from the point where they suggested that David’s family had lost the key on forward! David wasn’t being rude and inconsiderate; the staff was. Something is wrong with a hotel’s staff training, when things like that happen, let alone what happened with the late checkout.

There’s a reason it’s called the “hospitality” industry and the employees of this establishment certainly weren’t living up to the moniker.

I always try to be polite and understanding as well. I agree that not ever problem requires that we find someone to be at fault.

Nevertheless, I also truly believe that if we point out these types of problems, it helps everyone. The hotel needs to know if it is offering stale products or it is going to lose business — even if it is just mini-bar business.