Sometimes it does not pay to be nice! Today was one of them! Grrrrr! Let's just say this writing is a means to alleviate some of the day's Hotel Drama and frustration! I am sure I am not the only one that has had this happen! Comments welcome on this topic because I am curious...Here goes...
Tara's birthday falls on a three day weekend. Always does. This year we thought we would venture over to Mendocino. it's a little over a four hour drive. Tara works Friday so we thought we would get up early on Saturday, meander over to the coast slowly, stopping along the way at a couple of wineries and a brewery. We know the area is very dog friendly so Fenway got to go as well.
We had loved our stay at the Stanford Inn and Tara thought it a great idea for her birthday. So my Tuesday began...I called to make a reservation. The receptionist, Ann was a little scattered on the phone but that's okay. First she noted that we were return guest and then she lost all our information. Still not a problem, we all have bad days. I made my two night reservation in one of the mid level rooms (not cheap I might add) gave her my credit card information and she gave me confirmation. She thanked me, said she looked forward to seeing us and we finished our conversation.
Excited, I called Tara to tell her of our reservation. Same room as we had stayed in last time! I was just about to call back to schedule two massages when the phone rang. "Hi, this is Ann," she began..."I have to cancel your reservation because it's a three night minimum on three day weekends!"
WHAT! I had just noticed that I had received an email from them. It was a CONFIRMATION email. Now she was canceling!! I asked why when you confirm can you call and cancel?! She said that was the policy and it had come up after she had confirmed! Does this make any sense to you? I asked to speak with a manager or the owners who had "signed" my confirmation email and she informed me no one was there.
Bewildered, I hung up. I was mad! I checked my credit card and sure enough they had even charged that for the one night required reservation holding fee! After speaking with Tara, I called back and asked to speak with one of the owners or another manager. This time Ann told me she was on the phone with the manager and that the manager would be calling me back from her house..."Let me get off of here so she can call you..." We're getting somewhere, I thought. Surely no good business person would think this a positive way to run a business. This was a hotel that prides itself on service and taking care of people?! A business that thrives on having folks return to their establishment!!
Almost two hours past...thought I was "getting off the phone" so that this Manager could call me? I began to wonder what phone number was on the registry. Ann had been very scattered...who knew? I called back. At that time the Manager, Jill was coming into the office and took the phone. I began nicely. Nice did nothing!! The woman on the other end of the phone who called herself a manager had the customer service skills of a rattle snake!! First, wouldn't you apologize and try and make this right? Not her, she said her employee made and mistake and well, all humans make mistakes!! I asked why I got a confirmation...you got it...A MISTAKE!! Instead I was told why after this... would you even want to come here? Really? I get that mistakes happen, but I didn't make the mistake...Isn't customer sales about making good on ads or misprints or even "HUMAN ERROR"! I wasn't trying to do something wrong. I didn't do this...I was not the untrained employee or glitch in the computer!! Wasn't it just last month that the airlines made good on $10 flights that were a computer error? Heck, in this case I was attempting to spend well over $800 at their establishment when all would have been said and done! Funny, my Daddy used to say money talked ~ these days with customer service the way it is ~ I would tell him you can't even give money away!!
I would wager to bet that all their rooms do not fill up for the three night minimum during Memorial Day. We are a Nation that is traveling less as gas prices rise and not everyone can afford hotel rooms that begin at over $200 a night for three nights. Grant it; we could but we work we only had two nights and three days. That leads us back to my opening...at this distance who can expect folks to stay three nights without taking off work?! Wouldn't Stanford Inn have been better booking one room for two nights at the premium price, selling us our cocktails that we always had when staying there, having us as guest at their restaurant, The Raven; and having us enjoy their relaxing spa massages? Oh, not to mention that famous and effective advertisement campaign...WORD OF MOUTH. We were repeat customers for goodness sake...even Fenway! They knew this was a special occasion and still they could not swallow their OWN mistake! Bad business...gets a complaint made to the Better Business Bureau and a negative review in Trip Advisor!! Saying, you know we blew it...let's make it right gets happy travelers and more repeat business! Not to say a good Trip Advisor review and positive blogger!
As it is I have a bad taste in my mouth from this experience. We have a few spring trips planned; Healdsburg at Healdsburg Inn ~ A Four Sisters Inn for a weekend of wine at J Vinyards, where we are members ...and repeat guest (ha). Also for a beach weekend in Monterey at The Sanctuary Beach Resort where we are again repeat guest...even our Baseball weekend has us repeating stays; and the last adventure at that hotel had a down spot when our car was broken into during our 4th of July stay last year...But the Waterfront Hotel and Joie de Vive knew how to make a bad "mistake" that happened on their watch better...and we didn't even have to ask?! I name drop only because good customer service gets folks coming back over and over... But these trips don't make Tara's birthday better...I'm still looking for "that perfect" place...it WAS confirmed...but now...the rattle snake bit!
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