Hotel did not meet what it offered. Please help

LozzaP_2

I booked a stay in a London Mayfair hotel for my husbands 40th birthday. I booked a no-smoking suite with a whirlpool bath.
After check in we decided to have a bath before going out for the evening. After a few minutes of the bath filling up we decided to try the whirlpool action which we could not get to work instead a mass of black gunge started to appear in the water which I could only imagine was mould.

As one of the main reasons for booking the hotel was the bath, we phoned reception who offered to send up an engineer to have a look at the bath for us. After a time had elapsed we phoned reception again who kindly offered to swap rooms for us. We gratefully agreed, however the room needed to be made up and we had to wait approximately 45mins for this to happen. Some 1hour 20 minutes later we were shown a new room. As time was now pressing on we had to change our plans and instead of heading into town we thought we would have a meal in the hotel.
We then ran the bath again in the new suite and tried to get the whirlpool/Jacuzzi action to work and it made a lot of noise but there was no movement of the water.

Again we headed for reception and they agreed to send maintenance to the new room. So we headed to the restaurant. I asked for a glass of Rose and was given the wine/bar list. However before I could make a choice the barman said he had this bottle open, so being polite I agreed to have a glass. When our restaurant bill came over I had been charged approximately £8 a glass, he had given me the most expensive wine on the menu. I believe as a matter of courtesy if you are offering a client the most expensive wine they should be made aware of that.
For starters my husband ordered mussels but when they came out they were very cold, so he asked for them to be warmed up. When they came back to him they were only a little bit warmer than before. As my husband could see I was getting more upset that a lovely birthday surprise was being ruined he decided not to complain again about them.

After dinner we went back to reception to see if our bath was mended to be assured it was. Upon entering the room we could hear the bath was making a lot of noise but couldn’t see any movement in the water, so I decided to get in to try it. I could not feel any movement of the water it was just like laying in an ordinary bath, you could just see the jets making a motion but it was terrible, the worst whirlpool/Jacuzzi bath ever.

As it was then 10pm I no longer had the inclination to complain again but decided to retire to bed.

I specifically booked a no smoking room as my husband suffers from asthma and after a little while he started coughing, the smell of smoke was lingering in the room. Also an ashtray was present in the room which it hadn’t been in our first room. We had to sleep with the windows open which in turn made the room noisy.

The bed was also rather uncomfortable as it appeared to dip in the middle as every time I moved I rolled into the centre of the bed, so therefore I did not even get a good night’s sleep.

Upon checking out we raised our complaints and we were informed we had to settle the bill and our complaint would get dealt with by the hotel manager. We were not happy about settling the bill but felt pressured into doing so.

Upon our return home someone rung to talk to my husband who again went through all the points of the problems we had, your member of staff went off to discuss the problems again. Five days later and we still hadn’t heard from anyone, I rung in and went through the problems for the 3rd time someone agreed to ring us back. Upon receiving this phone call I was disgusted to be offered £27 back for the meal. All he would do is say “ I am sorry you had a terrible time but I am not prepared to do anything else”. We are fed up with apology after apology we would like finacial compensation. We have been offered a stay again at a reduced rate, but my husband and I run our own company and taking time away is a luxury but as it was his 40th we agreed to do it.

I have now received a letter from the hotel with a refund of £27 which I am certainly not happy with and to say this is the end of the matter, unless I want to stay again, so he was not listening when we said we did not want to stay again. Please could someone help with advice please. Thanks

myrnahaz

Don't cash the cheque for £27 or they'll see this as your acceptance of the compensation.
Don't accept any more telephone calls - write a letter to the manager detailing your complaints as well as the fact that you brought each matter to their attention both as soon as they happened, and again when you paid your bill.
Isn't it illegal to allow smoking anywhere that is intended for use by the public - therefore, even if you hadn't already requested a non-smoking room, you should be assured that your replacement room would be non smoking.
Finally, who would want a reduced price (or even free) stay at a hotel that you'd had a poor experience in previously?

dacouch

Hotel rooms are exempt from the no smoking laws

LozzaP_2

Thanks, they put the £27 back on my credit card without my consent, I have written and informed them of this but they have replied saying case closed all I am entitled to is a reduced second stay

myrnahaz

dacouch wrote: »

Hotel rooms are exempt from the no smoking laws

That explains a lot; I just booked a room for me & DH to stay after a wedding, and they had a no-smoking policy but said they'd charge £50 if anyone smoked in their rooms - I couldn't see why they needed to make such threats if there was a law against public area smoking - now I see why.

Lozza - I wouldn't give up; write to the manager and copy it to the company Chairman; I'm not sure it'll get you anywhere - they are clearly used to ignoring complaints.
I know it's unfair, but maybe it would be better to put the whole thing behind you and stop letting it affect any more of your life.

glider3560

Was the hotel a chain? If it was, then contact guest relations. Which hotel was it?

McKneff

There are still rules and regulations governing the smoking in hotel rooms though which the hotel has to comply with. they cant just let any room be a smoking room.

isplumm

LozzaP wrote: »

I booked a stay in a London Mayfair hotel for my husbands 40th birthday. I booked a no-smoking suite with a whirlpool bath.
After check in we decided to have a bath before going out for the evening. After a few minutes of the bath filling up we decided to try the whirlpool action which we could not get to work instead a mass of black gunge started to appear in the water which I could only imagine was mould.

As one of the main reasons for booking the hotel was the bath, we phoned reception who offered to send up an engineer to have a look at the bath for us. After a time had elapsed we phoned reception again who kindly offered to swap rooms for us. We gratefully agreed, however the room needed to be made up and we had to wait approximately 45mins for this to happen. Some 1hour 20 minutes later we were shown a new room. As time was now pressing on we had to change our plans and instead of heading into town we thought we would have a meal in the hotel.
We then ran the bath again in the new suite and tried to get the whirlpool/Jacuzzi action to work and it made a lot of noise but there was no movement of the water.

Again we headed for reception and they agreed to send maintenance to the new room. So we headed to the restaurant. I asked for a glass of Rose and was given the wine/bar list. However before I could make a choice the barman said he had this bottle open, so being polite I agreed to have a glass. When our restaurant bill came over I had been charged approximately £8 a glass, he had given me the most expensive wine on the menu. I believe as a matter of courtesy if you are offering a client the most expensive wine they should be made aware of that.
For starters my husband ordered mussels but when they came out they were very cold, so he asked for them to be warmed up. When they came back to him they were only a little bit warmer than before. As my husband could see I was getting more upset that a lovely birthday surprise was being ruined he decided not to complain again about them.

After dinner we went back to reception to see if our bath was mended to be assured it was. Upon entering the room we could hear the bath was making a lot of noise but couldn’t see any movement in the water, so I decided to get in to try it. I could not feel any movement of the water it was just like laying in an ordinary bath, you could just see the jets making a motion but it was terrible, the worst whirlpool/Jacuzzi bath ever.

As it was then 10pm I no longer had the inclination to complain again but decided to retire to bed.

I specifically booked a no smoking room as my husband suffers from asthma and after a little while he started coughing, the smell of smoke was lingering in the room. Also an ashtray was present in the room which it hadn’t been in our first room. We had to sleep with the windows open which in turn made the room noisy.

The bed was also rather uncomfortable as it appeared to dip in the middle as every time I moved I rolled into the centre of the bed, so therefore I did not even get a good night’s sleep.

Upon checking out we raised our complaints and we were informed we had to settle the bill and our complaint would get dealt with by the hotel manager. We were not happy about settling the bill but felt pressured into doing so.

Upon our return home someone rung to talk to my husband who again went through all the points of the problems we had, your member of staff went off to discuss the problems again. Five days later and we still hadn’t heard from anyone, I rung in and went through the problems for the 3rd time someone agreed to ring us back. Upon receiving this phone call I was disgusted to be offered £27 back for the meal. All he would do is say “ I am sorry you had a terrible time but I am not prepared to do anything else”. We are fed up with apology after apology we would like finacial compensation. We have been offered a stay again at a reduced rate, but my husband and I run our own company and taking time away is a luxury but as it was his 40th we agreed to do it.

I have now received a letter from the hotel with a refund of £27 which I am certainly not happy with and to say this is the end of the matter, unless I want to stay again, so he was not listening when we said we did not want to stay again. Please could someone help with advice please. Thanks

Hi,

In terms of the new room, I suspect when they moved you, they put you in a smoking room? I don't suppose they had many rooms with whirl pools.

Did you request that someone show you how to operate the whirlpool? Maybe you were not operating it correctly?

As to the wine .... well unfortuneately in London it can be VERY expensive, so £8 a glass doesn't surprise me!!! Put that down in the lesson learned experience of your life!!

I know you are upset, so I would suggest that you work out how much it would have cost you for a standard room, compared to your whirlpool room & try & claim the difference. Suggest you write a letter to the manager explaining that it was a romantic night away for you, tell them briefly about the whirlpool & the fact you had to move & it still didn't work, then ask for the difference + an inconvience figure ... say £25 each (depends really on how much hotel was). Maybe suggest you paid a service you didn't get? Don't which hotel you booked, but Mayfair is expensive (although £27 for dinner seems cheap?). Suggest you ask for it as a gesture of goodwill & to restore faith in hotel.

If nothing comes of that, well I would name & shame .... tripadvisor, here, etc.

What is the hotel called?

Mark

desdemona01

If you paid by credit card surely you can raise a dispute through them. I would think it's definately worth a call to you cc company to run it by them & see what they can do. Don't forget to note down what was said by who & when.

davetrousers

Have a look at the Direct.gov website, see link

Exceptions

There are some specific exemptions from the smokefree law, with strict conditions. They allow designated rooms for smoking in certain types of places, including:

• bedrooms in hotels and guesthouses (but not dormitories)
• care homes and hospices
• prisons
• residential mental health units - only until 1 July 2008

isplumm

Leedslad wrote: »

Firstly can i make the point that hotel rooms are not exempt from the no smoking law.

A hotel should provide a certain amount of smoking and non smoking rooms. When a guests books a room they request a smoking or non smoking rooms if there request can not be met they should be made aware that this is not available at the time of booking.

Can i say i am sorry you seem to have had a terrible night away.

As with the previous posts i would suggest the same, Dont cash the cheque. Instead of going to the hotel direct go to the head office. They are more likely to refund you the whole bill .

The operating group for the mayfair is the radisson and there is a contact us section on there website.

Hope that helps

Hi,

LoozaP stated she stayed at a Mayfair hotel, not that she stayed at a Radisson - what makes you think it is a Radisson?

As to the smoking room, well they originally had a non-smoking room, but moved because of the whirlpool bath ... so I suspect that was genuine mistake ... if it was that bad, why didn't they move again? At 10PM I would have moved rooms again ... even if it didn't have a whirlpool bath.

My attitude is ... what did I pay for, compared to what I actually got ... then claim for the difference.

There is no legal requirement to give someone a non-smoking room if that is what someone requests - it is only a request!! Look at
Am I going to be guaranteed a smokefree hotel room? What is to stop the hotelier letting the room as smoking one day and smokefree the next?

While smokefree legislation will not guarantee that people will get a smokefree hotel room, the regulations require hotel proprietors to specifically designate the hotel rooms that are not smokefree and ensure that hotel rooms for smoking are clearly marked.

from http://www.smokefreeengland.co.uk/faq/exemptions.html

So I would forget about the smoking, the bed, just state what you booked & what you actually got ... state a difference in price & ask for compo ... not to much ... say £25.

I cann't see what you CC will do about it ... you had a whirlpool room, it just didn't work ... I try the hotel or ho 1st.

Mark

Mark