SpaBreaks booking, hideous spa!

Anna_Nonymouse

Hello again!
I booked a spa day online via spabreaks.com. It was for 4 people £45 each for a Total Body experience spa day at a local hotel. Can you have a look at my complaint letter and see what you think, please? I am writing via email to spabreaks customer service, and copying in the hotel and spa managers.


To whom it may concern

RE: Total Body Experience Spa Day Voucher xxxx

I purchased this voucher via Spa Breaks and booked for4 people to attend The XXXX Hotel, Town on 19th April2012. The experience was an absolutedisaster for the following reasons:

· Despite beinginformed on the telephone that robes were available to hire, on arrival at TheHOTELNAME we were informed that none were available. This resulted in our partyhaving to walk from the changing rooms to the treatment area, and have lunch inthe bar in just swimwear/towels. This is unacceptable for modesty and comfortpurposes. A robe is a very basic requirement for a spa day, in my opinion, and I am appalled that The HoTELNAME doesnot have any for hire when they claim on the telephone that they do. Please see the attached video for thedistance down a corridor and through the Health Club reception. When wearrived, several teenage boys were seated in that corridor, and it is the mainentry to the gym facilities, so is quite busy with traffic.

· Our treatmentshad been booked for the same time. On arrival we were informed that due tostaff illness, this would not be possible. I am disappointed that no effort had been madeto contact me in advance to advise me of this change; the receptionist saidthat she had known since 9am.

· The pool area wasnot clean. The sun-loungers were covered with rubber matting that was both damagedand dirty (see attached photographs). In addition, as you can see from myimages, there were toe-nail clippings under one of the loungers. Thisunsanitary environment was disturbing to say the least.

· My treatment wasin a room which had a terrible grinding whirring noise intermittently. Thetherapist said it was machinery. I found this to be very distracting and theintended relaxation of the massage was impossible.

· We pre-booked theinclusive lunch for 2pm when our treatments were finished. When we arrived inthe bar, the jacket potatoes were served immediately, but had clearly been on ahotplate for some time as they were lukewarm. The pasta dish arrived some 3 minuteslater, but was at least hot. The classicCaesar salad arrived some minutes after that and was incomplete – there was noegg. I was informed by the waitress thatthe egg was coming, and expressed to her my dissatisfaction that a poached eggshould arrive 10 minutes later than the rest of the meal. Please see myattached photograph of the unattractive presentation of the egg when it finallydid arrive, thrown onto the table by the waitress.



In short, the experience was very far from theluxurious and relaxing Spa experience I was expecting. The service was extremely poor, the set-up notconducive to relaxation with having to walk about in a swimsuit to variousareas of the Hotel and noisy treatment rooms, and it was dirty. I did expressmy dissatisfaction at the time, and received a half-hearted apology and asob-story about what a rotten day the receptionist was having.



I am very deeply disappointed with the Spa Daydetailed above and would like a refundof the £45 per person we paid for the day. I look forward to hearing your thoughts onthe matter in the next 14 days.

What do you think? What do I need to change? All suggestions gratefully rec'vd - it was disgusting.
Thanks in advance

Anna

mynameistallulah

I think you are being completely unrealistic expecting the full amount back. Whilst the service received was substandard, you did receive a meal, a treatment, use of the facilities etc. Tone down the emotive language, and think of a more realistic remedy.

somethingcorporate

It's a good letter, a touch long and fluffy.

Your demands I think are unrealistic and inviting their thoughts is not nearly forceful enough. You should request a 50-75% refund (pick one) and look forward to their response.

Anna_Nonymouse

Thank you for your help. Is this better?


I purchased this voucher via Spa Breaks and booked for4 people to attend The HOTELNAME Hotel, MYTOWN on 19th April2012. The experience was unsatisfactoryfor the following reasons:

· Despite beinginformed on the telephone that robes were available to hire, on arrival at TheHOTELNAME we were informed that none were available. This resulted in our partyhaving to walk from the changing rooms to the treatment area, and have lunch inthe bar in just swimwear/towels. This is unacceptable for modesty and comfortpurposes. A robe is a very basic requirement for a spa day, in my opinion. Please see the attached video for thedistance down a corridor and through the Health Club reception. When wearrived, several teenage boys were seated in that corridor, and it is the mainentry to the gym facilities, so is quite busy with traffic.

· Our treatmentshad been booked for the same time. On arrival we were informed that due tostaff illness, this would not be possible. I am disappointed that no effort had been made to contact me in advanceto advise me of this change; the receptionist said that she had known since9am.

· The pool area wasfilthy. The sun-loungers were covered with rubber matting that was both damagedand dirty (see attached photographs). In addition, as you can see from myimages, there were toe-nail clippings under one of the loungers. Thisunsanitary environment was unacceptable to say the least.

· My treatment wasin a room which had a terrible grinding whirring noise intermittently. Thetherapist said it was machinery. I found this to be very distracting and theintended relaxation of the massage was impossible.

· We pre-booked theinclusive lunch for 2pm when our treatments were finished. When we arrived inthe bar, the jacket potatoes were served immediately, but had clearly been on ahotplate for some time as they were lukewarm. The pasta dish arrived some 3minutes later, but was at least hot. Theclassic Caesar salad arrived some minutes after that and was incomplete – therewas no egg. I was informed by thewaitress that the egg was coming, and expressed to her my dissatisfaction thata poached egg should arrive 10 minutes later than the rest of the meal. Pleasesee my attached photograph of the unattractive presentation of the egg when itfinally did arrive.



Inshort, the experience was very far from the luxurious and relaxing Spaexperience expected. The service was sub-standard,the spa location is not conducive to relaxation with having to walk about in aswimsuit to various areas of the Hotel and noisy treatment rooms, and it was unacceptablydirty. I did express my dissatisfaction at the time, and received ahalf-hearted apology and a sob-story about what a rotten day the spa receptionistwas having.



I amvery deeply disappointed with the Spa Day detailed above and would like arefund of 75% of the £45 per person we paid for the day (£33.75pp). I look forward to your response within thenext 14 days.



Yours faithfully

mynameistallulah

I still think you are claiming too much - and your evidence is a bit silly. Rather than attaching a video, why not simply state how long it took to walk down the corridor. Also I doubt they are going to compensate you anything for an unattractive egg.

The question they are going to ask is, if it was that bad, why did you not leave? As you chose to stay, you clearly received more than 25% of what you paid for.

Anna_Nonymouse

The video is to demonstrate just HOW public that corridor is - there's a sofa in it, and a massive window so that everyone in the gym can gawk at your fat !!! as you do the walk of shame, robe-less.
The egg is utterly deformed and was slapped onto the table 10 minutes after the rest of the salad had arrived - it looks like it's been up a chefs nose. If it hadn't been paid for in advance, I would have complained like a mo-fo and had a new one made at the time - seriously, what chef can't get the ingredients of a SALAD all on the plate at the same time? It would definitely have been taken off any restaurant bill I'd been given on the day.

We didn't leave because we were making the best of it - we all got babysitters for the day, and it's really hard to co-ordinate a time where we can all go together, so it was a kind of now-or-never effort.

Just out of curiosity, what would you find reasonable, tallulah?

somethingcorporate

I'd go with that letter and see what they say. I think it's good. If they barter you down then so be it.

Tina20

I don't think it's unrealistic to request a total refund, if you were unsatisfied at a restaurant they would normally wipe your bill.

You had an unhappy experience on the day, so should be refunded or at least offered another day for free.

Why not show us the photos? Then the nit pickers on here can shush.

hollydays

There is a way of cooking a poached egg,that even top hotels use .You wrap it in clingfilm,it looks globular not flat,like normal.It looks a bit strange,suspect this is what you had.

hollydays

did u check out the hotel on tripadviser first,what did it say.

Anna_Nonymouse

I hadn't checked on Trip Advisor - long story, but basically, one of my friends has terminal cancer and wanted to do a spa day with a group of friends, so we all co-ordinated. Ill friend had a Groupon offer, which we all paid for, but the treatments were in a salon who kept cancelling on us - we originally booked it back in Feb, it got put back and put back, so we cancelled that, got a refund and I quickly booked this one, right price, right date available, not too far to travel for ill person if we need to leave, ok, done.
In the event our ill friend went into a hospice the week of the spa day - we were going to cancel/plead for re-schedule, but she told us to just go ahead, so we did. And it was hideous.

Can I post pics on here, or do I need to link to another hosting site?