Feel insulted by hotel managers reply

bootman

I sent an email of complaint to the manager of the Crowne Plaza Leeds. We had a disgusting bathroom in our room, It was really awful and we all waited to get home to shower. Here is my email and my reply. What would you do? To be honest I expected to be offered a free night but the manger seems to think a room upgrade if I stay again adequate!!!

This was my complaint

This is the first time i have had a chance to email to you as i have been travelling since i last stayed with you on the 30th March.

I stay with the IC Hotels Group a lot. last year i stayed over 80 nights and this year alone 18 to date.

I booked the room on the 30th to be special occasion as i had my wife and son travelling to meet me in Leeds after another week away from home in Oxfordshire. They were both very excited to be staying at a well regarded hotel chain. We checked into the hotel and i was appalled with the standard of my room that had been allocated, room 310.

The bathroom was quite frankly disgusting! Where to start. The wash basin was covered in chips and cracks. The tiles above had a white mould growing on them. When you ran the taps the water poured straight onto the floor. The grout around the tiles around the bath and shower were very black in places. The grab handle on the bath was not attached to the bath and I could probably go on.

When I reported this to reception I was shocked that the receptionist said that they get a lot of complaints about the very tired rooms and bathrooms! Not what I expected to be told.

I had hoped to make this stay again soon with my family, but to be perfectly honest I would feel happier booking an alternative hotel that felt clean to be in.

I look forward to your reply and comments on the matter and I hope you can give me a reason to stop with you again in the future.

This was my reply

I would like to take this opportunity first to apologise for any inconvenience caused during your
stay with reference to the standards of the bathroom of your room (310) as well the “comment”
from the reception staff regarding our rooms.
I have discussed your e-mail this morning with our Front Office Manager and visited room 310 with our Executive Housekeeper to see for myself what you described in your e-mail. As the room was de-grouted over the Easter weekend (as part of an ongoing maintenance program) I could not see much evidence of that anymore, but could still see 3 little “cracks” at the front of the vanity
unit. A complete replacement of the vanity unit will be needed for that and a request has been
made aprox. 1 month ago to our owning company for the replacement of 13 vanity units, which
will cost us aprox. £ 15,000. I expect to start this work over the next month or so.

As a small gesture of goodwill I would like to offer you a complimentary upgrade to an Executive Room, while staying in Leeds next. Please call my office directly in order for me to make the
necessary arrangements accordingly, if you would like to use this offer.

As the General Manager of the Crowne Plaza Hotel I would like apologise once again for
any inconvenience caused, and I truly hope that I can welcome you back to the Crowne Plaza
Hotel in Leeds in the not too distant future and show you the true ‘Yorkshire’ hospitality again

Can anyone help me write a witty reply to this chap?

djl

hi

i would contact him and ask his area managers name this does the trick most of the time. also you can post a comment on trip advisor giving a bad review. good luck

hjb123

Why are you insulted by the reply? I would have thought that they are offering a complimentary upgrade was quite good? I have to say I am quite impressed that the manager has done such an indepth reply saying he visited the room etc rather than the letter being a standard letter
Though I guess it must have been a horrible time being there, how many nights were you there? Could they not move you to another room?

Voyager2002

Why on earth did you wait until you were home before complaining? Personally, I would have refused to accept a room in such a state.

asea

I used to work in a very upmarket hotel in the Front Office & I think that what you have been offered is paltry. However I think that you should have been a little bit more insistent at the time. I can't see the point of some parts of his letter (why is it relevant to tell you that he's buying X amount of this or that?) I would though write/call to the Crowne Plaza Customer relations/service department (a centralised one) as I imagine you will get a better response & one that perhaps takes your complaints themselves seriously.

Good Luck anyway

bootman

hjb123 wrote: »

Why are you insulted by the reply? I would have thought that they are offering a complimentary upgrade was quite good? I have to say I am quite impressed that the manager has done such an indepth reply saying he visited the room etc rather than the letter being a standard letter
Though I guess it must have been a horrible time being there, how many nights were you there? Could they not move you to another room?

I already qualify for an upgraded room if they have one available for free due to the fact I stay with the hotel group so often.

The hotel was full with several functions the night we stopped so there was no room to change to. I feel insulted at the tone of the email. He has forgotten to comment on the water running straight onto the floor and the bath grab handle not being attached. The sink was disgusting and the way he said 3 small cracks. They were massive chunks missng. Theis room was over £100 for the night. I will try and find a contact other than the hotel. Thanks everyone for the advice.

advent1122

Could you not have got a refund and moved to another hotel?
I shall rephrase it.
I would have INSISTED on a full refund and moved to another hotel.
It is because people just put up with this sort of cr*p that they continually get away with it.

Kaminari_2

If that had happened at the 3 starred, 63 roomed B&B I worked at in Central London the guest would have been immediately upgraded and moved room with a flurry of apology. If there were no other rooms available, as in this case, and you would have had to stay in this room but it would have been for free or we would have rang around other B&B in the area if our arrangements we not suitable. But then if we had larger rooms available at the end of the day we use to upgrade as many as we could anyway (not that this would happen often as we were always busy). I would say that the response is awful from that chain. We use to invest the best customer service and care with our guests so we could keep them coming back as it was cheaper than advertising and great to see familiar faces. On any one day at least 50% of the guests were returning visitors and about 30% of the others were word of mouth.

I can only suggest writing to the manager again and copying in the area manager. I would highlight how many nights that you have spent at that chain and that you are entitled to a free upgrade anyway. I would say that the experience and the response is less than you expected for their valued customers and have left you to re evaluate spending so much money at a chain that does not place its guests that highly.

Good Luck!

marty1888

You should have ask the receptionist to summon the Duty Manager and taken it up with them immediately. They then should have dealt with your issues there and then and moved you rooms.
The Hotel managers offer seems reasonable to me.

niknaks

"I could not see much evidence of that anymore, but could still see 3 little “cracks” at the front of the vanity
unit."

I agree that this paragraph is patronising. So, because one of the issues has been fixed and he can't 'see much evidence of that anymore' it was never a problem in the first place. Also the '3 little "cracks" ' this belittles your point and the quotes round the word 'cracks' are dubious, as if quoting your word, but not feeling able to apply it himself?

I hate complaining. I agree that we should complain when we get bad service, in order to improve it, but I am very uncomfortable with it. I once complained (perhaps too meekly) in a pub restaurant and was treated very badly (I wrote an account of it on here a couple of years ago) and have not complained again! If I felt strongly I would probably put it in writing.

I agree with the posters who say people should complain at the time - but it does not come easy for some people and surely even people-who-are-rubbish-at-complaining deserve good service too?

kwt

I have found the best way to get a complaint settled satisfactorily is to take it to the CEO or similar. They will either deal with it or pass to somebody else who can. This has worked for me with BT and Sainsburys.

As far as I can see Crowne Plaza are owned by InterContinental Hotel Group. Link below with some contacts. I'd send a mail and see what happens. Tell them you're not satisfied with the response from the manager, which to me looks like a standard 'fob off'. Be dogged - nothing to lose by sending a few mails. Good luck - let us know what happens.



http://www.ihgplc.com/index.asp?pageid=142

PS Useful website for CEO's of other major companies with some useful complaining tips


http://www.connectotel.com/marcus/ceoemail.html