Fresh off my “Fun and Frolic at the Airport” experience, I had an experience at my hotel that was a doozy last night. Late yesderday I arrived in Boston (with Basil, of course) for a conference – I had a reservation at the Sheraton Boston that I made two months ago, and had my assistant reconfirm it yesterday afternoon (and also notified them I’d be arriving late). Because of dinner obligations (and a subeseqent party at the Roxy) I didn’t get to the hotel until after midnight. I waited in line for about 15 minutes, and then approached the desk. I gave my name and then I was told, “sorry, we don’t have any rooms – we had to give yours up”. My immediate reaction was “What?? I had a reservation which I just reconfirmed today!”. The culprit- about 10 “squatters” who were supposed to check out that day, but didn’t. I guess this wouldn’t have been so bad if they simply put me in a neighboring hotel, but here was the catch. EVERY room in Boston was filled that night. Every single one.
They offered to put me in a hotel that was “20 minutes” away in a suburb. That didn’t sound great, but OK, what else could I do? So they gave me cab fare, directions to the hotel and sent me out front. I had a strange feeling come over me so I asked the cab driver as my bags were being put in the trunk, “how far a drive is it to the hotel?”. He pulled out his fare book and gave me a big clue – “oh, thats a $55 fare”. The hotel had only given me money for half that. I then said, “how much time”, and he said “45 minutes, at least”. 45 minutes. It was now 12:30AM, and I had a 7:45 breakfast meeting at the hotel I was currently standing in. I quickly did some math and realized that if I went to this new hotel I would have to try to get back into town in the thick of rush hour traffic, I’d probably have to leave that hotel at 6AM – and since I wouldn’t get to bed until probably 1:45-2:00AM, I was not looking at a lot of sleep.
So, I reacted – I told the taxi driver “no thanks”, got my bags, went back into the hotel, and asked to see the manager. There had to be a closer room available – there just HAD to! I was pretty angry, but I tried the best I could not to shoot the messengers. The manager kept apologizing, and did make a few calls to other hotels, but no luck. He even mapped out a train schedule for me so I could shave a few minutes of my commute into town from the other hotel. But I just didn’t want to go there. I don’t know what it was, but I couldn’t do it. “Do you have a cot – I’ll sleep in your office”, I said. No go. He was very patient with me, in hindsight.
Finally, I had a idea – I could call one of my teammates who was staying at a hotel a block away. By this time it was 1AM , and he probably was asleep, but luckily he wasn’t. “Can you put me up?” He checked with his front desk and lo and behold they had a rollaway for me. I had a solution! So I informed the manager, and then the negotiation began for my “compensation” for my troubles. Of course, I got a suite for my room the next night, plus two free nights on a future stay at any Sheraton. But there was one more thing I needed. There was a Starbucks in the lobby. I bet you can guess what I asked for. You guessed it – “all the Starbucks I can drink, comped”. He agreed and we had a deal, and I was off to at least five hours of sleep instead of three, and a nice latte (or two) in the morning.
I’m now in that suite this evening writing this post – it’s as big as a small house. I also got a nice box of chocolates, a little bottle of Baileys Irish Creme (I don’t drink, however) and a note – “Welcome back. We apologize for the inconvenience you experienced last evening, and hope you will accept this amenity as a token of our sincere regret for the difficulties you encountered”. And yes, the manager did ask me for the cab fare back, and I complied.
The question is, what grade should I give the hotel? I’m torn – a violation of the sanctity of the reservation is a pretty grave error, is it not? On the other hand, their hands were tied by the squatters, and they really did try to make me happy. What do you think?
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Quite a story! I give them a C for execution, as they didn’t give you what you wanted or needed, you found the solution yourself. But I also give them an A- for having a very patient manager who was willing to make it up to you the next time. Overall grade of a B, and I would give them another shot because squatters are out of all of our control. Thankfully this can’t happen on airplanes, or this would really be trouble.
Sleep tight!
I’m with Phil on the “B” they went a mile with you (which is further than many – or most – would have gone), but they didn’t go the extra-mile.
Thanks Phil and Tom for your suggested grades – upon further reflection I’m in that ballpark too. PS: I did get a great night’s sleep Phil!