Embassy Suites Disaster - 2013

We were traveling last week. I booked us a room at the Embassy Suites Anaheim - South for February 14, 2013. This should have been pretty easy. Embassy Suites is known for nice rooms, nothing fancy, but clean, as well as a professional clientele. I was wrong! 

So we checked in late on Thursday night. We got into the room. The hideabed was unmade. There was only 1 sheet on it. Total. Not a fitted sheet and a flat sheet. Just 1 single sheet. Fine. Its late. We have little kids, we can deal with it. Turns out that should have been our sign that something was wrong. In the morning, we noticed stains on the mattress pad. Not being on CSI, I didn't test them. But I did take pictures. The lamp was broken as well. The light bulb was almost at 90 degrees to the lamp.

I did what any normal person does. I went to the front desk and told them about this. The guy at the front desk offered to refund my $12 parking fee. I don't know what the parking has to do with the price of tea in China, but that is what he offered me. I then showed him the pictures. So I asked to speak to the manager. He disappears behind the front desk and comes out a few minutes later. The manager REFUSED to speak with me. Completely refused. But he could refund me half of my stay. You know what, I was tired, I still had 6 hours of driving in front of me, and I wasn't in the mood to explain to a manager that customer service requires interaction with the customers. So I said fine.

When we arrived at our destination, I posted on the Facebook page of Embassy Suites and this particular hotel. I also sent out tweets. Here is where Embassy Suites, owned by Hilton, went from bad to worse. The first email I received:

"We have received your comments regarding our hotel at our Hilton Hotels Corporation Offices. Please allow the hotel three business days to review and resolve this matter. It is Hilton's policy to give our hotels the opportunity to get involved to resolve pending issues. We want you as our loyal guest and appreciate you bringing this to our attention. Thank you for your patience."

(I am leaving out the names to protect the guilty.) Pleasant enough, right? So fine. I will wait. Then the hotel decided to respond. Not a manager, mind you, but a supervisor. In my mind, this is something that requires a manager to deal with since there was clearly no management involvement at the start. But here is that email:

"We received your inquire from Guest Assistance concerning your recent stay. It looks like the room was not to standard and we did refund you half of the nights room and tax plus your parking totaling a refund for these issues in the amount of $XXX.XX on the day of check out when you brought this to our attention. The agent gave you this because the room was not to standard. 

At any time the manager or the guest service agent our empowered to assist the guest. If we have a manger who is refusing to discuss this we have a General Manger on duty as well who would find this unacceptable behavior. If you feel this $XXX.XX is not sufficient we can refund you the remaining $XX.XX. Feel free to call us direct or send a email."

(I took out the dollar figures since that is irrelevant to the issue.)  Yes, that is the actual email. I still have it. They received my inquire - not my inquiry. There was a manger who refused to discuss this. So, I should have known there was a General Manger. And, I can send a email. 

Look, I get that not everyone was an English major in college. I wasn't. In fact, my law school writing professor told me I was one of the worst writers she had seen. But, I know the difference between inquire and inquiry. I know that a manger is an open trough to feed livestock and a manager is someone who is in charge. Oh, and I know I can send AN email, not a email. So I responded:

"Your version of how this played out is simply not accurate. The front desk agent offered me a refund of my parking due to the room not being clean. When I asked for the manager, he then went and talked to the manager in the back. He then offered me a refund and half of the room and told me that the manager would not come out to speak with me. I am not sure how any guest is supposed to know that there is a general manager on duty and that this person would be difference than the manager of the property. Either way, someone in a supervisorial position was told that I had a dirty room and refused to come out to deal with the problem. 

By the way, your email is a further example of the lack of attention to detail that is missing at this hotel. You repeatedly refer to the manager as a manger. A manager is one who directs other employees. A manger is a trough where feed is placed for livestock. While this may have been a simple mistake, it is a mistake that tells the customer that the hotel simply does not pay attention to details. It also shows that my issue is not important enough to spend 30 second spell checking your email before you send it. It comes across as if you were just sending it to appease me and not because there is genuine concern about my issue. 

I would like the full refund issued to me. As for Mr. XXXX, I think this incident shows a significant issue at this property."

Again, I took out names. But I did cc Hilton Corporate. I thought that was nice of me. It is clear that this hotel has a lack of attention to detail. If they paid attention to details, mattress pads would be clean, beds would have more than one sheet and the lamp would have been fixed or replaced. But, they clearly don't pay attention and the email that was sent to me confirmed this. So I pointed this out. This was the basis of my issue with them.

That, of course, was responded to by the same supervisor. She wrote:

"I have read your email. I agree and disagree with some of the content but I don't feel being condescending or judging someone character is necessary , needed or accurate. You made this personal and I was being professional . I won't point out and inconsistencies in your response.   I will process your refund."

Apparently, pointing out that a professional who is dealing with customers should re-read emails before sending them, and should check for spelling and grammar, is now condescending and judgmental. This is news to me. I never once attacked this woman. Heck, I don't even know if it is a woman. But she decided I was being condescending. So I wrote to Hilton Corporate:

"This is complete nonsense from Hilton. I want to immediately cancel my HHonors account. I will never stay in any Hilton again. There was nothing in my email that was condescending or judgmental. I was simply pointing out that your employees were not taking any time to deal with this, but were simply blowing me off. The fact that your employee took this personally is a further example of the complete nonsense that I have dealt with during this entire process. Your company should be embarrassed that this is the type of response that is sent out.

I expect an immediate proof of cancellation sent to me, as well as immediate proof of a full refund. Further, remove me from any mailing lists. I will continue to use social media to point out that Hilton is not a company that cares about its guests."

Again, just pointing out the lack of attention to detail or to my concerns. I also asked that they remove me from any mailing lists. I will not stay at any hotel that treats people this way. I then posted this on Facebook and Twitter. So Hilton decides to respond to my tweet with another email. This email was the un-apology:

"I received your complaint via Twitter. I sincerely apologize that you were unhappy with the hotel’s e-mail to you, as well as the issues during your stay. It is my understanding that the hotel as offered you a refund.

If you should need further assistance please don’t hesitate to let me know."

      

So they are sorry that I am unhappy with their email to me. How did they expect me to respond to their email? Should I have been appreciative that I was told I was condescending and judgmental? Are they serious with this? 

I am sure they will read this and will send me an email about how they are sorry that I was unhappy with the corporate email as well. 

It is 2013. When you send an email, especially to an unhappy customer (notice its an unhappy customer, and not a unhappy customer), you should expect that they will keep the email and re-disseminate it, especially if the email is not a proper response. Hilton could have avoided all of this simply by having a manager email me, tell me they were sorry and invite me back. Instead, they have turned this into a fight where, with one push of a button, I can reach thousands, or hundreds of thousands, of people. 

I hope someone at Hilton Corporate will actually take this seriously this time. It has taken about 5 minutes of my life to write this, but they have lost a customer who has spent 20 years staying at their hotels. Business in the 21st Century has changed. Hilton clearly has not changed with it.