Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
Problems in a Hotel? Complain Immediately for Best Results
The first time my husband and went to Vietnam we took a trip to the Mekong Delta. It was a group tour kind of thing that included lodging and some meals. The lodging was the pits. I remember flying bugs that gave me the feeling they were using us as landing strips all night long. There wasn't much we could do about it. The trip was what it was.
Another time, we changed the tide of our bad room luck. After booking a room using Lonely Planet's Taiwan book as a guide, we discovered that we made a mistake. First clue was the beds didn't have sheets. I'm not exactly sure why we trolled the halls looking for sheets, but we did and found some in a cabinet somewhere. Plus, one of the beds was round and covered with a pink fuzzy bed spread. Perhaps the management thought this was special. We thought brothel. Since my mother and, at the time, 7 year-old daughter was with us, we thought we could do better. We'd paid for two nights but got a refund on night number two. I was amazed since we didn't (and still don't) speak Chinese and the manager didn't speak English. One night made for a good story. The second night in another hotel was spent in slumber bliss.
According to travel writer Christopher Elliot who has a blog First aid for travel, when you are unhappy with your room let the management know immediately. Be polite and firm. He gave an example in National Geographic Traveler about one couple who had a mouse in their expensive resort room who didn't get any satisfaction at the time of their stay because they didn't complain immediately to the management. Another couple didn't complain about their messy room at another hotel until check-out.
The photo is from Sam's Exotic Travels photostream on Flickr. He was checking out of a hotel in China and these three were looking at his bill. I wonder if he needed a refund?
Filed under: Business, Blogs, Hotels and Accommodations
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
fredo Jul 28th 2008 12:28PM
To complain effectively I post on:
furiouscustomers.com
You can even make a request to the hotel to make up for the inconvenience.
whelan4321@aol.com Sep 2nd 2008 7:47PM
Having previously stayed at ExtendedStayDeluxe hotel in Warren, MI for 10 day periods since July 21, 2008 on August 28, 2008 made a reservation for September 1 to 11th at the previous rate. When I arrived at this Hotel in the evening was told my rate was double what I had made the reservation for. Is this legal? Is the hotel under any obligation to inform you that the rate has been doubled on your reservation before you arrive? Was unable to cancel the reservation immediately because of a one night penalty. The following day went on Hotwire and got a rate at this hotel lower than my previous reservation rate. What kind of management does this hotel have since I am sure the manager knows about the Hotwire connection. Also does the manager get a percent of the room revenue or could she just pocket the increase on my one night penalty?
disgusted Jul 2nd 2007 1:41PM
Sometimes even complaining first thing doesn't help. I remember when my family and I went on vacation last summer, we stopped over at the first hotel. I had made reservations and explained to them that I needed a room with a fridge since I had baby formula I needed to keep cold, plus medication.
When we got there, the room did have a fridge, but instead of 2 queen beds they gave us a double with a sofabed, and charged us the 2 queen bed price. I complained and we recieved the correct room. Only to find out this room was a smoking room. Now my son has severa asthma and he couldn't be in there due to everything reeking of cigarette smoke. I explained to the front desk and recieved a new room. Except the lights didn't work and neither did the toilet. The brought someone in to change the lightbulbs, but the plumber wouldn't be availiable until the next day. So we ended up in another room, this time with no fridge, and when I exlained to them my dilemma they proceeded to tell me that it was MY fault I didn't have a fridge because I complained about the other rooms that had them.
What ended up happening was that I asked to speak to the manager, who it turned out wasn't there. Then in front of them I used the house phone and called the 1800# they had and explained to them what was going on. Needless to say I recieved my room for free for the nights we were staying there, and I also recieved a voucher for 1 free night valid anytime.
So yes it does pay to complain in the beginning, but unless you are firm and won't take what they dish out will it be successful. They are in the business to make money, so unless they are in jeopardy of losing your patronage, they could care less about your happiness.
Paul Jul 2nd 2007 1:37PM
You get paid to blog, so proofread please.
phojo11 Jul 2nd 2007 3:02PM
I did have a good experience with a complaint once. It was in Vegas (where, by the way, I've also had awesome experiences just asking for upgrades). The hotel we checked into had an extremely strong bleach smell, so we left we for a couple hours and came back and it was still there.
We tried dialing the front desk and no one picked up, so I figured we might as well call the hotel operator and see what was going on. She patched us straight through to a manager, and we nicely explained the situation and just asked if we could be put in a different matching room. Anyways, he bumped us to a giant multi-room suite that really made the trip memorable.
I guess what I learned from this situation was to try and talk to someone as high up as possible, and to just stay nice even though your complaining. You can still carry some firmness when explaining a situation with becoming a complete jerk.
josh Aug 14th 2007 11:38AM
we have been living in a place that they consider to be the best thing in town and if you actually tried to say here for an extended time you can tell just how terrible the service is and just how bad things are, they allow for people to let there dogs put there fetus everywhere, the allow for some many nasty things intil you would have to live here to see what i am talking about. people have been robbed before and nothing happened, when they say they will spray for bugs which they have a lot there of it does't help they have roachs like no ones business. they allow for childeren to get into everything. it is bad.