Sonnet's post noted that her letter of complaint had been unanswered. This reminded me that I wrote a letter a year and a half ago to the Mayflower Hotel in Washington D.C. that was never given the dignity of a response either. Not even a terse dismissal. But then, I guess it makes sense that if the establishment in question has provoked an angry letter in the first place, I shouldn't be too terribly surprised that nobody has the time to actually provide any minimal attention to a previous customer.
My experience was during one of the AMA's meetings. My room was paid for at an extremely high price, by my standards. I thought this would entitle me to, say, a functional shower as well as problem resolution, but I was mistaken. By the end of the stay I had spent what seemed like hours on the phone with tech support trying to get the internet connection in the room working, I had missed a shower because the handle fell off in my hand, and there had been several other small but understandable problems like maintenance needs on lights. When I went to check out they had generously credited my account for some but not all of the internet charges to my room, which all would have been reimbursable anyway. The problem was, with the internet/phone "package" credited, all my individual phone calls were charged separately and because they were personal, they were not reimbursable. So, by being generous, they had effectively increased my personal expenses substantially. I tried to explain this to the front desk, but they didn't get it and treated me like I was just scamming them. After several attempts to spell it all out I was at risk for missing my flight, so I left thinking a letter would probably help.
It has been a year and a half and I'm still waiting for a response.
Apart from the Mayflower, I've been annoyed by this class of hotels in general because of their nickel and diming you to death... or more aptly, dollar and five dollaring you to death. You would think paying hundreds of dollars for a night's stay would entitle you to make a local phone call from your room without paying a dollar. Not so. You would think there would be a continental breakfast or something. Not so. You would think you would be allowed to carry your own small bag to your room without being pestered incessently by someone who wants to take it for you and hang around your room pointing out features like the thermostat until you give up and grease their palm. Not so.
This is why I prefer to use Priceline whenever possible for hotels. I've had a pretty good experience and the hotels I have gotten there have been more reasonable. For example, Marriott's Courtyard hotel in Washington DC was only a couple blocks from the Mayflower but included free internet service, free continental breakfast (including a waffle bar, and other warm foods--not a scrimpy tray of bagels and donuts), and free local and toll-free calls. If I can just get free toll free calls (should be an oxymoron if not free, I know, but it's more the rule than the exception!) I can use my calling card to get 4 cent rates anywhere.
I wonder if the Courtyard hotel would have answered a letter...
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The BEST hotel I've stayed in recently (the last six years) was the La Quinta that Dani found doing online price checking. It was in San Francisco. We went there to visit/meet some friends. They were in a hideously expensive hotel where they had to pay extra to get a bathroom in their room as opposed to shared facilities. They also would have had to pay for internet access. We paid about a third of what they did. Got very nice breakfasts free. (La Quinta called them continental, but they had waffles, cereal, fresh fruit yogurt, muffins, bagels and all kinds of other stuff. They also had a different menu on the two mornings we were there.) Anyway I was sufficiently impressed that I'll choose La Qunita above someplace else.
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