LAST UPDATE ON PAGE 6
6/5/13
So most of you know that I am a Helicopter Flight Instructor, but my other 9-5 style job is that I manage a P.F Changs here in Southern California. That being said my whole goal is to make everyone that comes in happy and make them want to come back again...so I know what customer service is like. Well my wife and I recently got married and had a horrible experience at the Marriott...I wasn't going to write the GM a letter, but after thinking about it a while I decided I should...so this is what I am sending him...read it all, because it paints the perfect picture of everything that happened, even word-for-word!! You may think I'm being a whiner about this, but this was our wedding night and they screwed the stay up...(not to mention it was quite expensive)
P.S. When I spoke with the person who booked the room for us they let me know that the "special late checkout time" was 1PM.
I am writing you to tell you about a recent stay we had at your hotel, it is a little long but please read it in length. My wife and I were recently married on April 12th, 2013 at Talega Golf Course in San Clemente. For a while we were looking into and deciding what hotel to stay at on the night of our wedding. As you know there are many options we had to choose from in regards to staying at a nice hotel on our wedding night. We finally decided to stay at your hotel because of one sole reason; the Honeymoon Package included a “Special Late Checkout.” The additional champagne, strawberries and $30 room service credit were just a slight added bonus since all the other hotels we looked in to included these same amenities for staying there on our wedding night. We knew we would be up early in the morning and going all day and night for our wedding festivities, and then had a red-eye flight for our honeymoon, so we wanted to stay somewhere that we could sleep in, get up later and enjoy leaving later than normal. I even confirmed all of this when I called and made a reservation with a specialist and they notified me that late checkout was a big added advantage and that we were making the right choice…this was back in January.
Fast forward to our wedding day…up very early in the morning, have an amazing wedding, so happy, and arriving at your hotel around 10:30PM. Your staff was very kind and welcoming when we arrived and gave us many congratulations. Your Assistant Manager checked us in, notified us of the $30 credit certificate and where our room was. We got to our room, received the champagne and strawberries and enjoyed them while sitting on the balcony and re-reading each other’s vows. We stayed up late, watched T.V., and fell asleep happy and worry-free.
That morning we get woken up to a loud knock on our door, I look at the clock, it says 9:00AM. I assume it’s someone “Ding-dong ditching,” until I hear another loud knock. We have the “Do Not Disturb” card on the door so I get up wondering what is going on. I answer the door and a female Marriot employee looks at me and says “Oh you’re still here? Check out is at 11.” I said “Okay thank you?” wondering why this was said to me at 9AM, why this even occurred, and that she must not know we have a special late checkout. My wife and I try to go back to sleep and as we almost are, we get another loud knock on our door at 9:45AM. My wife is starting to get bothered, so she gets up and answers the door. Another employee says to her “Hi, checkout is at 11AM, can I check your mini-bar?” To which my wife, totally confused, says, “No, not right now, we are trying to sleep.” So she gets back in bed, and at this point we can’t go back to sleep because we had been woken twice and aren’t very happy. Our room service breakfast comes in at 10:30AM which was something we were happy to see. Shortly after, as my wife is in the shower, I hear another loud knock on the door at 10:55AM this time. I answer the door and a male employee says to me, “Hi, are you staying another night with us or checking out today?” I reply “checking out today,” which then prompts him to say, “Okay great, well check out is at 11AM.” I reply, “I don’t think for us, we have a special late checkout in our package.” He looks at me confused and says, “Um, oh, okay,” and leaves. I close the door, tell my wife what happens and am not happy at all. I call the front desk and ask the lady who answers what time checkout is, and she notifies me that it’s at 11AM; I then tell her that we have a special late checkout with the package we got and ask her what time our special late checkout is to which she replies, “I’m sorry sir, we aren’t allowing late checkouts today because we are at full capacity, but we will be more than happy to store your luggage and give you keys to the pool.” At this point I am completely dumbfounded and disgusted. Even so I say politely, “Okay thank you.”
I tell my wife immediately about this…so we have to suddenly scramble to get all our stuff together. Since we were dropped off by a limo the night before, her parents were going to be dropping off a car for us around 12:30-1:00PM for us to take to the airport. So she gets on the phone immediately and calls them, tells them what happened, and then tells me, “They were at breakfast and literally had to pay and leave in the middle of it to come here immediately, the sounded very unhappy with the hotel is doing to us.”
Her parents arrive shortly after (around 11:45AM) with the car and meet us inside; they are just as unhappy as we are. Now I manage a very nice restaurant, so I am very good at keeping my cool and a level-head, but I also know exactly what customer service should be like, especially when we’ve dropped the ball when it comes to a guest. On top of that, I will never let a guest leave our restaurant unhappy…no matter what, I want them to come back again. This in mind, all four of us go up to the front desk, lo and behold your Assistant Manager who checked us in last night is there and we go to speak to her. We tell her exactly what happened; about how many times employees came knocked on our door, why we booked the room, that we didn’t get a late checkout, and that we even had to call ourselves to be find out that they weren’t allowing late checkouts that day. She apologizes and said people shouldn’t be knocking on our door and that she will take a look at our bill. She then notifies us that she will take off the $60 room service charge for the inconvenience. I told her that we had given the $30 voucher to the room service gentleman so that basically wasn’t doing much for us, and that technically, we didn’t even receive what all we had purchased in our honeymoon package (which costs more than a normal nights stay). She then proceeds to say that “Well $60 is going to be taken off the whole bill after the room service voucher, and I feel that I am doing a lot to accommodate you, especially since you received free champagne and strawberries as well.” I told her that I didn’t care about the champagne and strawberries, that I could have received that at any hotel I stayed at and that the sole reason we purchased the package was because of the special late checkout and that the package even cost more money because of those amenities. She then proceeded to tell us “Well technically it’s almost noon so you pretty much did receive a late checkout.” This dug the dagger a little deeper into our sides, but we never once raised our voice in spite of it. So I asked her (keeping in mind what I may have done if an issue occurred in my restaurant), “So you think that taking $60 off my credit card is enough to make up for this?” To which she replies “Yes, I’m sorry this happened sir, but I feel I’m doing a lot.” So my mother-in-law asks for her name, your (the GM’s) card, and notifies her about the fact that we have many friends getting married in the next year and we will make sure they do not stay at your hotel.
Overall this whole experience was just pitiful in the end; it started great and ended horribly. Not only am I disgusted by the fact that this all occurred on our wedding night and to begin our honeymoon, but it was supposed to be an extremely special occasion as this night only happens once in our life. On top of that, we all felt like your manager didn’t even care about what happened to us and in general just wanted to get us out of the hotel to get to the next guest. It was also obvious that because your hotel is busy and at full capacity that, to her, we were just another guest and us not being happy wasn’t going to hurt your company. This was the biggest night of our lives that went so amazing, only to be completely let down by your hotel.
I am writing this to you to notify you personally of the situation to see if you can remedy it first, because when a problem occurs in my restaurant I like to solve it for the guest instead of having it go to other lengths. In addition to what happened I also compared my credit card bill to my bill received upon checkout and I never had the $30 room service credit applied to my bill as only the $60 room service charge was removed, so even what was going to be done as said by your Manager, was not This has left a bad taste in my mouth since we returned from the honeymoon a few days ago, and I wanted to sit on it and think about it, but it still has not calmed me down about the experience.
6/5/13
So most of you know that I am a Helicopter Flight Instructor, but my other 9-5 style job is that I manage a P.F Changs here in Southern California. That being said my whole goal is to make everyone that comes in happy and make them want to come back again...so I know what customer service is like. Well my wife and I recently got married and had a horrible experience at the Marriott...I wasn't going to write the GM a letter, but after thinking about it a while I decided I should...so this is what I am sending him...read it all, because it paints the perfect picture of everything that happened, even word-for-word!! You may think I'm being a whiner about this, but this was our wedding night and they screwed the stay up...(not to mention it was quite expensive)
P.S. When I spoke with the person who booked the room for us they let me know that the "special late checkout time" was 1PM.
I am writing you to tell you about a recent stay we had at your hotel, it is a little long but please read it in length. My wife and I were recently married on April 12th, 2013 at Talega Golf Course in San Clemente. For a while we were looking into and deciding what hotel to stay at on the night of our wedding. As you know there are many options we had to choose from in regards to staying at a nice hotel on our wedding night. We finally decided to stay at your hotel because of one sole reason; the Honeymoon Package included a “Special Late Checkout.” The additional champagne, strawberries and $30 room service credit were just a slight added bonus since all the other hotels we looked in to included these same amenities for staying there on our wedding night. We knew we would be up early in the morning and going all day and night for our wedding festivities, and then had a red-eye flight for our honeymoon, so we wanted to stay somewhere that we could sleep in, get up later and enjoy leaving later than normal. I even confirmed all of this when I called and made a reservation with a specialist and they notified me that late checkout was a big added advantage and that we were making the right choice…this was back in January.
Fast forward to our wedding day…up very early in the morning, have an amazing wedding, so happy, and arriving at your hotel around 10:30PM. Your staff was very kind and welcoming when we arrived and gave us many congratulations. Your Assistant Manager checked us in, notified us of the $30 credit certificate and where our room was. We got to our room, received the champagne and strawberries and enjoyed them while sitting on the balcony and re-reading each other’s vows. We stayed up late, watched T.V., and fell asleep happy and worry-free.
That morning we get woken up to a loud knock on our door, I look at the clock, it says 9:00AM. I assume it’s someone “Ding-dong ditching,” until I hear another loud knock. We have the “Do Not Disturb” card on the door so I get up wondering what is going on. I answer the door and a female Marriot employee looks at me and says “Oh you’re still here? Check out is at 11.” I said “Okay thank you?” wondering why this was said to me at 9AM, why this even occurred, and that she must not know we have a special late checkout. My wife and I try to go back to sleep and as we almost are, we get another loud knock on our door at 9:45AM. My wife is starting to get bothered, so she gets up and answers the door. Another employee says to her “Hi, checkout is at 11AM, can I check your mini-bar?” To which my wife, totally confused, says, “No, not right now, we are trying to sleep.” So she gets back in bed, and at this point we can’t go back to sleep because we had been woken twice and aren’t very happy. Our room service breakfast comes in at 10:30AM which was something we were happy to see. Shortly after, as my wife is in the shower, I hear another loud knock on the door at 10:55AM this time. I answer the door and a male employee says to me, “Hi, are you staying another night with us or checking out today?” I reply “checking out today,” which then prompts him to say, “Okay great, well check out is at 11AM.” I reply, “I don’t think for us, we have a special late checkout in our package.” He looks at me confused and says, “Um, oh, okay,” and leaves. I close the door, tell my wife what happens and am not happy at all. I call the front desk and ask the lady who answers what time checkout is, and she notifies me that it’s at 11AM; I then tell her that we have a special late checkout with the package we got and ask her what time our special late checkout is to which she replies, “I’m sorry sir, we aren’t allowing late checkouts today because we are at full capacity, but we will be more than happy to store your luggage and give you keys to the pool.” At this point I am completely dumbfounded and disgusted. Even so I say politely, “Okay thank you.”
I tell my wife immediately about this…so we have to suddenly scramble to get all our stuff together. Since we were dropped off by a limo the night before, her parents were going to be dropping off a car for us around 12:30-1:00PM for us to take to the airport. So she gets on the phone immediately and calls them, tells them what happened, and then tells me, “They were at breakfast and literally had to pay and leave in the middle of it to come here immediately, the sounded very unhappy with the hotel is doing to us.”
Her parents arrive shortly after (around 11:45AM) with the car and meet us inside; they are just as unhappy as we are. Now I manage a very nice restaurant, so I am very good at keeping my cool and a level-head, but I also know exactly what customer service should be like, especially when we’ve dropped the ball when it comes to a guest. On top of that, I will never let a guest leave our restaurant unhappy…no matter what, I want them to come back again. This in mind, all four of us go up to the front desk, lo and behold your Assistant Manager who checked us in last night is there and we go to speak to her. We tell her exactly what happened; about how many times employees came knocked on our door, why we booked the room, that we didn’t get a late checkout, and that we even had to call ourselves to be find out that they weren’t allowing late checkouts that day. She apologizes and said people shouldn’t be knocking on our door and that she will take a look at our bill. She then notifies us that she will take off the $60 room service charge for the inconvenience. I told her that we had given the $30 voucher to the room service gentleman so that basically wasn’t doing much for us, and that technically, we didn’t even receive what all we had purchased in our honeymoon package (which costs more than a normal nights stay). She then proceeds to say that “Well $60 is going to be taken off the whole bill after the room service voucher, and I feel that I am doing a lot to accommodate you, especially since you received free champagne and strawberries as well.” I told her that I didn’t care about the champagne and strawberries, that I could have received that at any hotel I stayed at and that the sole reason we purchased the package was because of the special late checkout and that the package even cost more money because of those amenities. She then proceeded to tell us “Well technically it’s almost noon so you pretty much did receive a late checkout.” This dug the dagger a little deeper into our sides, but we never once raised our voice in spite of it. So I asked her (keeping in mind what I may have done if an issue occurred in my restaurant), “So you think that taking $60 off my credit card is enough to make up for this?” To which she replies “Yes, I’m sorry this happened sir, but I feel I’m doing a lot.” So my mother-in-law asks for her name, your (the GM’s) card, and notifies her about the fact that we have many friends getting married in the next year and we will make sure they do not stay at your hotel.
Overall this whole experience was just pitiful in the end; it started great and ended horribly. Not only am I disgusted by the fact that this all occurred on our wedding night and to begin our honeymoon, but it was supposed to be an extremely special occasion as this night only happens once in our life. On top of that, we all felt like your manager didn’t even care about what happened to us and in general just wanted to get us out of the hotel to get to the next guest. It was also obvious that because your hotel is busy and at full capacity that, to her, we were just another guest and us not being happy wasn’t going to hurt your company. This was the biggest night of our lives that went so amazing, only to be completely let down by your hotel.
I am writing this to you to notify you personally of the situation to see if you can remedy it first, because when a problem occurs in my restaurant I like to solve it for the guest instead of having it go to other lengths. In addition to what happened I also compared my credit card bill to my bill received upon checkout and I never had the $30 room service credit applied to my bill as only the $60 room service charge was removed, so even what was going to be done as said by your Manager, was not This has left a bad taste in my mouth since we returned from the honeymoon a few days ago, and I wanted to sit on it and think about it, but it still has not calmed me down about the experience.
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