A Weekend to Remember (or not) ... The Follow Up

This is a postscript to my "A Weekend To Remember" entry.  Here's a letter that I wrote the the hotel manager:  and a letter from him as his response. 

Dear Mr. Cox,


This e-mail is in regards to our hotel stay in room 3560 on December 11, 2010. We have our annual Christmas visit in Seattle, and thought that staying in a hotel we remembered as first class would be great.

Well, it started out on a sour note. When we arrived at 10 p.m. in the midst of a horrible storm, we expected to have our vehicle valet parked so we could go upstairs to relax. No such luck. The valet parking lot was filled, and we were forced to park our vehicle across the street, drag our bag in the pouring rain to a lobby filled with 20-somethings. When I complained to the desk about having to park off-property, she just gave a blank stare.

At 12:30 a.m., my husband was awakened to the couple next door engaged in sexual activity: banging and thumping on the wall, etc. This would have been funny any other time but seeing that we had been poorly treated mere hours prior, it wasn't laughable. At 2:15 a.m., we both were awakened to the sound of a loud party held by 20-somethings in the same room in which the sexual activity was heard. I call downstairs, and am told they have been notified by other guests of this party, and that security was on their way. 30 minutes later, I put my clothes on and head downstairs because there's no sign of security to break up this raucous party. In the lobby, I find security at the front desk smoozing with another female guest. They follow me upstairs, and clear the room of all but two hotel occupants. After a brief sleep on our part, we are again awakened at 5 a.m. to the LOUD sounds of sexual intercourse.

Here are a few questions. What is your policy on valet parking? It seems as though registered guests should have priority when it comes to parking on the premises. I saw lots of eveningwear in the valet parking area, and lots of kids in dressy garbs. Was there some party/gathering going on that made it impossible for those who were paying hotel guests to park? Sending your guests at night into the pouring rain doesn't seem like good policy. And I can rest assure that if an older couple were to show up at 10 p.m., their keys would have been taken, and their car parked!

Also, what is your policy on allowing anyone under the age of 25 to rent rooms? These youngsters turned the Westin into a spring-break-type location wherein drunken kids were allowed to disturb other guests who had come to enjoy the view and relax. Everyone should have been thrown out of that hotel room, including the registered guests who showed a total lack of judgment. I'm sure they were in violation of their hotel registration agreement with the party and excessive noise. This certainly should be grounds for them to be extricated along with their party guests.

Also, the lack of response by the security staff in taking care of problem hotel guests is despicable! With all things considered, our night at your hotel can be compared to the perfect storm: everything lined up to make our stay a miserable one.

Hopefully the poor treatment we received as hotel guests isn't typical.

Yours truly,

rainwriter jones (of course this ain't my name, silly!)  (LOL)

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Ms. Jones,


First off please accept my apologies for the delay in responding to your e-mail. I have been on vacation and this is my first day back in the office.

I would like to thank you for taking the time to share your comments about your recent stay with us. I’m sorry to learn that you had such an awful experience. Our goal is to have every guest leave feeling relaxed and renewed and clearly we did not provide that experience for you.

On the day you arrived we had a group of guest attending a large social event in our ballroom. Clearly we underestimated the impact of this on our parking garage. You are correct in thinking that you should have priority when it comes to parking at the hotel. I was shocked to hear that you were not allowed to park in our garage.

To rent a room at our hotel you must be at least 18 years of age. However none of our guest should be engaged in such debaucherous activates as you described in this email.

I will be sharing this email with our parking, security and front desk staff to make sure this never happens again.

As a gesture of regret, I feel it is only fair to refund you for the room and tax. I have contacted our accounting office to issue a credit of $137.56.

Once again, Thank you for sharing your comments on your recent stay with us. While it is never pleasant to receive bad news, it is only through honest feedback that we are able to identify and address our shortcomings.

Warm Regards,

Jay

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And although I haven't the notion to stay there again, at least I feel like I didn't pay for horrid treatment.

rainwriter jones