Thursday, August 25, 2011

You Pushed the Wrong Button

Aug 12: we went down to Kalispell for the weekend with our friends Barb & Jesse. Left the kids at home and took off, just like the "old days". I had saved up my hotel points to cover the rooms. I made reservations for 2 rooms with queen beds, not a hard concept. When we got there to check in, there was a line-up and the staff at the counter kept announcing there weren't any rooms available without a reservation. Whew, good thing we booked ahead.

We got to the rooms, and when I got in bed I had to think for a minute. It has been a few months since we replaced our queen bed at home, but I don't remember ever having my feet hang off the end like this. You'd think in all the years of having a queen, I'd notice something like that.

We got home on Aug 14, I pretty much dropped my bags at the door and went to the computer to register a complaint on the Choice Hotels website. I got the automated "Your request will be researched and you will receive a response from us within 72 hours." The 17th rolled around, then the 18th, and finally on the 19th, I sent an email reminder saying the 72 hours were up.

Fast forward through two more email reminders, and this morning I figured I'd just phone in and see if anyone could help. The guy on the other end had to look up my reservations, then called the hotel. After listening to the most obnoxious hold message ever (I REALLY don't want to listen to you saying how great you are right now), he came back on and said the hotel confirmed they were queen beds. What?!? Do your beds have an exchange rate now too?? I'm pretty sure a queen is the same size in the US as it is in Canada. Oh, and the hotel MAILED a letter on the 16th. Not emailed, but the good old-fashioned postal service. In what alternate reality does that qualify as receiving a reply within 72hrs?! It still hasn't arrived yet. What's the frakkin' point of asking how I would like to be contacted if you are going to ignore it anyway and wimp out by sending a letter??

Senor Helpful was absolutely no help whatsoever and said he couldn't do anything for me. If I wanted any further resolution I would have to talk to the hotel directly. No, I'm not going to talk to the hotel directly. That's a really dumb idea, they can't tell the difference between a queen and a double, how much help do you really think they'll be?? I'll tell you what I will do, however. If you look at my account, you'll see I have spent 40-50+ nights at your hotel chain every year since I joined in 2004 (did I mention it was Choice Hotels?). I'm taking those nights to another hotel which would love to have my business.

I wasn't even asking for a refund, I probably would've been happy with an acknowledgement there had been an error and an apology. But if this is how concerns are handled, you'll never see me walk through your doors again. It's time for me to start seeing other hotels. It's not me, it's you.

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