HRH No Way Jose

[mom2ee]

We just got back from Orlando and for 2 days were to stay at HRH. We arrived with a prepaid/ressie # and we were brought through the entire checkin process (do you need minibar keys, do you need roll away, etc) for about 20 - 30 minutes. As we are anxiously awaiting our room keys we are told that "Here's what we're going to do...we will send you down to the Crowne Plaza for tonight, comped and you can come back tomorrow" WHAT????? Seems that due to some mixup our ressie has been "sold" or they "oversold" the resort. We arrived at about 5pm, certainly not late given that checkin is at 4pm. If that wasn't bad enough, we are told not to worry, we will be upgraded for our second night and everything will be okay. Yeah we were upgraded to have a lovely view of the roof!!! Yes the room was comped at the Crowne and we only had to pay for the room that we stayed in for one night at the HRH. We did receive a lovely bottle of wine (oh, yeah, we're Lowes members) and a basket of fruit (2 apples, a banana, an orange and some grapes). My biggest gripe is that nobody was forthcoming at the onset of the checkin process, like it was all some game to see how long they could hold off telling us about the mixup. anybody have an address of where to send a letter? Sorry to unload, but just wanted to warn everyone.

[No11's Mom]

Wow, that's not cool. Did you ask if they could put you at one of the other onsite hotels. Seems like they would have had room for you at one of them.

[goofy!]

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[damo]

Ack, that is awful!!! Someone here will give you the name and email of the manager at HRH. I would have been very upset as I am sure you were!!!

[Motherfletcher]

I have heard of them overbooking before, but the comped hotel was the Peabody. I think I would have fussed about the upgrade as soon as I got in the room.

[Muffy]

What a lousy upgrade! You should of been upgraded to a suite for that mixup. I hope they comp you a free stay over this....

[robvia]

Wow, that is some story, thanks for sharing and warning everyone.

I usually check in early at 8am for that reason. In the afternoon, there is a long line of people.

[Eclpz314]

We had a similar problem at RPR last summer. I had booked club level just as the year before, verified, reconfirmed (love planning!) up until the day before we left home. DH and sons sat across the lobby while I checked in for us. I can still here the words "Oh, we don't have you down as club level" and me answering "don't make me turn around and tell them that" as I just kept glaring at the person behind the desk. Finally we ended up w/club level room (the absolute farthest one away from elevator overlooking the luau/dogwalk area) I'm sure the last person to check in to club that day really didn't get a room. This incident plus a couple others that occured during our stay prompted RPR mgt. to compensate us nicely this year. Hope you get yours settled out.

[mom2ee]

we are home now...anybody with an idea of "how to sort this out"? btw, they informed us that there were no rooms available on site for the night we were moved and upon our rearrival, they were NOT apologetic or accomidating. just a warning, this is NOT Disney

[alien]

We stayed at the HRH for 3 nights in July and we also had problems. We checked in at 4 p.m. and they said the rooms (we booked 2) would be ready in 15-20 minutes and they would call my cell phone when ready. We were hungry so we ate at the Beach Club and returned about 5 p.m. and the rooms weren't ready yet. 5:30 p.m. - the rooms weren't ready yet. By 5:50 p.m., my DH went to the desk to find out the problem. I noticed a few people who were in line with us also hangning around the lobby waiting. Supposedly, one room's bed needed to be fixed, and the other room's carpet was just shampooed. At 6 p.m., one room was ready, the other wasn't. We went to the room that was ready and the maids were outside the other room (2 doors apart). By 6:15 p.m., we got in the room (brothers-in-law in the 1st room).
In our room, the safe was broken, the iron was broken, and the toilet broke. We usually didn't get our room made up until 5 or 6 at night. Our last night there, we had wonderful neighbors who started partying at 12:30 a.m. with singing, loud music playing, and smoking (wafted through the connecting door). They didn't stop until 3:30 a.m. We called security at 1:30 and they had to bang on the door twice until the party people heard the door. Didn't help. Luckily, we were checking out the next day to go to Disney. I'm hoping they just had a bad day. They did comp us 6 breakfasts' and 6 drinks.
We will give them another try again but probably only for 2 nights. At least they didn't try to send us to another hotel!

[TigerLilly's Mom]

I'm so sorry you had that happen.

My personal theory on why people seem to wait and wait at the Hard Rock to check in - no balconys. I think people smoke in a non smoking room and it takes housekeeping most of the day to fix it. I know this happened to us once. They kept telling us only 15 minutes more, 10 minutes, ect. When we finally got into the room it reeked of smoke and the carpet was pretty damp. I wish they had just told us what was going on, because obviously they knew.

[goofy!]

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[Princess Mommy]

:guilty: that is TERRIBLE! I hope you can find some answers for the mix up! :sad2:

[mom2ee]

Thanks for setting me straight goofy...thanks for the input on how to proceed...i will research who to send said letters to...i too am not looking for compensation, just didn't want to be brought through the 30 minute song and dance when the person checking us in knew from the moment he pullled up our ressie that we did not have a room and that a human error had been made

[goofy!]

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[kellymonaghan]

anybody have an address of where to send a letter?
Carlton Hudson, General Manager
Hard Rock Hotel
5800 Universal Boulevard
Orlando, FL 32819

Nothing can really make up for having your expectations dashed, but no one's perfect, not even a four-star hotel.

That said, what HRH did in your case was standard operating procedure, even a cut above the average.

One lesson to be learned from this is to check in first thing in the morning. Not only do you get a full day of FOTL, but you'll have first dibs on any rooms that have been overbooked.

[mom2ee]

What I don't understand, correct me if I am wrong...what HRH did was standard operating procedure? Am I now to always asume that although I have a confirmation # and a prepaid 1st night reservation I don't really have a room? What if the plane doesn't allow up to arrive at the hotel bright and early at 8 am to enjoy the FOTL access. What if we had to fly in later and arrive at 5 pm and just want to enjoy the pool for the evening? Is it standard operating procedure in the themepark hotels to overbook the rooms and just ship the poor unfortunate souls out that showed up when there planes got them to Orlando? Just be upfront with me when I arrive don't ask what my Loews amenity preference is or if I need the minibar key...

[klh999]

When you take one night deposits. I think they should NOT overbook. They know who is coming. If someone doesn't show up, they have already been paid for the room. I would be really upset if this happened to me. It is hard enough with kids, then with kids and packing and uppacking. A small upgrade would not leave me happy.

[mom2ee]

there was no upgrade...we booked a "garden view" and recieved a lovely view of the roof...no bigger room with a bad view...just the room size we booked with a bad view...yes, this is what we risked when we booked, just don't say that "we will upgrade you when you return"...don't make a difficult situation worse by "promising" something that you can't deliver...

[klh999]

Mom2ee,

You are such more calmer than I would have been. To be honest, I would have asked for my entire trip for free since this would have ruined my relaxing vacation. Who wants to check in and check out of hotels, to save a few dollars? What did you save $250 bucks, big woop for your inconvience.

Did you pay the room with your credit?? If so, I would disbute the charges with my credit card company!!! Companies tend to notice more, when someone is looking to take away their money.

Good Luck and Update us. I think what they did was wrong. Especially since, today I found out that with the Universal Vacation package the fee to change anything is $50 per person.. So I think I would be fuming if they didnt have my room at the inn.

[A Mickeyfan]

I would like to add that it really doesn't matter how early you check in, things like that can happen. When RPR first opened up, they screwed us up too. I booked (and paid for my 1st night) club level, 2 queen beds the first week they announced that they were taking ressies. Upon check in, at 9:30 am, me, DH,DD,DD & DS were told that "if" were were going to be staying on club level, we where going to have to stay in a king room (no rooms were ready yet anyway & we didn't expect them to be but wanted that FOTL for the parks). When I asked her about a pull out sofa in the room she said she "wasn't sure"!!! Wasn't sure, they expected a family of 5 to sleep in that one bed! They told me even though I wouldn't be on the Club Level floor, I could still use the facilites since I had paid for them. That wasn't flying with me. As it turned out, we ended up on the Club level floor, in a king room with a pull out sofa. Me, DH & youngest DS in king bed, DD & DS in pull out. Not the best arrangements but had to make due. We couldn't even get a cot since there was no place to set it up (other than near bathroom & entrance way). We figured it was due to the grand opening & everything wasn't up and running yet...turns out, happens more than I thought :confused3
I agree, when you pay for your night in advance, you are assuring them that you will be arriving, they should be assuring you that they will have your room for you. The worst that could happen to them is you not showing & they keep your money!!! The worst that could happen to you is....just what happed to OP, not even having a room onsite anywhere :sad2:

[kellymonaghan]

What I don't understand, correct me if I am wrong...what HRH did was standard operating procedure? Am I now to always asume that although I have a confirmation # and a prepaid 1st night reservation I don't really have a room?
Not quite, but what every traveler should not merely assume but know is that travel suppliers screw up from time to time.

Hotels screw up like this often enough that, within the industry, certain "standard operating procedures" have developed to deal with the situation and the very natural upset of the customer who has been inconvenienced.

So what I meant was that the response was standard operating procedure, not the screw up. Sorry if I was unclear.

[PavelB]

Yes, be careful with the Universal hotels.

Don't get me wrong - we love going to universal - but you really cannot trust them. We had a reservation at the RPH for 2 connecting rooms, with 2 beds each, for 5 nights in July. I had in hand a letter confirming all this. Well, at check we went through the whole procedure. When we were finished my husband confirmed that there were 2 beds in each room. No, one room had a king bed. That was unacceptable. The woman said that the connecting rooms at the RPH never had 2 beds each. I showed her the letter. She went into the back and came out with our new room assignments. One room was on the 5th floor and one was on the 4th. Connecting? I don't think so! She went in the back again. They had no connecting rooms. We had to make do with 2 next to each other. Of course they were not ready. One was finally ready at 4:45 the other not until 6:30! We tried to call the manager numerous times. We were never called back. (this was a 5 night stay.) We gave up and never got the connecting rooms. We were travelling with children so this made it more difficult.
Note: be careful when you get 2 or more rooms - they tried to bill us for another car for 5 nights.

[dbriggsq]

We've just stayed in connecting rooms at RPH and they certainly did both have 2 beds. However we didn't receive the complimentary upgrade which was promised when we booked online using the AP discount.

[AspiringCindy]

I had a problem with HRH last Aug. We have a ressie for 4 nights on an Entertainment rate and checked in at 12:30 PM knowing full well that a room would probably not be ready. We checked back every 2 hours...and to no avail, finally checked in at 9:30PM. We were placed in a dirty carpeted stained room that stunk of dog, and were woken every morning by barking dogs! When it came time to check out, I requested a late check-out because we had checked in so late(and by the way, I am a gold member)and I am a member, and her reply was, Oh, but you are on an Entertainment rate though! No member features apply! Later on, I E-Mail the general manager with all my complaints and just got a sorry! Next time you visit us ask for me! The employees are soooo hip...that they borderline rude!

[princesspumpkin]

Saying that "this is not Disney" doesn't make sense. Disney is not perfect in any way either. We just got back from a 10 day stay at the PBH - perfect stay. Couldn't ask for better. Every hotel has its problems. Both Disney and Universal are nothing more than large corporations, selling a product which happens to be themeparks. Most of the time both corporations get it right, but both have experienced problems. It is the nature of business. With the amount of employees both sets of hotels employ - there is absolutely no way that either corporation can keep tabs on the attitude of each one, every minute of the day. Many of the employees have worked for both corporations. Disney does not corner the market on Pixie dust sweet employees.

BTW - the worst hotel problem our well-travelled family EVER encountered was at the Polynesian Concierge. It still makes me queasy to think about what happened. :sad2:

Checked in to our room at the Poly (our 4th stay there - all previous ones had been perfect) - went to the parks, came back late and everybody crawled into bed. 13year old and 4 year old in queen by the windows, 10 year old in the daybed. DH and I were in the queen by the bathroom.

10 year old wakes up next morning and says "GROSS mom". He is looking over to where the 4 year old is sleeping. His sweet cheek was resting on a half dollar size of green SNOT. All crusty and gross. And it was not his snot! Further inspection of the room found 3 blister packs of prescription medications on top of the TV, along with an over-the-counter cold medication bottle in the trash can.

Our travelling companions who were in the next room (a nationally prominent lawyer and a CEO of a large company) came over and witnessed what we had found. We went to concierge to get somebody to come see the disgusting mess my toddler just spent the night on. We called housekeeping.

The only thing they did was tell us that they would deep clean our room when we were out to the parks that day, which btw they didn't do. No compensation, no apology. Even after the 4 year old who was sleeping on the SNOT came down with a 102 fever two days later. Then the 13 year old who was sleeping in the same bed. Then I came down with it. Our 14 day, $15,000+ vacation was totally ruined. Again, not even an apology. And remember, the medicine was prescription - so had the name of the room's former occupant on it - so it was pretty obvious where the snot had come from. I expected at least an apology after seeing my toddler sleeping on somebody else's body fluids. An apology for putting us in a dirty room that the sheets had not been changed in. And to make matters worse, the beds were made, so obviously housekeeping had been in there, but were so lazy they didn't change the sheets.

So, would I say "It's not Universal" Absolutely not. I am just including our experience at WDW to show that even Disney can mess up. However, we dealt with it and moved on. Everybody and every company makes mistakes. You just try to fix it and hope that the next time, your experience will be like 95% of the other visitors who post.

So, to move on, my suggestion would be to write a letter and send it certified to the general manager of the Hard Rock Orlando. Research the Hard Rock and Loews and CC a copy to as many higher ups as you can. At least let them know what happened. Decide before hand what you are going to accept as a reasonable solution then write a polite letter detailing everything.

I did exactly that. When I returned home, I sent a pleasant, but firm letter that stated what had happened to us. I also made sure that I told them I was NOT looking for any compensation, because I wasn't. I felt that if I asked for something, they wouldn't take my complaint seriously - would just write me off as somebody looking to get something for nothing. I was more concerned that the Poly fix their housekeeping problems.

So, I sent a letter to the GM of the Poly, the GM of the WDW resorts, and all the way up the chain, with one going to Michael Eisner (found all the addresses here on the DIS :goodvibes ). Was sure that the one going to Eisner would just be trashed, but was I ever surprised to get a phone call about a month later from a lady saying she was Mr. Eisner's secretary and that Mr. Eisner would like to find out what happened. (This was duing the height of the SARS panic a few years back, so people were taking bodily fluids a bit more seriously.) To make a long story short, the Poly revamped the way they train their housekeepers, which was an acceptable solution for us.

So, write a polite letter explaining what happened. Go up the chain if need be. Both Disney and Universal are in the customer business. Good customer service is their livelyhood. If the GM of the Hard Rock seems uninterested, go up the chain till you find somebody who is. Decide what you deem a reasonable solution and then go after it. As said before, customer service is Universal's livelyhood. You will find somebody that cares!


Goofy, I really like your style! Well done, and well said.

[donsgal]

that's scary...we have ressies for November and I'm not looking forward to that game...anybody with suggestions?