Concierge Collection--The Sagamore--Warning!

[ducklite]

Mods--If this is in the wrong place, please move. TIA

We just spent three nights at the Sagamore booked on points through the concierge collection. We booked a King Lodge Suite, Lakeview. I called a couple weeks in advance to confirm the room type, and let them know that we'd be arriving late, and asked that all feather and down bedding be removed from the room prior to our arrival due to allergies, I was told no problem to all of it.

We arrived around 11:30 Friday night, only to find out that they didn't have a king room for us. We accepted the room with two doubles for the night as we had been traveling for hours, fully intending to leave the resort the next day if we couldn't get what we had booked, and take it up with member services on Tuesday.

We got to the room. It was IN THE BASEMENT! There was a dehumidifier that ran constantly, the pillows were all down/feather, it smelled of mold, which I'm highly allergic to. The next morning I craned my neck to see a glimpse of the water, it was so obscured by shrubbery.

For 51 points a night I expected a lot more.

We went to the check in place and spoke to a manager at 8:30 the next morning. By this time I was having trouble breathing due to the mold and feathers in the room.

He was able to change us to a different room, and gave us a $100 credit for our troubles, but frankly I would rather have had a smooth beginning to our vacation than a lousy $100. My health is worth more than that...

On top of that, I got hives from something I ate there, despite telling them over and over about my food allergies and that cross-contamination was a problem. Of five meals we ate there, only one had good food and great service. It was very disappointing.

Bottom line, I'll be writing a letter to DVC Member Services letting them know how disappointing our stay there was, and suggesting that they look very closely at renewing their contract with that property.

Anne

(Writing this from a different resort where we vacation often and are treated wonderfully!)

 

[dianeschlicht]

There have been other reports about folks trading into a property from DVC not getting the "cream of the crop" so to speak for rooms. I'd probably not spend that many points for one night in the first place unless it was an OKW GV.

 

[CarolMN]

Sorry you had such a poor experience. Thanks for telling us and thanks for writing to MS.

Best wishes -

 

[sean-1966]

Ducklite, please post MS response. I've always wondered how they'd handle a situation like that.

 

[mickeywho?]

What an awful experience. I would have hoped that DVC had higher standards when it came to the "other" partners. I hope they find a way to make it up to you and ensure that this hotel is removed from our list.
Thanks for the warning!

 

[goldilocks_63]

Sagamore was on my list of places I wanted to try....

Thanks for the heads up, and please let us know how DVC responds.... It'll factor into whether or not I give it a try.

Thanks, Goldi

 

[DVCconvert]

Anne - they must have seen you coming!

Please post any replies you get!

 

[robinb]

Anne, that's terrible! I hope that you get some satisfaction from DVC.

We have only used the Concierge Collection once when we first bought our points. We had a resale with points that were going to expire before our next trip, so we booked at weekend at the Whitehall in Chicago. It was very nice.

 

[dvc at last !]

Sorry to hear about your bad experience -

Please keep this board up to date about your reply from DVC about your poor trip.

 

[Johnnie Fedora]

Thanks, your post reminds me it's a good idea to rent my points and pay cash for non-DVC vacation options. That way, I'm free to take my money and walk if the resort is not to my expectations. I wouldn't want to have to pick between losing 153 points or having a critical health concern!!

 

[emma'smom]

That's too bad....and also surprising as the Sagamore is such a well-known Adirondack institution. I hope they don't take it off the list...I hope they encourage the Sagamore to improve it's approach to DVC trades!

 

[ducklite]

I'll be back home on Sunday night and will send a letter to DVC on Monday. I'll let you know what the end result is.

Anne

 

[DBBN]

I'm sorry this happened to you.

After reading many of these posts we'd decided never use our points for anything other than for stays at the DVC resorts. Thanks for reenforcing we made the right decision.

Good luck with getting satisfaction from DVC.

 

[pb4ugo]

if you, or anyone here, should ever find yourself in the same or similar situation...simply take the family and luggage back to the check-in area and plant yourselves in the seating area where the desk staff must look at you all. when someone tells you that you cannot stay there, just tell them that you cannot stay in the room assigned to you either - and that you are not leaving the area until you are given the accommodations for which you have paid [and that you will accept an upgrade if nothing else is available].

my ds did that with a dh, 3dd and her dm at the grand floridian - they spent their weekend on the concierge level!

and when that same ds was awakened near midnight on the weekend of her dd's college graduation by the motel clerk to tell here that the last of her guests was checking in but that there was no room for them since it had been given away in error - none of the four guest rooms that she had reserved had to pay for ANY charges that weekend!!!!! [and we were each a 3 nite stay because of it being graduation wknd for 5 area schools!]

just use your sweet voice and be prepared to follow thru with any reasonable threat you might need to make - my ds made the motel desk clerk wake some mgmt someone up to resolve her dilemna - she told him that if she was going to be awake - they were, too!

 

[ducklite]

if you, or anyone here, should ever find yourself in the same or similar situation...simply take the family and luggage back to the check-in area and plant yourselves in the seating area where the desk staff must look at you all. when someone tells you that you cannot stay there, just tell them that you cannot stay in the room assigned to you either - and that you are not leaving the area until you are given the accommodations for which you have paid [and that you will accept an upgrade if nothing else is available].

my ds did that with a dh, 3dd and her dm at the grand floridian - they spent their weekend on the concierge level!

and when that same ds was awakened near midnight on the weekend of her dd's college graduation by the motel clerk to tell here that the last of her guests was checking in but that there was no room for them since it had been given away in error - none of the four guest rooms that she had reserved had to pay for ANY charges that weekend!!!!! [and we were each a 3 nite stay because of it being graduation wknd for 5 area schools!]

just use your sweet voice and be prepared to follow thru with any reasonable threat you might need to make - my ds made the motel desk clerk wake some mgmt someone up to resolve her dilemna - she told him that if she was going to be awake - they were, too!

This is all well and good, but the resort was SOLD OUT for the weekend, and there were no other rooms--even an upgrade--available. Trust me, we asked about the availability of ANY other room with a king bed, there wasn't one. It was after midnight by this time, and I had been traveling since 2:30 in the afternoon.

The only three unoccupied rooms were all double bedded and a major downgrade from what we had booked.

There isn't another "nice" resort within an hours drive--and that would be Saratoga on a race weekend--so it's not like they could walk us someplace else.

We were hosed, plain and simple.

Our choice was to take the room and deal with it in the morning, or to risk losing 153 points and pay $1500 extra out of pocket to drive another 90 + minutes and check in early to the resort that we were headed to (where I am now.)

When we agreed to take the room, we assumed that the feather bedding had been removed per the request, and my God, NEVER expected it would be in a BASEMENT! By the time we got into the room it was almost 12:30, so we just dealt with it, and I was back at the desk at 8:30 the next morning to deal with a manager.

While your plan will at times work, it's not going to work with a sold-out resort hotel on a holiday weekend where there isn't another comparable place within an hours drive.

Anne

 

[CRSNDSNY]

Sorry to hear of your bad experience, Anne. This is somewhere we've been wanting to do an exchange but perhaps I'll keep my eyes and ears open for more reports from members to see if there is a pattern.

Glad you'll be writing a letter.

Safe travels home!

 

[DisDaydreamer]

Sorry to hear about your experience. We have used the concierge collection only to go to the Tanque Verde Ranch in Tucson, and the Grove Park Inn in Asheville. Both were excellent stays. We have been seriously considering the Sagamore, so I am a little concerned. Outside of the initial screw-up and allergies aside... what did you think of the resort, grounds, sights, etc? Did you have any positive experiences. 51 pts/night... that's pretty painful.

 

[MrsNick]

Sorry your visit to the Sagamore was such a disappointment. I, too, was interested in the Sagamore for a quickie getaway at some point in the future but will be reconsidering that.

Keep us posted, Anne. And, I think it might be worth a mention to member services that other members who have heard of your experience are now reconsidering future visits to the Sagamore. Perhaps in the future, the Sagamore will re-think their poor treatment of DVC members if they realize it will hurt them in their pocketbook.

Good luck!

 

[Dean]

This simply illustrates one of the major problems with most of the exchange options available. It's even more of an issue with II exchanges and why one should investigate thoroughly prior to ANY exchange.

 

[ducklite]

Outside of the initial screw-up and allergies aside... what did you think of the resort, grounds, sights, etc? Did you have any positive experiences. 51 pts/night... that's pretty painful.

The second room we were given was clean and in generally good repair. We didn't particularly love the decor, but that's purely subjective, and others I'm sure would disagree. It wasn't hideous or anything, just not neccesarily our taste, and certainly nothing I would ever complain about.

The one "dirt" issue was that the dishes and glasses included with the "Villa" type unit we had weren't clean. We washed everything prior to using it. There were also no wine glasses in the room. Made us realize how much we love DVC!

The construction was somewhat shabby though--the kitchen counters didn't line up--hard to explain, but they were off by about 1/4" from each other where they joined at the seam. The bathroom door hinges were pulling out of the wall--some longer screws and a screwdriver would easily correct that.

The entire place--every single building needs powerwashing and/or scraping and painting.

The Verandah Restaurant was where we had tea, it was OK but could use some elbow grease--it was far from spotless. The Dining Room was highly in need of some rehab and the food was miserable and service fair at best. Mister Brown's Pub was severely understaffed and we waited 15 minutes to place our order at the bar with only one bartender servicing 80+ guests, then saw an altercation that required hotel security to come break up a near brawl between an unruly patron and a member of management (it was NOT the managers fault, and we spoke up to security and again to the GM the next day about that one.) Service except at the Grill was lacking. It ranged from bad to fair. Certainly far from what one would expect from what I believe is a four diamond establishment. The Grill up on the Golf Course (Can't recall the exact name) was excellent and seemed spotless, it was the one remarkable meal of the three days.

Even on the second floor, our "lakeview" room was really a view of trees with glimpses of lake between the branches. A non-lakeview room would have been just as nice a view.

There were three weddings plus a large reunion going on, which meant a lot of drunks, a lot of noise, and a lot of management time being spent catering to those events. Another couple we met shared our sentiments that it seemed that if you weren't with one of those four events, you weren't worth their time of day.

I got a facial, which was nice, but nothing special. Same line of products I normally use, and the day spa I go to at home uses, and the girl that does my facials at home just seems a lot better. I also got a manicure and pedicure (shhh! Don't tell TC for any of you who also use my friend!) and they were nothing special, although the price was reasonable for the service.

It rained pretty much the entire time we were there, certainly not blaming the resort on that one, but it was a bit annoying that there were a ton of kids and only one (rather inconvenient) hour daily was set aside for adult time in the pool, and really not much else to do indoors.

One other thing I really hated was the automatic 18% gratuity on EVERYTHING. Now DH and I are generally generous tippers. But it seemed that ebcause the waitstaff knew they were getting an 18% tip, they just didn't care. To be honest, neither did we, and where we would have normally left 20% or more, we didn't bother. The exception was at the Grill where in addition to the 18%, we gave our server an extra $10 and the busboy/water/bread guy an extra $5--they were both DELIGHTFUL--and that meal's service deserved the roughly 30% tip between the 18% and the extra cash.

For the amount of points, we were certainly expecting a better experience. THeir loss, because had our experience been better I"m sure we would have returned as cash guests in the future. Now I don't think we'll ever go back even on a higly discounted rate let alone rack based on points.

Anne