WWYD? Advice on a terrible hotel stay... (long)

[Tinker'n'Fun]

Here's the problem/situation, you provide the solution. Thanks.

I took my DD to look at colleges over the weekend. Long drive, over 8 hours to get to the hotel. We arrive, check in, go to the room. Leave immediately for dinner. Come back and I unpack. I look out the window to see the view. The floor is drenched. Call maintenance, there is a hole in the roof and it is coming into the room. We are on the top floor. No rooms available to move to til the morning. Okay, we go to bed, I get up extra early to re-pack everything, then leave for the whole day college hunting.

We return at 10:30pm, get the new keys, go into the room. DD gets her computer sits on the bed and I decide to unpack. Open my suitcase and there are 1,000's (I am not exaggerating) of ants. SCREAM, close up the suitcase call front desk. They offer to take the suitcase and give me $ to wash the clothes. I get everything out of the room (THEY thought I would stay in it - NOT), have the maintenance guy help me shake everything and vacuum up all the ants. Front desk says all rooms are full and no availability in the area, only in NYC. Not driving NYC. So I start the wash, and finish after 2am, and a room open ups. I have the maintenance guy check it out (he is on my side), the front desk guy. Room is clean. Move everything up stairs except the luggage which I had to have thrown out. Ants kept coming out from everywhere. Now all my clothes are in bags in the trunk of the car - and a little in the room.

Guy in charge comps room for the night. I tell him I wanted the night before comped and the 3rd. night is free from a promotion. He says, okay. Come to find out he didn't do it and charged 2 nights and extra on my card. No managers available until Monday.

So here's my question if you made it here, I was comped the 2 nights, but I went through he**, lost my luggage to the garbage can, and had to re-arrange our schedule and missed part of the open houses, and had to drive to the Bronx.

Would you pursue it further with a letter or call to the headquarter of the hotel chain (yes it is a top chain and the hotel was 3 1/2 stars)?

 

[DrCavin]

Did you have something in the suitcase that the ants were attracted to?

 

[Tinker'n'Fun]

Oh, yes I forgot that. Even though the room was a suite, there was no food in my suitcase or even in the room. We had our food in the car to snack on. The only food in the room was the complimentary coffee/tea/creamers, and a bottle of water.

The ants were also on the bed in the room and in the sofa sleeper. I had not been in the room at all during the day. The luggage was transferred for us. It was the first time we entered the room. And there were NO ants anywhere when we packed up from the first room.

The second room was next to the ice machine and pop machine, I believe the ants came from there.

I had another carryone which is brand new with our toiletries in it and two Purex sheets to wash if needed. Smells good, but not food. There were no ants in that bag. It was on the desk of the room, luggage on the floor.

 

[Tuffcookie]

I was wondering the same...Was there something in the suitcase that attracted the ants?

Oh, I see you stated there was no food in the suitcase.

I would definately write a letter and send it to the main office, along with a receipt for a new suitcase!


TC

 

[snapppyd]

Sounds like they may have stored your luggage somewhere and the ants got in there?

You can bet I would be on the phone to the hotel chain and sending a letter and email. I think you should be paid for the luggage you lost and comped for the entire trip.

I'm sorry you had such a bad experience.

 

[wdwfan16]

Why did you throw out the luggage? Why not just put it into plastic and the ants would die and then just vacuum them.

 

[momrek06]

Here's the problem/situation, you provide the solution. Thanks.

I took my DD to look at colleges over the weekend. Long drive, over 8 hours to get to the hotel. We arrive, check in, go to the room. Leave immediately for dinner. Come back and I unpack. I look out the window to see the view. The floor is drenched. Call maintenance, there is a hole in the roof and it is coming into the room. We are on the top floor. No rooms available to move to til the morning. Okay, we go to bed, I get up extra early to re-pack everything, then leave for the whole day college hunting.

We return at 10:30pm, get the new keys, go into the room. DD gets her computer sits on the bed and I decide to unpack. Open my suitcase and there are 1,000's (I am not exaggerating) of ants. SCREAM, close up the suitcase call front desk. They offer to take the suitcase and give me $ to wash the clothes. I get everything out of the room (THEY thought I would stay in it - NOT), have the maintenance guy help me shake everything and vacuum up all the ants. Front desk says all rooms are full and no availability in the area, only in NYC. Not driving NYC. So I start the wash, and finish after 2am, and a room open ups. I have the maintenance guy check it out (he is on my side), the front desk guy. Room is clean. Move everything up stairs except the luggage which I had to have thrown out. Ants kept coming out from everywhere. Now all my clothes are in bags in the trunk of the car - and a little in the room.

Guy in charge comps room for the night. I tell him I wanted the night before comped and the 3rd. night is free from a promotion. He says, okay. Come to find out he didn't do it and charged 2 nights and extra on my card. No managers available until Monday.

So here's my question if you made it here, I was comped the 2 nights, but I went through he**, lost my luggage to the garbage can, and had to re-arrange our schedule and missed part of the open houses, and had to drive to the Bronx.

Would you pursue it further with a letter or call to the headquarter of the hotel chain (yes it is a top chain and the hotel was 3 1/2 stars)?

OP, I will tell you what I did.
My 2 sisters and I took our Mom to Amish Country for her 80th birthday. She wanted to see Brandywine Art Museum etc. Anyway, I booked a hotel on the PA/DE line. A very popular hotel chain. Now the room did not have leaks nor did it have bugs BUT it did have issues...which I will not go into here BUT what I did was post my story on TRIP ADVISOR. In hours, the hotel manager found the post and immediately emailed me. He was so sorry about the issues I had and said over and over again he had wished I had contacted HIM/THEM before posting on Trip Advisor. He comp'ed my cc as well as added allot of points to my hotel rewards card.

So I am leaning towards you calling the hotel, asking for the hotel manager and see if you have any luck there AND then follow up on Trip Advisor if you are still unhappy.

 

[krcit]

Why did you throw out the luggage? Why not just put it into plastic and the ants would die and then just vacuum them.

Yuck. I would've thrown it out also. I haaaate bugs, lol.

OP, I would follow up with the manager absolutely.

 

[Tinker'n'Fun]

Why did you throw out the luggage? Why not just put it into plastic and the ants would die and then just vacuum them.

It was 2 in the morning. The maintenance man sprayed the luggage and it was in the wash room with me. I would move it periodically to help it dry out. Every time I move it there was a pile of ants underneath. I was tired, stressed beyond belief, and my daughter was living in the lobby of the hotel at that time. I couldn't deal with it anymore, I asked the front desk what they could do and they didn't have a clue. I wasn't going to take it with me to the new room, so they said they could throw it out and I agreed.

 

[Tinker'n'Fun]

We checked out on Monday morning and I called the front desk. I asked for the manager and was transferred to a woman who said she was "handling" my account. She told me that the charges would be reversed and there was no need for me to even check out. So that is what I did.

I take responsibility for the fact that I never once wrote down a name or position of the person I was speaking with. I know better. When I say I was stressed, trust me I was. It was hard enough trying to get to the college open house on time without the problems. This weekend was important. My DD is making a huge decision. I needed to make it about her and not about the ants and stuff. But now that I am home in my non-infested home, I am really pissed. I need to know if getting the room comped was enough or if I should pursue it. Usually, I am a huge "fight" the problem til the end person. I could teach a class in proper customer service dispute tactics. Plus, I want to know if the hotel was booked solid, was someone else in these rooms??

Okay, gotta go shower again (JK)... This is making me itch all over again, I am such a wimp sometimes.

 

[DWGal210]

I would FOR SURE be writing a letter to the hotel chain. Especially since you didn't have anything in the room the ants would be attracted to.

And I also like the idea of the Trip Advisor report.

I am shuddering as I sit here...all those ants!!! Eww!!!

 

[allison443]

Why did you throw out the luggage? Why not just put it into plastic and the ants would die and then just vacuum them.

Plastic what? Would the plastic have to be airtight? How could you seal it so it was airtight? How long would it take the ants to die? Did OP have a vacuum with her?

OP I would contact them because it sounds like they did not follow through on what they agreed to do in terms of comping you..

 

[Pakey]

All I can say is WOW. I would definitely be writing a letter to the chain. Even if they had comped the rooms (which they did not), there certainly should have been something more offered for the inconvenience of you having to spend your evening in the laundry facility getting rid of their ants.

 

[momrek06]

We checked out on Monday morning and I called the front desk. I asked for the manager and was transferred to a woman who said she was "handling" my account. She told me that the charges would be reversed and there was no need for me to even check out. So that is what I did.

I take responsibility for the fact that I never once wrote down a name or position of the person I was speaking with. I know better. When I say I was stressed, trust me I was. It was hard enough trying to get to the college open house on time without the problems. This weekend was important. My DD is making a huge decision. I needed to make it about her and not about the ants and stuff. But now that I am home in my non-infested home, I am really pissed. I need to know if getting the room comped was enough or if I should pursue it. Usually, I am a huge "fight" the problem til the end person. I could teach a class in proper customer service dispute tactics. Plus, I want to know if the hotel was booked solid, was someone else in these rooms??

Okay, gotta go shower again (JK)... This is making me itch all over again, I am such a wimp sometimes.

Believe me, we were stressed as well on our trip. We planned it for awhile, it was a big surprise to Mom and we weren't happy at all with the room. Crap, people work hard for their money today and with tourism off due to the economy I just thought we would have been treated better. OP, I did not have any names other than FIRST names from their name badges. AND they were the ones not helping things at all. I mean for instance to call down to the front desk after arriving in the room to find a lack of towels...by the time anyone answered our call, we were told that they would be taking inventory on exactly how many towels WE use......whattttt, we were all adults........INVENTORY......... Towels arrived hours later by the front desk clerk....not housekeeping....ODD! Anyway, not to bring up all the issues we had......to not have any names should not be an issue.

And I also like the idea of the Trip Advisor report.

I was so surprised when the Manager emailed me. He then asked for my home phone number and called me directly and we discussed at length all my issues.

 

[2binak]

Definitely write a letter. We had a horrible experience at a hotel in Orlando following a friend's wedding. They put us in 2 different rooms that should not have been given to guests due to water damage from 3 back-to-back hurricanes. We would have understood if they contacted us ahead of time or even upon arrival, saying that they had no rooms available, but instead, they just kept putting us in water damaged rooms. Even housekeeping told us they weren't supposed to be putting guests in the rooms we were put in. After the 2nd room change, we had no choice but to keep the room as we had dinner ressies at a very nice restaurant with the newly married couple and other friends and we didn't have time at that point to find another hotel. We got some money back when we checked out and the remainder back when I wrote an e-mail to guest services upon our return home.

 

[lovetoscrap]

Tink--Write an EMAIL! The Travel Troubleshooter on CNN.com always recommends email over a letter or call. Calls just get ignored and letters get tossed. He says these days an email is the best way to get results.

Send copies to the Hotel GM, the customer service Dept of the hotel and if you can get emails for higher ups copy them on it also. Find out how much it will cost for your suitcases to be replaced and send them documentation of that.

 

[Missy1961]

Write letters to as many people as possible. And post on message boards naming hotel names, location, times, etc. They need to replace the suitcase, comp those rooms at the very least.

I don't blame you for not getting names. Stress like that makes you crazy. But management will know who was on duty at the times you were there. I'd sit down, write out a time line for myself right now so you'll have something to refer to in the future. (ie, we arrived at Hotel X at 9:05 PM, checked into room 502, room had leak, etc.)

and I would have thrown away my suitcase too. I hate bugs.

 

[maroo]

It took much less than all of that for me to call the manager of a hotel. And when they would not help me, I went over her head. And eventually the problem was resolved (involved violation of handicapped access laws).

I would certainly call the manager.

At the least they should reimburse you for the luggage? And comp your stay.

Even if you did have food in your suitcase...they should FIX ants on the top floor??

And I agree with you...find out if it was really booked. It may be you just got a bad batch of staff.

If I was the manager of the hotel, I would want to know.

 

[JerseyJanice]

I hate to say this, but other than writing letters and posts, what can you do? That weekend is gone, and no matter who you complain to, you won't get that time back.

We had a TERRIBLE stay at the Fort McGruder Radisson in Williamsburg, VA in 2001. Not as bad as bugs invading our stuff, but it was really awful in several aspects. After all was said and done, the worst part IMO was the amount of time I spent trying to resolve our issues. All the problems we encountered took up hours of vacation time that I'll never get back.

You can write to the chain's main office and hope for a response. I wrote to Radisson and never got one. At that point, I'd already wasted enough of my time and chalked it off to a bad experience.

Sorry that happened to you, OP.

 

[Minnesota!]

Tink--Write an EMAIL! The Travel Troubleshooter on CNN.com always recommends email over a letter or call. Calls just get ignored and letters get tossed. He says these days an email is the best way to get results.

Send copies to the Hotel GM, the customer service Dept of the hotel and if you can get emails for higher ups copy them on it also. Find out how much it will cost for your suitcases to be replaced and send them documentation of that.

DITTO! Email email email.

we had an issue with a Hilton we stayed at last year. The pool was freezing and there were no high chairs in the restaurant - even though we booked a "family package with family breakfast". I emailed them on Monday (through the website). By Tuesday I had a response and an offer for a free weekend..which we accepted and used about a month later.