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J cocktosten
Grape Sorter
Posts:252
 | | 04/03/2008 3:30 PM |
| I was referring to the W on Lex and 50th - This sums up my one and only stay. I will not be staying in another W Hotel ever. We stayed in a Spa Suite - that was quite large and pretty cool and cost a fortune - MLV wrote this up about our stay:
Upon making the reservation, which was made directly with the hotel, not the generic 800 number, I asked what time check-in is, and asked if we could check in early. I was told to call the day of check in and the hotel staff would let me know what was possible. At 11AM on November 5 I called to ask if we could check in early. My husband had a conference call scheduled for 3PM and I wanted to make sure we were settled in so he could easily deal with this call. I was told that we could check in anytime after 2PM. (So far, this is all very reasonable)
At 2:40 we arrived at the W. _______ was helping us at the front desk. While checking us in she disappeared for about 5 minutes to come back and let us know that our room was not ready. At that point I asked for them to put us anywhere where we could work and take a conference call that was quiet, then when the room was ready we could move. I thought this would be a good compromise and we could at least accomplish what we need to without rushing the housekeeping staff.
At this point another woman came over (I did not get her name, unfortunately) and said she would personally go check on the status of the room. After her “inspecting” the room she informed us that it was, indeed, ready for us to check in. We get our keys and head up to the room (#445, a spa suite).
We expected a clean and comfortable hotel room that was ready to be occupies. After all, it had been inspected only 5 minutes earlier. That is not what we found. Upon entering the room, we hear a voice calling “Hello. Hello.” There was an engineer in the bathroom cleaning up a mess of broken glass. He was sending housekeeping – or room stylists, or whatever they are called – to clean up. When the housekeeper arrived with a vacuum cleaner, I asked her to come back in an hour after my husband was done with his phone call. (the fact that 4 different people knew that a client conference call was taking place and they still wanted to vacuum right then and there is another issue altogether).
The woman that was sent to clean said she was leaving for the day but would send someone else. At 4:30 I called the front desk and asked that someone be sent up to clean, as the call was finished at that point. So, someone comes and vacuums and leaves.
Meanwhile, while ____ was on a conference call and I was working, the “Room Stylist Manager” – whatever that means – comes by to see if everything is OK. I explain that it is not okay and the reasons why. _____ (the manager) assured me that she would take care of it and make sure that the room was properly taken care of.
Until this point we had not used the bathroom, as there was broken glass all over the place. Please keep in mind that this room was supposedly inspected and deemed acceptable for us to check in.
After it was vacuumed, I used the bathroom. Upon washing my hands and picking up a hand towel, I nearly cut myself on a large chunk of glass that had become embedded in the towel. At this point I also noticed that one of the two sinks was also full of broken glass.
Obviously this is a big problem that I felt warranted a face-to-face discussion and went down to the lobby to find a manager. A few minutes before 5 PM I spoke with ______ who assured me that the room would be cleaned. I let her know we were going out and I wanted it taken care of immediately. I also let her know specifically that I wanted all of the towels removed from the bathroom and replaced with fresh (glass-free) ones. At this point she offered to compensate me by buying us breakfast. I told her I really wasn’t interested in breakfast I just wanted a clean and safe room.
We came back about an hour and a half later (about 6:20 PM) to find that nothing had been done in our room. It was exactly as we left it. I then called and asked for the manager on duty to come up to the room. ______ came up. We explained the situation and physically showed him the glass, the towels and what needed to be done. He was horrified and offered us 12,000 Starwood points. Whether we actually get those remains to be seen. I thanked him and let him know we would be leaving again by 7:30 and just want this taken care of by the time we get back form dinner. He assured us that it would be taken care of.
At this point, I had also spoken with the Style Manager (I had called her when I did not know where else to turn, as she gave me her card the first time I met her). I let her know ____ was taking care of this and she said that a member of her team would come inspect the room to make sure it was acceptable before we got back from dinner.
We arrived back at the hotel at almost 11PM. We found that a cursory cleaning of the sink may have been done, but ALL of the towels in the bathroom were exactly as we left them, complete with a large chunk of glass on top. Additionally, there was still glass in the sink. But, they left us a cheese platter and some wine. Still, all I want are some towels that are free of glass, and this seems to be too much for the entire staff of the W to accomplish. .
So I proceed to call the manager, again. He is not available but calls me back within five minutes. I explain the situation. He says that he will comp our stay (again, all I want are some clean towels, I had not asked for anything else) and we could either change rooms (at 11 at night, when we have early meetings the next day) or he could send someone up within 10 minutes with new towels and to clean out the sink. I opt for the clean towel option, as I have been trying to get the room clean, and specifically glass-free towels for hours on end.
At 11:30 PM, a half hour after this conversation, nobody had arrived with towels or to clean. So, I proceeded to clean off the vanity top myself and move all of the offending towels to the side. We then only had 1 sink to use, as I will not brush my teeth in a sink full of broken glass. At this point, I also called the front desk to let them know that we were going to sleep, and please do not send anyone up at this point, as it really was very late.
At 12:15 AM our phone rings. It is housekeeping wanting to change our towels and find out what was wrong. We told them at this point that would not work. We were both sound asleep, and thanks to the phone ringing after midnight, sleep was short lived.
Upon waking up in the morning, the final bill was left in our room and the total was charged to our credit card. I went down to the lobby to talk to the third manager in our one night stay. He seemed appropriately horrified when I shared with him the goings-on of the last day. He did take care of our bill and was friendly. However, by the time I spoke with John, there was really nothing he could do as we were checking out within a couple of hours.
So, we stayed at the W for one night. During the 20 hour stay, I spoke with 3 managers, countless people who answer the “Whatever, Whenever” phone line and a few housekeeping “style managers” who each promised something and failed to deliver on all of those things. And we never got our room cleaned properly. There were some other issues with service during our stay (on the 3 occasions that I called the “Whatever, Whenever” button on the phone, it took at least 10 rings to get answered; general lack of interest attitude from the staff), but the fact that there was broken glass in our room during our entire stay is completely unacceptable.
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| Drew
Sammamish, WA
Wine Bottler
Posts:3193
| | 04/03/2008 4:24 PM |
| | Being budget conscious, we're staying at the Millenium next weekend... Managed to get a $205/night rate, which appears to be good for Manhattan at present. Location (next to WTC) could be better... but we're getting in at 1 AM on Thurs and leaving at 6 AM on Sat, so I'm not overly concerned about noise. | | | |
| Winetex
Austin, Texas
Master of Wine
Posts:10796
| | 04/03/2008 5:14 PM |
| | J - that is just lame. | | | |
| jaimetown
DC area
Wine Labeler
Posts:3503
| | 04/03/2008 5:20 PM |
| That really stinks J - sorry to hear that.
Drew, I've also stayed at the Millenium - it can be a long wait for cabs at night if you need one! | | | |
| J cocktosten
Grape Sorter
Posts:252
| | 04/03/2008 5:34 PM |
| | It was not a fun stay, but happened last November. No more Ws for us - | | | |
| Drew
Sammamish, WA
Wine Bottler
Posts:3193
| | 04/05/2008 11:06 AM |
| | Ew, that's not good. Planning on putting the family to bed and then going out for some late night drinks :-/ | | | |
| wineismylife
Arlington, TX
Master of Wine
Posts:12263
| | 04/05/2008 11:44 AM |
| | jamie, UN Millenium? | |
Joe
-----
Wine is like potato chips around me...if it's open, it's gone. | |
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