Holiday Inn Express

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response submitted by the business and have determined that the response does satisfy my issues and/or concerns in reference to complaint #***I understand that by choosing to accept the business response that my complaint will be closed as resolved.
Regards,
*** ***

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below
Attached is a picture of the toilet in the room. Anyone can see this is not a hold the handle issue. We had turned on the a/c unit hoping to air the odor out of the room when we first got there due to the odor. This is embarrassing, but relevant. I had to use the bathroom and did. When I finished is when I found that the toilet would not flush and I removed the back cover to see why. I spent about minutes trying to get the tank to fill up so it could be flushed. Up to and including this point, we still hadn't decided leave. We may have just taken another room, but my wife had sat on the bed to watch tv and wait for me and she noticed the smell of the bed and pillows. When she pulled the covers down it was obvious that the sheets hadn't been changed. We don't care what their housekeeping report says, they didn't clean the room properly. That is the point we decided to leave. After we left the lobby, we sat in our car for a bit trying to find another place. After being frustrated by our phones, we just decided to drive around to get something to eat and see what we found on the way. We ended up on a back road because we didn't know where we were. We ended up in *** where we found a restaurant and another Holiday Inn. We had planned on visiting the Laurel Caverns area on Sunday 9/13, that was our reason for staying in the MtPleasant area. My WIFE and I would like to thank the Holiday Inn Express for ruining our 17th anniversary weekend trip. We will continue to "blast" the hotel management and staff until the issue is resolved. They truly have earned it.
Regards,
*** ***

November, 27, 2016To Whom it May Concern:The letter is in response to ID# ***I had an opportunity to discuss this matter with *** *** *** while she was a guest at our hotelI apologized for the interaction with our front desk and used the experience as a training opportunity with our
associatesWe do have non-smoking signs on all of our guest room doors (photo attached)I explained this to *** *** and told her that as a standard if a room is smoked in we have to shampoo all carpets, drapes and change out the shower curtain in the roomWe might also have to not rent the room the day they check out so we may ozone the room to bring it back to a neutral smellUnfortunately, the cost of the can be in excess of $and therefore each room that is smoked in will be charged thatAs a hotel we do not incur these charges ourselves we must charge the guestShe seemed like she understood at the time of our conversation.Please let me know if you have any additional questions or concerns.Regards Nathan S. General Manager

We are sorry that the guest felt this way but what the guest states transpired is not accurate. As soon as the guest informed the front desk agent that the room was hot and air not working the front desk agent apologized and guest was moved immediately to another room no hesitation on front
desk agents part. Maintenance did go into the room after guest was moved and the air conditioner was in proper working order. It was an extremely hot day and it does take a little bit to cool the room down when weather is as hot as it is. Upon check in guests credit cards were declined and we made an exception for guest to pay cash, payment is due at check in not check out. Guest told agent she would get her the cash. I spoke with the guest the next day and let her know that we would be discounting her bill $for any inconvenience that had occurred and reminded her that she needed to come up to the desk and pay the cash she owed for her stay as her credit cards were declined. Corporate advised me that moving the guest to another room was the right thing to do and that I should not have discounted the bill but I did it anyway. Guest wanted more of a discount and actually told corporate she wanted free nights and $off bill. Corporate did not agree with the guest at all. Guests keys got de-magnetized which happens when room key is near a cell phone or near credit cards. Our system has no possible way to demagnetize a key card, it is something that just happens and is beyond our control. Guest was yelling and cussing at the door and kicking it, (room was right across from front desk area) and came up and scene at the front desk area, yelling at front desk agent, threw the key cards at her saying that she locked her out of her room and demanding that she stop checking in the guest that she was checking in and make her new keys. Front desk agent apologized and remade keys and apologized, not only to this guest but to the guests checking in for the interruption and commotionFront desk agent then called me at home in tears at what had just transpired and I called corporate from my home as I was already off of work to let them know what was happening. Corporate informed me that guest had already called them to complain and corporate spoke with front desk agent that explained what had transpired and that the guest still had not paid their bill and corporate called guest back and told her that she needed to go to the front desk and pay the bill immediately since we had made and exception to take cash and the hotel had no guarantee of payment since credit cards were still declining. Guest was upset she was asked by corporate this time to pay her bill. She then informed corporate that she would be contacting the Revdex.com. We believe that the $discount was more than fair

[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response. If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me I dispute the fact that the incorrect dates were confirmed with me, because I called back twice on the same day and spoke to the same person to ensure I had the correct rooms and dates booked However, after filing this complaint, I have heard back from the establishment and they have refunded my incorrect charges I thank you for your help in resolving this issue
Regards,
*** ***

We received a letter regarding a customer service issuePlease accept our sincere apologies in regard to the customer service she was given when she called the hotel to inquire about what we had to offerThe level of customer service described in this letter is not our standards and
her patronage would mean a lot to usSince the incident we have spoken to Mrs*** and now have mutual understanding and she accepted our apologiesAs for the agent that was involved in the case, our executive team have met and sat down with her regarding the level of customer service that was displayed with Mrs*** and appropriate action has been taken

Although we are sorry that we weren’t able to reach an amicable resolution with this guest, we have reviewed all the case details and we believe that the hotel’s response to this incident was reasonable, professional, and strictly adherent to the company’s standards and best practicesThe guest was
charged $for the television that was broken during his stay, although this is less than a third of the cost of replacing the televisionIn response, the guest was profane and threatening towards the hotel’s General Manager and made repeated attempts to access her personal contact informationFurthermore, on October at about 5:pm, one of the hotel supervisors was on a phone call with the guest and overheard him telling a third party that he broke the television by throwing something at it when he was angered by a soccer matchIn light of this revelation, we are saddened that the guest pursued the complaint up the ranks to an IHG senior case manager, but the senior case manager agreed with and supported the hotel’s conclusionsWe wish that the dispute had ended differently, as it is always our goal to make guest satisfaction our first and foremost priority, but we stand by the actions that the hotel needed to take in this caseThank you for your consideration

On Jan 18, 2017, I returned to my room at Marble Falls Holiday Inn Express, and found my door open Door was propped open The door was in the closed locked position when I left in the morning I feel that my safety & security has been violated by "someone" leaving the door to my room propped open Anyone could have entered my room I'm not sure if anything was stolen or tampered with If you care about your safety and security, I recommend you DO NOT stay at the Marble Falls Holiday Inn Express

To whom it may concern,
This letter is in association with ID # ***The reservation in question was made on 4/3/over the telephoneThe arrival and departure dates of 4/4/15-4/5/were confirmed with the guest at the time of booking, which does not match the guest's complaint
stating the dates of arrival and departure were for 4/25/15-4/26/However, the guest has been contacted, and as a sign of good faith we have refunded the total amount charged.Thank you,
Christine H***
Front Desk Manager

Our rates throughout the entirety of the year are based on a variety of factors, one of which is supply and demand October 31st of was one of the bigger events to come to our area over the course of the year, making our demand very high and as a hotel we only have so much
supply to actually offer our guests so the rates for these events is different Our prices are competitive with hotels of similar quality in our areaThis is also something we strongly consider when reaching an agreement on our pricing
Third party websites may offer additional discounts at our properties but this comes at a cost of agreeing to their termsThese terms could be a difference in cancellation policy, deposits, finders and/or booking fee, To receive the rate from these sites the reservation needs to be made using those sites - we do not price match them at our property because our policies are not the sameThe website specifically mentioned in this scenario that was checked for rates has a different cancellation policy than we do directly and also charges a 'services fee' for using their website to book the room The fee, from what I have seen is roughly 17% on top of the rate of the room
I also would like to point out that this website is not exactly reliable As you can see in the picture (attached) - the rate for this hotel says $per night but when clicking 'check rates' the rates are suddenly different at $per night
The rates on this specific reservation were agreed upon at the time of check-in It is made clear on our paperwork and guests are required to initial it in agreement otherwise they do not get checked in In this specific scenario, the rates were agreed upon by filling out the required areas If the guest did not agree with the rates then we could have pointed them in the direction of hotels with lower pricing to stay within their budget
*** ***

I have spoken with guest, Ms*** ***, on regarding her complaint. She did not bring up any mention of issues pertaining to pests but rather she was seeking a refund for one night based off of a manager not immediately contacting her to discuss. She informed me that she
filed several complaints with various agencies, including this one to which we are responding. She initiated with her credit card company/bank a review of the charges, and the resolve she seeks is now in the hands of that party to determine. We have done everything possible to leave the guest with a positive hospitality experience, including switching her room upon her request. At no time were we able to confirm an ant in the room. We had such double checked by a pest control agency and state agency upon guests request. (see attached reports) We ask for this case to be closed for we feel we have done everything possible to take the unfounded complaint seriously and we have not only taken the appropriate measures to ensure we have no pest control issues, but spoken directly with the guest and all those she filed a complaint with. I am not sure what else can be done. We apologized that her stay was not perfect, but feel there is not much of a fairer resolve considering every agencies findings. Please feel free to reach out if you have any further questions.Sincerely,*** ***

To Whom It May Concern;The guest in question made a reservation through a third party site for the night of July 2ndAs is policy, his card was authorized at chefor the amount of his stay, though it would actually be getting paid by the third party.His card was accidentally charged at
check-out instead of the third party being billedIt was noticed and reversed on the same day, but either way, the original authorization would be held for the prescribed period by his bank, per ***/*** Policy.The guest was upset that we couldn't force the bank to release the hold on his card on a Holiday weekend.| spoke to the guest on several occasions, as did my assistant manager, and this was explained to him in detailMy assistant manager contacted his bank several times and was forced to leave several voicemails with no return calls.In short, we followed our policy, ***/*** Policy and his banks policy to the best of our abilityUnfortunately, the guest was inconvenienced due to the hold.Respectfully, Jason B***General Manager

In the operation of every business, customers are occasionally encountered who are rude and unreasonable. The derogatory nature of the guest’s comments about my response to you is indicative of the manner in which she and her husband treated my staff. They were confrontational and demanding, and while she uses the terms “became frustrated” and “grew increasingly frustrated”, to describe their demeanor, those terms don’t accurately describe the level of verbal abuse that was directed toward the staff. The people who were on duty at the time that the guest and her husband came into the hotel have provided services for thousands of guests of most races and ethnic backgrounds. There has never been a prior guest complaint about their conduct. Based on my discussion with them, regarding the guest’s accusations, I am satisfied that their account is accurate and the guest’s account isn’t. Neither of them laughed at the guests and neither of them made a discriminatory comment about the guest or her husband. While the guest appears to have a document which changes the reservation from October to October 6, the fact remains that a mistake occurred somewhere in the system that the guest used to change the reservationOur hotel didn’t receive that information. But, as a practical matter, there was no way to make a reservation for October because the hotel was fully booked with reservations that predated the guest’s efforts. I am truly sorry that the guest was led to believe that she and her husband had a reservation for October 6, but that misconception was the result of a mistake over which neither I nor my staff had any control. I also understand the frustration that guests would feel upon arriving at a hotel and finding that there was no reservation; but, that frustration doesn’t justify the verbal abuse that was directed toward my staff, nor does it justify the groundless claims that have been made to your officeThe guest wasn’t satisfied with my prior response and she won’t be satisfied with this response, but, there was nothing more that my staff could do on October 6, 2015, and there is nothing more that I can do today. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to respond. Sincerely, *** *** General Manager Wheeling Holiday Inn Express

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
Regards,
*** ***

I have attached several documents (pdf) one showing the contact log with Ms*** after she decided to file a complaint and the second showing the background of the transactions that led to the charges against Ms***.In short, January 26, Ms*** contacted us to create a wedding block,
holding rooms in our hotel for a wedding she planned for October 22, Prior to creating a block (January 9, 2016) Ms*** had called and reserved guaranteed rooms using her personal credit card After establishing a block of non-guaranteed rooms on January 26th, the personally guaranteed rooms were modified so that the rate matched that offered to the wedding block Individual room rates were listed at $whereas the group rate was offered at $ A wedding block is a convenience we offer to wedding planners The Block is a non-guaranteed group of rooms we take out of inventory and hold with the expectation that wedding participants will call and individually guarantee the rooms they need Since the rooms are pulled from our inventory, we have a policy to limit wedding blocks to a maximum of rooms and limit no more than blocks in the hotel on any given date With the promise of a large number of rooms, we typically discount the rate offered versus individual rooms The caveat is that any un-reserved rooms within the block will be pulled and returned to general inventory 1-month prior to the event date It is not uncommon for wedding planners to believe their guest list will vastly exceed the rooms and therefore personally guarantee additional rooms using a valid credit card at the time of booking Based on the electronic logs attached to each of our reservations, this is exactly what Ms*** did (see attachment *** Revdex.com) Although the log shows she had reserved the guaranteed rooms a few weeks prior to setting up a Wedding Block (Jan 9 vs Jan 26), there was a clear effort to lower the rate on each individually guaranteed reservation to match the wedding block rate which tells us that her request was NOT TO CANCEL the guaranteed reservations but to ensure they were charged at the lower rate On September 25th, the Wedding Block was released with only room picked up, moving rooms back into general inventory to resell This would have precipitated a phone call to the Group Contact (Ms***) to let them know As October 22nd approached, we had a WAITLIST of people wishing to stay with us on what was a SOLD-OUT night at the hotel Since Ms*** carried multiple, guaranteed rooms, we began trying to contact her mid-week to confirm she still needed the rooms This is policy based on previous situations where people forget they booked extra rooms and wind up not using them While we continued to call Ms*** until early in the evening of October 22nd, we had no success reaching her or getting a return phone call Had we reached her, we would have gladly cancelled the reservations with no penalty as we would have certainly been able to resell the rooms at a higher rate even during the evening of October 22nd Note: my own experience calling Ms*** is that her number gives an “out of service” message about 2-out-of-times I called Given this and the fact that she was the bride in an upcoming wedding it is not surprising we had difficulty reaching her Given that the rooms were guaranteed, we were obligated to hold them the entire evening for the guest It does happen that wedding guests choose to attend the wedding first and cheto their hotel room late in the evening after the party is over When a guaranteed room is HELD but never checked in, we must process the room as a NO-SHOW and charge the valid credit card for the amount of the room This was done on October 24 where GUARANTEED rooms were charged $each ($rate plus taxes) for a total of $1,310.76.In our subsequent conversations with Ms*** (see *** Contact Log) she was adamant that the guaranteed rooms were supposed to be cancelled and not held with the price lowered I researched this and spoke in depth with her to find a reason to believe her story versus my Sales Manager I explained to her that the electronic records showed the price on her guaranteed rooms was lowered at the same time a group block was made and how this reflects a common practice of planners picking up more than the rooms held by a wedding block Her response was that she did not know the price she was being offered in the wedding block and would therefore have never asked for a lower rate on her guaranteed rooms This was difficult to believe as our experience is that nobody contracts for hotel rooms without asking the price, indeed most people actively negotiate for a lower price than we offered It is very common that wedding planners get upset when limited to rooms in a group block and take steps to secure more rooms by guaranteeing them with a personal credit card It is also our experience that guests rarely cancel rooms without documenting the traditional cancellation code generated when the reservations are released, that is more true when the guest is holding multiple rooms Ms*** never asked or received a cancellation code as the rooms were never cancelled.When a guest is unhappy, we try very hard to find a place where we made a mistake and try to meet the guest at a place we can both be satisfied In this case, the records show that personally guaranteed rooms were being held in addition to rooms within the wedding block PLUS we made an earnest attempt to cancel the rooms by reaching out to Ms*** Since the rooms were held in good faith, at the expense of others wishing to stay with us, we felt the standard No-Show charge was justified Please contact me if you need further clarification on this matter

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
Regards,
*** ***

This is not true I was never told that I would be charged, when I called back a few days later to ask why I had be charged and to talk to the manager they told me they did not have to tell me I was going to be charged for that night, however I was told in the beginning that I would not be charged It was also the hotel that called me on 10/to ask me if I still wanted a room for 10/14, I decided that I would not need it and found somewhere else to stay I never hung up the phone once on any of the employees However on 10/when I found out that I had been charged for this room I did not use, when I told the manager I would be contacting corporate, she hung up the phone on me before I could ask her for a number When I called her back she even admitted to hanging up on me, saying that she did it so I could call corporate faster You may want to check with this manager and remind her of that This is no way to treat the customer

Dear *** ***
As per our earlier conversation I am attaching the Case Document (case #***), and refund notice that was provided to us by the Hotels Corporate Office *** *** *** ***
In the *** *** *** Case document, I have highlighted the portion that mentions theRefund Check (for $396.66) issued to guest and subsequently billed to usIf you wish to call our corporate office, then please refer to the case number, and their phone number mentioned above. Also feel free to contact me if you have any further questions or concerns
Sincerely,
*** *** *** *** * *** ** ***

Although I was not forwarded the pictures of the toilet, after investigating the issues with housekeeping and finding no lapse in procedures there, I met with the part-time maintenance man about the toilet and came to find that the problem was a little more serious than I was originally led to believeApparently, he tried a "quick fix" with an epoxy which did not have sufficient time to dry since the room was rentedThe room should have been put Out of OrderTherefore, I am refunding this guest for his stay and apologize for the inconvenience I believe this may also account for an unusual smell in the room.As for the rest of this guest's comments, I stand behind our procedures for ensuring that the room is clean, inspected, and ready for each guestI would be happy to explain what we do to any guest that is leery of staying with us due to these postingsPhyllis J S***
General Manager

Complaint: ***
I am rejecting this response because:Response was inaccurate, as I received a message on 10/14/10:12am, I called back immediately to inform my credit card was replaced By the time I called back, *** insisted she would not reinstate the reservation due to special event in town This is clearly against the Terms and Condition per IHG With employee rate, hotel is not to charge until date of arrival I ended up paying $for the stay of the same time
Regards,
*** ***