Confronting Complaints

Any hotel worth its salt is doing its best to provide you the cleanest, most comfortable stay that they can provide. Unfortunately, it's not the raves that make online consumer sites like TripAdvisor, so before I begin, I'd like to encourage you to take the time to gush over those great hotel experiences on these sites when you have them. I surf the web and sometimes it looks like one giant complaint department, when I know that for every one complaint there may well be a hundred unreported rave reviews.

Having said that, it is also true that hotels--as do many businesses, including hospitals, your hairdresser, the legal system, the post office, fast food joints, etc.--sometimes fall short. Remember, hotels are run by humans, too.

So you've not received the quality stay that you had anticipated because of one thing or another. Please keep in mind that the chances are quite good that the hotel did not do these things to disrupt your stay on purpose. In fact, the better hotels have probably gone the extra mile to provide additional security when potentially disruptive groups are scheduled to stay or have made quite sure that the group will be properly chaperoned, have spent plenty of money on pest control, and have a qualified housekeeping and maintenance crews on staff to address simple mistakes or repairs. They did not import exotic bugs to infest a room. In fact, in many cases, insects travel into a hotel room with a previous guest, and unfortunately may go unnoticed until they begin to reproduce. Many people would consider the hotel to be negligent when these pests reach the point of infestation, but consider for a moment that the hotel, too, is also the victim of a guest who infested their property.

So you're racing to your laptop to document this experience on TripAdvisor so other consumers will be warned that there is a problem with your hotel room. You've told all of your friends that the hotel is run down and infested with creepy crawlers (or whatever your problem was). You checked out and swore you would never return. By now, you've called your credit card company to dispute the charge because you don't want to pay for this experience (this probably won't work, by the way). You drove home and told even more people. You blogged about it. You sent letters to the Better Business Bureau. You posted high quality digital pictures of the problem you discovered on every website you can find. You received a guest satisfaction survey in the mail and gave them the lowest possible score in every category. You finally got them back for ruining your night, and now you feel better.

The only thing you didn't do was inform the hotel of the situation before you left.

The next guest assigned to that room may also have an unsatisfactory experience. No, I'm not blaming you. What I'm trying to suggest is that by bringing the issue to the hotel's attention, you are raising a red flag to a problem that may or may not be simply a mechanical one with an easy fix. The problem may be that an employee has fallen short of their responsibilities or needs additional training, or that the room was accidentally entered into a computerized property management system as vacant and ready for occupancy, when in fact it was supposed to have been entered as "out of order." I'm not making excuses, nor am I saying that the hotel is not responsible for correcting the problem, be it a mechanical one or a personnel issue. What I'm saying is that the hotel wants to know these things before you leave! In fact, it might actually be possible to solve the problem immediately if you'd let them know before you go to sleep.

Complaints to the front desk can generate a work order to get whatever isn't working properly repaired. If that can't happen, they can usually get you a room that is more suitable for you if one is available. You need to calmly let the hotel know why you are dissatisfied and let them try to make it right with you, even if it's something small. They know this is an inconvenience for you, and will do what they can to make it up to you. The last thing the hotel wants is for you to blast them when you leave, or to have to calm you down while you're pounding your fists on the front desk calling the desk clerk every name but the one their mother gave them.

That desk clerk works at the desk, and may not have ever even been in that room. I promise you that your problem is not their fault! Yes, someone fell short or something fell through the cracks, but I assure you that the front desk clerk didn't do this to you. In addition, at least at the hotels within our portfolio, the front desk staff is trained on how to best correct dissatisfied guests. More often than not, the wheels of a front desk clerk began turning the moment you told them there was a problem, and possible solutions are already being formulated. They do know who to call and what to do, and if it's more than they feel comfortable handling, they will call in a manager to assist you. Just give them a chance. The last thing they want is for you to be unhappy.

After all, the hotel's goal is to welcome you back again.