Complaining Via Twitter Works When Comfort Inn Won't Listen
Kristy and her husband were dissatisfied with their recent Comfort Inn stay while on vacation in southern Utah. The hotel manager resolved their cleanliness concerns, but then threatened to revoke their discount if they complained to corporate. Kristy tried to get her message across to the people in charge through the usual channels, and it seemed that nobody wanted to listen, Finally, she posted about the situation on Twitter and got the resolution she was looking for.
My husband and I stayed for 3 nights at the Comfort Inn in Hurricane, UT when we were visiting some of the National Parks in Southern Utah. The first two nights were spartan but fine (clean room, clean sheets and towels, comfy enough bed). The hot tub wasn't working but our expectations were pretty low since we were only paying $50 per night.
When we came back to our room on the third night, we noticed that our room hadn't been cleaned. The bed was made but the floor hadn't been vacuumed and the bathroom was still dirty. We complained to the manager about it, and she immediately sent someone to clean the room and offered us a small discount on the room. When we said we would be calling the corporate office, she rudely said that if we did, they would take back the discount. Yeah, we were shocked too.
That night, a busload of teenagers were staying in the hotel and some of them were in the room above us. It was like sleeping under a herd of elephants. So when we couldn't sleep due to all the noise, we called the front desk. After the third time we called, they told us that the teenagers were being kicked out due to multiple complaints. They obviously weren't kicked out because the running around upstairs never stopped and they were all at breakfast the next morning.
After we got home, I called the Choice Hotels customer care and registered a complaint. The next day I got a generic apology letter from some guy named Peter [last name] from the hotel. He said that "comments and suggestion we receive from our guests are taken seriously" and "the issues you've raised have been addressed, and the appropriate action has been taken". So I sent an email back asking what actions have been specifically taken. After that I received nothing.
In the meantime, I posted about everything on Twitter. I mentioned all the problems we had and the cheesy apology letter we got. That was on Tuesday. On Thursday I got a phone call from Choice Hotels customer care. They left a message on my voice mail mentioning that I had twittered about the cheesy apology letter and asking if I had resolved the issue with the hotel. So I called back and told them I hadn't heard anything back from the hotel and they offered me $70 in coupons that I can use like cash at any of their hotels. After my experience, I won't be using them at a Comfort Inn though.
Consumerist does not condone use of the phrase "sucks ass" when tweeting to power, but otherwise, Kristy did well. She first tried to resolve things at the hotel level, then through regular customer service channels. When it became clear that no one was listening to her concerns, she posted a frustrated tweet.
Choice Hotels, parent company of Comfort Inn, has its own Twitter account, and evidently also keeps watch for negative tweets.
.
(Photo: Wolfgang Staudt)
Post a comment
Comments:
We complained to the manager about it, and she immediately sent someone to clean the room and offered us a small discount on the room. When we said we would be calling the corporate office, she rudely said that if we did, they would take back the discount. yeah, we were shocked too.
She immediately sent someone to clean the room, THEN offered a discount to you. Why on earth would you call corporate on them? Are you just mean and like to bully people? Offering to take back the discount was the only way to counter such inconsiderate behavior. My simple question would be "But why?"
The upstairs noise is a separate issue.
when someone tweets, choice listens?
good on her for getting them to pony up though.
I don't understand why the OP felt like they had to tell the manager they were going to contact corporate, after the manager had already "immediately" fixed the problem with the room, and offered a discount to make up for it.
That does not make up for the manager subsequently acting rude, but it certainly explains *why* the manager was rude - it was because the OP was being somewhat unreasonable.
I sure hope I'm not the only one who is disgusted by reading this. I certainly will "blame the victim" here, since the Manager took immediate and correct steps to fix the only problem under his control; a room the cleaning staff overlooked.
The thing with the kids? Yeah, good luck getting all of them herded back onto tour buses or whatever in the middle of the night. Think the cops are going to haul all of them away to jail? They probably won't be allowed back the next night.
I imagine Kristy is the sort of person who starts getting pissy and complaining to fellow people in line during busy times at the grocery store (and then to the powerless, exhausted cashier,) flashes her brights to let people know they're driving too slow for her liking on the highway, and is just a general narcissist.
In fact, now that I think about it, some of us should find out the name of the manager and the specific location, and contact Comfort Inn Corporate in praise of him/her. Who knows what kind of crap they've had to go through in the fallout from having to deal with this woman.
@scoobydoo: I was trying to follow that as well. When they're handling everything in-house, I have no idea why you'd basically say, "thanks for fixing this, now I'm going to complain to your manager about how much you suck anyway." I mean, that's just treating a service employee like trash because you can. And that gives me the heebies to think of treating another human being that way.
The teenagers are a different situation entirely. Perhaps it was some karmic payback?
I'm sorry, but to reiterate exactly what everyone else is saying, when the manager "immediately sent someone to clean the room and offered...a small discount on the room" AND sends an apology letter, yet you still aren't satisfied, the hotel isn't the one with problems.
That whole vindictive attitude also makes me think that the noise was also exaggerated. One realistically can't expect complete silence at a hotel. I don't doubt they may have been walking around upstairs, but I'm calling shenanigans on the "herd of elephants."
Another "precious snowflake" out to make a quick buck.
I'm glad everyone else had the same reaction I did after reading this article. The OP was looking for something more then a modest discount for her inconvenience and figured she could strong arm the manager into comping the entire night or possible stay.
Personally, I find it ridiculous that people need their rooms cleaned daily in the first place. First off, I really don't want someone going through all my stuff when I'm not around, and 2nd, getting once used sheets and towels washed is just a waste of water!
@oblivious87: Yeah, I try to not make such a mess it needs to be cleaned daily. I don't run the vacuum every day in my house, why should they run it every day? If my stay is 3 days or less, I just leave up the do not disturb sign, and don't worry about hiding everything that looks valuable quite as much.
@jamesdenver:
I second this.
They fixed the cleaning issue, and provided compensation in the form of a discount (which was not necessary). At this point it looks like she was just LOOKING for stuff to complain about.
(the kids though... X-[ not cool.)
@LeighAegyptus: I'm not convinced of the validity of the OP's action either, but I don't think it makes much sense to praise a manager that we've had no interaction with just because we don't like a person he had to deal with.
The OP seems to have some blame on this one. Why on earth would you complain to corporate when the manager did everything possible to fix the issue?
And for 50 bucks a night, you can definitely do a lot worse than just an unvacuumed floor and skipped bathroom, especially if they were clean when you first arrived.
Why was this even posted?
@scoobydoo: I agree. The threat to complain to corporate over some very minor issues with housekeeping was out of line.
The issue with the marauding teenagers is calling corporate worthy. The management either refused to do anything or were helpless to do anything. They should have comped the last night of the stay.
We dealt with something similar last summer on a trip. There was a large extended family staying at the same hotel. Lets just say it was a family that seemed to lack any sort of expected social behavior. I complained to no avail. Had I known the chain had a guarantee I would have called corporate to try to get a refund on our last night since we were unable to sleep most of the night due to these people's antics.
I've had far worse experiences at hotels than this. When I complained, I got a different (better) room and this was just fine with me.
Although now, I guess I'd have to threaten to complain to corporate and send in my account of the horrible dirty carpet to Consumerist.
1. You complained and the problem was fixed. Sit down and shut up.
2. You called three times to complain about the noise, and were never offered (or requested) that they move you?
Sorry. Someone please explain how, exactly, we get the headline "...Comfort Inn Won't Listen" ???
After reading all the others not understanding why she got so uppity when (as everyone said) the manager clearly did the right thing (before the kids).
No offense, but, having worked as a desk clerk at hotels, I kinda hate customers like this. Obviously, there's the issue with the manager, but the kids making noise? That's not really a problem that's really within the scope of the hotel employees to deal with. They can call the rooms and ask them to be quiet, they can call the chaperons, but after that, unless it's a situation they can call the cops over, there's not much that most employees can do. A manager obviously has more authority, but they're almost certainly not working in the evenings, and what do you want the desk clerk to do? There are limits, especially when your manager has told you that you have to stay at the front desk all the time.
Realistically, this is why I try to stay on upper floors. Sure, people complain about staircases, but it's more peaceful.
I also have to say the OP was wrong. I think she was look for a large discount, maybe even having their stay comped. She sounds like someone who will nit-pick about every little thing to try to get things for free.
I'm willing to bet the manager of that location will think about the crap the OP tried to pull before she gives a discount to anyone else.
@jc364: yeah, I was thinking that. Everywhere I stay, $150 or so will buy you a closet with something that loosely resembles a bed. Memorial day I stayed in a place in Topsail Island NC, for like $120 I got a 40 yr old room with a 20 yr old bed with no mattress pad between the sheet and mattress, and the fridge and heater required pliers to adjust the temp on. We didn't have any, so we just left the fridge, and turned up the AC to cancel out the heat that was stuck on. That's pretty much what we expected for what we paid though, everything else was way more expensive we were just glad it didn't have roaches.
@santicity: I have to agree. Consumerist should follow up with what can make an otherwise good consumer a headache to deal with.
Further complaining to someone's boss (corporate) after that person did everything expected of them upon the first complaint is simply being a bad consumer.
SRSLY. P s jst n f ths cnsmrs wh r ptght bt vrythng. P s ttlly wrng n th frst sttn. Th mngr MMDTLY snt smn t yr rm, ND GV Y TH DSCNT. Y thn tld thm y wr gng t cmpln t th crprt ffc? bt wht? bt hw xcllnt th mngr ws? Thy gv y dscnt, nd y stll cmplnd. Thy hd vry rght t tk bck tht dscnt, y npprctv cnsmr.
Ns ws sprt ss, bt rgrdng th frst sttn, th P ws cmpltly t f ln.
I'm inclined 2 believe the group of teenagers were strategically placed as a little payback 4 being a bitch.
@scoobydoo: Yeah, it just really bothers me that the summary states:
"When it became clear that no one was listening to her concerns..."Her concerns were addressed about 100 times more appropriately and satisfactory than any other story posted on this site.
"You're sending someone to clean my room after I asked?"
"What? Now you're giving me a discount on my already cheap room?"
"I get a letter of apology, too?"
"WHY WON'T ANYONE LISTEN TO MY CONCERNS?!"
Plus, how dirty do you have to be to notice that the carpet has gone a single day without vacuuming?
@scoobydoo: I generally do not say this, but...
I really hope that next time she wants to keep her goof up under wraps, someone tells on her after she fixes it.
And it was not like the manager and staff were incompetent or anything. The cleanliness issue immediately got resolved and they offered the discount on top of it.
She speaks like she never slipped up in her duties ever.
Is it really that hard to make allowance for someone's occasional fault, when you are not perfect either?
Maybe the real lesson is "In 140 characters or less, your rants are taken at face value and since everyone and their brother expects miracles from Twitter customer service, they'll give anyone a comp whether the complaint merits it or not?"
I think it's great that companies are using all sorts of non-traditional forms of customer service to try to reach customers. But when you see people take advantage by basically taking a very public forum and holding a company hostage over a non-issue, you're going to see some companies start to give up. If Twitter just becomes a black hole of "gimmie gimme gimme!" for companies, they'll leave it as a forum for reaching out to customers.
@Munchtime: Why doesn't Consumerist write about BAD consumers? This OP, IMHO, was a BAD CONSUMER. Bad consumers are just as capable of being at-fault for ruining what would otherwise be a fine business experience/transaction, yet we never hear about that. Aside from the Keep Your Flight Attendant Happy article, that drew its own snarky bullshit from some people with an underserved sense of entitlement, perhaps consumers should learn how to treat service employees, too.
@Stephmo: I agree. This is bound to end up like most issues of this nature; eventually, enough people will abuse the system (*ahem*...OP) and then no companies that were innovative and DID attempt to correct past wrongs through unconventional means, will just go back to not giving a shit because people took advantage of the good will.
"...but the floor hadn't been vacuumed and the bathroom was still dirty."
Solution: Don't ash your cigarettes on the carpet and try real hard to get your business in the toilet.
Honestly, for $50 a night, you're lucky if you don't have a bed sheet for a shower curtain (as I did the night I stayed in Hays, Kansas on my way cross country). This is the type of customer that plagues tripadvisor.com and the rest of the hotel rating systems on the various travel websites with low scores because *gasp* the room was dated, the view was horrible, the wallpaper was peeling, etc. Some people just have to complain about something all the time...
@oblivious87: I have to agree with that. When I had to stay in a motel room after the ice storm, once a week was enough for me. I told them I would let them know if I needed anything more than that and they were fine with it.
I only change my sheets at home once a week (unless I've been sick and all sweaty) anyway.
@verucalise-T minus 3 days- full term!: Yep, I went to school in Wilmington, and even though Wrightsville was closer, we would drive up to topsail because it was less crowded and there was free parking. Totally worth it when gas was $1.50 and we were staying all day. Drove through Hampstead all the time, but rarely stopped other than to say hi to some fire fighter friends at the fire dept on the way.
Word.
@supercereal: I'm thinking the same thing as you on the "noisy" teenagers. I've had encounters with people like that, in my last apartment our downstairs neighbor kept making noise complaints about us. We didn't think we were being excessively loud, but my room mate when down to apologize anyway, and she talked the woman's husband... he had no idea what she was talking about and said his wife was nuts.
@RogerTheAlien: Everyone, let's keep comments constructive and helpful. The point is not to put blame on the consumer -- in fact, our rule is not to pass blame in this way -- but if the consumer did wrong, constructive criticism is the way to go. Insults absolutely are not allowed.
Should have seen the Entitlement Whore a week ago Saturday night at dinner. She actually had the guts to demanded to "go ahead" of others waiting in the restaurant because her precious spawn (a mouth breathing inbred if there ever was one) was having his 14th Birthday Party later in the evening and if they didn't go first he would be late for his own party.
And the stupid twit of a hostess bought the line and seated the Whore and her 3 Spawn (party of 4) before the other parties of 4 patiently waiting.
We walked out. 1 other party followed. Don't know if the other groups got just as pissed and left or not.
Still waiting to here back from Corporate about the conduct of the Stupid Twit Hostess.
Which is worse, the Stupid Twit Hostess or the Entitlement Whore?
Oh sure, I could write a rant about the conduct of the Stupid Twit and get it published on The Consumerist, but the real problem is the conduct of the Entitlement Whore and how businesses handle the situation.
The worse part, if the restaurant (aka Stupid Twit) had properly handled the situation to begin with, then we would be responding the Entitlement Whore's self serving comment on The Consumerist.
The managers just should have let them complain to corporate over the fact that the bed was made but that the rug wasn't vacuumed and the bathroom was scrubbed. Who cares!? The room was clean at check-in, and the only mess there could have been was the customers. Do they vacuum their home every day?! Corporate would have just written it off as an obnoxious customer...
@K-Bo: Thats exactly how I am. If for some reason I need a new towel after a day, I call and ask for one, but have no need for a room to be scrubbed clean every day (I dont do that at home) and certainly dont want people touching my stuff.
@MostlyHarmless: But how "occasional" is it? If everyone gets their issues "covered up" like that then who knows if it's a pattern or something. It's nice that they fix it but I'd rather they not screw up to begin with.
Here's what I love. "The bathroom was still dirty" - but YOU WERE STAYING THERE THE PAST TWO DAYS! THAT'S YOUR FILTH!
@Stephmo: I was planning on commenting on this, but these comments here have completely nailed everything. Discount on a $50 room? We should all be so lucky.
@K-Bo: You went to UNCW and went up to Topsail instead? We went to the Shell Island end for quiet in my day but otherwise, Johnny Mercer's pier was always the fun place to be!
You know why Twitter works? For two reasons: search engines see the public tweets (and Twitter is probably more higher-profile than someone's blog) and because it's a site where most people there actually have followers, thereby making it easy for people to rant and having others listen (without much effort).
No company who understands social media and search engine marketing really wants to get a bad reputation via Twitter.
@Charlotte Rae's Web:My friend's mom had a place up there, so we'd go up there to spend a whole day/weekend. Gas was much cheaper then, and if you were staying all day, it was just as much $$ to park in Wrightsville as it was to drive to topsail and park free.
@scoobydoo: What kills me is after the manager gave her the discount AND the corperate office gave her 70 bucks, she still has the lousy attitude to say that she won't use them in the future. One experience with loud neighbors above at one hotel and she'll never use that chain again? Just sad.
@Six_El_Sid: Ditto. No wonder the manager threatened to revoke the discount. It sounds as if the person tried to resolve the complaint immediately AND offered monetary compensation, which the OP seems concerned about losing. If you give a mouse a cookie...
I'm confused. The hotel obviously listened to her concerns and tried to fix the problem immediately.
In return, she threatens to complain to corporate and THEN creates a Twitter hashtag over it? I think that's a bit overdramatic.
As for the people being loud upstairs, did she really expect the hotel to kick out a lot of kids in the middle of the night? I would have asked to be moved to a different room.
I'll be writing Choice Hotels myself in support of the manager.
Forgive me for "blaming the victim" here, but why on earth did she tell the manager she'd be complaining to corporate when the manager clearly did the right thing?
Sure, it was a dickish move to threaten removing the discount, but when someone does the right thing, do you really tell them you'll complain even more?