To whom it may concern,
We checked into your hotel on saturday night Feb, 16 expecting to have a lovely time. We were upgraded to a suite at the front desk and upon arriving we found a room in serious need up updating. It seems that all the rooms in the hotel, be they suite or standard, are modern circa 1983. But this didn't bother my wife (Sarah Lichtenstein) and i so much, we were on our honeymoon and we came to Florida to see the sites and sit on the beach all day. What did bother us was the dirty and ripped bedding. My wife was infuriated, this put a serious damper on our trip. She spoke to a very cordial and nice gentleman at the front desk on Sunday night Feb, 17 and he assured her that we would be receiving either a night free or 50% off from our stay, and that we would be expecting a phone call in the morning of Monday Feb, 18 from a woman named Michelle ( i assume she was a manager) and that in the mean time the hotel would switch our room from room 617 to room 612. This alleviated much of the stress from our trip and all seemed right in the world. Monday morning came and went and not only didn't Michelle call, she refused to return numerous messages. The staff my wife did manage to speak to were incredibly rude though.
At approximately 5:00 pm on Monday Feb, 18 my wife received a phone call from another manager (my wife unfortunately didn't catch the gentleman's name) he rudely informed my wife that we would only be receiving our 3 days of parking for free (total $45) and that our hotel check-in fee would be waived ( I'm not sure he called it a "check in fee" but thats what it can figuratively be called) for $30.
As a consumer, this is insulting. to be put in a dirty room, be told by Front Desk staff we would be getting a reasonable discount, and then get the Hotel Industry equivalent of a free drink and combo meal at Denny's is inexcusable.
I feel that there is no reason that we can't be compensated justly for our trouble. Please respond to this e-mail promptly. I expect a further compensation.
Thank you for your time.
Ari
The reason we received a refund from Priceline and not the hotel was because we bought the room from Priceline. We had to send the email from the hotel stating that they would indeed be offering a refund to Priceline in order to get the ball rolling. Once Priceline confirms the refund is valid (they too contact the hotel) then its completely out of the hotels hands, and you deal strictly with Priceline.
The 700.00 was a complete refund for our three night stay. We Pricelined a 3 star hotel in North Miami Beach for President Day weekend, which also happened to be the weekend of the Miami International Boat Show. These two factors conspired against us, inflating the price of the room. Which is totally understandable, one pays a premium for vacationing on a holiday. Supply and demand.
The rooms were terrible. They looked like a bad scene from an episode of Miami Vice or a early 80's porno. I half expected Ron Jeremy to come in and, "Fix our plumbing". Again, this in and of its self didn't bother us, we just convinced ourselves we were on a 1980's themed vacation. Our issue was, it seemed an actual porno was shot in our room. It was pretty dirty. Compounded by being ignored by Management, just added insult to injury.
Priceline's refund policy is as one commenter said, "like getting blood from a stone." You just need to keep on top of them. Constantly.
I hope this clears things up a little and shows that although Executive Email Carpet Bombs and posting CEO's home phone numbers have their place (and are awesome!) every once in a while a simple letter free of swear words and insults can still get the outcome one desires. Thank you for creating and managing a site that showed me this and how to go about executing it.
Ari
P.S. Please forgive the spelling errors in the original post, my typewriter doesn't have spell check

Screamer456

Phishy

elislider

crapple

Yes, this is all I have to contribute today. I'm scheduled for a root canal later, and it's making me all cantankerous 'n' shit.

pestie

And what happened when your wife, the "customer service terrorist" tried to resolve the problem? Which she surely must have, after your description of her.

Why did you give us a detailed description of her l33t consumer skillz if you had no intention of telling us about her attempt to resolve the problem?

CatMoran

rikkus256

However, Priceline, Expedia, Hotels.com, etc. ARE third-party companies and here is how they work:

1. You book a room and they bill you
2. They do the actual booking (albeit at a much lower rate)
3. We bill the company

So, how this gentleman was able to arrange for such a transaction to take place is mind-boggling. We always find other means of satisfying our guests if they book with online agencies because it's impossible for us to refund their money. We never recieved it.

p.s. 90% of the time booking with these online companies is a bad idea. It's ALWAYS best to call the hotel directly and to request not to be transferred to a national call center. The onsite staff is always the most knowledgeable and most helpful.

Hope this shed atleast a little light on the situation. I read this site occasionally and this is the first time I've been able to interject.

The obstuse falcon

Somehow having a description of the "poor service" he encountered, as well as a copy of the letter would really make this article more compelling and useful....

dweebster

Huh??? 1st place waste of bandwidth, if you ask me...

Wet_Baloney

UpsetPanda

What a crappy letter. Totally over the top, and lacks any sort of decent description of what actually happened, the guy was too busy trying to fill it with simile and metaphor. Failed English major?

Okay, I'm done trashing the consumer. At least it wasn't over the actual event.

vision4bg

RumorsDaily

chadmd23

ElizabethD

No, and no. We all must assume the refund was very fair, given the undisclosed circumstances.

ClayS

levenhopper

DeltaPurser

Charity Froggenhall

Wouldn't he get it back from the hotel directly because he complained to them? I mean, I'm moving along the lines that sites like Priceline, Expedia and Travelocity are like online travel agents, acting as a third party and offering rates...you pick what you think is good, but these sites act as research tools, like travel agents work to find you the results you want. So if he complains to the hotel, how come Priceline gives him money? I understand that he booked through Priceline, but how did the letter he send to the manager make it to Priceline?

UpsetPanda

backbroken

xay

Pro-Pain

ivanthemute

mac-phisto

But more details would be appreciated :-) Thanks Consumerist and the "hotel manager" for such an uplifting story.

Thomas Palmer

ClayS

skwidspawn

Good job!

Thorny

BlondeGrlz

jmschn

Bay State Darren

Flyinace2000