spark
Jan 23, 03, 2:33 pm
Hi,
I had very frustrating experience with holiday inn this morning, so have composed a letter (to calm myself, I guess). I would like to hear whether you would send this letter to Holiday Inn (if you were in my position) or whether you would phrase it differently. Please let me know your expert :-) opinions/comments.
Thanks.
--Sun
================== start of the letter
To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing this letter to formally complain about the problem with my reservation and the unpleasant experience during the process of resolving the mistake made by the reservation agent. Although the reservation was cancelled and I would not to be charged for anything, I would like to take this opportunity to express my concerns and displeasure regarding this incident.
I made a reservation on January 14, 2003 over the phone (using 1-800-holiday) for Crowne Plaza at San Francisco (Union Square) from March 31st for three nights. The reservation number is XXXXXX (deleting the reservation number). At that time I asked about the cancellation policy and was told explicitly that the reservation is under 24 hours cancellation prior to arrival, and I wrote it down on my note. (Please see the attached my hand-written record showing the summary of our conversation.)
When I tried to cancel my reservation on January 22, 2003 (about a week later), however, I was told that reservation was made through Internet (which was incorrect information, by the way), and I needed to contact the hotel directly to cancel the reservation. I called the hotel reservation, and they were closed at that time.
I contacted the hotel again the next day (Jan 23, 2003). I was informed for the first time that the reservation is NOT cancelable and NON-refundable. I never received such information at the time of reservation (which I told the reservation agent at the hotel), and the agent recommended me to talk to her manager, who wasn’t present at that time. Maria, the reservation agent, asked me to call the hotel again in about an hour. I called in about an hour later, and this time was put on a hold for about 10 to 15 minutes and got disconnected. I called the manager again (this is the fifth phone call in regards to the reservation, if you are keeping the score), and was able to talk to the manager.
Ms. XYZ (I'm erasing her name here), the manager at Crowne Plaza, told me that she would review my reservation with the holiday inn customer relations department and contact me again. When she called me back, Ms. XYZ told me that she was not able to talk to the person whom I made a reservation with , but she talked to the supervisor and her understanding was that the holiday inn reservation system has a “pop-up” screen to warn the reservation agent about non-cancelable reservation (and therefore there was no way that the agent who was taking my reservation missed to communicate that information).
My note (hand-written by me) explicitly said “6pm 30th 24 hours prior cancellation” (please see the attached note), so I offered her to fax my note. She refused to take a look at my note and told me that anyone could have made notes up. She also told me that although she was not trying to single me out but many people whom she personally took the reservation and told the non-cancelable reservation policy would later call again and try to cancel the non-refundable reservation. She said that hand-written note could not be used as a proof of the reservation agent’s mistake (of giving me the incorrect 24 hour cancellation policy). By that time, it seemed apparent to me that she didn’t believe my words, so I asked her whether she thought I would be lying since she didn’t think it was possible for the agent to give me the incorrect information. She answered me that she was not accusing me of anything, but she thought that I misunderstood the cancellation policy (which I took it as a euphemism or polite way of saying that I am lying).
I am an experienced traveler, who is so used to make reservations over the phone and over the Internet. I have several circumstantial evidences showing that I am NOT lying about the fact that the reservation agent NEVER said a word about the Internet rate or the non-cancelable reservation.
Before looking into the evidences, however, I would appreciate if you look at my hand-written note carefully. You would notice that I made three separate reservations on January 14, 2003 (with Hyatt, Crowne Plaza, and Embassy suites). Crowne plaza reservation was my second reservation (as you can see from the note). I also went to the Internet and looked under biddingfortravel.com (which gives out bidding information and bidding history of Priceline.com reservation), and wrote down the approximate NON-cancelable rates of hotels in San Francisco (in Union square east-embarcadero area).
I am listing the evidences in the following. First, my note (written at the time when I made the reservation) says that it is 24-hour prior cancellation. I wrote down the parking information and even the street address of the hotel. If I had any conversation about non-refundable reservation, I would have written it down on my note, (which I did not). Second, if I had known that the Crowne Plaza reservation was non-cancelable, I would have not made the third reservation (for Embassy suites), nor gone to the Internet to find more rate information. Third, the going rates of NON-refundable 3* and 4* hotels near Union square in San Francisco (from the biddingfortravel.com website) was significantly less than the Crowne Plaza rate of 128 dollars. I would have not made such non-cancelable reservation, knowing that there were cheaper rates available from Park Hyatt (of 61, 60, 58 dollars), Renaissance (of 90 dollars), Grand Hyatt (of 61 dollars), and Hyatt Regency (of 48, 47 dollars). Finally, the reservation was made about two and a half month earlier, and I had no reason to make non-refundable reservation more than two months prior to my trip (especially when I had not shopped for the airline ticket yet).
I explained everything I listed above to Ms. XYZ. After two more phone calls to her and to the Holiday Inn customer relations department, I was able to resolve this eventually. However, I spent the whole morning (from 9 am to 1:30 in the afternoon) in addition to the two phone calls last night, talking on the phone with the reservation agent at the hotel, the manager at the hotel, the reservation agent at 1-800-holiday, and the customer relation department agent (Wendy). (Furthermore, as you probably have guessed, I am spending my whole afternoon to compose this letter.)
I do understand that there may be some dishonest people who try to take advantage of the good customer service offered by Six Continents Hotels, by insisting on refunds of non-refundable reservations. However, I have been honest in my words (of not receiving any information about the non-cancelable reservation), and I have the written note and circumstantial evidences to back my words. I have felt very frustrated and mistreated during the whole incidence, and would like to hear from Holiday Inn about how you would be able to prevent this kind of situation from happening again with me or with other customers.
You might ask me why I would make such a fuss when I received my refund after all. The answer is simple: I would like to make sure that any other customer (including myself) would never be treated like a liar ever again. Getting back the refund was important, but more importantly (at least to me), my words and notes should have been believed and it should have been acknowledged that the reservation agent might have made the mistake (and NOT ME).
Being a Holiday Inn priority club member, I have had pleasures to use my points for free hotels (at Bar Harbor and near Orlando), free upgrade (once), and numerous pleasant conversations with the reservation agents and priority club customer service agents. In fact, I recently took the survey about the customer service of Holiday Inn over the Internet and gave very high ratings, which I now regret. If this incident happened before my survey, my answers would have been significantly different. Being accused of lying about the cancellation policy (even though the accusation was never made explicit but by implications and insinuations) is one of the most humiliating and unpleasant experiences.
I would like to hear your company’s policy on handling this kind of dispute (i.e., the customer’s word and her written note against the pop-up screen procedure of reservation agents). Since Holiday Inn is in the habit of disbelieving the word and hand-written reservation-related note from the customer (and if this kind of situation happens so often), I would strongly suggest you to record the whole conversation related to reservation.
I am looking forward to receiving a written letter from Holiday Inn about your decision / position on this incident. Thank you for your time and attention.
Sincerely,
[This message has been edited by spark (edited 01-23-2003).]
I had very frustrating experience with holiday inn this morning, so have composed a letter (to calm myself, I guess). I would like to hear whether you would send this letter to Holiday Inn (if you were in my position) or whether you would phrase it differently. Please let me know your expert :-) opinions/comments.
Thanks.
--Sun
================== start of the letter
To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing this letter to formally complain about the problem with my reservation and the unpleasant experience during the process of resolving the mistake made by the reservation agent. Although the reservation was cancelled and I would not to be charged for anything, I would like to take this opportunity to express my concerns and displeasure regarding this incident.
I made a reservation on January 14, 2003 over the phone (using 1-800-holiday) for Crowne Plaza at San Francisco (Union Square) from March 31st for three nights. The reservation number is XXXXXX (deleting the reservation number). At that time I asked about the cancellation policy and was told explicitly that the reservation is under 24 hours cancellation prior to arrival, and I wrote it down on my note. (Please see the attached my hand-written record showing the summary of our conversation.)
When I tried to cancel my reservation on January 22, 2003 (about a week later), however, I was told that reservation was made through Internet (which was incorrect information, by the way), and I needed to contact the hotel directly to cancel the reservation. I called the hotel reservation, and they were closed at that time.
I contacted the hotel again the next day (Jan 23, 2003). I was informed for the first time that the reservation is NOT cancelable and NON-refundable. I never received such information at the time of reservation (which I told the reservation agent at the hotel), and the agent recommended me to talk to her manager, who wasn’t present at that time. Maria, the reservation agent, asked me to call the hotel again in about an hour. I called in about an hour later, and this time was put on a hold for about 10 to 15 minutes and got disconnected. I called the manager again (this is the fifth phone call in regards to the reservation, if you are keeping the score), and was able to talk to the manager.
Ms. XYZ (I'm erasing her name here), the manager at Crowne Plaza, told me that she would review my reservation with the holiday inn customer relations department and contact me again. When she called me back, Ms. XYZ told me that she was not able to talk to the person whom I made a reservation with , but she talked to the supervisor and her understanding was that the holiday inn reservation system has a “pop-up” screen to warn the reservation agent about non-cancelable reservation (and therefore there was no way that the agent who was taking my reservation missed to communicate that information).
My note (hand-written by me) explicitly said “6pm 30th 24 hours prior cancellation” (please see the attached note), so I offered her to fax my note. She refused to take a look at my note and told me that anyone could have made notes up. She also told me that although she was not trying to single me out but many people whom she personally took the reservation and told the non-cancelable reservation policy would later call again and try to cancel the non-refundable reservation. She said that hand-written note could not be used as a proof of the reservation agent’s mistake (of giving me the incorrect 24 hour cancellation policy). By that time, it seemed apparent to me that she didn’t believe my words, so I asked her whether she thought I would be lying since she didn’t think it was possible for the agent to give me the incorrect information. She answered me that she was not accusing me of anything, but she thought that I misunderstood the cancellation policy (which I took it as a euphemism or polite way of saying that I am lying).
I am an experienced traveler, who is so used to make reservations over the phone and over the Internet. I have several circumstantial evidences showing that I am NOT lying about the fact that the reservation agent NEVER said a word about the Internet rate or the non-cancelable reservation.
Before looking into the evidences, however, I would appreciate if you look at my hand-written note carefully. You would notice that I made three separate reservations on January 14, 2003 (with Hyatt, Crowne Plaza, and Embassy suites). Crowne plaza reservation was my second reservation (as you can see from the note). I also went to the Internet and looked under biddingfortravel.com (which gives out bidding information and bidding history of Priceline.com reservation), and wrote down the approximate NON-cancelable rates of hotels in San Francisco (in Union square east-embarcadero area).
I am listing the evidences in the following. First, my note (written at the time when I made the reservation) says that it is 24-hour prior cancellation. I wrote down the parking information and even the street address of the hotel. If I had any conversation about non-refundable reservation, I would have written it down on my note, (which I did not). Second, if I had known that the Crowne Plaza reservation was non-cancelable, I would have not made the third reservation (for Embassy suites), nor gone to the Internet to find more rate information. Third, the going rates of NON-refundable 3* and 4* hotels near Union square in San Francisco (from the biddingfortravel.com website) was significantly less than the Crowne Plaza rate of 128 dollars. I would have not made such non-cancelable reservation, knowing that there were cheaper rates available from Park Hyatt (of 61, 60, 58 dollars), Renaissance (of 90 dollars), Grand Hyatt (of 61 dollars), and Hyatt Regency (of 48, 47 dollars). Finally, the reservation was made about two and a half month earlier, and I had no reason to make non-refundable reservation more than two months prior to my trip (especially when I had not shopped for the airline ticket yet).
I explained everything I listed above to Ms. XYZ. After two more phone calls to her and to the Holiday Inn customer relations department, I was able to resolve this eventually. However, I spent the whole morning (from 9 am to 1:30 in the afternoon) in addition to the two phone calls last night, talking on the phone with the reservation agent at the hotel, the manager at the hotel, the reservation agent at 1-800-holiday, and the customer relation department agent (Wendy). (Furthermore, as you probably have guessed, I am spending my whole afternoon to compose this letter.)
I do understand that there may be some dishonest people who try to take advantage of the good customer service offered by Six Continents Hotels, by insisting on refunds of non-refundable reservations. However, I have been honest in my words (of not receiving any information about the non-cancelable reservation), and I have the written note and circumstantial evidences to back my words. I have felt very frustrated and mistreated during the whole incidence, and would like to hear from Holiday Inn about how you would be able to prevent this kind of situation from happening again with me or with other customers.
You might ask me why I would make such a fuss when I received my refund after all. The answer is simple: I would like to make sure that any other customer (including myself) would never be treated like a liar ever again. Getting back the refund was important, but more importantly (at least to me), my words and notes should have been believed and it should have been acknowledged that the reservation agent might have made the mistake (and NOT ME).
Being a Holiday Inn priority club member, I have had pleasures to use my points for free hotels (at Bar Harbor and near Orlando), free upgrade (once), and numerous pleasant conversations with the reservation agents and priority club customer service agents. In fact, I recently took the survey about the customer service of Holiday Inn over the Internet and gave very high ratings, which I now regret. If this incident happened before my survey, my answers would have been significantly different. Being accused of lying about the cancellation policy (even though the accusation was never made explicit but by implications and insinuations) is one of the most humiliating and unpleasant experiences.
I would like to hear your company’s policy on handling this kind of dispute (i.e., the customer’s word and her written note against the pop-up screen procedure of reservation agents). Since Holiday Inn is in the habit of disbelieving the word and hand-written reservation-related note from the customer (and if this kind of situation happens so often), I would strongly suggest you to record the whole conversation related to reservation.
I am looking forward to receiving a written letter from Holiday Inn about your decision / position on this incident. Thank you for your time and attention.
Sincerely,
[This message has been edited by spark (edited 01-23-2003).]