Starwood Preferred Guest - Sheraton - Madison, WI

Anybody stay here? What can I expect as a Platinum? Thanks

First of all, I had a wonderful start to the day:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum35/HTML/003092.html

My day ended no better.

I had a 2-night Starpoints stay reserved at the Sheraton Madison. I arrived at 11:50 PM and wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed.

When checking in, I was asked to initial a $195/night rate. I told them that this was a reward stay, and that I wasn't initialing any rate.

The desk attendant (a guy named Paolo who was nice, but turned into a weasel) told us to head up to our room and that the night supervisor was on duty in ten minutes.

About midnight I headed back down to the desk, and the night supervisor Rauf told me he had no record of a Starpoint stay. I asked to use the phone to call the Platinum Concierge.

I called, but the phone rang and rang and rang and eventually the hotel phone must've hit a time out or something and I never got through -- at the time.

So I asked Rauf what he expected me to do.

He told me I could either pay for the room or leave. I offered the confirmation/reward number, and he said he didn't want it.

I didn't like his attitude, so I (after my lousy day) decided to walk.

Rauf then told me that he was going to charge my credit card for one night at $195 for "dirtying the room," since we had already entered the room. He also said that was Starwood (or Sheraton, I don't remember) policy. I asked Paolo to confirm that he had told me to head up to my room, and he turned his head and muttered, "Sorry, sir," afraid to say anything in front of his boss, Rauf.

I went upstairs, gathered my belongings (and my wife), and left. On the way out I gave back the room keys and wished Rauf luck in charging me since I booked with my Amex Platinum card and would be calling them, if necessary.

In the car, I decided to try the Concierge again. I finally reached a very nice person named Trish, who seemed to know of Rauf for some reason.

She offered to call the desk, but quite a few words were said between me and Rauf and I didn't feel comfortable going back in. My wife was adamant about not going in.

Trish recorded everything and told me to file a formal complaint on Monday. I certainly will. I ended up paying $99/night for the room we ended up getting at 1 AM. Not a bad room, but not as nice as the Sheraton would've been, either. I'm thinking about asking *wood about compensating me for the room, but Trish did offer to get us in, so it may not be an entirely reasonable request.

Ugh.

WMH

You're a Platinum member and they treated you like this! Frankly, this is outrageous. I would take it as high in the Starwood chain of command as you need to. Reimbursing you the $99 for the other room is just a starter; they owe you more, including an apology.

Please keep us advised as to what becomes of this.

Another dumb question, but is this Madison WI?

Yesterday was not your day WMH.

This is one of those it wouldn't matter what his status was type of situations. You were lucky that there was a room available at that hour elsewhere, and I can certainly understand why you wouldn't want to set foot back in that place. I have previously been "accused" of dreaming a Free Friday stay or hallucinating a rate and then a refusal by the clerk to verify it - but fortunately, it was eventually honored (even if I was basically called a liar because "we never offer that rate"). Aaaarrrrggghhhh. On the other hand, at least we have the Corporate Svcs. dept which is the most responsive resolution dept. of any hotel chain.

I had a similar problem in Indy a month or so ago except the rate I had was one of the prepaid ones on SPG's site. The night clerk wanted me to pay regular rate again....very frustrating. I arrived at like 5am so that didn't help. Of course, being plat. didn't help at all.

If this weren't Saturday, William would have already been on this thread with the Corp. Svcs. address and #. As it is, I'mk sure it's only a matter of hours. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

When the hotel's G.M. phones or writes you to apologize, my advice is to insist on a written apology from the schmuck you dealt with that night.

WOW! Sorry to hear about your experience. I stay at this property at least once a month. My experience has been extremely pleasant and I also usually check in pretty late - around 9-10PM. Hopefully Starwood will make things right for you.

Please keep us posted!

I have also stayed at this Sheraton more than once including a week ago and have been happy with the service there. As a mere Gold, I've been upgraded each time to club level. When the club-level lounge was closed, I was given drink and breakfast vouchers, and they have always offered and (done so) to run me in the van somewhere for dinner or sightseeing or to my office and picked me up as well. Just lucky I guess.

(I'll learn to spell (or proofread someday) so I don't have to edit every post!)

[This message has been edited by TravelWeary (edited 04-21-2002).]

please confirm if this is madison, wi as I was planning on staying there as well; prob will regardless but would like to be prepared

Well, I filed my formal complaint this morning.

I finally decided that I won't be satisfied unless that hotel picks up my weekend at the alternate hotel I went to. To be honest, I chose a hotel that ended up being quite reasonable in price (total $208.91 for the two-night stay) and that is money I never should've spent.

My weekend ended with a misconnect and a two hour stay (compliments of NW) at a hotel in EWR. This was one to put in the books.

Off to a customer call. I should be great on two hours sleep http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

WMH

Yes, this was Madison, WI.

Only *wood hotel nearby is in Milwaukee.

WMH

I'm not sure if this is still the case, but for a long time this Sheraton-branded hotel was owned & operated by Leona Helsmley's Harley Hotels group. On my last visit there, the (now deceased) Andre the Giant of WWF fame was seated at the bar. This hotel is very convenient to the Dane County Colliseum (now the Alliant Energy Center).

just curious again: was this a football weekend.

$195 is the high end of their rate, usually low $100s.. Perhaps if their was demand their was a reasoning behind not finding the reward. If their was no demand and didnt care.. well they were being *##**s

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">was this a football weekend</font>

In April?

Dealing with overnight desk people can be taxing. Maybe they're going to law school during the day.

I had a guaranteed reservation for a room at a major hotel on a sunday night for the weekend rate. Due to plane problems, arrived after midnight, about 1am, now monday morning. The desk clerk refused to honor the weekend rate.He wanted me to sign for a rack rate. I refused. The fact that the room was guaranteed for the much lower weekend rate was lost on him. If I never showed up, my charge card would have been charged the lower rate. He kept insisting it was now monday and the weekday rate applied.
I walked. Disputed the charge. Got apology from corporate hq and free rooms later on.

In my experience, once you sign something, they use that against you when you try to get it straightened out.

I just wanted to bump this back up to the top to let you folks know of the resolution of this.

I emailed William yesterday, asking him to check in on the situation. Turns out he was monitoring the incident closely and was lurking until the hotel had the opportunity to respond.

According to William, the hotel sent a bland apology letter and thus guaranteed my future business. At the Hilton on Wilson Street. Sorry, SPG.

The one thing to remember is that William and SPG can exert only so much pressure on these individual hotels. William wrote me a long email explaining the entire situation and wrote with a refreshing candor not seen in the customer service industry these days. Trust me -- when the buck gets to William's desk, IT STOPS.

Well, I couldn't get the Sheraton hotel to pay for my stay at the other hotel (which didn't surprise me -- they probably thought they were doing me a favor by not charging me rack rate for "dirtying the room"), but I did get an SPG50 in the mail and a promise of a fair number of Starpoints from William within the next week.

Once again, William has proven why he and SPG are the best in the business. And as a result, I just booked a room at the Sheraton in East Hartford, CT for next week, which has always treated me extremely well.

WMH

[Edited cause I can't spell Sheraton in the morning]

[This message has been edited by WeeMileHoar (edited 04-27-2002).]

Sorry to hear about your situation. I've learned to always print out and bring confirmations for all airline/hotel/car reservations.

I had the confirmation. The night manager refused to look at it.

I just booked another weekend in MSN mid-May. Staying at a Hilton property. I know there is a reason why I diversify http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

WMH

Just wanted to add to this rather than create a new thread.

I am a bit disappointed with this hotel and I am currently staying in it using a free weekend award.

There was no acknowledgment of the Gold status whatsoever when I checked in and I was given a really terrible room with the hallways full of screaming kids. No mention of a lounge or access to the lounge whatsoever. I was checking in at 9:30PM after a very long day and just wanted to get into bed to ask for anything.

Don't know if this is normal for a non-club room but there was only one bar of soap (the faucet and bath are in separate rooms!). The bath drain was partially clogged so I had to take the shower in standing water. The shower was intermittently spewing cold and warm water. And there were screaming kids down the hall.

In the morning, there were newspapers in front of several rooms but not mine.

Went down to the front desk and gave them the above list to fix. Asked then about the SPG Gold policy. They said they put them in the Club level when available and offered to put me up in an available smoking room and at least give club access if I decided to stay in my previous room. I asked why I wasn't offered this the previous night. No answer.

Looks like just bad management.

I checked out the smoking room and moved in there since it didn't smell and I wanted to escape the screaming kids. Guess what, the club level also has loud teenage kids who have taken over the lounge! At least the club room has two bars of soap and two bottles of water :-)

This property is just a notch above a Four Point Sheraton level.

The only reason I selected this over the far superior and more convenient Hilton was because of the free weekends I had expiring by end of August. What a waste of the award.

If you have to choose between the Hilton and the Sheraton, especially in the weekend, go for the Hilton. Much more upscale, cleaner, quieter and in the middle of downtown.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by venk:

This property is just a notch above a Four Point Sheraton level.</font>

Actually, some Four Points are quite nice. I had a great stay this year at the Four Points Santa Monica.

Kathy

My Two Cents

(.01)
Regardless of status absoutely NO ONE should be treated the way he was.

(.02)
I am adding this to my list of hotels to avoid. thanks again to this board

I was there in early July, checked in at 2:00 a.m. and the sink was plugged (drain stuck in the down position) and the toilet didn't flush.. Now at 2:00 am I'm going to go to bed and sleep and discuss it in the a.m. Since I checked out early and told them, I don't have much of a complaint.. except how could housekeeping not have noticed this?

I'm not a big fan of this hotel based on my experience and what others have said although I will give it another chance although like someone said.. Now I know why I diversify my stays among all the chains.

Wow, it seems that this hotel is pretty inconsistent in treating their customers. Some people like it and some dun. As for me, my last stay there was pretty pleasant. As a *wood Gold, i asked for an upgrade and the nice front desk lady said that the club rooms were renovated and instead, she was going to give me a breakfast voucher for two even though i was the only one staying there. Since i was visiting a fren, i invited him over for a free breakfast.

Anywae, reading ur post just drives me nuts. I dun believe that someone with a Platinum status is treated like that. Simply unbelievable!

Alumium, Gold, Platinum, Diamond ... Nobody should be treated like this, like dirt!
It just takes a little common sense to treat guests, other people right.

To finish the list of problems with this hotel that one should be aware of, the shuttle is overused during regular hours for all kinds of trips as the Hotel is far away from everything except the Expo center. So if you are waiting at the airport it can take a long time to get the Shuttle. For me it took 35 minutes to arrive after calling (and you must call).

The shuttle service starts only from 7AM so if you have an early morning flight, you need to take a cab ($17+tips). There is no doorman or bell hop helping with the cabs in the morning. I had ordered last night for a taxi for 6AM this morning and someone else took it before I came down. The Hotel and the Taxi company do not communicate correctly to prevent this problem.

Cabs after ordering don't come quickly in the morning (it took 25 minutes for one to arrive) and I was at risk of missing my flight. If it was a weekday with some traffic, I would have. Something to keep in mind if you use this hotel.

Stayed at the Sheraton Madison this past Friday night. Front desk staff were very friendly and acknowledged Plat status. I was upgraded to the Executive floor. Provided with a coupon for two free alcoholic drinks in downstairs bar. The clubroom had cash bar (it was empty except for the bored Sheraton employee) and a few appetizers. The fruit was dried out and the potato skins were greasy looking. Skipped the food. The indoor pool is very nice, as well as indoor hot tub. Next morning went to the lounge to grab a bite to eat. Walked in at 9am, closes at 10am. It was extremely messy with dirty dishes. The food was almost all gone, except for a few boxes of cereal. No milk was available. Orange juice machine was empty or not working. Muffins and other rolls (based on what was left on used dishes) were gone. I called the front desk to advise the room was messy and it needed restocking. I left after waiting 10min. TV ckout went smooth. Room was quite, stocked with nice amenities (including two free bottled waters!) Overall good stay, good value ($89), and good location (close to Beltline hwy)

I guess it depends on the expectations. I stayed here once and don't recommend it at all. Another one that should be branded a 4P.

See
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum74/HTML/003626.html

for reviews of this dump including mine.

Madison is not an expensive place for Hotels. The Hilton is a better value and is in a much better location than this Sheraton.

i've stayed at the sheraton hotel in madison, wi a few times, never really had an exceptional experience, but after getting off the phone with them right now, will probably never go back to that hotel.

i was in madison this past friday to take care of some personal business, and checked out of the hotel at 4pm to drive down to chicago... i have some prescription pills that i take every morning, so by the time i should take the pills this morning i couldn't find them, so i decided to call the hotel to see if i left the pills behind.

what i got was a 'oh, the person in charge of the lost and found is not here, why don't you leave a message and she'll get back to you on monday' and got transferred to the person in charge's voicemail. i tried to leave a message but decided to call back the hotel because i would like to be able to get a hold of my daily prescription pills as soon as possible. the front desk person laid a guilt trip on me by saying, 'oh, if it is an EMERGENCY i would have to have the lady drive down from greenbay to find it for you'

that statement pissed me off.

i understand greenbay is 7 hours away from madison, and i wouldn't want to take some employee's president day weekend vacation, BUT how is that customer service? how can you run a hotel with a 'lost and found' that's sometimes on call?

then the front desk lectured me that i should have called them back right away on friday. excuse me, if i knew about it friday, i would have called friday... and should i have called friday after the lost and found lady left for the weekend, am i done for good?

i'm trying to get a hold of my nurse to see if i can refill my prescription out here (and you know how easy that would be... trying to locate medical personnel during the holidays), but i am really disappointed at how sheraton madison treated me today... not even an once of willingness to help, just trying to push the responsibility to another employee.... the front desk couldn't have called the lady and see if anyone turned in prescriptions on friday, or if the lady left for the weekend and thus nothing is going into the lost and found, there's gotta be another box for that stuff to be placed until the lady gets back no?

maybe a little off topic...but Green Bay (although it is "way up nort der") is about 140 mi from Madison...more like a 2.5 hr drive.