Starwood Preferred Guest - A BAAAAAD Weekend at Westin Crown Center

I just need to vent!

Made several contacts (including at check out just one week ago) with the Westin Crown Center Hotel in KC, MO regarding a suite for Saturday night as I was hosting a group of people before going upstairs to the hotel restaurant (Benton's) to drop some serious cash.

I'm at this hotel at least once month and I am usually treated very well with a range of suites including the Presidential and Royal, when they are available (more often than not). I knew the front desk staff real well but several have moved up to sales and some have just moved on. My father is also there 10 plus times a year.

Anyhow, arrived at the hotel around 2:00, was told I had a suite (the Liberty, my favorite), but would not be available for 45 minutes. No problem, it was before 3:00.

I waited an hour, checked back, nope sorry, room not ready.

I waited another hour, nope, sorry, room not ready. So I went to my father's room. The keys to the suite, however, were being brought up "any minute", but when this did not develop (some person from the front desk apparently was lost in the Bermuda Triangle on the way to my room) and they gave me a standard room across the hall.

At 5:00 o'clock, as my guests were due to arrive, I got the main part of the suite, but not the bedroom portion. A pain, but, hey, this is an upgrade.

So, three hours later I'm in part of my room, but here is where it gets interesting. When the guests coming to have dinner with me tried to reach me by the house phone...THEY COULDN'T...were told I had checked out!

One called me on my cell phone, told me the problem and I tried to call the front desk five times...but no one was answering the phone or returning phone calls!!! (They really were not that busy).

Half of the people I was supposed to meet never found me......I am really mad now!

The front desk kept telling me that the lady that would not leave her room could not be found, yet I saw her come and go THREE TIMES!

After coming back from dinner at 8:30 I finally had my bedroom where my four year old and 9 month old daughters could finally lay down after being dragged from room to room.

Next morning, room service, brought without the milk I ordered, the toast I ordered and the utensils needed to eat what was delivered.

When I checked out all of their records showed I had checked out THE DAY BEFORE!

Just wait though......because here is where it gets really good. Upon leaving the hotel...THE VALET LOST MY KEYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Took them over 45 minutes to find them, making me late for a luncheon!

TO THE WESTIN CROWN CENTER: Thanks for Nuttin' Honey! I have to think long and hard about staying there for the 10+ trips I have to make to KC the rest of this year. Yes, I'm not there every other day, but I REALLY Help your REVPAR average with meals on property and room service.

To the rest of you: Thank you for letting me vent!

.

[This message has been edited by ILTE_Miles (edited 07-02-2001).]

ahhh.. thats really bad.. specially your lost guest part.. no good.

you deserve a free nights and lots of points.

by the way did you file a complain yet?

i say, if you stayed there lots of times and they were nice to you. i say, forgive them this time and give them another chance

happy travel

I've enjoyed consistently good service at this Westin in the past, including some very nice suite upgrades. I can understand the disappointment you've experienced-- I hope it is not the start of QA problems.

As for compensation...

Once I did not receive my wakeup call at this hotel, making me very late for a morning meeting. Not good.

The hotel was extremely apologetic and offered to bring me a quick breakfast (I declined; no time to eat!) and they even offered to comp me the suite (can't remember the suite name, it had a piano).

Since I did receive otherwise good value with my stay and price paid, I declined the offer for a free room, but instead got some Starpoints.

Their prompt response to their mistake will keep me as a loyal customer there.

PLangian, if you haven't reported this to Corporate Services yet, I encourage you to do so. If you don't plan to the return because of the problems you encountered, perhaps it will prevent it fromm happening to someone else.

You can contact them by calling 1-800-328-6242 if you are in the U.S. or Canada. Outside this area, call the Account Services Center closest to you (the number is on the reverse of your card) and ask to be transferred to Corporate Services. You may send an e-mail to Corporate Services by accessing whichever branded web site is appropriate and clicking on 'Contact Us'. Your information will be forwarded to them. Please give as many details as possible as well as a way for them to contact you. Letters may be either mailed or faxed to the following address or fax numbers:

Starwood Corporate Services
Post Office Box 141609
Austin, Texas 78714-1609

Fax numbers: 512-835-9374 or 512-835-4417

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Specialist, E-Communications Department
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

guest.forum@starwoodhotels.com

Mr. Lurker:

Thank you for the advice to call Corporate Services. I had just spoken to "the front desk manager on duty" and he was less than accomodating (nothing was really their fault...matters out of their control). After I explained everything to him his reply was essentially, "So, what do you want us to do about it". With regards to the car keys being lost, he pointed out that the parking was handled by another company. He was willing to comp my terrible room service breakfast ($27.00) and said he would give me 1,000 points for the parking fiasco.

Starwood Corporate Services was a whole 'nother ballgame. A shoulder to cry on! A hand to hold! Someone to listen to me! The rep I talked to, for starters, was going to credit me additional Starpoints and begin an investigation.

While the jury is still out on this specific property (General Manager had left on Friday to go to work for Hallmark and that could have been part of the reason for the poor staffing), I AM EVEN MORE LOYAL TO STARWOOD THAN I EVER WAS!!!

Thank you for advising me to contact corporate. Thank you for being an important part of this website!

P. Lanigan

Globehopper,

The suite you were in was the Royal Suite.

Next time, try to get the Liberty Suite, you don't have the downtown city view of the Presidential, but the layout is great.

P. Lanigan

I have had a couple of crappy stays there, a couple of average ones, and a few great ones. One was such a bad weekend at the hotel (an event that got way out of hand) that about a year later, when I mentioned that event, he apologized, remembered me, and admitted the fiasco. The last 2 stays there I have had a suite that I wish I had 30 of my closest friends to entertain in. But instead, I was stuck inside, alone, during hazardous weather, with the window open, watching a teriffic thunderstorm in the "tornado" direction.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Originally posted by PLangian:
Globehopper,

The suite you were in was the Royal Suite.

Next time, try to get the Liberty Suite, you don't have the downtown city view of the Presidential, but the layout is great.

P. Lanigan</font>


Ahhh... that's the name,yes it is coming back to me.

At the time I was thinking I should have a Royal Crown Cola to match the Royal suite in the Crown Center. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Originally posted by Globehopper:
Once I did not receive my wakeup call at this hotel, making me very late for a morning meeting. Not good.
</font>

are you kidding? every hotel I've ever stayed at (from $500/night to $35/night) puts a clock radio somewhere in the room. if not, you can ask for one. in case you don't know what one is, it's the lump of plastic with red or green numerals on the front, usually located right next to the bed. these are easily set to wake you at your desired hour, even if the overworked, $8/hr front desk clerk forgets to book your precious I'm-so-goddam-important wakeup call because there's 18 people waiting to check in.

most sentient business people who have morning meetings where tardiness is frowned upon will set the alarm. and a good number of these manage to do it all by themselves without having to call the concierge desk.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/rolleyes.gif

wow. calm down born sleepy,

they are just discussing thigs in a public forum http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by KSA_USA (edited 07-04-2001).]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Originally posted by KSA_USA:
wow. calm down born sleepy,
</font>

yeah, sorry I got a little annoyed. it just seemed like such a screaming-brat complaint. I guess if I asked for a wakeup call and didn't get it, I'd be mad too, but then that would never happen to me because I would have set the clock radio or my own travel alarm and probably would never notice the offense http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Hey,

I expect the Wake Up call to come, just like I expect a room to be ready, soap to be in the soap dish, the water to be warm, the bed linens clean, the room service food to be delivered, my keys to not be lost by the valet...it's what I am paying for!!!!

If a property isn't going to be able to deliver those things, THEY SHOULD NOT BE OFFERED.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by born sleepy:
yeah, sorry I got a little annoyed. it just seemed like such a screaming-brat complaint. </font>


Born Sleepy,

Wake up and and re-read my original post on this topic and tell me how this sounded like a "screaming brat" complaint.

I merely pointed out that an essential service (the wake up call) was not provided. As I planned to stay there again, I believe in informing the hotel when they have fallen short so that they can take corrective action.

Simple as that.

I did not ask for the comped room, and as I pointed out, I even turned it down.

In the larger context of the original conversation, Crown Center management provided a timely response to the problem at hand, and by doing so, they have earned my loyalty as a customer.

___

BTW, while I can certainly program every VCR I've owned, in some cases I do not have the time nor inclination after a busy day's work to figure out how to fiddle with yet another style of alarm clock-- some which are not intuitively obvious without printed instructions. And I've certainly never asked a concierge for instructions on how to set the alarm.


[This message has been edited by Globehopper (edited 07-09-2001).]

Planning my first Red Sox road trip for mid-April in KC.

Any more comments on this property? Restaraunt recommendations? Entertainment recs? Anyone have good season seats they can't use? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Thanks for the heart-attack. I thought at first PLangian had another baaaaaaaad weekend at this hotel. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Specialist, E-Communications Department
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

guest.forum@starwoodhotels.com

Cast your vote! Visit www.freddieawards.com (http://www.freddieawards.com) and choose your favorite frequent travel programs today.

I had two pretty good stays there in December. I was gold on one visit and platinum on the next, and was not upgraded either time. I also had trouble with room service on one visit; my breakfast was delayed quite a while because someone wrote down the room number incorrectly.

That said, I thought it was a good property, and I'd stay there again. It is connected to a large shopping center which I enjoyed walking through. The staff was friendly and I had a good meal at the restaurant across from the check in area. A shuttle goes to and from the airport on a regular basis.

[This message has been edited by JNelson113 (edited 01-25-2002).]

Profuse apologies....

I didn't even think about the thread tilte when I replied. Didn't even cross my mind. I just try to add to an existing thread (and this was the only one with the hotel name in the title) when I get a chance so that Upgrade Me and others don't jump on me like Bill Clinton on a 23-year-old intern or GW Bush on a lucrative taxpayer rip-off land deal, or Mark Cuban on a Blizzard, etc... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Anyway, sorry...

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Starwood Lurker:
Thanks for the heart-attack. I thought at first PLangian had another baaaaaaaad weekend at this hotel. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Specialist, E-Communications Department
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

guest.forum@starwoodhotels.com

Cast your vote! Visit www.freddieawards.com (http://www.freddieawards.com) and choose your favorite frequent travel programs today. </font>

No worries. I just felt that little skip in my heartbeat that's there whenever I see "Platinum member of Starwood Preferred Guest has bad weekend at Starwood hotel" on a thread title. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

I agree it's probably not in anyone's best interest to start any unwarranted new threads. I'm glad you didn't have to. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Specialist, E-Communications Department
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

guest.forum@starwoodhotels.com

[This message has been edited by Starwood Lurker (edited 01-25-2002).]

Mr. Lurker:

Don't worry, I've been back to the Westin Crown Center several times since that bad experience and everything has been great.

I never got the 1,000 points they promised me, but treatment since has been great from the amenity to upgrades.

They are even nice to my dad when he visits and he's just a lowly Gold http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/tongue.gif.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by PLangian:
...I tried to call the front desk five times...but no one was answering the phone or returning phone calls!!! (They really were not that busy).</font>

One thing I've found at various properties (not all starwood) is that calling the hotel's outside line will tend to get a response better than someone who has already checked in. After trying for 5 minutes to reach the front desk, I try the outside line (usually listed in the phone book right there next to the phone). Without fail, they answer by the 4th ring. It does tend to catch them off guard when I say, "Hi, this is Mr. Holland in Rm 214." :-)