washflyer
May 14, 03, 9:03 am
From today's Reliable Source...
Hotel Hell
• Yesterday started out as a bad day for 23 Republican women who flew here from Houston for a week's visit -- only to discover that their prepaid rooms at the Sheraton National Hotel in Arlington were occupied and unavailable.
But after group leader Pearl Fincher phoned not only us but also her congressman, Kevin Brady, and one of her senators, Kay Bailey Hutchison, it ended up as a bad day for the Sheraton hotel chain and its parent company, Starwood Hotels and Resorts.
"I think it's time for the Sheraton people to get a little bad publicity," Fincher told us by cell phone as her exhausted charges waited to learn where they'd be spending the night.
First the Sheraton offered the angry women, who had paid $1,035 apiece for transportation and lodging, rooms at a Best Western hotel two hours from Washington. Then a Starwood official told us erroneously that they would be given accommodations at no extra charge at the Marriott Wardman Park. Finally, the women were put on a bus heading toward a Best Western in Potomac Mills, in Prince William County. . But as complaints from Capitol Hill grew more heated, the bus made an about-face and the women were returned to the Sheraton -- where, somehow, the promised rooms were suddenly found.
"These are normally very gracious women," said Brady, who has a breakfast meeting with them scheduled for this morning. "But when they need to, they stand up for themselves."
Hotel Hell
• Yesterday started out as a bad day for 23 Republican women who flew here from Houston for a week's visit -- only to discover that their prepaid rooms at the Sheraton National Hotel in Arlington were occupied and unavailable.
But after group leader Pearl Fincher phoned not only us but also her congressman, Kevin Brady, and one of her senators, Kay Bailey Hutchison, it ended up as a bad day for the Sheraton hotel chain and its parent company, Starwood Hotels and Resorts.
"I think it's time for the Sheraton people to get a little bad publicity," Fincher told us by cell phone as her exhausted charges waited to learn where they'd be spending the night.
First the Sheraton offered the angry women, who had paid $1,035 apiece for transportation and lodging, rooms at a Best Western hotel two hours from Washington. Then a Starwood official told us erroneously that they would be given accommodations at no extra charge at the Marriott Wardman Park. Finally, the women were put on a bus heading toward a Best Western in Potomac Mills, in Prince William County. . But as complaints from Capitol Hill grew more heated, the bus made an about-face and the women were returned to the Sheraton -- where, somehow, the promised rooms were suddenly found.
"These are normally very gracious women," said Brady, who has a breakfast meeting with them scheduled for this morning. "But when they need to, they stand up for themselves."