Starwood Preferred Guest - Westin Grand Bohemian - Passion To Remain #1? Stop Begging Please

I am just concluding my second stay - a two-night one - at the Westin Grand Bohemian. As a platinum I was upgraded to a pretty good looking 2-room suite. Upon coming into the bedroom was a printout on glossy paper that stated in bold and capital letters "OUR PASSION IS TO REMAIN NUMBER ONE.!!! ". The letter went on to describe how the property had been honored as best in brand for three years running and if there was a reason as why to rate the hotel if a survey was received anything other than a 10 to let the manager know so they may resolve the issue of concern.

Now in my eyes, a 10 is extremely superior and I would only rate a very small handful of properties a 10. I have stayed at other Westins including the San Antonio Riverwalk, Washington DC Embassy Row, Westin Tabor Center (with a fab upgrade of course), and the Westin Times Square that I would rate over this property so why should I give it a 10? Food, room service and decor equals a 10, yes, but the property is beginning to age a bit in my opinion. For example, the bathroom and shower was not 100% clean. The water pressure was iffy, the high-speed internet was not consistently high-speed, the TV's reception went fuzzy on several occasions, laundry service not returned until around 6:30pm. Yes, these may be minor issues, but all add up to an 8-9 experience.

So now, based on the letter in the room, is it my duty to call the General Manager to tell him upon checkout that he will not receive a 10? I will come back to this property in the future as overall I had a good experience and a property that rates 8-9 is really good in my eyes, but common, please don't expect us to call the manager if the property simply isn't a 10. I really don't think any of the above issues could have been resolved by any staff member other than the dirt/slight mold in the shower so it's hard to fault one individual.

Sorry about the early morning rant, but that good ol' glossy printout has to go. Stop begging, Grand Bohemian.

Mike

With all due respect, I'm not sure why you're upset about this :rolleyes: .I would interpret a letter like that as the manager really wants to improve the service of his hotel, and not that he/she was "begging". You mentioned that the letter asked you to contact the manager if there was anything wrong, and you're complaining because the manager had the gall to ask you to do this? If it was a good stay with a few major problems, you could've (1) ignored the letter if you thought the problems were to minor to mention or (2) given the manager the feedback he was asking for. Yes, some of the problems you mentioned were things that were probably out of his control, but "bathroom not so clean" and "laundry returned late" are certainly the type of things that might be in his control to do something about.

The only way I could see being upset about a letter asking you to help keep the hotel #1 would be if it did not include any requests for giving feedback (e.g. just give a good rating and they don't care if you mean it). But you mentioned that they letter even said something about "if there was a survey", implying that you might've even just gotten a letter and no survey on which to mark these phantom 10s. That to me sounds like someone's at least maybe trying to improve a customer service experience, so ignore it if you'd like but please don't expect sympathy for your awful experience of being asked to give feedback. Oh, and don't come back after your next visit and post about how upset you were that the bathroom wasn't clean, unless you were expecting them to read your mind about the problems that made the experience less than perfect.

Might sound harsh, but I work in the customer service industry [hence why I've been inspired to my very first flame of a poster on this board] and it pisses me off that when some manager is trying to ask for feedback people can manage to turn it into a huge burden that they dealt with. They guy didn't track you down in the lobby, he left you a letter in your room. Get over it.

Lots of rants today....... ;)

I understand the frustration on both sides of this one. I have never had it happen with a hotel, but with car dealership all the time. They say that if you can't rate them the highest level that they need to know about it before the phone survey is conducted.

Well....my standards can be higher than is possible for some properties to achieve a "perfect" score. In my opinion, this is something that doesn't warrant comments to the hotel unless it is something that can be/should be changed.

Bottom line, the hotel is taking a bit of an agressive mode (either give us a perfect score or tell us why it's not perfect) but the customer always has the control of either not completing the survey OR completing it according to their opinion with no phone call and no perfect score OR completing it according to their opinion with a phone call OR just give the hotel the perfect score that it wants. :D :D :D

I saw that letter when I stayed a few weeks ago. I have to 100% agree with Letisko's response.

The entire Grand Bo team, led by GM Stuart, are as genuinely friendly and sincere as you will ever find. I left a message on the GM's voicemail after my first stay to compliment a staff member....The GM leaves his personal cell phone number on the recording! He called me back to thank me for the message and we then proceeded to chat for awhile. Neat guy.

True, its not the newest kid on the starwood block but it always feels good when I stay there. Not many hotels evoke the senses like this one does. And, in my experience, has always been the most consistentlty spotless and clean hotels out there.

I'm sure they would be willing to remove the letter before your arrival if you ask them too! They are very accommodating with special requests.