PhxFlyGuy

About a month ago I was scheduled to go to Tampa for an all day meeting on a Friday finishing up at 11:00am on Saturday.

Long story short, after a 3 hour mechanical delay, my Thursday noontime flight was cancelled, making it literally impossible to get to Tampa on time for my Friday meeting. I live in Phoenix, and by 3:00 or so, it is very difficult to get East because the arrival would be to late. The US redeye also arrived after my meeting in Tampa was scheduled to start. Therefore, I cancelled my plans.

Thursday night I was to stay at a Sheraton hotel. I called them from the airport, and despite their (typical) 24 hour cancellation policy, allowed me out of my room at no charge.

My second night (Friday night) was to be at the Embassy Suites Westshore. From my computer, I cancelled my room on hilton.com, where I had made my reservation. This hotel also had a 24 hour cancellation policy and I was happy to see that the reservation cancelled with no problem.

A week later, I received a letter from the hotel expressing their disappointment that I did not stay at their hotel, looking forward to my next visit (I had stayed their in 2007 no less before), and by the way, we charged your credit card for the night.

I was sure that this was a mistake. It made no reference to my cancellation, so I simply called the hotel where they assured me it was no mistake! The cancellation was made at 6 pm local time Thursday and the deadline would have been 4 pm local time Thursday for a Friday reservation.

I explained that I had I not been able to get a cancellation number right away, I would have called from the airport ("in the moment") and explained the circumstances. They actually didnt even express that they were sorry!

My next call was to the Diamond desk at Hilton who referred me to their customer assistance area. The agent took down the facts and promised me a response within a day. I did get a response and she was "happy" to report that they have agreed to refund 50% of my money!

I called the hotel again, spoke with the same person I spoke to originally and tried to talk reason into them. Finally they agreed to waive the balance IF they were able to independently verify that my flight was cancelled and I was scheduled to fly on THAT flight! I actually obtained such documentation from them directly from US Air. They provided me with a printout of the notes that were made when they cancelled my reservation and refunded my money. I faxed that to the hotel and 2 days later I still did not get a response.

I called Hilton again, spoke with a different customer service person that was able to track down my file. She agreed with me that this was a ridiculous situation and she would call the hotel again. If they would not refund the balance, she said that Hilton would. Now that is what I call stepping up to the plate!


In the end, ES buckled and refunded the balance which I am happy about. Hilton should not have gotten stuck with this.

Life shouldn't be this difficult! My guess is that there was a programming problem on the hilton.com website. The cancellation should probably not been accepted because I was inside of their policy. This being the case, ES should have gone to hilton to begin with and get their money. That being said, we life in a society, can't people understand extreme situations and make appropriate exceptions?????

This happens to be a nice ES property. I will tell you though, I would never stay their again. They were just to difficult to deal with.

I don't mean to be spiteful, but I wanted my fellow frequent travelers to know that this happened and to beware!

lively1nc

I have always received some canned e-mail from a bot prior to check in, but never a personal e-mail asking what my needs are! Even if its canned, made me feel better about my stay! I should have asked for a nice bottle of Cabernet wine though...


Good Afternoon Mr. Lively1nc,

Thank you for choosing to stay with us at the Embassy Suites Tampa Airport/Westshore. I am planning for next weeks arrivals and just wanted to check in with you and see if there are any special requests or specific needs for your upcoming stay with us in Tampa. I appreciate your loyalty to the brand and want to do everything possible to ensure an exceptional stay. I look forward to your response and if nothing else, I wish you a safe trip.

Sincerely,



Ben Perelmuter
General Manager
Embassy Suites Tampa-Airport/Westshore
555 N. Westshore Blvd.
Tampa , FL 33609

skierpony

salesforce.com combined with genius.com makes these personalized emails much easier!

mosleymac

Just stayed at the Embassy Suites Tampa Airport hotel for a few days before I went on my Caribbean cruise. It has been remodeled since the last time I stayed there and it looked great! My room was beautiful, the service was awesome and I loved my free breakfast. I highly recommend it to anyone visiting Tampa: http://www.embassysuitestampaairport.com/

Friendly Traveling Deathmerchant

Do they have an airport shuttle?

Tampa airport area is kind of hurting for good hotels - I stayed at the Hilton Westshore, and... it was... okay. But musty halls, old bathrooms, exec. lounge breakfast meh.

I'll check out this ES next time I'm in town.


TDM

newbluesea

Really? A new HGI and Homewood suites virtually on airport property both about 2 years old. A decent Hyatt Regency and a new Westin both about the same distance from TPA as the aforementioned Hilton.
Plus an Aloft I believe under construction.

troyintn

Agreed, also the DT rockypoint is also nice. They recently redid the Gym. HGI has had some decent rates recently, while the rest of that area has been really high or sold out.

jwhite4304

So the remodeling is finally done? Last few times I stayed there, the hotel was under construction and not the best experience.

Jimbo

Friendly Traveling Deathmerchant

***You're right, thank you for pointing that out - I stand corrected: My recent blah experience at the Hilton Westshore eclipsed my memory of the newish HGI there!

The Doubletree on the water - I stayed there last year - is pretty decent as well, but I didn't lump that in with the airport properties.




TDM

InkUnderNails

I stayed last week at the Double Tree Westshore on Cypress. I expected less from the reviews here, but it was actually quite good. I got a comfortable, quiet room on the executive floor just down the hall from the Executive Lounge in the tower. The low-rise accommodations may not be as good, but the exec floor was fine. The Diamond benefit breakfast was a voucher for the full hot breakfast in the restaurant, not a continental in the lounge. The service and breakfast were both good. It is buffet with made to order omelets and eggs. The evening Exec Lounge fare was pretty good as well.

I want to give a special thanks to the nice check in clerk. After he got over my dirty work clothes and checking me in, he was trying to give me directions to the tower elevators, not nearly as difficult to find as the directions made it sound, and when he saw I was having trouble understanding (I am hearing impaired) he said "Follow me, I'll show you," and gave me a personal walk back to the elevator and a rapid fire first floor tour on the way. It was nice service and appreciated.

starflyergold