rakers

you'd have to leave a cash deposit and that would've been held in this case. at least that was the protocol when I worked at the hyatt 10 years ago.

LHR/MEL/Europe FF

At least in that case there would have been an immediate room inspecion before the return of the cash deposit.

MSPeconomist

Deleted.

MSPeconomist

Not Great Wall Red, although some of the wines from Grace Vineyards are pretty decent.

douginguam

1. Based on what has been offered I cannot find the maid guilty - dubious if any motive.
2. I wondered about the OP, but his steadfastness makes me, well ah...
3. That leaves, a partner or ex having slipped back. This room looks like something my ex-wife (and stalker) would do, given the smallest of chances. And that goes double if the someone I had been with for the night aggravated her anger .@:-)

LHR/MEL/Europe FF

I outlined a possible motive for the cleaning staff.

Loose Cannon

Exactly. And with immediate room inspection and refund of the deposit that would be evidence that the guest was in the good.

HK47

This was the first (and last) time I ever stayed at the hotel. The 100 stays in my OP refer to lifetime starwood stays, not Westin stays. Generally I travel on business and leave the room basically in the same state I found it (clean).

I am certain. I was the last person to leave the room and the Westin's key audit confirms this. Nobody entered until the cleaning staff. Obviously the housekeeper got away with it, so I don't really see any downside if policy is always to blame the guest.

Lots of things that happen don't make any sense. People are irrational when they are mad. This was after a large convention so this could easily have been the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back.

Thanks for your support.

When I spoke to the general manager he let me know they had installed a fancy new key system that allows them to know whenever someone enters or leaves the room. I was the last person to leave (their system shows when the door closes) and nobody entered until housekeeping.

+1 Good point. I didn't take a super close look at the photos (beyond to verify that this was indeed our room). I have already responded to the CC company but will point this out if the dispute continues.

I have raised this issue twice with SPG corporate and the second time they simply explained they can only recommend/suggest action, they can't force the property to do anything.

1. There are several plausible motives for cleaning staff - three obvious ones being anger at the state of the room, lack of tip, and accidental damage escalating to intentional damage

2. If I did it I would have given up a long time ago. I have spent far more than $500 worth of time and hassle trying to fix this, but for me its the principle of the thing. It would be one thing if they charged me $500 for an extremely messy room and pointed to the fine print in guest policy, but this is vandalism by staff trying to be pushed onto me.

3. Key audits indicate that this would be impossible. I suppose someone could have hid in the room, but this is far less plausible than (1).

supatight80

110% agree with you Dr.HFH. Unfortunately some posters here attack the person with negative adjectives (which goes against the rules of flyertalk), instead of tackling the issue/s involved. That's why i respect you as a lawyer and your objective mindset. you must be VERY good at your profession being a lawyer..being objective and all, and sticking to the issues at hand. A few other lawyers.....no comment..except that yes you are absolutely right, there is no excuse for rudeness.

Back to topic, OP what were the results? It's been awhile now and yet none of us have known the outcome of your situation. What did corporate say? Credit card company?

You know, because of your unfortunate incident, i actually check-out 15 minutes earlier and INSIST on having my room checked if everything is good to go. And i now refuse to leave the property unless itmhas been checked. I really wish you luck, hope things work out the way they should be.

But do please keep us posted on the events, negative or positive...It'll help us learn from the unfortunate incident that happened, I personally appreciate you bringing this up. At least we will know where we stand should (god forbid) situations like these would happen

clublounger

Supatight - clearly you are unhappy with getting locked out of your own thread(http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/starw...corporate.html), so you trolled another thread to reply. If that isn't against FT policies, it should be.

If you were sincere and had anything of value to add to this thread you wouldn't be asking the OP about the outcome of his situation. After all, 9 hours before you feigned to care, the OP clearly indicated that there has been no resolution on any of the fronts.

Rock72

Hmmm, this is obviously an unfortunate incident and I'm curious to see how it ends. From the hotel's standpoint, if they can't count on their door locking system to accurately report who goes in/out of rooms, it's a huge problem. I don't think the hotel will just eat this although maybe a discount in the bill might be in order.

I remember a complaint many years ago when online stock trading first got popular. One person insisted that they bought 20 shares of an expensive stock but the system bought 200 shares (much of it on margin). Of course the stock price went down later that day and the person complained about it. The company said that the system just trades whatever # of shares they enter into the box. The customer kept insisting that they "know" that they typed in 20 and not 200. I am fairly certain that the customer lost.

The hotel will insist with room logs that after the customer checked out, then it was housekeeping and they saw the room in this state. Somehow saying that someone else hacked the locking system and messed up the room in between is farfetched and doesn't make much sense (although anything can be true). I understand the logic with the wine ring still being wet but this isn't CSI. That evidence will largely just be ignored rather that someone running a similar test to gauge the age of the wine spill via simulation.

I certainly hope the OP well but this one isn't so clear cut.

MSPeconomist

Was OP told how quickly the problem was reported after the housekeeper entered the room? If it was immediate, the housekeeper wouldn't have much time to take out her frustration by writing on the mirror and destroying the bed with wine, etc. However, if there was a lag, it does raise some questions.

Also, was the lipstick or whatever was used to write on the mirror found in the room?

controller1

MSPeconomist

I presume the maid called someone who called to send security to the room, but did the maid call to report the damage at 3:41 or 3:49?

ckendall

Hard to believe security got there in a minute