Below is the email I sent to the hotel's "Director of Rooms", whose name and email address was prominently printed out on my check-out portfolio, and thus I feel is quite reasonable to share here. Note that this was a feedback letter and not really a complaint letter per se; had I intended it to be a complaint letter intended to garner me some kind of compensation, I would have been much more concise.

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To: [email protected]
Subject: Comments from Diamond member 1-night stay Fri. June 11

Hi, since your front desk personnel were friendly and warmly
encouraged me to provide comments to you, I do have a few comments
that I've taken the time to write up.

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(a) I appreciated the upgrade to the Emerald Bay suite (Rm. 1112),
knowing that many of your Lakeside cottages were unavailable due
to light renovation. (Would have loved one of those.) The view
from the suite was decent but limited by the size and angle of the
windows, which you can't do much about, obviously. But it would
have been nice to have had at least one piece of furniture in the
suite suitable for curling up with a book to enjoy the view.

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(b) There was some confusion at check-out as to whether the $18 daily
resort fee would be covered by a Hyatt Gold Passport award stay.
The senior person at the front desk did the right thing from a
customer satisfaction point of view -- I think he wasn't sure if
that was an amenity offered to Diamond members, but since I said I
was told at check-in that the resort fee would be covered for me
as a Diamond member, he instructed the trainee on how to negate
out the charge on my folio.

[Side note: That wasn't the only trainee I ran into this weekend.
I have no objection to trainees -- hotels obviously need to ramp
up and train their personnel leading up to their busy season(s).
As long as the trainees are being carefully supervised and helped
by experienced employees when they need help on what to do, it
doesn't detract from the experience from my POV.]

In general, I hate daily resort fees. This unbundling of a
mandatory fee (for the right to use baseline hotel facilities)
from the quoted room rate is a negative industry trend. The hotel
industry is not immune to the same kind of negative media and
Congressional attention being lavished on airlines now that
increasingly mandates airline advertisements and price quotes to
include all mandatory fees & charges. The same could eventually
be true for hotels. Note that I'm not blind to the cost of
running a business and providing different kinds of services; I
don't object to there being many additional services offered at a
hotel that are separately chargeable to the guest.

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(c) There was some confusion about Diamond member access to the spa.
I was told at check-in that I would have access, and indeed I was
allowed to use the steamroom, sauna, etc., both Friday night and
Saturday morning. But whereas Friday night the person manning the
desk was very gracious and smooth about it, on Saturday morning,
the person helping the trainee at the desk acted like she wasn't
sure if I should be allowed access. It was not clear to me if she
wasn't sure that Diamond members should be allowed access; or
wasn't sure if I was a Diamond member (I gave my name and room
number, so that fact would be easily checkable); or was confused
about some other point. She later sincerely apologized for the
confusion; but the earlier awkwardness should have been avoided
altogether.

I appreciate that the spa is supposed to be limited access; that
the limited access is precisely what allows the tranquility of the
facilities to be preserved; and that limited access perforce means
there must be a way to check whether a specific hotel guest should
be allowed access or not. It's just that the process for granting
Diamond members access and verifying that access seems to be a bit
off kilter. I'm not sure what the system is supposed to be.

There was vague reference to whether I had a spa access pass given
to me by the front desk at check-in; and later I was told that the
spa pass should have been placed in my room prior to my arrival,
prominently displayed. I was not provided such a pass, but had I
gotten one, I would have gladly consistently brought it for entry.
Such a pass should have been given to me at check-in rather than
being put in my room (that may not be as reliably done, and what
if I requested a different room assignment when I arrived?)
Furthermore, the awkwardness on Saturday could have been avoided
if the first employee I interacted with at the spa Friday
afternoon clearly described to me what should have happened,
verified I didn't get a pass but qualified for access, and then
arranged for me to receive a pass delivered to the spa front desk
to be held for me for pick up when I was done. Yet another
variation: a different spa front desk employee suggested that I
should have brought my Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond membership card
for access verification; that just adds to my confusion about how
this is supposed to work.

From this guest's POV, the ideal answer would be that you program
my spa access rights into my room key. Every guest who enters the
spa and wishes to use the facilities & services that don't require
an appointment should have to present their room key, which would
reasonably validate their identity and whether they should have
spa access or not. As a Diamond member, I look at the spa access
additionally granted to Diamond members at your hotel as being
analogous to the Regency Club Lounge access granted to Diamond
members at any Hyatt hotel that has a Regency Club Lounge. Room
card key programming is how lounge access is handled at every
Hyatt Regency I've personally experienced, including yours.

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While I hope you find the feedback above useful, I did enjoy my stay
overall, and look forward to returning longer in the future.

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From: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Comments from Diamond member 1-night stay Fri. June 11

Thank you for taking the time to share your comments. As a Diamond Gold
Passport member your feedback is particularly valuable as you spend a great
deal of time in our properties.

I am glad you enjoyed the suite, however must apologize about the confusion
about the spa access and resort fee. The spa access is supposed to be
facilitated through a card left in your guest room and is usually executed
without fail, I'm sorry that was not the case during your visit. Your comments
are about the staff communication are right "on point" about how we might have
better handled the communication and service delivery to you.

With regards to the resort fee again, communication seems to be were we had our
opportunities. There is not currently a standard to waive them for Diamond
members, nor on award stays, but I believe one is in process of being rolled
our on award stays. The comments you make about the overall concept of a resort
fee are certainly understandable, and we are always discussing how to make sure
the inclusions are "robust" enough to ensure there is a value there. In our
particular case the parking inclusion is the significant inclusion as most
properties do charge for valet and/or self parking.

Again Mr. Huang, thank you for the comments. If you contact me prior to your
next visit I will ensure you have a problem free stay.

Sincerely,
Todd McAninch

Todd McAninch
Director of Rooms
Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe Resort, Spa and Casino
111 Country Club Drive
Incline Village, Nevada 89451

Phone: 775.886.6743
Fax: 775.831.2171
E-Mail: [email protected]