remymartin

First off let me say I have thought long and hard as to whether I want to go full disclosure or not. In the past I've always negotiated with the hotel itself, but this time the GM isn't having it.

Recently I stayed at the less than 2 month old property St Regis Abu Dhabi. Yes, we all know new properties have their issues, but boy was I in for a new one. At check-in I had been assigned a regular room, and I quickly understood why. When I signed the guest form I noticed I had been marked down as "Preferred Guest". When I inquired about it FDA insisted to see my Platinum card. Once this was sorted, a suite immediately opened up. I somehow felt trouble might be ahead...

The really nice and charming butler took me up to a really impressive Junior Suite with an immaculate view of Corniche street and the surrounding sea. I quickly unpacked and went for the windows - the ones in the living room, floor-to-ceiling facing the sea. I took a few shots from different locations and smack in the middle, noticed I had stepped in something wet and as a result my sock was wet. I immediately got a bad feeling and yes, it smelled of urine! I took my socks off and called Butler service. When I went down to sort this out there had been some confusion about me wanting a non-smoking room. FDAs suggested I change into a regular room or they clean my suite. As I had already unpacked I preferred not to downgrade myself and asked them to clean the room. I also asked for my socks to be laundered.

At no point was I offered any sort of f&b for this inconvenience. I later mentioned this incident to some staff and got shocked looks.

At check-out I asked to speak to a manager as it was clear there was no sort of proactive goodwill on the bill. He was apologetic and took off a few F&B charges which he carefully picked. I believe one of the charges he took off was for breakfast, which I had chosen as my amenity anyway.

After my stay I sent a polite e-mail to the General Manager about my experiences and to ask if this was something I should expect at a St Regis. He replied in a polite manner offering his apologies and assurance that my next stay would be better. When I in my next e-mail wrote I felt some sort of point compensation would be warranted, I didn't get any reply. I gave him one week to reply to no avail.

I'm pretty disappointed something like this would occur in this level of hotel and even more so that top management isn't willing to offer any goodwill.

What would you do? Has this happened to anyone else? How did you get compensated? Am I being too fussy?