I'm booked for three nights at the Beverly Hills Le Meridien while I attend the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3 -- worthy of a thread by itself!). My wife came with me.

When I left this morning, I heard a lot of banging upstairs, but my wife said she thought it was housekeeping running a vacuum cleaner. I think nothing of it, return back to the hotel around 3:30 pm to even more banging. My wife told me it had been going on all day. The first call to the front desk was by my wife, who was told they'd "send up security." I made the second call and asked for the manager. This was the conversation:

Me: It sounds like there is construction above me. Is that what you're doing?
"Manager": Yes, we're doing some construction. I can move you to another room and give you a lower rate.
Me: You bet you'll move me to another room. How could you even rent me this room? As for a lower rate, that does me no favor at all -- my business pays for my room. All it means is my employer gets a discount and I get fewer Starwood points.
"Manager" (snippily): The room is in your name. The reservation isn't in the name of your employer.
Me: The room is in my name because I am a partner in a large law firm and I submit my bills for reimbursement. What business is that of yours, anyway?
"Manager": Well, I'm just saying I can move your room and give you a discount.
Me: Please move my room. I'll call Starwood corporate.

Which I did. I got a helpful agent and explained what happened, added that I didn't like the "manager's" attitude and, if it had been explained to me that, in exchange for a discount, I'd have to accept a room that was uninhabitable for half the day, I would have stayed elsewhere.

The corporate agent said he'd check on what happened and call me back. He rang back in a few minutes -- it turned out that the room above mine was being used as a "test" room for different configurations, and the banging I heard was furniture being moved around and assembled. He said the rule is that there be one-floor's separation between a guest room and a room like that -- I should never have been given the room directly below. He told me that he called the hotel manager, I was getting another room, he was giving me 5,000 *wood points and, of course, he apologized profusely. He handled it well and, though I was still grouchy (I was tired and just wanted to hit the sack when I got back from E3 instead of having to pack and unpack, move the computer and electronics, etc.), I thought he'd handled it professionally and well.

We moved and, shortly later, the phone rang in the new room. The person calling identified himself as the manager. I said, "Really? Who was the woman I spoke with 30 minutes ago, who called herself the 'manager.'?" After a very noticeable pause, this manager said, "Uh . . . she's the 'morning manager.'" He then apologized "for the inconvenience." I told him that *wood corporate told me that the room should never have been rented in the first place. His response: "Uh, sometimes we have scheduling problems."

Right.

Though I think Starwood Corporate did the right thing, I'm still ticked at the hotel, both for putting me in a room that shouldn't have been rented, for the repeated lies but, mostly, for the insincerity which borders on cynicism. I've had hotels screw up like this before (the Renaissance Amsterdam comes to mind), but the hotel management always managed to make me feel okay about it afterwards. Here, it's as if the Le Meridien's attitude is, "Yeah, okay, you caught us. Maybe we'll be luckier next time."

Though I've been staying at Starwoods quite often for the last six months, the only ones where I've had any problems were in LA -- the Le Meridien and the W in Westwood (see this thread: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=538289).