triger02

I stayed at a WA property in the US for a company meeting held at one of the conference rooms on property.

I checked out of the room and left my suitcase up front to have it stored until the end of the meeting.

When I was ready to leave, my colleague and I gave the valet the ticket for my car and luggage, but were unable locate my suitcase. After a few minutes of double checking with other staff members, they thought that it might have ended up in a company shuttle with other people's luggage.

After about 10 minutes they confirmed they had taken my suitcase there, even when I never gave them my ticket.

The shuttle at this point was located about an hour drive from the hotel and in the opposite distance to where I was driving back home. I was shocked they suggested I met up with the shuttle van that had my luggage after they had given it to someone else in the first place.

The hotel is a three hour drive from home and ended up turning into a five hour drive after having to pick up my suitcase.

I have not reached out to the property manager or Hilton directly, and was hoping for some thoughts on how to handle this. I am obviously frustated that this incident caused me an extra two hour drive, after a 7 hour meeting and how the valet staff handled the case.

writerguyfl

Who made this suggestion? If it was a Valet attendant or Bell Staff Person, I'd just shrug it off as those people aren't trained to handle a situation like this one.

Your explanation is unclear. Did you ask to speak to anyone in hotel management while you were at the hotel? To me, that would have been the logical move...especially once the Valet attendant told you to drive to get your luggage.

For me, the answer on how to handle this depends on who was involved while the incident was happening. If members of the hotel management told you to drive an extra two hours, I'd have one opinion. If the management team was unaware any of this happened, I'd likely have a different one.

Can you clarify the players involved?

triger02

I only spoke to the valet/bell staff. I do agree that this should have been resolved with management directly, but at the time I just wanted to get my luggage, as the company shuttle was stopped waiting for me (or someone) to get there and collect the luggage.

After having waited almost 30 minutes to find out that they had loaded my suitcase in a shuttle that had left an hour ago. I acted quick and figured getting the suitcase at the time was more important than any type of compensation they could offer.

writerguyfl

Full Disclosure: I spent more than a decade working in hotels. I held positions in Operations (Front Desk, Night Manager) and Sales (Reservations, Revenue Manager). My opinions are based on that experience. In matters of compensation, that opinion is usually different than the bulk of FTers. I don't apologize for that, but I do try to be up front about it.

With that out there, I think you need to own the fact that you made the decision to drive and get your suitcase without consulting anyone in hotel management. Without question, the valet/bell staff member should have proactively found a manager. So, the hotel isn't without blame.

If I were a manager hearing about this incident (after the fact), here are the questions I'd want answered. First, who set up this luggage transfer service. Was it done through the hotel or was it something set up by your company. Second, I'd want to know if anyone from your company was present coordinating the loading of the luggage. If someone was there, perhaps she or he directed the hotel staff to load your suitcase. (If you all had matching luggage or some sort of tag identifying your meeting, I'd want to know that, too.)

As to what form of compensation offered, I can't respond. I'd want to know the answers to those questions. Additionally, I'd need to know just how important your company is to the hotel.

[For the record, I'm not asking your to answer to research these questions here. They are here to give you an idea as to how a manager might respond.]

As to who to contact, I implore you to contact the hotel directly. All chains like Hilton track complaints made at the chain level. Since you didn't give management a chance to fix the problem as it was happening, I don't think it's fair to penalize them by contacting the chain now. Plus, if you contact the hotel management and aren't satisfied with the result, you can then appeal to Hilton Corporate.

camsean

Asking for management at the time would have been the way to go.

I would raise it with them now and then escalate to corporate if need be.