gtp4all

I am staying at the Holiday Inn Stevenage and the room I am in is dark as the main spotlight has blown. I asked reception if someone could replace it and was told there is nobody available to do it till tomorrow and I can’t change my room as they are full. It is not the receptionist’s fault but am I being unreasonable in expecting this to be sorted tonight? I offered to fix the bulb myself but apparently the bulbs are locked up and can’t be accessed till the maintenance man arrives tomorrow.

I normally stay at Hiltons but there isn’t one near where I am currently working so thought I would give Holiday Inns a go and try out their loyalty scheme. So far Hiltons seem to have the upper hand...

MSPeconomist

Can they move a floor or table lamp into the room, perhaps even from the hotel's lobby?

How dark is the room? If you can't use it, for example to read or work, or if the darkness is a safety hazard, I think the hotel would be obligated to "walk" you to another hotel--and pay for it.

gtp4all

Thanks for the quick reply. There are some small lamps in the room already so I wouldn’t class it a health and safety risk and I can read ok, it’s just not ideal as the room as a whole still feels very dark.

I just wondered if others had a similar issue and whether I am perhaps being a bit unreasonable in expecting something so simple to be sorted there and then...

Lionheart

They are not fully booked.

Get back onto them - check out IHG website - they are still selling loads of rooms for today.

gtp4all

Thank you, I will do it now! I wish I checked...

MSPeconomist

That's despicable if the hotel is lying about availability, although even if all of the rooms are reserved, OP should be able to switch with one of the rooms that isn't checked in yet.

Lionheart

And if your particular room category is not available, it is completely reasonable to swap you to a different category e.g. 1x double bed with bath to 1x double bed shower only - provided you are happy with the swap of course. There are several categories available.

Anything less and they are completely fobbing you off and don't want the hassle of swapping your room (Your complaining should soon make the room swap seem like less hassle though, as it's a completely fair complaint).

EDIT - They have:

2 Single Bed Room
1 Double Bed Shower Only Room
1 Bed With Sofa Bed Room
1 King Bed With Shower Only Room
(Standard Room Available)

And in terms of quantity, they have at least 7 physical rooms available in a mixture of the above categories.

Phorbas

If the hotel won’t do anything, it may be worth dropping a message to the IHG team on Facebook. I have had success on several occasions using the Facebook team to get issues sorted when the front desk have refused to make things right.

ohmark

Be nice if the OP let's us know the outcome.

CommentatusMaximus

Maybe it's haunted and the ghosts have him now?

gtp4all

Apologies for the delay in providing an update.

I went back down to reception to request a new room but they had a big queue of people checking in so went back to the room with a plan to ring down in 20 minutes or so.

I then decided to check the spotlight to make sure it was definitely blown and realised that it was in fact not seated correctly in the holder so after 5 minutes messing about with it I managed to get it fixed properly and hey presto it then worked!

Thank you to everyone who responded as I now have some really useful tips should this ever happen again:

a) check the fitment to make sure the bulb has indeed blown
b) check room availability before complaining so that if they claim they are full, I can prove otherwise!
c) if all else fails ask for additional lights in the room...

JustinIreland

I've had a hotel try the "we're full" argument when I've complained or had an issue with a room and they've been still selling plenty of rooms on the website, just staff who cannot be bothered to go through the hassle of changing rooms as previously mentioned.