imtc

Hi Below is some highlight from this case.

"In the event you disregard this notice and are subsequently discovered on the premises of this hotel, you will be considered and treated as a trespasser thereon and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law." - <spg associate #3>

Such notice was made to me simply because I was questioning the hotel for 25 euro second time house cleaning charge. And the person made such question have never speak to me neither did he discussed the case with me, but the only thing he told on the Email that he is fully in power in starwood to punish me that I can not even speak to his manager.

I wonder if it is proper for an international hotel group to deal with its highest tire member.

The story happen in Westing Warsaw, Poland. And below is my post in the westin warsaw master thread:

"I don't give **** about Starwood ambassador"

Such quotation is from Stefan Friedl, Hotel manager for westin Warsaw.

I have submit a complaint to starwood regarding the matter and never receive any reply.

The story is quite simple, while I request second time service for my room the hotel told me they want to charge 25 Euro for it, because such additional charge was never heard of(I staied 200 nights/year in hotels every year), I request manager to discuss it with me, their front desk manager came then insists the charge, I said please let your general manager contact me regarding this, in which, stefan Fridl called me in the same afternoon said I was using abuse language towards his employee(in fact all I said was, please have your general manager explain this to me! ok, it is not most polite, but abusing....?) and he don't give **** if I am a starwood ambassador, and he is threaten my personal safety at that point, I handed up the call then went back the hotel, he then said in front of me if I dare talk to him he will ask security throw me out of the hotel in the lobby. I said I will make a serious complaint about his action he said go ahead.

I wonder if such behavior towards most loyalty customer is appreciate for a hotel, because all what happened was I request explanation regarding a hotel charge in which I don't agree with, it ends up threaten my personal safety in the hotel--how unbelievable is that!

And seems my complaint about it goes nowhere, I don't know where should I make proper report about it, any fellow member have idea?

Few days later, I receive a letter from <an SPG associate #1> ,CONSUMER AFFAIRS, EXECUTIVE DIVISION, in which, explained that such complaint will results an review of my account by his colleague, and said basically the aggressive behavior was me.

I have replied
"You can check the camera record and you can see how impossible these commons would be, if what they said was true, it must involve strong body language in which I believe there is none, all I did was saying I don't agree with the charge and I need your management to explain.

Please note everyone you talk to is under stefan's management and I am single person, it is no surprise they are speaking for him.

So I believe in this case, because I don't have a friend stand next to me to proof my story while stefan has 10 employees doing so, the camera record is the only thing I believe could be called verifiable."

<the SPG associate #1> looked at the record and replied
"The video does not display what I would consider “aggressive” or “over the top” behavior"

I called <the spg associate #1> and spend over 90 mins to discuss every detail of what happened,

then I got following reply

"<spg associate #2> and I have now both reviewed all of the information on file. We have, in turn, discussed the series of interactions with Stefan. We recognize that your experience was not as desired, for which we truly apologize. Stefan has expressed his appreciation for this feedback. We are confident he has learned much from his time with you."

As I thought, the case was almost resolved, then few days later, I have received following letter from <SPG associate #3> :

Dear Mr. XXX,

It has been brought to our attention that your behavior while a guest at The Westin Warsaw was inconsistent with the conduct we require of our guests. The standard of conduct expected of you is the same as that required of any other person who visits our hotels. Out of concern for our staff and other
guests, you will no longer be welcome at The Westin Warsaw.

Accordingly, we ask that you make alternate lodging plans in connection with future reservations you are currently holding at this hotel since we will be cancelling all pending reservations for any upcoming stays. In addition, we will neither accept nor honor any reservation you attempt to make with us for this
hotel and have informed our Reservations department that they should not honor any reservation you attempt to make with them.

In the event you disregard this notice and are subsequently discovered on the premises of this hotel, you will be considered and treated as a trespasser thereon and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Additionally, out of concern for our associates, we request that you behave in a professional manner while staying at any Starwood hotel and when interacting with our associates. If our office receives a further report of unprofessional behavior toward our associates, we will immediately revoke your Starwood Preferred Guest Membership.

We regret having to make this decision but believe it is best for all parties involved. Thank you for your cooperation in this matter and we look forward to your next stay with us.

Sincerely,

<SPG associate #3> Consumer Affairs, Executive Division

While I replied I strong disagree with what said in the letter and as well as I like to discuss such letter with his management, he told me that he is fully empower and he don't have a manager for me to discuss.

And thanks for reading, here is all the story, I am simply wonder, how a simple request of room cleaning can turn in to like this towards one of highest tire customer?

p.s.

1. Quite few of fellow members asked about 75nights and ambassador, below is the answer, as the same answer I have sent to their CS.

Would you please advise whom is your Ambassador? I have not been able to confirm that you have access to this illustrious service based on your volume of stays. In order to receive this service, you need to stay 100 nights or more per calendar year. You are currently on track to earn this service for 2015!

I am not, while I talking to the front desk manager I mentioned I am a loyalty customer and stayed many nights in Starwood hotels, but I never said I am ambassador, stefan apparently called me in rush and said "I don't give .... to Starwood ambassador" while I believe he didn't even looked at my profile.

2. Many fellow members have also wondering if there is any excessive language has been used or even " I really think for any situation to reach this stage there has to be some pretty strong language exchanged. Bordering on a physical exchange. "

The answer to that is none, the most aggressive thing I might said was towards stefan, that is after he threaten me to "throw me of the hotel", then I said "I will make a very serious complaint about you!", in a direct might a bit emotional voice, and he replied "go ahead", and that's all, so that is why I specifically asked the CS guy to look at the camera--if what the hotel claiming was true, then it must be as me and fellow members understand here " I really think for any situation to reach this stage there has to be some pretty strong language exchanged. Bordering on a physical exchange. ", but the most unbelievable point is such thing never happen and hotel still taking most serious decision against me just because I said I want to complaint about you.

3. According to what I have been told in westin warsaw, the 25 Euro charge was standard to all the guest want to have second time room fully cleaned, if any other member ever stayed in that property please share your experience if you have requested second time service on same day.

pmarrsouth

Most likely more to the story than in the OP, but if you are looking for a (probable) boss/manager of <the spg associate #3> then its Helen, listed at the bottom of this page:

https://www.starwoodhotels.com/corpo...hip/index.html

She is a (the?) Senior Director of Consumer Affairs

imtc

Have sent an inmail in linkedin to helen, see what the responds will be.

Hi Helen:

Sorry for disturbing.

I am an IT Entrepreneur, I own a few small IT firms worldwide to provide network infrastructure service, we work with cisco, microsoft, google and almost all the internet exchange point in the world, because of my job, I need to travel quite fluently for meetings and conference, therefore make me stay over 200 nights each year in hotels. Since last year, I have become your plat member and I have stayed over 75 nights in your hotel chain. As much as I want to continue my loyalty with starwood group, there was a recent incident in which really disappointed me. It was about I made an complaint to the executive division of your CS, they punished me instead of making the things right even after I spend over 90 mins on the phone with over 10 long Emails with them, and they have been telling me that there is no way for me to make future complaint,you may read full story here:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/starw...reaten-me.html

,
basically because of I was questioning 25 Euro room cleaning charge it ends up with legal threaten to me, I hope you can help in this case that make the right thing right.

Thanks and hope hear from you personally soon.

If you like to discuss the case with me, you most welcome to setup a time with me by Email and I will be calling you or waiting for your call to discuss the issue, thanks very much.

gpeso8

Popcorn is popping. Didn't something similar happen at the Mystique in Santorini this summer?

BobbySteel

Wirelessly posted (Blackberry8700c: Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 4.4.2; HTC6525LVW Build/KOT49H) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/37.0.2062.94 Mobile Safari/537.36)

Haha this must be good to get a stern letter like that!

DC777Fan

I can't believe a chain would threaten to cancel the account of a 200nt/yr member without strong cause. That said, itt's definitely possible that the hotel manager could embellish the extent to which, if any, the OP became belligerent.

Further, I do agree with the OP that most behavior warranting such a strong response should be visible on cameras unless he was extremely verbally abusive but not loud or demonstrative (unusual IME).

missxmelon

Seems like some miscommunication within the consumer affairs, executive division if one person said the video "does not display what I would consider “aggressive” or 'over the top' behavior" and another sent that letter...

clublounger

Myself? I'd like to know the reason that a second cleaning of the room, in one day, was needed? Perhaps therein lies the reason that the hotel never wants to see OP again.

NYCtraveler

First off, I have NEVER been charged for a second request for servicing the room, especially from the Westin hotels which are a higher end chain. I find this charge excessive. Especially for a Loyal Ambassador staying guest.

What happened and what was said is impossible for us to know. The OP's English is not great and that might have led to miscommunications which evolved into this situation. Verbage and body language around the world change drastically.

That all said, the staff at the hotel could have had an EGO problem and wanted to put the OP down and went out of his way to do so. Sometimes it is the straw that breaks the camels back scenario.

I was once on an AA flight from JFK to BRU.....It was right before they cancelled the route. The flight attendants were old dragons and did not serve the meal or drinks....I pushed the call button 30 minutes out, they were all sitting around talking....One of them said, We'll get to you, we have 7.5 hours on this plane.....They finished the meal service two hours into the flight....Then placed the meal cart in front of the aisle on the left blocking access to the forward Lavatory.....There was NO Captains out and about, I could see....And when I went up, they were sitting there like vultures eating the leftover J Meals.....They told me I could use the other bathroom.....I said, I saw there was no captain out why can't I use that one? They replied not to cause trouble or they could land the plane and I would be charged as a terrorist...Use the bathroom they told me..... This of course was ridiculous and the situation was out of my control and I went to sleep feeling like I had been accused of something crazy for really doing nothing more then wanting to use the cleanest restroom. The Ladies working J on this flight were just awful....and I had to just take it. Perhaps something like this happened with the OP and the hotel went after him? Personalities are difficult to quantify in stories...mine as well.

Cheers! I hope they work this out! NYC

pmarrsouth

Not really all that uncommon. You go out the night before and get back pretty late, nap until breakfast (or get in as breakfast being served), they clean your room while you are at breakfast, then you get back to the room to shower and crash. When you wake up before either heading to gym or dinner or whatever u request the room to be made up so that when you come back later that night your bed is made up & new towels in room etc

Plenty of other circumstances too that hotels will have no problem in doing a 2nd clean

fireworksboy

I agree - not uncommon. I've had it done a number of times. I've never been charged for it and if the hotel felt compelled to charge $25, I'm wondering if the place was torn up rock star style?

In any case, I'm waiting for the second half of the story. Curious why the hotel commented a number of times about not caring about being Starwood ambassador - which tells me the title might have been thrown in their face a few times (DYKWIA?). Could absolutely be wrong on that but one thing I know for a fact - we're hearing one side of a two sided story. @:-)

Dr. HFH

Funny, I was thinking the same thing as I read this. I was actually going to ask the OP if he had ever stayed at the Mystique!!


And you wonder why people who fly premium cabins prefer foreign carriers.

travelswithmyself

Not sure about OP being P100... P75 yes but P100?

Just nitpicking but ... I wonder why whenever we hear of hotels throwing titles back at guests, they seem to mislabel the guest as a Starwood Ambassador

DC777Fan

Did you ever contact AA and let them know? I'm curious what they had to say and/or offered you for such horrible service. It makes me wonder how many times meal choices aren't "available" because the FAs have earmarked them for themselves...

fireworksboy

I wonder if they're getting that from the guest, not from the reservation system. No idea really.

Popcorn at the ready.