pgupta011

Not all Hilton Garden Inns have free local calls. I know one which charges for local calls.

rocky

If this is indeed the new policy across Starwood, I'll be switching to Marriott. One of the reasons I've stayed at Starwood is the lack of nuisance charges... 800#, incoming fax, etc.

Eastbay1K

Well, if its ONLY a charge for 800 calls over 20 mins, can't you hang up and reconnect? I know its a bit of a nuisance, but some chains charge for all calls no matter how near no matter how far (no lets not break out in a chorus of Aint no mountain high enough...)... The rationale for the policy makes sense though, as much as I may disagree with it. The hotels do not have a dedicated phone # for each room, the ratio is MUCH less. So the infrastructure to increase the # of incoming/outgoing available numbers may be a huge capital expense that they want to defer. And it will have to be a deferred (as opposed to never-done) improvement because if the guests at $200/nt and up hotels can't get a line, or calls cant get in, well.... I really doubt its a "revenue enhancer" so much as a capital-expense delay. Its going to backfire BIG. and SOON. I will just have to hang up after 19 mins and dial again.

stimpy

This is addressing a big problem in the hotel business. Us online folks are eating up all the PBX ports and T1 trunks at the U.S. hotels. The average hold time for voice calls is 3-5 minutes and the hotel system is built for that.

The average online user stays on for 20-30 minutes. This means that all the ports on the hotel system are full. So they have two choices.

1. Buy more ports
2. Get the customers to disconnect sooner.

Most hotels have chosen 2 which represents very poor customer service in the long term. But in the short term it eliminates the more serious problem of people getting busy signals when they try to make outgoing calls.

Most of my travel is to network technology conferences. We fill the hotel with online users and we always max out the PBX. So I'm quite familiar with this problem.

It's a problem for phone companies too. They have to spend hundreds of millions to keep up with on-line users.

SJSharky

I've written Starwood about whether this really is a policy company-wide.

Will let everyone know if there's a response.

By the way, I was actually charged 50 cents per minute after the 20-minute period. The lady at the front desk reversed it after I complained. She then told me that the policy was going to be 10 cents per minute.

--Ryan

SJSharky

Eastbay--

Personally, I think it's a big nuisance to hang up and call back after 19 minutes.

Obviously, you wouldn't want to do that during a business call. But even personal calls...I think the person I'm calling would be annoyed if I kept asking him to hang up so I could ring him again every 19 minutes or so...that would probably end some of my calls short.

This is not what I expect from an upscale hotel chain.

Just my 2cents.

--Ryan

[This message has been edited by SJSharky (edited 08-10-1999).]

Boomer

My solution is to add a few dollars to the room rate for unlimited calls. That way the people that need it pay a fair charge.

To charge 6 dollars an hour is a RIP-OFF, thats what 10 cents a minute works out to.

As I said to hilton, what's next? Individual water meters for people that like to take long showers?

If starwood starts timing my phone calls, they just make me switch to another hotel chain.

This is a deal breaker for me.

traveltoomuch

I'm confused....I recently stayed at Starwood property (Westin in Boston) and wasn't charged a penny for my 800 calls!

I ALWAYS use the LOCAL access lines to dial 800 #'s (at this property a local call required me to dial 9 first).

SJSharky

Wanted to give everyone an update--

The manager of the Westin Galleria called me regarding the 800 number policy. He told me that the agent was erroneous and that it was a specific hotel policy.

He said that the policy was implemented because they are having problems with laptops tying up the lines for hours and that they were in the process of getting their phone system updated.

Sorry for the false alarm. He did mention that several other Starwood properties are looking at the issue and trying to determine how to resolve the problem but that it was not a Starwood-wide policy.

--Ryan

seawolf

I was just over at the Ottawa Westin. No charge for 800 calls there.

RichG

Just stayed at the Sheraton Edison Raritan Center in Edison, New Jersey.

Placard in the room says their new policy is to charge 10 cents per minute after the first 20 minutes for all calls: calling card, toll-free, and LOCAL! Local calls also went up from 75 cents to 85 cents each. In true corporate-speak, the placard claimed this policy was instituted to make more lines available for internet use. This is just like when the bank tells you they're raising the rate or shortening the grace period to serve you better. If they need more lines because guests are using them for longer periods, then just get more lines. If they already have, $6 per hour will pay for a LOT of lines. A much better solution than trying to influence their guests' behavior with abusive charges would be to provide a port for high-speed Internet access like I found in my room at the MUCH CHEAPER Sheraton Inn I stayed at last week.

I expressed my unhappiness at the desk when checking out. The desk clerk said the new policy had been instituted on August 25th, and that the front desk staff had all complained to management about it already, since all the guests complain to the front desk. She also said she didn't think the policy would survive very long. Hope she's right (& hope the Starwood lurker pays attention!

Boomer

Rich:

I'll stay my policy for any starwood folks lurking.

I WILL NOT STAY AT ANY HOTEL THAT CHARGES ME FOR 800 CALLS OR CHARGES ME BY THE MINUTE FOR LOCAL CALLS.

I dumped Hilton for that reason.
In fact, I just booked a stay in LA for later this month. 2 nights at a Westin, 3 at a holiday inn(starwood doesnt have a hotel in pasadena otherwise those 3 would have been starwood). If Hilton did have their obnoxious phone charges, the stay would have been at the Hilton.

If Starwood adopts this policy, I'll stop staying at Starwood Hotels.

shadow

Rich...I know you read my post about the Hilton in Hasbrouck Heights & phone charges.

But did you see the follow-up that when I checked out I had NO phones charges at all, not even access charges!

I stayed at the Sheraton in Edison the week before, from 8/21-8/27, and was charged .75 for calls with no 'per minute' charge. I've got my bill here as I type this, and had some calls that were 35-40 minutes. I guess since I checked in before the 8/25 date, they didn't get me for the charges.

I agree with you about the charges, and will repeat what I said before. I will check before I make a reservation & will not stay where they do this crap!!!

Maybe they can figure out how Wingate Inns has rooms for $89 with FREE high-speed Internet connections.

BTW, as I was writing this, I thought maybe that should be the next 'battle' for us. Now that the airlines have done away with our expiring miles, let's all lobby against these excessive phone charges!!!

[This message has been edited by shadow (edited 09-05-1999).]

RichG

shadow: Yes, actually I re-read your trip report last night (courtesy of the newly-resurrected SEARCH function!) while drafting my post

FWIW, I no longer (hardly ever) use the phone in a hotel room for anything but on-line connections, ever since last year when I went with AT&T One-Rate. Makes a lot of things much easier: "Don't worry about where I am, or what the hotel number or my room number is, just call the cell phone or page me!"

My message to the hotel industry is: Stop trying to make money with your phone system. It's part of your overhead, like the sink and the bathtub. What do you think the reaction would be if you tried to charge people 10 cents per minute for showers over 10 minutes?

Count me in on the Campaign for Reasonable Phone Charges. If we succeed, check-out will be become a more pleasant experience for everyone.

Boomer

Rich:

Check out the a post a made to the hilton forum, when I dumped hilton, about phone charges and other things they could charge for.
http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/Foru...ML/000125.html

BTW: By my count, Hilton has lost 23 nights with me as a guest do to there phone charge policy. Starwood has gained most of those nights.