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This is the first time I've really had such a disappointing experience that was due to a property's utter negligence and lack of taking responsibility. Hoping some FTers can offer suggestions on how to proceed!

I recently stayed at the Le Meridien Bali Jimbaran. I always thought Le Meridien was one of the mid to upper level brands in the SPG portfolio. This experience is making me think that some properties are just mis-badged as aside from the fact that they destroyed my suit, there were other issues with the stay around cleanliness of the bathroom and such.

I was in Bali for a wedding, and brought my favorite suit. It's not a crazy expensive $10,000 bespoke suit, but still, a close to $1,000 suit that fit really well and had nice details. Well, I sent my suit out for dry cleaning at the property, **specifically** checking the "dry clean" option as there were two sides to the laundry form, the left side for laundry, right side for dry cleaning. I also made it a point to tell the housekeeping associate who came to collect the suit that it was for dry cleaning and pointed it out on the form.

Well, you guessed it. They sent it out and it was WASHED AND DRIED. The suit is more or less ruined, as the fabric is wool and it stretched and shrunk unevenly, and the collar has been damaged due to the felt details underneath that swelled. Holes also developed it appears from the friction of being in a washing machine with other clothes. Stitching details have been pulled out due to the friction as well.

I spoke with the GM Ms. Fanny Parengkuan before I left the property, and while she acknowledged that it "was not up to standard", she tried to indicate that the suit looked fine to her, though when I asked her point blank if she thought that's how a suit should look she finally agreed no. I got a letter acknowledging a mistake from the property, took lots of photos, and she pleaded with me to allow them to try again with the suit. I was pretty sure that it was already damaged beyond what "reprocessing" could fix. But I figured, I'll give them every chance and benefit of the doubt. She also said that she was committed to making sure I would be satisfied with the end result, but at the same time said things like, "You can't expect us to replace a used suit" when I asked her if she was going to make sure at the end I had a suit I could wear. Red flag.

So a week later, I receive the suit shipped express. I had gotten an email from Ms. Fanny asking if I've received the suit after they shipped it, and she seemed truly interested in if it was to my liking. THEY WASHED IT IN WATER AGAIN. The smell of regular laundry detergent was extremely strong, and the suit was in worse condition before due to the second washing. I was flabbergasted.

About a month has passed, and Ms. Fanny has ignored my emails (3-4) and calls (5+, she's always "in a meeting", "just left", "on break"), and SPG is saying it's all up to the property. I have reached out to SPG Lurker, but initial communications indicate the same.

I get that mistakes happen. But they should be made right especially when it's something like this that's due to sheer negligence. I asked for dry cleaning and my garments were washed and dried, ruining them.

Any ideas of what to do?




Stretching


Swollen collar, felt coming apart

Kacee

Wow that sucks. Obviously you can't launder a wool suit.

With the property in Bali, there's really no legal recourse. You should give them a 1* TA review, some properties really care about that. Beyond that, you may just have to write this off as an unfortunate outcome.

CCIE_Flyer

I am always super-paranoid about this sort of thing, as most hotels will limit their liability to 10 times the cost of the service (literally fine print), which obviously doesn't cover most of the garments you'd care enough about to have dry cleaned. I know not whether it does any good (so far, so good - knock on wood), but I put hand-written instructions/requests, such as "DRY CLEAN ONLY, PLEASE!"

Given this level of incompetence and indifference, though, I doubt seriously it'd have done you any good. Hopefully SPG makes some kind of goodwill gesture here - I wish you the best...

craigthemif

Wow. That sucks. Your best recourse is likely to be SPG corporate for some kind of gesture.

Not to excuse the hotel and their cleaners, but how many Indonesians in tropical Bali will have ever seen a wool suit before? Is there any reason for dry cleaning to be available in such a tropical climate with practically no business / corporate travel?

LondonElite

That really takes the biscuit. Let me be the first to pitch in with travel insurance...

RafKa

No offense, but that is such a patronizing point of view! A (supposedly) high end hotel should have widespread access to dry cleaning facilities and their housekeeping employees should be well versed with the procedures, end of! According to your logic, vendors won't have business meetings with their clients in Bali? Hotel managers won't need their suits dry cleaned? Like the OP, no one attends weddings in Bali and might need their suit/dress dry cleaned? And what is the suitable alternative cloth for a suit in these climates: linen, polyester...? I live in a tropical country, own about 10 good suits, which are all made of wool (some w/ lighter thread, others heavier thread) and zero linen suits. Linen suits are for middle-aged Brits travelling abroad...

craigthemif

It is also patronizing when people go abroad and assume that everything is exactly the same as it is at home.

Having travelled extensively throughout South-east Asia, I can assure you that hotel managers are NOT wearing wool suits unless in a business city hotel or expecting dignitaries. Even the president of Indonesia rarely wears suits, unless in the company of foreign dignitaries. So it's entirely within the realms of possibility that a member of staff at an outsourced laundry service didn't really know what to do with a wool suit they might not have come across before.

I certainly had no intention of being patronizing, merely pointing out that one might... just might... want to consider the local customs and practices before rushing to blame others and calling them incompetent. Again, I repeat that it's a shame the OP had his suit ruined.

AZ Travels the World

I have a hard time accepting this view. This isn't The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, it's an outlet of Le Meridien, a 4-Star international business hotel chain.

The staff performed incompetently. I know that may sound harsh, but it's a fact. Is suit dry cleaning a typical request at this property? Likely not, given the location and typical attire of guests. But does that mean that staff shouldn't know how to get a suit competently dry cleaned when one is entrusted to them? They absolutely should. Or they should take it off their laundry form.

The consistent professionalism of upscale international hotels is a key reason we choose to stay at them, even in exotic locations. In my view, being able to trust that they will know how to get a suit successfully dry cleaned is a pretty fundamental expectation.

RogerD408

Granted, lacking any instructions otherwise, local customs would be reasonable. However, the OP specifically requested dry cleaning on their form that included dry cleaning as an option. The only assumption was expecting them to read and follow directions. Failure to do so makes them liable.

alphaod

I don't think the OP is patronizing at all. If you go to a cafe that sells coffee and tea, and asked for coffee and you got tea, would that be okay or would you call that patronizing the cafe because "they don't customarily drink coffee" in that country?

Doesn't matter if it's wool or not, you don't wash and dry if the customer asks for dry clean. I have linen suits, they are all dry cleaned, and I have silk T-shirts you can be sure I also only use dry clean for those. Doesn't matter what the "local customs" are they are running a hotel for foreign guest not for the locals.

Often1

There is no need to delve into sociological silliness. The property offers dry cleaning, OP checked the dry cleaning box and somewhere in the system, the customer's selection was disregarded. That is all that matters.

Given the location, you are not likely to see any satisfaction and the property knows that you are back home now. Thus, it is disregarding your emails.

If you want to give it one more try, call the property during regular business hours and see if you can't reach the GM. Ask her for a credit to your CC in the amount of the value of the suit.

It may be easier and more fruitful to make a claim against your travel insurance. You will have to check your policy carefully, but it's likely covered as damage. Fair warning that most policies pay "fair market value" and unless the suit was unworn with the tags still on it, the FMV won't be replacement cost.

MSPeconomist

The typical USA dry cleaner (or laundry service) also limits liability to ten times the cost of the service. At times, this makes me nervous. In fact, it's an argument for having the dry cleaning done through a hotel as you might have some additional recourse with the hotel.

Flews

Sounds to me like the issue is with the dry cleaners.

Cheers,

gengar

Very disappointing response from SPG. I guess the lesson learned is never to leave the property without these issues resolved / not to let the property have a chance for service recovery post-departure.

It's legalese just to protect the hotel. As with any other service recovery, good properties/management will go above and beyond when they know they are at fault.


There are no local "customs and practices" that justify a property offering dry cleaning but washing the garments instead.

margarita girl

I agree. Slam them on Trip Advisor. Properties really care about this. GM might finally try to reach out to you.