EuropeanPete

As an SPG Platinum I'd be inclined to ask whether you could lodge a complaint with Corporate. The SPG program has a significant focus on business travelers and I would expect every single hotel under the brands to meet certain minimum business requirements: Internet access, the ability to print, etc. For hotels with laundry service (i.e. almost all), I would expect the property to take due care and make right any errors due to negligence. I couldn't stay at SPG hotels if I worry my one business suit might not come back for work on Monday morning.

My business suits are the most expensive thing I bring with me when travelling, and I only usually have 1-2 the right size at a given time. I would be apoplectic if this happened to me.

UKTraveller4Fun

I have to say the response by the property is very disappointing and to be honest I would expect more of SPG also in making sure the property follows up. I would echo the sentiments of asking Corporate to open a complains file against the property, my understanding is they have to respond within a certain time period to these and cannot simply ignore them. That said the responses are not always the answers you wish to hear.

As someone else mentioned have you got travel insurance as this may help although depending on the age of the suit it maybe they are not willing to value it at much.

In regards the people who suggest the local culture should be considered I am sorry but if a hotel has a form which offers dry cleaning and this is filled in correctly then this does not come into consideration. If the hotel cannot provide the service then it shouldn't be listed on the form.

Final thought which shouldn't be needed in a situation like this but I find more and more it is as service standards drop at times like these it does make having an Ambassador helpful as they are very good at following up with situations like this and getting a good outcome, it is not quite as much you battling the hotel on your own. It is a shame things have got to the point where that statement can be made however.

Canada101

I really don't understand why there is even a debate here. This could be Bali, London, New York or Bogota. It doesn't matter. A customer sent an item to be dry cleaned, specified what they wanted on the form provided by the property and the garment was returned ruined. The simple fact that the property offered to try to re-condition the ruined garment is proof that the property has acknowledged their error. They need to make it right and since their reconditioning did not make things better, they have to pony up for a replacement suit. Period. If the property refuses to do so, SPG corporate should step up. This is ridiculous. Furthermore, it shouldn't matter one bit whether the customer was a Platinum, Ambassador guest or someone who has never stayed at a Starwood property ever. This is about right vs wrong and it is clear that the property screwed up.

SPLP007

SPG corporate --Is a joke!- had a problem "caused by the hotel" resulting in an eye injury -- this is in EUROPE - hotel refused any comp- SPG Corp. response - "it is up to the hotel"

miloworld

I really hope SPG corporate steps up and make it right for you. The hotel did screw up big time.

Dave510

If you wish to pursue another avenue, you could always contact travel bloggers and see if they want to write about your incident, obstensibly to warn their readers of hidden risks with hotel service they might not be aware of. This might give enough of a push for the hotel or SPG corporate to do the right thing and compensate you.

mhdena

Why take our best/favorite suit?

And if you do, why did it need cleaning assuming it was clean when you took it there?

Probably hanging in steam or a light pressing been enough?

EuropeanPete

I fail to see how these questions can be anything other than an attempt to shift some blame to the OP here. Who cares why someone wants clothes cleaned.

Often1

Better yet, why would a property care? The more needless dry cleaning, the more money the property makes. It's not as though this service is generally a money loser.

Why is it anyone's business whether one chooses to dry clean one's clothes every day or every year?

bhrubin

I wholeheartedly agree. I’ve been following the thread to see if the mistake ever got resolved by the LM. I am stunned by the trolls who are attacking the OP for using a hotel service that went awry.

The OP used a hotel service. The hotel offers the service, and so the hotel is responsible for that service. It’s that simple. The service screwed up. The hotel owes the OP for that. The hotel owes the OP a brand new suit IMO. Period.

I am flabbergasted that SPG is not requiring the hotel to reimburse the OP or on its own offering to reimburse the OP.

Dambus

rdlmitedu

I've stayed at that hotel a few times, and when I stayed there, was really impressed by the management -- it sounds like they've had some turnover in the past couple years? Maybe send a physical letter to the GM with photos and a link to both this thread and a negative TripAdvisor review? (When I stayed, the GM was Greg Gubiani, who introduced himself and was a great GM...)

The property should definitely fix this by replacing your suit. Corporate should be advocating for the customer here, and potentially cover it until the property does. I might use my credit card's travel/damage protection here, too.

(You clearly requested dry cleaning, but even if you hadn't, I'd expect a top international hotel on receipt of a wool suit in the laundry to either default to dry clean or contact me before proceeding. It's kind of insulting to Indonesians to assume they can't run a top international hotel -- they definitely do, on the other side of Bali, and until this, I assumed Le Meridien was the same.)

transparent

I have contacted to see if insurance will help cover what the property wouldn't.

I would not have sent it out for "dry cleaning" if it wasn't clear that it was supposed to be "dry cleaning". The form had two halves, one half was "laundry" and the other half was "dry cleaning".

Yes, recently I have started taking out travel insurance. Will see if it comes through.

Unfortunately, SPG corporate's response was "It's up to the property". They do "keep a file", and as far as I can tell, that's as far as it goes, on an individual basis. It sounds like the property is measured in aggregate on these files, though, but that doesn't do anything to make sure any individual incident gets addressed quickly and fairly. That being said, contacting SPG Lurker did appear to bring additional attention to my case, so I appreciated that.

This. Every response from SPG was "Hotel has final say".

transparent

Ms. Parengkuan appears to be a new GM and she mentioned that they were working on service issues. While I have nothing but good things to say about the front-line staff, there were definitely issues with cleanliness (long term maintenance type issues) and such.

Also, given that they "reprocessed" the suit with the "best" cleaner they could find, and it was washed again-- indicates to me that this property cannot be trusted with something important like this. Ms. Parengkuan also insisted she inspected the suit before they shipped it DHL to me and found it to be in acceptable condition. So that tells me something about her ability to discern what is acceptable condition, or she did not really inspect the suit properly.

Either way, I was finally able to reach Ms. Parengkuan to discuss a resolution, after calling several times again after my case was brought to the attention of regional management (which I think made things more urgent for Ms. Parengkuan, as she specifically mentioned that fact and insisted she was not avoiding me). She agreed to compensate me $250, which is a far cry from being able to replace the suit, but may be able to cover repair at a tailor. Even so, given the holes that developed, with repair the suit will never look quite the same, so I may just apply the $250 to a new suit.

We will have to see if the $250 actually comes through though.

andersonCooper

I am really sorry for your experience. As a fellow NYer, I understand how important/expensive a suit is. $250 is far from a tailor suit in New York.

I will definitely avoid this property even if I do not need dry clean service next time.