Nikki Bird Disaster!

[Kay1]

y husband and I have taken our boys to the Nikki Bird many times. Yesterday, after many ours spent at MK and MGM (the boys and I) and wiht his mother in DeLand(DH) we tried to check into the Kidsuite we reserved through EasyCliick Travel.

The boys and I waited in the car as long as we could then went inside to see what was wrong with Dad. We saw a huge line and Dad was still waiting. The people who were being served seemed aggitated. Finally, it was my husband's turn and, from my perspective across the lobby, he seemed relieved to be helped.

Soon, he turned away and said to me, "You won't believe this. You simply won't believe this, let's go." We'd already had a rough day including a flat on a brand new tire.

It seems the Nikki Bird still has part of its sign up, but it's not the same hotel, nor run by Holiday Inn anymore. The clueless front desk people said their hotlel had taken over the day before (Friday) and they were picking and chosing who could or couldn't check in. They told my husband he needed to fill in a 3-page request form because Priceline (whcih is the comapany he mistakenly thought was ours) might be one of those companies that wouldn't pay.

The new hotel is "Home Suite Home." They say they rent suites at $149/week. Yes, per week! Some of the people entering the rooms near the parking lot looked like day laborers, at best.

If you have a Nikki Bird ressie, take action now, because this is a bad situation. My husband and I drove to the HI Sunspree and got a Kidsuite at a AAA rate. We were okay, but felt awful for the people who arrived without a car or from another state or country.

 

[pepperw23]

Okay, I officially withdraw the good comments I made about the Niki Bird. That is just plain messed up.

 

[CarolA]

I would contact EasyClick and DEMAND my money back....

 

[kilee]

I'm glad to see Holiday Inn finally dumped this hotel. It by far was not up to the same standards. I'm glad you were able to work something out, and thank you for the head's up.

Btw, I think I'd also be contacting the Holiday Inn corp. I have found them to be very helpful. I'm thinking they may be able to honor the rate you intially had w/ them for the Sunspree if you ask. Of course there is no guarantee, but I've found them to be very understanding.

 

[CPM]

I'm also very glad Holiday Inn FINALLY dropped them. I wonder what everyone that won it on Priceline will do now.

 

[Kay1]

My husband called Easy Click and they agreed it was a bad situation and their financial people are supposed to call me today. I think I will e-mail Holiday Inn and see what they can do. Really, I'm more concerned about the people who won the Nikki Bird after trying for All Star Sports or Music. For some it's their first time using Priceline and some may not have cars.

 

[A Mickeyfan]

Holiday Inn finally listened, now if Priceline would only. If anyone has PL ressies at the Nikki Bird, I would call PL & the Nikki Bird ASAP! I would find out from Nikki Bird if they are honoring your ressie. If your ressie will not be honored, PL must refund you your money or allow you another you to bid again using that same money. Good Luck to everyone involved.

 

[Disneynutbsv]

Holiday Inn finally listened, now if Priceline would only. If anyone has PL ressies at the Nikki Bird, I would call PL & the Nikki Bird ASAP! I would find out from Nikki Bird if they are honoring your ressie. If your ressie will not be honored, PL must refund you your money or allow you another you to bid again using that same money. Good Luck to everyone involved.

I did contact priceline yesterday and this was their message:

Thank you for taking the time to send us an e-mail. We understand that
you are concerned about your hotel reservation in Orlando, FL.

Reservations placed through our website are secure. Upon acceptance of
your request, we purchase your reservations. There is no risk that you
will lose your reservations.

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to assist you!

So, it looks like a generic message and I seriously doubt anything will be done. I bid, hoping to get AS Sports, but ended with NIkki bird. I already had ressies thru hotwire for Best Western in Downtown Disney, so we'll stay there. I just figured it would be worth a try if we could get AS Sports

 

[DianeV]

I would write back to Priceline and state that this is not the hotel you won anymore and that you should not have to keep a reservation when a hotel changes owners..who knows what amenities have changed etc? Sounds like Priceline needs to do a review of the place to see if they still want to use it and what star rating it should have.

 

[MyGoofy26]

For those who used Priceline, I tried finding something in Priceline's terms regarding what happens if a hotel changes ownership, closes, or anything that might be remotely related to this and couldn't find anything (might have missed it, but it wasn't in the things I was reading on the site)

I would imagine that since you had a reservation for a brand name hotel (no matter how sub-par it is compared to others of that brand) that this change should give you some leverage. Then add in that the price that was paid through Priceline is MORE than the new price of this new hotel ($149 a week comes out to about $21 a night - with bid and PL fees, people are paying more than double)

I don't personally have a reservation so I know Priceline won't talk to me about how it'll handle other peoples' reservations. But it seems pretty shady and slimy since this hotel KNEW they would be changing ownership (I highly doubt the decision and deal was made on a whim overnight Thursday into Friday) and yet still offered rooms on Priceline based on the old ownership.

If anyone with a Priceline reservation calls PL or the hotel and gets more information (or manages to get refunded) then please PM me . . .or post! I'll update the calendar with information for others who have Nikki Bird reservations.

 

[DeeCeeSW]

I would write back to Priceline and state that this is not the hotel you won anymore and that you should not have to keep a reservation when a hotel changes owners..who knows what amenities have changed etc? Sounds like Priceline needs to do a review of the place to see if they still want to use it and what star rating it should have.

Unfortunately, PL could care less about the change of hands. I had this happen to me in Virginia. My ressie was originally for a Hampton Inn that changed to a Econolodge. PL would not refund me or allow me to change anything since the new owners agreed to honor all the PL ressies made prior to the changeover.

I hope things are different with this Nikki Bird situation!!

 

[Kay1]

Priceline should definitely let you change hotels as this "new" hotel doesn't appear to be a hotel at all. I read comments on Sheryl's board, www.bidingfortravel.com, and it seems this hotel doesn't provide daily maid service, soap, etcetera. I'm still trying to figure out what's going on. I e-mailed Holiday Inn but haven't heard from them or Easy Click. I think the new place is meant to provide housing for local workers who can't afford a deposit on an apartment. Just my guess, though.

 

[KRWong]

We arrived last Sunday and found the room smelly, but livable. It's old and the pool was ok. The hot tub was green...yes, green...my kids weren't allowed in there! The laundry room was nice, looked like new washers and dryers.

Anyway, got the kids in the shower that night after the pool and there was a huge puddle in the bathroom, I had just finished unpacking and DH asked if we should move. No, we'll make do with the water! Anyway, the next night after a full day at the parks our keys don't work! I storm into the front and have to deal with some lame excuse about our cell phones or credit cards demagnetizing the key. The key was protected and not near our cell phone! Anyway, skip a night...it happened again! I went in and the lame excuse was that they lock you out of your room after 10 hours for our safety! HUH???? I asked to speak to a manager and she said one would call me...then, I get...Oh, by the way did you get the letters about the change tomorrow? What letters??? What change? The letters on your bed. Uh, hello?? We haven't been back to our rooms yet!! Locked out!!!! Told me about the change over and said that I was ok, didn't need to do anything else because I was in the system.

Anyway, I waited for the manager to call me, never did...went the next morning anyway because I didn't trust her and sure enough we had to stand in line (I didn't it was our last day) and I asked if I could take care of everything that night. Of course!

Well, that night I told the man at the desk my story...told him I was completely dissatisfied with my stay and the lack of customer service. I told him I'd be sure to mention this on the many message boards I'm on and he very flippantly said to make sure I say it was Holiday Inn not HSH! I told him I would mention both since he was treating me this way! Enter the manager...repeat tale. What can he do for me? I told him nothing, check me out as I was leaving in the morning and would definitely be telling people not to stay there! He gave me the night that it was HSH at $33 which saved me $50 that night, but I still wouldn't stay there. They are going to remodel and maybe it will be better and hopefully cleaner. They gave me a sheet that had all the items you could "rent" for the week incl, blankets, soap, flatware, etc. I also had to fill out three forms including something about garbage. I was so glad we were out of there!

Ok, then I go to my room after dealing with all this at 11:00 that night and you guessed it, housekeeping had not been there! My DH went up to the front to at least get some towels and he was told the housekeeping staff had walked off the job and they didn't get towels washed that day. We showered, just used the towels that we had, but I did hear the lady next to me in line talking about how awful her room was, not cleaned and they let her check into it!! I couldn't beleive it!

Needless to say, we will never stay there...DH even said go back to on Disney property! At least the rooms are clean and not smelly!

 

[brivers222]

Yeah we were checking out the day they OFFICIALLY changed the name May 19th.

It sucked we came home (well thank god it wasn't home home, just the room) from US/IOA and had a note on the door saying, "EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY -- Holiday Inn Nikki Bird will be flying under the HOME SUITE HOME flag, featuring weekly rooms for $149. Yeah well my Room key was deactivated so I had to go up to the front desk to get it fixed because with the change of owner ship also came the closing of current accounts.

The next morning all we had to do was checkout (Thank god that was all) I watched as several people infront of me cussed out the workers an vowed to sue several times... Nothing was screwed up during our stay except we over paid (39.99 a night) for the crappy room they supplied.

Personally I feel that the $149 a week and $169 is a HUGE RIP OFF for anybody attempting to stay there. Its a shame that they are even selling such quality items as Disney Tickets in their lobby!

 

[Kay1]

Soap for rent? Now I've heard everything, KRWong! Just to keep you guys posted, we called Easy Click again yesterday afternoon and were told they'd credited our CC for the full amount. Priiceline needs to do this as well, I don't care how strict they are. A 2 1/2 property does not charge extra for a bar of soap, for Pete's sake. Also, the man in line behind my husband at check-in said he'd already been to his room and found a completely undone room; garbage, bed wasn't made, etcetera. I thought the front desk had made a mistake but maybe they felt they had no choice if the maids walked out. Call Priceline, y'all. This is not okay.

 

[kilee]

Charging for soap-- OMG !!!

 

[LakeAriel]

UPDATE!!!!!!

The Nikki Bird site has been removed, no longer exist! Priceline sent me a phone number which I called a few minutes ago. After waiting on hold for 5 minutes I was told they would contact the hotel and send me an Email within 2 days. I will let everyone know how well they handle this. I am disappointed that neither the Holiday Inn nor Priceline let me know, I had to find out here!

 

[brivers222]

HI Nikki sent me a thank you for staying with us e-mail for our one night stay on May 6th. However I have yet to get anything from them for my May 15th - 19th stay.

When i was talking the receptionist (still HI at this point) on Thursday night she said that they found out about 1/2 hour earlier (around 10:30pm) that they would be losing their jobs effective 12am. She was not happy and I can only imagine that the rest of the housekeeping didn't bother to show up that night either. Luckily we were checking out and not staying for this huge ordeal.

 

[snickerboo]

What a disaster. I'm sorry for those who got caught up in this. The Holiday Inn hotels in Orlando are not good and I doubt the chain will hold onto them long. I can see them building more "Nick Suites" and selling the older ones.

Holiday Inn is owned by Intercontinental Hotels. They have a customer service number (check the website). I would imagine that you paid Priceline on a CC. If you charged it recently you can do a 'chargeback' on your cc. Call your cc company and explain.

 

[KRWong]

Ok, I re-read the Lodging Policy...sorry those things weren't for rent. It was a list of items and their cost if you lost or damaged anything while staying. Mattress $200, Sofa Bed $265, Towel $8, Washcloth $4, Window $400, etc. They will only be providing LIGHT housekeeping once a week, they'll replace bed linens and towels only if you follow instructions and you can purchase the extra Bed and Bath Pkg with extra set of sheets, blanket, pillow and two complete sets of towels for $12 per week.

Sorry! When I first read it, it was after being upset with them so I didn't really read it! Too many instructions for me, how to set up for your one housekeeping, garbage disposal, rules too numerous to post, etc. LOL