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PBH bad experience. What to do? (long)

fervour

Mouseketeer
Joined
Oct 16, 2000
I stayed at PBH 1/17/2003. I and a friend will be staying at RPR this October. There were 5 of us for this past January staying at club level. Total for the night was $275. Below is a description of my experience. I'm thinking of asking for a complimentary meal at PBH for me and my friend for this coming October for my trouble. I feel that is reasonable compensation. What do you think is a reasonable request of PBH? ( I haven't sent the mail yet and would love any suggestions). Thanks!!!

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Thank you for issuing a follow-up email regarding my stay at Portifino Bay Hotel the night of January 17, 2004.

Although you did not ask how we enjoyed the stay, I feel compelled to tell you. Upon checking out of the hotel my feelings were "Thank God it was only one night and at an annual passholder rate".

The reasons for our stay being so unpleasant are as follows:
1.) Our room keys did not work. It took an hour and half to resolve this issue.
2.) Because our room keys did not work, we were unable to take advantage of the club level refreshments.
3.) We were blamed by the staff as having caused our room keys not to work.
4.) Our room was unclean.
5.) Parking was difficult.


Our room keys did not work.

We arrived to the hotel about 11:00AM and were pleasantly surprised to find that our room was ready. I was excited. After having had an excellent stay at the Royal Pacific Resort last October, my expectations were high. We went to check out the room, had no problems with our keys, and then headed to the theme parks. After having spent the entire afternoon in the parks, we returned to the room at 5:00PM only to find that none of our room keys would allow us entry. Our room number was 2566 and was quite a distance from the lobby, so I found the nearest phone and phoned the frontdesk. The frontdesk said they were sending someone to open the door. We waited.

Because our room keys did not work, we were unable to take advantage of club level refreshments.

After waiting a little while, I decided I would leave the others waiting at the door and go to the club room to see if I could bring back refreshments to the rest of my party. Logistically it was impossible to bring back refreshments. I trekked the long walk back to the room. Sometime before my return, security had arrived and opened the door. Security had left and had requested the frontdesk to send up new keys. Security told us that our room keys had been erased, probably because of a cell phone or car keys, or some other electronic interference. Security told us that we should not keep our room keys near cell phones. By the time, our new keys arrived from the front desk, it was 6:30. No one felt like walking back to the club room for refreshments after the long wait. Refreshments were to be offered from 5PM till 7PM. No one felt like going back to Citywalk as was our initial plan because of our problems.

We were blamed by the staff as having caused our room keys not to work.

When security opened the door for my party in my absence, Security explained to my mother how we had probably caused our room keys to fail. Later that evening I spoke to the same man from security and received the same indictment, we had somehow caused the failure due to exposure to external electo-magnetic interference. I did not point out that none of our cards worked and that our party had seperated in the parks. My guess would be that the front desk at check-in failed to encode the room keys correctly. Everyone makes mistakes. Blaming the victim for a shortcoming on the part of a co-worker seems less than professional. Let me emphasis, the man from security was very cordial. But the fact that he was friendly does not change the fact that we were blamed.

Our room was unclean.

All right, our room wasn't unclean. In fact, It appeared clean.---except. . . --- After the room key fiasco no one was in the mood to go out to eat. So, I was going to get ice. The ice bucket had the liner in it and was filled with water. We had not used the ice bucket. Probably the guests that were in the room before us had no communicable disease, but finding your ice bucket used is ,well, just plain creepy. What was really creepy is that the ice bucket was perfectly in it's spot in the cabinet neatly behind the glasses that were neatly arranged on their coasters. What goes through your mind when you find this is "Did housekeeping change the glasses? Surely the former guests didn't put the ice bucket back in the cabinet perfectly arranged and then put the glasses in front of the bucket. Maybe housekeeping just forgot the bucket when they were cleaning. . .But what if they didn't change the glasses. . . ." Also, our room only had a partial roll of toilet paper.

Parking was difficult.

The frontdesk clerk failed to explain the parking garage. This is minor complaint, but Portifino Bay Hotel is supposed to be a luxury resort. So, we were going to park. My sister pulled to the gate and got a ticket before I could explain that I thought our room keys would let us in the gate. However, the signs everywhere said, "Make sure to get your parking ticket validated". At some point during the stay I asked the frontdesk clerk if our room keys would be all that was necessary to exit the parking garage. The clerk said yes. When we checked out the gate was open. So it really wasn't an issue. All the signs about getting your ticket validated apparently were there just for the sake of confusion.
 
De-magnetizing of room keys happens frequently. It happened twice when we we on our 4-night Disney Wonder cruise two years ago. When one key gets messed up, all keys issued for that cabin have to be redone. Talk about a pain in the neck!

Anyway, I can understand your frustration. However, I think that you need to be a little more clear as to how this inconvenience prevented your entire party from enjoying the club-level refreshments. Were you unable to get into the club room or was it just that you were unable to carry the refreshments for you party the distance from the club room to your hotel room? When you say that it was "logistically impossible to bring back refreshments" you are somewhat vague in your explanation.

Also, why was it necessary for 4 members of your party to stay behind while you went to the club room alone? Did you have elderly or disabled people in your party? Were they tired and just did not feel like taking the long walk to the club room? A more complete explanation could benefit your case.

You also do not mention how long it took for security to respond to your request for assistance nor how long it was after they left before your replacement keys arrived. Offering a timeline of events will give management an opportunity to assess where the delay occurred.

Regarding the explanation given by security in reference to your keys. I think that I would have regarded it more as friendly advise from someone with more experience in the matter than I would view it as a "blame the victim" mentality.

Lastly, I think that I would probably skip mentioning the ice bucket thing and the parking garage mix up. It detracts from your main complaint and may give the appearance that you are "just a complainer". Your room itself was not unclean. Your ice bucket had not been attended to properly. You could have called housekeeping to request a new ice bucket and fresh water glasses if your felt that their cleanliness was compromised. You were able to find a parking space and I am assuming that it was of adequate size to allow you to park your vehicle comfortably. The signage in the garage simply caused confusion but in no way cost you time or money or compromised the safety of your car.

In essence, stick to your chief complaint. Give names and times if you have them. Suggest how you would have preferred to see it handled. Perhaps, since you did not get to enjoy the club level refreshments that evening, complimentary refreshments sent to your room would have smoothed things over a bit. Do not request compensation but be gracious if it is offered. In the end, it was your decision not to go to the club room when you got your new keys, even though there were still 30 minutes left before the refreshments would be put away. And it was the decision of your group not to go to CityWalk that evening, even though there was still plenty of evening hours ahead of you when all the problems with your keys was sorted out.
 
Thanks for the advice, mad4themouse. I definitely needed an objective opinion. I will incorporate many of your ideas. Even though there are some points with which I disagree, I can see how my position needed clarifying.

I will include the age of my Mother (74) and the fact that my brother has Down's Syndrome.

FYI - My sister did not return with us at 5:00PM. When she did come back her key did not work either.

I am still considering your advice on the ice bucket. It might be nitpicky, but at $275/night, I expect better service. I've stayed in $50/night Comfort Inns and equivalents. I would be willing to cut some slack to those institutions. I think it is reasonable to expect better from a luxury hotel. If I do decide to mention the ice bucket. I will make my issue clearer.

Again thanks for taking the time to point out where my letter could be better.
 
Sorry to hear about what happened I agree u should complain explain u had special needs in your party and that u feel a better service should have been given rather than deflecting blame onto your party from security no matter how nice he is a lecture is a lecture also if u where in any shops which use maganetic taging to deter thieves the keys can be deactivated by these if your key is placed near there detagger which is usually hidden at the till point:jester:
 


Just a quick comment on the ice bucket. We have stayed at the pbh and have also stayed at several park hyatts and ritz-carltons, and it is customary upon check in that either upon first being taken to the room by the bell man or withing one hour of check in, that my ice bucket has been filled by housekeeping or the person who delivers our bags. This is somewhat customary at most luxury resorts. My guess is your bucket was filled as a service earlier when you checked in much like a bed turndown and it was much later when you checked into your room and inspected the ice bucket. Just a thought.
 
thanks for the support, highlander447.

Wow, fastbreak, I had no idea that some hotels did that :crazy: . It does make me feel better about the cleanliness issue. That seems to make more sense. It just didn't make sense to me that someone would put the bucket back perfectly in the cabinet if . I can't imagine why someone would fill your ice bucket so early though. I confess I did not touch the water, so I don't know if it was cold. If it had been ice earlier that day, it was completely melted. I have gotten ice at night and had it last all night. So it's a bit strange that the there was no ice left. I suppose they could have gotten ice immediately after we went to the parks.

I feel like such a country bunkin. I've stayed at Opryland Hotel and Westin Peachtree Atlanta. I've just stayed at the Moderates in Disney. Of course I stayed at a bunch of budgets!:teeth: None of those places filled my ice bucket. None of those are the Ritz-Carlton either! hehe
 
When we stayed at PBH in July, we had ice in our bucket when we arrived. I believe this was because our Loew's welcome gift included soft drinks, which were next to the bucket.
 



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