My girlfriend and I reserved this hotel a week in advance on hotels.com. The website indicated parking would be free. We drove here from Vancouver, B. C and arrived to check in.
We were told parking was 8 dollars a night. We informed the clerk that the website hotels.com said it was free. He told us if we printed it out they wouldn't charge us... No big deal. They asked for our license plate number assuming it was to ensure we had a spot.
We went out driving all day and returned to our hotel room around 6-6:30pm. The parking lot was filled to the end of the sidewalk. There was a valet and a sign saying "parking 20 dollars" because we noticed there was a concert playing down the street (the cars were NOT guests).
I talked to the valet security man (who doesn't even work for the hotel) and informed him we were registered guests and that we were paying nightly for a spot at our hotel. He told me to talk to an employee at the hotel, so I did. I repeated exactly what I said to the valet and they directed me back to him.
My girlfriend was a little annoyed and went in to talk to the lady at the desk... She didn't have much to say. My girlfriend asked if there was a manager or head office to complain to and she said there wasn't a head office for the hotel and that "Frank" the manager would be in, in the morning.
The next day we went it to see if Frank was working, he wasn't. It was a very polite trainee and he apologized about the situation the prior evening (the only person to apologize). Once again we went out exploring hollywood. We returned and I saw a man behind the desk. I asked if he was Frank. He did acknowledge that he was indeed Frank. My girlfriend asked if he was aware from the other workers about the problem. He said "yes, but you tell me what your problem is so I don't get the story second hand". Right from the beginning he had a VERY rude and condesending attitude/body language.
We explained that we were paying for parking and that it was ridiculous that they would take down our license to "reserve" a spot and then basically sell our spots and other guests to concert goers for 20 dollars.
He asked "what do you want?" We are not going to charge you for parking (why would they when hotels.com says it's free?!?) I explained it wasn't right and he replied "well parking spots are NOT guaranteed." I then pointed to the sign out side that said "Parking for registered guests ONLY."
He kind of bit his tongue. He then said "since we aren't going to be able to make you happy, you can check out now and we won't charge you for the night or you can check out tomorrow morning." (we reserved a 5 night stay totalling approx 860.00).
We were appauled his first response was to kick us out. We informed him that is no way acceptable how a business should be run. He then informed us that if we didn't pack our things and leave in 30 minutes, he was going to call the police because we were being "belligerent". We were not.
He told us that the previous nights would be discounted 25 percent off... Which were not. We asked for our print out for the credit card and how to be reimbursed for the nights we were not able to stay and finally explained we needed to call hotels.com (he wasn't going to inform us of anything of that sort).
I informed him that my girlfriend worked for CAA (an affiliate of AAA) and he responded "I'm sure you've referred so much business our way! (sarcasm) My girlfriend responded that she talks to people all the time (she issues travel insurance to fellow canadians) and he responded "right, I'm sure you've got SO much pull (again sarcasm).
To conclude, we have never experienced any service like that EVER. Especially with the american economy failing I was surprised how little he cared about his job or the tourism happening in this economy. We were simply kicked out of our reserved hotel because we complained.
I would like to thank Frank because him forcing us to leave let us find The Bxxx Wxxxxx across the street with much nicer rooms and nice friendly staff!
Sorry, allowing you to give a competitors name would instigate others to just file against their competition, to only come back later to suggest their company your comments on this policy are welcome!
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