Crowne Plaza visit Sept. 9-Sept. 11 2011
Crowne Plaza Hampton Marina Hotel
700 Settlers Landing Rd
Hampton, VA 23669
Below is a list of the events of that took place upon arrival to my room at 2AM on 09/12/11
Room# 924 Plaza Suite Est. Size 1100 Sq. Ft.
Reservation#
My wife and I along with 3 friends arrived to our room shortly after 2AM on 09/11/11
Within 5 minutes of arrival to our room we received a visit by 3 security guards and 1 Maintenance man
There was a knock on our door, a friend answered the door and was told there was a noise complaint against our room. My friend apologized for the disruption but assured them that we had not been making any excessive noise other then normal conversation in the room.
At the time of the first visit I was in the restroom and was not notified of this visit until I had come back into the living room from the restroom. Upon being notified by my friend of this visit I decided it would be best to go to the ground floor of the hotel to speak with security about the complaint and to assure them that they must have gotten the wrong room as we had just recently arrived to our room and conversation was at a minimum as another friend was ordering in a pizza
The timeline of events is very important here; the time from which security made the 1st visit to the room to the time I was on the ground floor of the hotel was just under 5 minutes
Upon arrival to the ground floor of the hotel I was surprised to see that security was not present, but within 1 minute of arrival to the ground floor the security staff arrived off of the elevator
I immediately approached them to let them know I was the registered guest of that room and was interested to know what the issue was. The security staff then rudely informed me that they had just visited the room a 2nd time as there was a 2nd complaint of noise from the room, I was told a guest in my room answered the door, requested to speak with a manager and when security told her their was no manager on the premises they claim she proceeded to slam the door in their face. (Let me note here that this particular room had double metal doors with a double latch that had not been lubricated in very long time as I always found myself having to slam the door to get it to properly shut)
I then went on to inform the security staff that I Apologized but assured that we had not been making any noise in our room that would reasonably validate a complaint about noise from our room as any conversation taking place was no louder then at the level we were currently talking at. I was then told that at this point what I had to say did not matter and that they had called the Hampton Police Dept. And that officers were arriving shortly to handle the so-called dispute
Within a few seconds the officers arrive and the security guards go into informing them they had been to my room 2 times for noise complaints and that individuals in the room were being loud and not cooperating with them, I then go onto explain to the officers that we had not been making any noise at which point the officers stop my conversation and tell me we are all going back up to the hotel room.
At this point security is coming up to our room with the officers and me for a 3rd time in a matter of 15min. From the first visit. Upon the 3rd arrival my wife who opened the door for the second time is very angry and upset with security and has some Harsh words for them and the officers to which I do believe she was entitled to as every person in the room was very taken back and in disbelief of the harassment that was going on. At that point the officers threatened to arrest my wife if she kept talking to them so I had her walk away from the situation.
I proceeded to try and reason again with Security and the officers that they must be mistaken as to where the complaint was as we had not been making any loud noises. The topic was not open for discussion, they decided we were in the wrong and one of the officers proceeded to walk into my room to find and remove any of our guests from the property and warned them that they had to leave.
I went downstairs with my guests to see them out and upon arrival to the ground floor a friend and I tried to discuss again that this was a big mistake and I explained to them that from the time of the 1st visit to the 2nd visit to our room was less then 5 minutes and that it was obvious that the 2nd complaint was obviously the noise made from them (Security Guards) by walking to our room, knocking on the door, the conversation that took place and the door being opened and shut on the 1st visit and asked why the front desk would not explain to the person complaining that what they heard upon making a 2nd complaint was their own security staff confronting our room, My friend tried to help explain the situation to them as well at which point one of the security guards called him a drunk then the officers told him he must leave the property or he will be arrested. I was told if their was a 3rd complaint we would be kicked out of the hotel room and officers said we would risk being arrested.
I then go back up to my room and my wife is the only one in the room, At this point we are both extremely angry and upset over the harassment and embarrassment that we had received by the security guards of the hotel we decided that we needed to leave the hotel as we both felt it was a matter of minutes before they came up to remove us from the room and potentially have us arrested by the officers, since the last 3 visits by security to our room was completely unjustified we felt it was immanent that they would soon be back up to confront us and did not feel comfortable sleeping in the hotel that night.
We had a friend arrive to the hotel to pick us up and take us home and we left the hotel shortly before 3AM on 09/12/11
On Mon. 09/12 I contacted the General Manager of the Hotel Mr. John Depiro to let him know what took place on our visit. He informed that he would have to do an investigation and contact the security company to whom they contracted for security to get statements from the guards on duty during the situation and that he would contact me on 09/13.
On 09/13 Mr. Depiro contacted me on a conference call with his Director of Rooms Mr. Augustus Allen. Mr. Depiro informed me that while he apologized for the problems we encountered based on the statements of the security staff there was nothing he could do for me to compensate for the harassment we received. He stated that he had to give money back to the guest that had made the complaints as a result of our actions. The points Mr. Depiro tried to make to me was Dancing Around the real issue at hand as he mostly focused on the fact that my wife was cussing and flipping off the security guards and police officers on the 3rd visit to the room and that one of my friends was kicked off of the property for talking to the officers. When I mentioned the timeline between the 1st and 2nd visit to our room and noted the fact that the 2nd complaint was obviously from the security guards 1st visit to the room from the noise they created he told me that he had not gathered any information on the timeline of events, At this point It was obvious to me Mr. Depiro was not serious about fairly trying to investigate and correct the issue. I informed him I would never visit that hotel again and thanked him for his time.
A few key points
-At no time during any confrontations with the security guards or any officers did I, my wife or my friends raise their voice above any level that would be considered yelling, or screaming etc
-At no time before, between or after security visited the room was their any person in the room being loud, belligerent, banging on objects or doing anything other then normal conversation no louder then a television at a reasonable listening volume
-The double metal door on the hotel room was in dire need of service as the latches on the door had no lubrication making the door very hard to close and loud when closing. This is the only thing we can suspect which caused the 1st complaint
-After security left the room from the 1st visit they were not able to make it to the ground floor before hearing of 2nd complaint, I feel it was very incompetent of the front desk to not mention to the complainer who was calling for the second time that what they heard was the security staff visiting our room and even more ridiculous that the security guards did not realize this as well, but rather steamed right back to our room to tell us we were still being loud. Again, there was not even a 5 minute window between the 1st and 2nd visit.
-In all of the confrontations with the security guards they would make smart, and degrading remarks and the smirks on their faces made it obvious they were enjoying what they were doing.
-We did not make any noise in our room to justify a legitimate complaint, we wanted nothing more then to enjoy our stay and book our room for the next year upon departure. We did not wish or do anything to justify the harassment and embarrassment brought on by the hotels 3rd party contracted security guards.
On another note as well, we realized that we left our digital camera in the hotel room-The hotel claims they do not have it so it is obvious one of the maids stole it.
Mr. Depiro, No reason to bother even responding to this review, You had a chance to correct the issue, but based on other reviews with other who have had issues it is obvious the hotel does not care about their customers
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