Question: I’m trying to get some compensation for a hotel stay that didn’t meet my expectations. But all I’ve gotten so far is an empty apology. I hope you can do better.
I recently stayed at the Howard Johnson Oceanfront Plaza Hotel in Ocean City, Md. When we arrived at the hotel early Friday morning, the room was not cleaned, the bed was not made from the previous occupants and there were no pillowcases on the pillows.
I went to the front desk and I was told they were booked solid for my entire stay and the room couldn’t be cleaned until the next day. We reluctantly agreed to sleep in the unclean room.
I spoke with the head of housekeeping, the manager on duty the morning we checked in, the manager on duty Saturday morning, and the manager on duty Sunday when we checked out. Every time I tried to get a resolution I was told there was nothing that could be done. My only option was to go to another hotel and forfeit my money for the remainder of the stay. We endured the stay.
I contacted Howard Johnson customer service directly to inform them of my stay. I received an e-mail from them that said my information and complaint were forwarded to the general manager of the franchise for review and I would get a response. The hotel replied with a form apology. That was almost six months ago. Any suggestions? — Erin Hott, Waynesboro, Pa.
Answer: Ewww. You slept in an unmade bed? Someone should give you an award for the most accommodating hotel guest. Ever.
Obviously — and I can’t believe I have to point this out — Howard Johnson should have offered you a clean room. If it mistakenly gave you the key to a room with an unmade bed, it should have offered to change your sheets immediately. It doesn’t matter what time of the day or night you check in — clean sheets are the bare minimum.
When I received your letter, my first response was disbelief. I asked you why you didn’t protest the conditions in your room more loudly. You say you did, but that the hotel staff was equally insistent that they couldn’t clean the room and that your only other option was to leave, but that you’d still be charged for the room. I don’t like those choices.
As always, your best bet is to resolve the problem right there and then. It might have been helpful to contact Howard Johnson at the corporate level. Here’s the contact form.
To underscore the seriousness of your grievance — and trust me, this was serious — you could have copied Maryland’s Consumer Protection Division. I think it would be interested in your story. If nothing else, it would have signaled to Howard Johnson that you didn’t intend to let this go.
By agreeing to live in an unclean room, you limited your chances of resolving this grievance. Once you check out, a hotel is far less likely to compensate you for a substandard stay. One way to light a fire under it is to rope the corporate office into each complaint and subsequent rebuttal. Many hotels fine a franchisee that ignores a customer complaint.
So don’t accept the hand-off to the hotel by the hotel chain. Keep corporate Howard Johnson in the loop, because that keeps pressure on the individual hotel.
I contacted the hotel on your behalf. A representative contacted you, and admitted the hotel had experienced some housekeeping problems while you were a guest. Howard Johnson refunded $131 to your credit card.
(Photo: theleahsaur/Flickr Creative Commons)
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Eewww is right. I can’t imagine sleeping in a hotel bed that isn’t clean . “Housekeeping problems”? No, duh.
Completely unacceptable. A friend of mine was night manager at a hotel some years ago, and the occasional housekeeping slip up would occur. At that hotel, my friend the night manager would make up the room himself. I would be asking to speak to the manager on duty and just ask him/her to clean the room. If I were the hotel manager that’s what I’d do, I would also have words with the staff member who was supposed to make up the room.
Why did you stay?
I have taken them off my list of hotels.
Next time threaten to call the local tv station news if they don’t clean the room immediately. If they don’t, carry out and call the news station.
No one can afford that type of publicity.
Marge November 5, 2009 at 8:55 am
Eewww is right. I can’t imagine sleeping in a hotel bed that isn’t clean .
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At least YOU hope their clean. I once chatted with a flight attendant who does the same route weekly for the month. The same hotel in the same city on all her trips. Well, exhausted, she fell asleep one night and didnt wash her face. Her make-up smudged on the sheets. On the same trip the next NIGHT, she got the same room and………………….you guessed it. The bed was made with the same sheets. Make-up smudges still there.
I have not stayed in a Howard Johnsons for years just because of their poor service which has to at least be tolerated at corporate level.
I have had the same experience twice, once in Durham, NC and the other at a hotel at Heathrow. At Heathrow they gave us a room with what I am now assuming, and hoping, in retrospect, was a freshly made up bed and no dirty dishes around left in the room; however, I did have to call them again to come up and clean the bathroom – all this at midnight after a long day’s travel. In Durham, I called the front desk and he offered to come up with clean linens and make the bed himself which I accepted. Howard Johnson, where you stayed, can now be assured that we will not be using their ‘hotels’!!!
There was a simple solution to your problem. A friend of mine was told that her room at the New York Hilton was overbooked (even though she had prepaid it) and she was offered another hotel. She then proceeded to open her suitase in the lobby and disrobe because if her room was not available as promised, she decided to sleep on the sofa in the lobby. Suddenly a suite was found for her. Amazing! Had you actually attempted to sleep in the lobby, the manager on duty would have gone to Housekeeping to get the supplies to make up your room him/herself. Sometimes one has to go overboard to get results — but most of the time, this actually works.