A filthy room at the inn
Question: I recently stayed at a Hampton Inn in Canton, Miss., with my husband and 2-year-old son. When we got to our room, it was a mess.
The bathroom hadn’t been cleaned. There was a hairpin on the floor, a rubber band and a clothespin on the counter, and worst of all, we found a pill on the floor. I immediately called the front desk and asked that housekeeping do a thorough cleaning. I didn’t want my toddler to find something else on the floor — maybe another pill — and try to eat it.
We left the room and came back that night only to find that none of the items had been picked up. I ended up cleaning up the room myself and found a pencil eraser and loose change under the beds.
When we checked out, I noticed a sign on the door that said that Hampton has a 100 percent satisfaction guarantee. I sent Hampton an e-mail after I returned, and then followed up a few days later with another e-mail and a call. So far I haven’t gotten a response. What can I do?
– Stacie Heflin, Prairieville, La.
Answer: Your room should have been cleaned before you checked in. When the hotel failed to dispatch a housekeeping crew, forcing you to become your own cleaning lady, it should have invoked its own satisfaction guarantee and not charged you for your room.
Instead, Hampton not only made you pay for your night, but also didn’t respond to your e-mails complaining about your substandard stay. As an occasional guest at a Hampton property, I can tell you that this is unusual. In my experience, the housekeeping staff services the rooms before guests check in, and the hotel responds promptly to customer-service inquiries.
So what happened? I spoke with a Hampton representative, who told me that on the days you sent a message to the hotel, its company-wide e-mail system was not working. Remarkably, on the day you called the hotel, its phones were also on the blink. As a result, no one knew of your dissatisfaction until you contacted me.
Hampton offers a pretty unique no-questions-asked, money-back guarantee of “friendly service, clean rooms, comfortable surroundings, every time.” But the best time to make a claim under such a guarantee is while you are still at the hotel. You should have spoken with a manager before leaving the property — not waited until you got home.
Once I brought your situation to Hampton’s attention, it responded immediately by refunding your night in Canton. “We deeply regret that Ms. Heflin and her family experienced the deficiencies she described,” Monica Gaston, Hampton’s director of brand communications, wrote to me in an e-mail. “We have shared the guest feedback with the hotel in question and steps are being taken to ensure that these types of issues do not occur again in the future.”
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I can confirm that the Hampton hotel front desk is authorized to honor the guarantee. If the clerk isn’t high enough to sign off on it themselves, they can get in touch with a manager who can authorize them to do so.
I stayed at the Hampton Inn in Lafayette, Louisiana on a business trip a few months ago. I got an unexpected upgrade to a suite, which was actually very stylish, clean, and comfortable. I was delighted, and I went off to a late-ish dinner expecting to come back to a good deep snooze. Instead, I was kept awake until four in the morning by the noisy children and the loud TV of the room above. Repeated calls to the front desk got profuse apologies, but no help, from the clerk. The next day, the desk clerk told me the family in the room above mine left and they had no reservation for the room that night, so I was willing to try again (and actually was looking forward to it).
As I was walking to my room later that evening, I noticed a couple of hip-hop “gangster” types in the lobby with a couple bodacious young ladies apiece on their arms. That’s fine by me; I’m not a prude… if they’re planning a raunchy party night, a hotel is, after all. the traditional place for that sort of thing. I came out of my room a bit later to get some ice, and who do you guess was checking into the suite on the other side of the connecting door with mine… About ten that night, I was sitting on the couch in my room wishing I had a tape recorder just for laughs, because I was being treated to an embarrassingly distinct LIVE pornographic soundtrack. (Seriously, I was kind of impressed by their apparent energy and creativity.) Calls to the front desk again got me apologies for the thin walls and an explanation that the contractor cut some pretty serious corners, but no help that time either.
Checking out next day, I pointed to the guarantee on the brochure and told them what had happened, and said that in fairness I could not expect my company to pay for the miserable stay. The clerk got on the phone to her supervisor, and ten minutes later I was assured that the room would not be charged. And it indeed wasn’t.