questionmotives

Well BB, just to clarify, are you looking for contriteness and apologies, or are you hoping that your complaints will actually change corporate policies?

Any employee can be trained to, pardon the expression, "kiss ass" and issue coupons. If that is your ultimate goal, great. That's O.K. If the goal is actually to affect policy, again, I would suggest that by your own experience, local level complaints are not handled seriously, perhaps because change is not affected locally, and employees know it.

Again, just IMO. Thanks for all the info, it is very much appreciated.

Patrick

I was sort of thinking the same thing, questionmotives. If I had the experience buddybuddy had, I might be a little impressed that Patrick O'Neill took the time to post here and then answered my questions. But the things you described seem to indicate a general way the hotel is run. Has he done anything to convince you that the same things wouldn't happen next time you stayed there? Has he assured you they are hiring more staff, for example or redoing the phone/message service? If not, there are many other choices of hotels in New York, and frankly I'd be moving on to one of them. Apologizing for the problems doesn't really mean the next experience would be any different from the one you just had.

GoTravel

Patrick, this is exactly why I was wondering what the actual problems were and why questionable customer service usually isn't a problem.

Are these problems that can be fixed? Was housekeeping horrendous? Was F&B two hours late with room service? Did the fire alarms go off all night long? Were these problems that affected just buddybuddy or hotel wide problems?

Example; if the fire alarms went off all night, you've got everyone in the hotel calling the front desk and of course there will be a 10-15 minute wait.

buddybuddy

To answer questions asked, I am hoping that my feedback to the hotel helps them to identify problems. I can't make changes for them, but I am hoping they seek to understand the root cause of the problems, and then make improvements.

On a personal basis, I also wanted to hear from someone from the hotel who could see things from the customer's perspective, and offer a sincere apology; which I feel like Mr. O'Neil did. He seemed genuinely concerened and serious about things, unlike previous people I had spoken with. To me, that counts for a lot.

The question was asked, if Mr. O'Neil done anything to convince me that the same things wouldn't happen next time I stayed there? My honest answer to that is I don't know. He has convinced me to give them another try. And he did indicate to me that there have been recent changes in management; that encourages me.

My belief is the only way to know for sure if the hotel will make improvements is: a) for me to find out first hand; and b) for other guests who stay at the hotel to share feedback in forums like this.

Thanks for your interest in all of this, and happy new year to all.

BB

francophile03

Buddybuddy, here's hoping that the Sheraton will change for the better after your complaints to the GM.
Just a different comment, I realize this hotel is part of the chain but sometimes the hotel is only a franchise. It's worse when it's a franchise as the management makes up its own policies apart from the corporation and guests are not aware of this many times.

TxTravelPro

That is an excellent comment Franco...
It is an important consideration when complaining.
Marriott has stringent franchise rules while others, such as Radisson are much more lax.
I'm 100% certain that the Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers is a corporate owned property...

Budman

buddybuddy, I feel your pain. I've been in similar circumstances -- check in, they tick me off, and nothing they could do during my entire stay would make me happy. I guess I was just too picky, picky, picky.

I'm not saying that was your case, but let it go, buddy, let it go and just stay somewhere else.

I'm staying at the Sheraton in New Orleans next month. Hope I don't have lots of problems with my reservation. I did the Priceline thingy.

francophile03

TxTravelPro, it's good you mentioned Radisson. I've found that Radisson is how you described: lax. In fact, my husband and son stayed 8 nights at the LAX Radisson and the check-in clerk was really brusque and short with my husband for no reason. This clerk neglected to mention to my husband that because he was with a large group there would be discounted parking and he just acted like he had to take out his frustration on someone and my husband was the one.
My husband did write to the Radisson corp. hq and they had the GM call him. The GM just apologized and said he'd look into it and get back to him. He hasn't followed-up until now.
I find Radisson to be lax on their guest service. Hilton and Marriott are pretty good.

hsv

Franco,

so Radisson rules at the LAX Radisson were lax? They probably just try to live up to their name...;-)

Cheers
hsv

francophile03

Yeah, I noticed that too! I guess they are trying to live up to their name and have succeeded in that 100%-if not in guest service!!

hsv

Sounds like a misinterpretation of that 100%- guarantee...

ARKANSASNURSE

I had same type of problems at the Sheraton Westport PLaza in St. Louis. Puke in the elevator no one would clean up, bugs in the room (fleas)I was on the 10th floor, the room door left open after the room was cleaned etc.I notified Starwood and they stated since it was billed to the corporate account their was nothing they could do. They were very sorry for my inconvenience but currently the hotel was short staffed. And....that went no where.