I Just Wrote a Very Nasty Entry About This Hotel, and then Sent it to them with my Plan to Share it with Everyone in the World. Even Africa.

So you've all heard so much about the my surprise party that you either want to steal my wife or take away my birthday.  Well, this is all you'll ever have to hear about my getting older.  Now that the glitz and glamour has faded with the raucous echoes of 7/7/7, I'm just less young and, in the spirit of acquiring more years, want to bitch a little bit.  You see, on the night of the party, Sarah had rented an expensive package deal at the new Convention Center Hyatt.  It was in one of the nicer, business level rooms (you know, where people do their business) and it included breakfast and all the hyperactive asskissing that comes with paying several hundred dollars to sleep.  After the party she walked across Curtis to the Hyatt--the key phrase is "across the street."  The convenience of Denver's sleek, new hotel was why she bothered to blow the money in the first place.  She had reserved a room on June 28th.  In a common ritual of trusting an underpaid stranger, she handed over her credit card and confirmed that the night of the seventh she'd help me stumble to our room and we'd do things that seem to only happen in hotel rooms.  I have no idea what it is about hotels, but it unleashes things, exciting things.  Anyway, when the time comes for our stay, she totes her pregnant self to the shiny skyscraper only to be told that they've over booked.  She's shocked.  She planned for months this elegant party for a guy who's more process cheese and Pabst than martinis and penthouses, but she still wanted the coup de gras that only the Hyatt could provide.  The Hyatt person tells my wife that they've moved her to the Warwick Hotel.  It's twelve city blocks away and more Legionaire's than luxury.  My wife says, "no, I have a special package RESERVED here, at the Hyatt."  They say "sorry, would you like to cancel," like they're offering something really special and she's ungrateful for not taking it.  She tells them that they had her confirmed and reserved, which used to mean something entirely different before the Hyatt went with the less hospitable "reserve" in the sense that someone has "reservations" about following through, and that they also had her credit card to which they could have charged copious amounts of Hyatt-grade expenses for the room.  They just smiled back at her like a kid watching a mime, their developing brains kind of overwhelmed by the newness of it all.  So we went home.  All our friends stayed downtown at The Curtis hotel.  That must be a better bet for overall customer service and adherence to traditional definitions of words like "reservation" and "hotel".  The Curtis, like our house, does not have a pool or jaccuzi, but because we don't have our mortgage with the Hyatt's Bank of Bad Will, we were able to stay in our bedroom.   So cool, right?  No need to write a crazy libretto about the whole experience...but then.  But then...Sarah goes to work on Monday, July 9th, and once in her comfortable surfing mode finds that the Hyatt went ahead and charged her for the night anyway.  On that very same day she notified the Hyatt.  They said they'd investigate and get right back to her.  And then went back to eating glue or whatever someone does to take ten days to figure out that two completely different parties each paid for the same room (i'm guessing the second was a conventioneer and a stripper) on the same night.  I told Sarah I'd wait a week and then get the word out.  I'm kind of happy that the Hyatt Columbo Division is still on the case because writing this feels so good.  It seems that too often capitalism runs rampant and right over the consumer, who has very little recourse to right the situation.  So here's what I'm going to do.  I'm about done with this, and then after I go see a media screening for the highly acclaimed "Rescue Dawn" with Christian Bale, I'm going to send this little letter to the world.  Not just on this blog, but I'm about to give a bunch of stuff away for free on Craig's List.  Since you can't (and this is in their rules) offer intangibles, such as hospitality advice, I'm going to include this link in the posting for my mom's old sewing machine, my grandpa's favorite chair and all the other many things cluttering the White Trash Smithsonian that is our garage.  I figure if the 'free shed' I posted their last week got 2000 hits, then that will be a good start.  But that's not all.  I'll include mention of this entry in my internationally syndicated entertainment report.  I'll regale listeners of our podcast with this story, and I'll buy some Internet classifieds to promote the whole thing.  And then I'll go and get a good night's sleep.  Because sure, that new Hyatt will always be packed, no matter how poorly they treat their customers, but one day when you do have a choice of place to stay, find one that actually intends on giving you something for your money.  Although customer service as bad as the Hyatt's is priceless.

Comments

[Dan Kelley]

Write your rant and just send them a link...

[Deb]

Your cc company will issue you a credit on your card (the hotel calls that a chargeback) - that can work even if you actually stayed at the hotel!
I've been in that position of having to 'walk a guest', that's what we call relocation when you overbook (once had to 'walk' 30 people in one night!). But, we always paid for the cab, the other hotel and a long distance phoen call!