One of my hotel pet peeves is late check out where the property still keys me for a noon check-out. I don’t use late check-out often but was attending a conference at the Hyatt Regency Dallas so checking in on Monday I asked for 4 p.m. check out. And I separately asked the agent checking me in to make sure that I was keyed for 4 p.m. He assured that I was.
On Tuesday around 3 p.m. I went up to my room during a break in the conference to gather my belongings. It took awhile to get up, 1600 people breaking at once means a bit of a wait for the elevator. When I made it to my room my key didn’t work.
So I marched down to the front desk where I learned the issue was that,
- Housekeeping marked the room as empty and cleaned
- It was assigned to someone else
- They checked into the room online but had not yet arrived
- Nonetheless I was assured that my belongings would still be there (how would they know?)
I was given a new key to the room and the other guest was moved out of that room in case they arrived within the next half hour. So I went back up to the room and found that it had been turned, and my clothes and toiletries were gone. Back down to the front desk.
I didn’t have very much stuff, it was a one night stay and traveling with just my laptop bag is my favorite way to fly because it means I don’t need overhead bin space, so don’t have to board early. Fortunately I had my laptop with me.
The front desk started making several calls – to housekeeping, to security, to a manager. “Could I get you a bottle of water while you sit over there and wait?”
I just wanted to be able to shave in the morning. I wanted my electric toothbrush to brush my teeth. And I had worn one of my favorite sweaters the day before. Losing my used socks and underwear? Not the end of the world.
It turned out that my stuff was still in a plastic bag in a housekeeping cart. My allergy pills were gone. They had been on the bathroom counter beside the sink. But those are over the counter and easily replaceable.
Standing in the middle of the hotel lobby I was handed a big plastic bag of dirty clothes. And I was asked “how can we make this right?” I shrugged my shoulders, I had most of my stuff back. I missed about an hour of my conference. “How about we credit you with 24,000 points?” Great!
Have you ever had a hotel take your stuff away before you checked out?
I’ve had that happen in Cleveland at the Westin! They actually keyed the room for a 4:00 check-out but housekeeping still cleaned the room before noon – and took my shorts! I had just finished a 50 mile bike race that morning and had to walk around the rest of the day in only bike shorts and my sweat-laden jersey.
For my troubles, they gave me a free meal at their restaurant and $100 off my stay. All because housekeeping took my $10 pair of Target shorts. I’ll chalk that one up to a win.
Wow $500 for that – nice work!
This frustrates me to no end. We have the technology to give the housekeepers a mobile or tablet device to track the rooms that need to be cleaned and identify those that are still occupied. So easy to do but…..
Hmmm.. scratching my head wondering what conference was going on, at that hotel.
Hope that dirty underwear doesn’t end up on eBay as some sort of collectors novelty item lol.
At the risk of asking a silly question, did you leave the “Do Not Disturb” sign or its equivalent hanging from the outside of your hotel room’s door? I realize that this no longer guarantees that those running the property won’t check-in on you, but perhaps it would keep housekeeping from trying to evaluate on their own, without at least first confirming with the front desk, whether the previous guest has departed.
@Amapas:
Clearly it was the “Global Thought Leaders in Travel” Conference. You weren’t invited.
Some of the amazing sessions scheduled included:
“How to repost the same tired crap 20 times in order to maximize click rates.”
“Blog readers hate this one simple trick to maximize clickbaity articles.”
“How to post titillating sex-fuelled content in order to maximize clicking.”
Gary was the keynote speaker.
We had this happen several years ago at the Hyatt Regency Maui. After eating breakfast, we went back to our room and found it had been completely cleaned out – everything we had was gone – no clothes, cosmetics – nothing of ours left. We immediately called security. Turns out, everything had been put on a bell cart and had been taken downstairs. A bell person had mis-read the room number of people who were checking out and thus cleaned out everything we had in our room! Unfortunately, other than “We’re really sorry”, there was no offer to do anything more for us to help mitigate the shock. We have not stayed at a Hyatt since.
Hah, I just missed you at that hotel (we checked out Monday). Was there with a friend exploring Dallas. Did you also catch the tail end of the Texas Furry Fiesta (no pun)? Quite a sight…
Bragging about your “reward” for your experience is tacky as fuck. Seems Gary like you are a serial complainer and find pride in bragging about it, empowering other douches to follow suit. I’m sure loosing your nasty ass undies was more disruptive for the maid than it was for you.
Hmmm, scratching my head as to why, you give this chain so much loyalty…..24,000 points, really? Hello? Refund my night’s stay and 24,000 points AND an apology from the hotel’s general manager! Leader? Of what? Essentially you sold yourself out. Hotels when they screw up they get away with murder, because it doesn’t become national news. And this is why, because we let them off!
24000 points at the Hyatt Regency Dallas represent 2 nights accommodation outright.
I think that when something goes wrong during a stay the only way they can make it right or make me Whole is by giving money or points. It was a screw up and most likely not a systems error so I think Gary did not sell out. He got fair compensation considering he is Hyatt’s valued customer. I got food poisoning at a Hyatt and since my loss was limited to a bad night I agreed to settle with points. Nothing wrong with that.
@Brodie – I almost never complain to travel providers. I did not ask for compensation here.
It’s great when an unpleasant experience turns to have excellent results, Gary! You definitely deserved the reward!
@gary – if you’re not complaining then they’ll never change.
I was once in a Hyatt In Sydney. We requested room service in the evening and it seemed as the lady who came to do it wasn’t pleased with the request. We left the room while she was cleaning.
We came back later. We went to sleep. At 3am the alarm clock on the night table went off and then again at 4am.
So I just plugged/ripped it out the wall. But im sure she did it because it didnt happen the night before, so She definately set it.
Underwear? How Nasty.
As a Flight Attendant sometimes working odd hours, especially coming in from a red eye and having to sleep during the day, it’s amazing that sometimes housekeepers don’t have airline crew rooms marked.
I missed you at that at hotel
@Stan. Good one. Did you attend the breakout about posting round-trip special fares on the blog that begin in BFE (that would be the international one) and fly to the US that are only available to those other than Americans and probably 95% of the readership?
This is one of the reasons I quit OMAAT. I want F Nd J airfare information that is relevant to travel originating in the US.
Hotels….not so much