I Give ‘Em Hell, You Watch
Earlier this week, I mentioned my battle over the dreaded “Resort Fee”. I thought I’d share my letter campaign with you. I’ll let you know what happens.
June 11, 2004
Mr. John Ulrich
Westin Mission Hills Resort
71333 Dinah Shore Drive
Rancho Mirage, CA 92270-1508
Dear Mr. Ulrich:
I’m writing regarding my recent stay (6/5 – 6/8) at your resort. I was attending the Enterprise Architect Summit and making use of your meeting facilities. Let me first say that your staff was courteous and my accommodations were top-notch.
I would not hesitate to recommend your resort to my friends and colleagues accept for one trivial yet infuriating aspect of your billing policy. I’m referring to the non-discretionary, daily “Resort Service Fee”. I understand that you may have extra expenses by virtue of being a resort, but, speaking for myself and for those I’ve spoken with, your policy of recouping these expenses by use of a fee makes people furious.
For your benefit, I will try to explain why people have this reaction. Because I, as a guest, have no say in my incurring this fee, it is, ipso facto, a part of the room rate. Therefore, when one calls your hotel for the rate, your response is falsely low. When one checks out, the effective room rate is higher than expected. You are not meeting the expectations of your guests, and unmet expectations make people angry… especially when money is involved.
I hope you can appreciate that it would be easier for me to say nothing, while influencing Fawcette Technical Publications and others to make use of one of the many other resorts in the Palm Springs area. In general, I like the Westin brand, and felt compelled to share with you the impression you are making. By way of advice, I submit to you that increasing the room rate by $14 would result in much less angst, with no loss in patronage.
Sincerely,
cc: Juergen Bartels, CEO, Westin Hotels & Resorts Worldwide
cc: Barry S. Sternlicht, CEO, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide
Encl: Itemized bill from the referenced stay
June 13th, 2004 at 7:01 pm
You go Gary! If only more people took time to do things like that . . . I myself am one the of the guilty who does not. Next time I’ll follow your example. : )
June 23rd, 2004 at 2:49 pm
UPDATE: My cc: to the CEO of Westin, Juergen Bartels was returned without delivery. Looks like their website displays the wrong contact information.
July 6th, 2004 at 10:02 am
UPDATE: No new information.
July 11th, 2004 at 4:10 am
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Starwood Responds
Filed under: General — Gary @ 12:02 am
Recently I wrote about my annoyance with the “resort fee”. Here’s the reply. I think it’s […]
July 28th, 2004 at 5:12 pm
That goes to show how so few have pride in their jobs (wrong persons name in the return letter) and the fact that a company has so little faith in their resort that they have to resort (punt was intended) to misrepresentation.