The Complaint Shop

    All Your Complaints under one Roof

Tell the World

what went wrong

and hopefully the

world gets better

Last update

18/10/2007

Return to Index

Home

   Contacts

For the first time in my life, my wife and I decided to go on a coach trip. We chose Amsterdam as this was one of the few trips which were on offer using a 4* hotel which was to be the Carlton President in Utrecht.

After a rather tiring journey we eventually arrived at about 21.30 hours and after we checked into our room we headed for the bar for a long needed drink.

I had my first surprise when I handed over my room card and asked for the drinks to be charged to my room and when I was asked if I belonged to a coach party.  When I said ‘yes’ I was told that guests staying at the Carlton  and belonging to coach parties could not charge  their bills to theirs rooms and were required to pay cash as ‘they had problems with these people before’; apparently people on coaches cannot be trusted to pay their bills when they check-out.

I duly complained to reception and even offered to have my credit card swiped as a security that I would settle my bill but, again, this was refused due to ‘Company Policy’.

The second surprise came the next morning when we went for breakfast and found that we had been segregated from the other hotel guests and that our breakfast consisted of slices of inedible white/brown bread, a rather poor selection of cold meats and lukewarm boiled eggs and some orange juice.

I clearly expected that a 4* hotel would live up to its reputation and serve a reasonable breakfast but evidently I was wrong but I do admit that it did improved slightly on our departure date Monday morning with the arrival of a better selection of breads and some croissants.

The third surprise was on Saturday evening when we tried to book a table in the restaurant and were told by reception that the restaurant was fully booked. When asked where we could get something to eat it was suggested that we take a taxi into Utrecht.

Imaging my surprise when we returned to the hotel at about 20.30 hours to find that there were quite a few tables vacant in the restaurant and stayed vacant all evening. It became clear that they did not want the riffraff of the people who travel on coaches in their restaurant, hence the lies and excuses of a fully booked restaurant, when it was not.

To add to the insult and incompetence of the staff I found that the mini-bar in the room was not restocked on Sunday, but perhaps I had that wrong as well and I was over my ‘credit limit’ having drunk three bottles of beer from the mini-bar. The final bill on check-out however only showed one bottle of beer at 3 EU and had I not been honest and told them about the extra 15.40 EU I presume they would have again blamed these guests on coach trips for not paying their bills rather than their own incompetence.

The moral of all this is quite simple. You might stay in a 4* hotel but you are treated as a leper and second class citizen. You are degraded and looked down as a pauper simply because you arrived there on a coach and not in your own car or by taxi. This must mean that you are destitute, dishonest, deceitful and devious and you cannot be trusted.

Let me say to the management of the you are not doing yourself a favour. If you want the coach tours to fill your empty rooms then at least treat the people properly and allow them the facilities and the services normally associated with a 4* hotel.

Look at your own web site and see what you promise:

Treat yourself!

All of the Carlton Hotels offer the facilities and services that you have a right to expect from a four-star deluxe hotel.

Our staff will do their very best to make your stay as pleasant as possible.

 We look forward to your arrival. 

All this clearly does not apply to coach tours and  means very little if you happen to be one of these unfortunate coach passengers.

John R Rowley, the General Manager of the Carlton President Hotel replied rather swiftly claiming that the complainant refused to have his credit card swiped and that this consequently led to the refusal of credit in the hotel. He apologised that the breakfast was not at the standard expected from a 4* Hotel and he still maintained that the restaurant was fully booked that Valentines evening. He did go into some details claiming that the hotel had 328 guests staying that night but it seemed rather irrelevant as the majority of these guests belonged to coach parties who, as we know, were not eating at the hotel. When the complainant pointed out to him that the problem arose because they refused to swipe the card and open a credit account he did concede that  that they had a cash paying policy in the bar as they had considerable problems in the past with guests from coach parties and that this policy obviously can cause problems to the more discerning clients.

 He apologised again to the complainant and he accepted that lessons have been learned for the future.

He offered the claimant a complementary weekend at the Carlton President Hotel as a way of apology to show the genuine hospitality the hotel provides and confirmed that he will be taking the complaint in a constructive way and that he will use the experience very positively in future.

 Complaint Status:   closed

PAGE UP