| « Previous | Home | Next » | Hyatt Rant Tuesday, April 01, 2008 |
 There are days when I wonder how anything ever gets accomplished in the world. I started this morning trying to deal with my lost luggage. I spent about an hour bouncing around the airline's web site where they asked for a 'ten digit' tracking number that was supposedly on my claim ticket. Well, no, there really was no such number, so I called them on the phone. The first person I spoke with was much less than helpful, even hung up on me before I had even asked my question about where to find the number. She said, 'They'll call you when they find it,' click. So in anger I called back. Fortunately I got someone helpful and understanding the second time and all was well. My bag was still in Detroit but would arrive in Albany by early afternoon. (And it did) Then I had to make plans for a trip to Jacksonville later in April and got totally twisted by first the US Airways web site, then by their telephone reservation system. I won't go into details but I was messing with US Airways for more than an hour to make one simple flight reservation, spoke to at least six different support people, clerks, and supervisors, all to absolutely no benefit. The crowning insult was when I tried to call the US Airways Customer Relations number and was told, simply speaking, that they were too damned busy to even talk to me and disconnected the line before I even spoke to a real person. This on top of one supervisor who seemed totally unphased when I suggested that I might just take my business to one of their competitors. Now this picture was my room in Denver. I was at a Hyatt that charged, even with the special conference rate, nearly $200 per night. Nice room. Nice TV. Nice photographs on the wall. Nice bed. Hell, it was a great room. But what ticked me off was that $200 per night they couldn't include Internet service? Nope. That's an extra $9.95 for 24 hours. Could they provide free bag storage between checkout and when my airport shuttle arrived? Nope. That's an extra $10 per bag (plus tip). I have encountered this before. All the big 'luxury' chains (Hyatt, Sheraton, Hilton, etc.) seem to get away with all these nickel and dime charges. But the economy hotels (Ramada, La Quinta, Best Western etc.) seems able to incorporate all those silly charges into the much more reasonable room rates. So why do I stay at those places? I generally like to stay in the hotel hosting the conferences I attend. But the more we get raked over the coals, the less appealing it is. | |
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Posted by forgingahead Archived under: Places |
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forgingahead
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