Renaissance Man

So, I've been in Chicago with my wife for the last 3 days attending a conference on using Arts in the church. We were staying in this really nice hotel. The guest rooms were much plusher than the hotels where I usually stay. The king size bed had a "comfy" pillow top mattress. There was a large flat screen tv on the bureau. Next to the complimentary coffee and coffee maker was bottle water in glass bottles imported from Norway (course it was clearly marked $4.00 on each bottle). The bathroom had a tv in the mirror. Nothing like shaving and catching the morning news all at the same time. And there was even a STARBUCKS in the lobby.

Last night, after a long day at the conference Lori and I returned to our room around 9:30pm. When the light flooded into the room when I opened the door it was obvious the bed had never been made. I flipped on the light and it was quite evident the room had not been cleaned. I opened the door to the bathroom and the towels we used in morning were still in the basket that was provided for used towels. The entire day had gone by and our room was never cleaned! I just stood there in disbelief.

I walked over to the phone and called the front desk to let them know what had happened. Of course they were very sorry and wanted to know if we wanted the room cleaned right then. We were very tired and I wasn't in the mood to wait for someone to come tidy up what should have been tidied up hours before we returned so I declined. The person at the front desk offered to send up some clean towels and I said that would be nice and hung up.

We waited and waited .............and waited and still there was no knock at the door. Finally after 30 minutes had passed I called the front desk again. Once again the clerk was very sorry and advised that she would bring the towels herself and shortly thereafter the knock at the door came.

Fast forward to this morning. I got up around 6am and found the room bill had been shoved under the door and was laying on the floor in an envelope. After showering and going down to the STARBUCKS to get my much needed coffee, I told Lori I was going to go check out while she finished getting ready. She asked if I was going to say anything about the room not being cleaned and I said that was my plan.

I get down to the front desk and am greeted by a friendly young man who asked if I was checking out. I said I was, set my STARBUCKS cup on the ledge separating us, but also said I had something that I would like him to address. When I had finished telling him about the status of the room when we returned last night he offered to take the $15 charge off of the bill for the one day of internet access and he'd give me coupons for a free STARBUCKS. I looked at him and said I appreciated the fact that he wanted to accomodate my, but we paid over $150 per night for this room in, what I considered a more upscale hotel, wouldn't you think our room would be clean when we returned? And then I said that I already had STARBUCKS, and pointed to my cup. He looked at the bill again and said he would be right back and disappeared into the back room.

A few moments later he returned and said that they were not only going to refund my one day internet access but they were also going to take 25% off my charge for last nights stay. I thanked him for the efforts that he made to rectify my issues and took the new bill back up to the room as he also advised that if checked out I wouldnt be able to get back into the room.

I didn't want to make a bigger deal out of this than it was but I did want to get my point across. Addtionally, I was quite impressed that the front desk clerk took the time to make it right with me. He had several options. He could have just apologised and done nothing. He could have said that his original offer of removing the internet access charge and the free STARBUCKS was the best he could do, or a variety of other things. But he didn't do any of those things. He chose to go above and beyond to ensure my satisfaction and that isn't something you often get in todays world. Thank you Marriott Renaissance.