Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  01/06/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  We checked into the hotel Friday may 26th. We had a $150 gift card to the business, with the business name on the front. The front desk lady didn't know how to accept it and called the manager. He verbally said he would accept it and meet us at check out to apply it. No further contact was made. At check out, the manager never came and told the front desk lady not to call him and not to accept the gift card. They kept our gift card and are only offering 15 percent off which is equal to around 30 dollars. After telling us we would only be charged 53 dollars he is now charging us 170 dollars. This is not ok with me. We were not even given the option to not stay there as they said they would accept the gift card. They say it is because the business has a new owner, but then what happened the original 150 dollars my in laws spent for us? Did the waste there money? Very unimpressed
  

  Business response

  09/06/2023

  Dear Sir or Madam,
  
  This is Ritchie L**, General Manager of Hilltop Inn.
  
  On May 26, 2023, at 4 pm, I received my front desk agent Bonnie’s phone call, asking me to come to the front desk, saying there is a guest who is going to use the gift card to check in. I came there within 1 minute because I am living in this hotel.
  
  After arriving at the front desk, I saw this couple. After knowing the issue, I explained to them that this hotel was sold in 2019 to a new owner, we also changed the name from “******** ***” to “Hilltop Inn”. We do not use the gift card any more. Also, we don’t have a machine to verify the amount of the credit card. However, I still check them in at 4:11 pm, because I know that they must be very excited about our hotel and the pool, and I don’t want to upset them. At the same time, I told them that I would call our head office to double-check this gift card to see what is going on. Because I am not sure if we can still use that or not, so I told the guests that I would hold on to the whole amount of their rental, and would double-check with them tomorrow when they are checking out. They are okay with being held on all amounts.
  
  After checking them in, I called the head office. I described what the gift card looks like. The head office told me that in the past (Last owner) we do use the gift cards, but the guest’s gift card is a bit different… They put a sticker on the gift card saying “$ 150”. The head office said the last owner always used a machine to authorize the amount and check the amount, no sticker at all. The head office authorizes me to deal with this guest.
  
  Then, I talked with Bonnie, who will be also the one working tomorrow. I told Bonnie when they are checking out, we would give them a 15% discount. To be honest, during our prime season, a 15% discount is a very big deal. Even though we cannot accept their gift card, I still want to make our guests happy, and this is the reason why I give them 15% discounts.  I said to Bonnie that if they still have some issues or they are not okay with this resolution when they are checking out, Bonnie can call me and I will come down from my room (I am living here).
  
  Based on this resolution, I assume they are okay. Until May 27, Bonnie never called me. So I believe they would be okay with this one.
  
  After 2 days, they called us in the morning, I was not there at that time, and our front desk agent told me. In the afternoon when I was in the office, I called them back again. The man asked me several times why I was not there when they were checking out. I explained to them that I told our front agent, if they had some concerns, Bonnie would call me. Also, I explained to them again why we don’t receive this “gift card with a sticker”. The man was very angry on the phone. Except for this explanation, I told them that so far, it is what it is, because they have already finished checking out, but I would like to offer them a 10% discount when they come here next time. The man said they would never come back.
  
  After this phone call, they go to ****** *** immediately, leaving a “One Star” comment. In this comment, they NEVER said anything about the gift card, but all bad things in this hotel such as “They are dirty somewhere” etc. I will leave a screenshot of this comment at the end of this report. From my perspective, this is totally ****. If they have some issues, they almost let us know after checking in immediately or when they are checking out. They just want to ******* on us.
  
              In summary, this is what I do during this case:
  
  a.      I check them in immediately, rather than let them wait for a long time. I don’t want to upset them.
  
  b.     I give them a 15% discount for this time, which is a very good deal.
  
  c.      In the phone call, I give them a 10% discount for their next time.
  
  This is what I don’t understand:
  
  a.      When they are checking out, they never said anything, so they cannot say I didn’t keep my promise. Also, they said I am hiding, which is wrong. If they had issues, why they kept quiet when checking out?
  
  b.     Why there is a sticker showing the amount of the gift card?
  
  c.      Why give us a bad review but never talk about gift cards on ****** ***, but mention the gift card all the time in better business bureau?
  
  I will attach their original sign-in sheet showing their original rate ($ 203.79) and their final invoice ($ 173.22), as well as the ****** bad review, for your reference.
  
  Thank you for the time to review this case. If you have further questions, please contact us. 
  
  Looking forwards to hearing from you soon

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩