Nightmare on Hyatt Place: How computers and disorganization ruined an otherwise great hotel stay
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Last week, my wife and I stayed at a Hyatt Place, the Hyatt chain’s new upscale suite hotel brand. I was really looking forward to the stay, since the early reviews were good. After actually staying at one, I hope that the absurd number of problems we experienced were isolated, and that we simply were unlucky. This was a stay that I’ll never forget.
As background: Hyatt Place hotels are few and far between at this point, but they’re revamping old AmeriSuites properties and swankifying them to include the Hyatt bed, plasma televisions, etc. The lobbies are completely redesigned, with warm, contemporary design and some interesting sitting areas. Overall, the feel of the hotel is very upscale, at a midscale price. (Disclosure: We got our room through Priceline.com at a very deep discount.)
As part of an 800 mile drive last week, we spent a night at the Louisville location. We had left Chicago in the midst of flash flooding, making our escape nearly impossible. By the time we reached Louisville, it was 3:00 in the morning. Late, yes, but we had called ahead to ensure that our prepaid reservation was still there, and not given away to someone else. Our timeline follows:
3:00 a.m.
When we arrived, the well-meaning but hapless front desk clerk was unable to check us in, though our reservation was in the system. Why the problem? The calendar day had changed from Tuesday into Wednesday, he said, and our room was reserved by someone else for Wednesday night. The hotel was full, so there were no other rooms to give us, so he was wrestling with the computer to get a key. Watching him shuffle between computers, I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach, knowing that something was going very, very wrong.
3:15 a.m.
After fifteen minutes of wrangling with the keyboards, he finally got two keys issued for room 508. We headed to the elevator, up to the fifth floor, and to the room. The keys didn’t work. Instead of the green light, we kept getting orange. So back downstairs I went.
3:25 a.m.
After another few minutes of computer struggle, new keys popped out. Up to the top floor again, where my wife was sagged together in a heap of exhaustion in front of the door. The newest keys didn’t work either. Back downstairs I went.
3:30 a.m.
The front desk person was confused as to why this latest set of keys didn’t do the trick, so he called a technical support person… and got voicemail. He declared in his message that this was an emergency, but at that hour, who would get the message? So he sent me back upstairs, saying he’d figure it out and take care of it. “We’ll take care of you,” a phrase he repeated several times throughout the festivities. I went back upstairs and dozed off in the hallway outside our room. I was getting flashbacks to college, but thinking I was getting too old for this.
3:55 a.m.
The front desk person arrived at “our” room, but instead of keys, he had a luggage cart in tow. He was unable to get us keys, but he “found” another room on the first floor for us to check into. (Weren’t they sold out?) This new room was “never sold,” since the room dimensions were slightly off: The bathroom door would bump into the bed. Fine, no problem, we said, we weren’t about to quibble over a door, as long as we found a bed to sleep in.
4:00 a.m.
My wife opted for a shower and hopped right in. Once in there, she noticed a half-dissolved bar of soap and a pair of used washcloths. Uh oh. Bad sign. Time for a room inspection. And that room that was “never sold” was certainly used, if not sold. Short hairs on the pillows (someone had a haircut that day…) and longer, curlier hairs between the sheets … in a made bed! Used coffee cups on the counter. Several slices of pizza in the refrigerator. Bottom line: A dirty room that had bizarrely been tidied up to look superficially clean. Was this the manager’s secret hideaway where he napped or enjoyed some extracurricular activities? Ring ring, phone call to our man at the front desk…
4:15 a.m.
The exasperated front desk clerk delivered fresh pillows and sheets to our door, again with the statement that he would “take care of us.” I asked for two things: A very late checkout, and that breakfast would be delivered to us. (Their breakfast bar closed up shop at 9:30am.) He wholeheartedly agreed to both, apologized profusely, and left us to make our beds. After a long night of driving, there we were, stripping our hotel bed of its dirty sheets, and putting on the fresh ones. A surreal end to a long day.
When we checked out (very, very late) the next day, a different clerk asked us if our stay had been pleasant. In unison, we blurted out, “No,” to his shock and bemusement. “It’s a long story.”
This would have all been somewhat funny if we hadn’t been so spent. It was the end of a really rough few days, and we really, really, really just wanted to relax and unwind. Instead, we found ourselves sleeping in hallways and making our own hotel beds.
“I’m sorry, Mark, I’m afraid I can’t do that.”
All of this could have been prevented if Hyatt’s computer systems aided their employees instead of limiting them. Had the front desk person been able to issue a key, we would have been in a (presumably) clean room and in bed. But no, the computer wouldn’t let the staff get us what we reserved. Technology got in the way of hospitality, and of customer service.
Hotel staff needs to be empowered to help the customer. When the computer can’t be trumped by a human being, then the customer loses. And when the customer loses, the hotel eventually loses even more.
…
Postscript:
As far as the Hyatt Place itself, I liked what I saw. Admittedly, I had an unusual room, and I didn’t experience the full amenities, but the hotel design and styling were great, the bed was comfortable (even with our half-assed bedmaking), and it was remarkably quiet for a fully-booked hotel. The promo photos that Hyatt puts up on their website are actually pretty close to reality (see below), though our room didn’t have that screen/room divider, and the room lighting wasn’t quite this photogenic…
I’d gladly try them out again, but I’d cross my fingers that I could actually get into a room.
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