Steve Bernstein Director, Satmetrix

About Steve

  • Steve Bernstein is Director of Product and Solutions Marketing for Satmetrix, where he is responsible for developing solutions that drive financial benefits for our clients. For 20 years Steve has driven programs that improve the customer experience, where he gained a deep understanding of service operations, web and workforce optimization, and strategic sales. Prior to joining Satmetrix, Steve was a partner at a consulting firm where he focused on strategy and implementation of web and service operations projects; he led product and solution development for the contact center operations company Blue Pumpkin leading to it's acquisition by Witness Systems and then Verint; and managed solution development at Cisco Systems.

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March 18, 2008

Now I hate this hotel

I just have to share my hotel experience last night. I've been a reasonably loyal customer of the hotel for a long time:  they have my profile, they contact me with special deals, I earn points, etc.

SteveblogBefore I get into the details I'll explain why I am writing this. Normally after every stay I get a survey asking me to rate my experience.  In this case, I didn't receive anything. Sounds like gaming the system to me.

Now I'll dissect this experience:

First: I showed up at the hotel when my flight landed, 12:15am (yes, I was tired).

What they did: They told me there was an electrical problem in my room and they would be moving me to another hotel.  When I asked why they couldn't just move me to another room the manager said there were no other rooms.  I replied, "So it appears you've overbooked."  For which I got no response.

What they should have done:

1. They know how to get in touch with me.  They should've called me and/or sent a notice to so I knew to go to a different hotel. Now I had wasted time with the cab to the wrong place in the middle of the night.

2. The manager shouldn't have lied to me.  Looking at my profile they should have know that I would see through that nonsense.

Second: They tried to make it right.

What they did:  The manager told me they'd comp the room for the inconvenience.

What they should have done:  While I'm a good corporate citizen, being comp'ed in this way remedy this situation.  They could've given me some choices, and perhaps coupons for free nights would've been more appropriate.  After all, it was me losing the sleep, not my company!

Third: I needed to get to the alternate hotel

What they did:  I had to wait for their driver to shuttle me to the new hotel.  This took 25 minutes.  And you'll love this: the shuttle was dropping off an airline flight crew while picking me up!  It turns out they did in fact have 8 available rooms, just that I wasn't important enought to get one of them.

What they should have done:  The manager should have driven me to alternate hotel.  The hotel was a 3 minute drive away (I didn't know that -- I don't know the area at all).

I always receive a survey after staying at this hotel chain.  I guess they feel that I wasn't a guest of their horrible service, so they won't bother asking for my feedback.  I guess I'll just have to make my thoughts known in every other venue I can think of.

Posted at 05:25 AM |

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