In these budget minded days, my husband and I have been trying to use our miles and rewards points whenever possible to fund our leisure travel. We have found for most of our programs there may be fewer flights or rooms available, or longer blackout windows when we can't use rewards. But, with some planning, we can redeem our miles and points for discounted or free rental cars, hotel rooms and flights when we want to take a vacation.
Not every program, though, we participate in is easy to leverage, and my husband's accrued Aeroplan miles from years of Air Canada travel have been consistently difficult to redeem, especially since we live in Seattle, which is not a huge hub for Air Canada or its partners any more. On a recent trip to Los Angeles for a family member's college graduation, we were fortunate to finally be able to use the miles to book three nights at the Sheraton Universal City, a Starwood Group hotel. Often, rooms we are assigned when we book with mileage plans are not the best in the house, but generally I feel "rewarded" for being a loyal customer, even if I have a view of the air conditioning compressor or the parking lot. Often a basket of fruit, a bottle of wine, or a coupon for a free continental breakfast greets us to acknowledge our relationship.
This visit, our stay required four nights, but our miles only could get us three nights. I reserved a fourth night with a credit card. My challenges began when I called Starwood's reservation line to link the two separate reservations so we would not have to check out of the room or change rooms during our stay .I was told that wasn't possible for Starwood to do, because of the fact the Aeroplan reservation was not visible to them.
When we arrived at the hotel on a Sunday night at 8P, there were seven people in line to check in ahead of us. Although the sign at the head of the line indicated it was the Starwood Preferred Guest line there was only one queue for all front desk interactions, and one very busy clerk. Apparently, all guests were 
Preferred...or not.
I stepped up to the counter after a few minutes of seeing guests who had been in line ahead of us vocalize their frustration at how long it was taking to get checked in, and I asked the concierge if help had been called to expedite our check in process and service other front desk services, like lost keys and late check out requests. While he assured me the Marines had been summoned, my husband hissed at me to get back into line, saying, "Don't piss him off, we'll get a crappy room." I complied, largely because he was talking through gritted teeth, signaling to me he meant business.
When we got to the desk, help finally arrived, too late for our benefit. We asked the clerk if he could link our reward and paid reservations and we got the same negative response as we did when we called. "You will have to check out and then check in again. You will have to give us the credit card at that time." We then asked for a parking pass to enable us to enter and exit the self park garage, and the clerk told us none was required.
After 40 minutes of waiting in line, and after a brief 50 foot walk to our room, my husband began his "I told you so" routine. Our room was probably positioned in the worst location in the hotel, directly adjacent to the hotel lobby, next to the public restroom, looking onto the top floor of a parking lot structure, and 100 yards from the Hollywood Freeway. But that wasn't the half of it. The safe in the closet was on the top shelf, above my head, which meant it was approximately 5'6" above the ground. When I placed something in it, the entire safe slid off the shelf and right towards the bridge of my nose. Holding it entirely in my hands, I saw it would fit into my suitcase - or a thief's - with no trouble.
That thief, by the way, could have had an easy time breaking into the room, because the balcony sliding door was ajar about 6 inches, flooding the room with the sound of freeway traffic. Closing the single pane door wasn't adequate to drown out the trucks and sirens, so we turned on the air conditioner hoping the fan would make it hard to notice.
Within about 2 minutes the air conditioner let out a bang, and continued the same jarring noise to signal startup and shut down through out the night, making for an incredibly restless night's sleep, but clearly distracting us from the tractor trailer rigs barreling by our window.
Being near the lobby meant we were very close to the business center, but despite asking the hotel operator twice how to get an access code to log in to the hotel's wireless, I never got connectivity, free or paid, through my iPad's wifi connection. But I had no trouble hearing all of the conversations from the drunk Lobby Bar parrons who used the Women's Room on the other side of our shower wall.
The first time out of the parking garage, the attendant asked for our parking pass, which, of course, we were told we wouldn't need. And when we returned to the room after the maid had cleaned, the toilet paper holder was broken. 
My frustration was boiling over and landed in my Twitter stream. As I was preparing to convert from our Aeroplan room to a paid night in this room, my Starwood Preferred Guest identity kicked in, and I was questioning my loyalty in a big way. Just then, my message to the Twitterverse landed on @Starwoodbuzz, who asked me to send a direct message detailing my troubles.
Since the morning of the fourth day, when we were supposed to check out and then check back in, was also the morning of graduation day, we were on a tight schedule. In an effort to save time, I called the front desk, and asked them to convert the room to my credit card. The clerk told me I had to come to the desk. Fearful there would be a long check out line, and another 40 minute wait for service, I persisted in asking for some Gold Preferred Guest service, asking the clerk not to require me to have an unpredictable element in a day that my family needed to go like clockwork. But at this hotel, the Starwood Preferred Guest line doesn't seem to really exist at the front desk, so I was finally escalated to the manager for support.
Fortunately, this is when my experience finally turned. Four days into a rather horrific - albeit free - stay, there was a light at the end of the tunnel. Whether the person monitoring Twitter for @Starwoodbuzz carried influence and pleaded my case, or the manager felt a sense of responsibility for our experience I had not seen up until then, I can't say for sure. But the difference in customer experience when employees who provide service take accountability for how their customer's journey unfolds is remarkable.
To begin with, the manager began by offering to move us, but when we suggested that would be disruptive, she immediately offered to cover our stay. Because of the parking problems, she also took off the parking fees. She said she would immediately send maintenance to the room to repair the safe. This woman was all about solutions and action. She offered to provide us complimentary breakfast the next morning at the hotel restaurant. Since my intent was never to take advantage of the hotel, I didn't want to appear greedy and so I declined the breakfast, graciously thanked her for the handling of our bill, and asked her to hold on sending the safe repair team till we left the hotel for the day shortly thereafter.
When I later returned to Twitter to thank @Starwoodbuzz, I found a message from the Tweep already waiting in my inbox, informing me that several hours before they had indeed contacted the front desk manager to address my concerns.
Monitoring social media for dissatisfied customers gave Starwood the opportunity to quickly repair a damaged customer relationship. As a customer, I felt rebuffed at the front desk, but supported by a faceless, yet responsive online persona who quickly heard my specific concerns and appeared to act to address them. Ultimately, the Twitter monitor was able to help the property manager care for a customer when onsite staff did not.
The challenge in managing a service enterprise is consistent and predictable customer interactions, and the hotel manager was lucky to have a virtual support team to get the train back on the tracks. But clearly, training should have happened to educate or empower the front lines to provide similar solutions, making it unlikely any customer would ever want to insert a disparaging tweet into the online dialogue around the brand.
I recounted this story to a family member, and they asked me if I really would go back to this hotel just because I got a free night to make up for a crummy experience. "If the hotel is bad, why would you go stay there again?" And to me the answer is simple: customer loyalty isn't about never screwing up, it's about how you recover when you do. For the effort that was made, I am certainly willing to give them a second chance to make a different impression.
Saturday, August 28, 2010 at 11:48AM 
Gearhead Gal
