Customer Complaint

An open letter to Best Western Grant Park:

I have waited a week since our trip to Chicago to write to you to share my experience staying at your hotel. The wait was to ensure that I expressed my true feelings and not those in the heat of the moment.

We have stayed at the Best Western Grant Park for 5 years in a row. My husband attends a stage combat workshop that is held right across the street, so your hotel is very convenient for us. In years past, we have never had any troubles other than occasionally needing more towels. This year, however, we had a very different experience.

It began with check-in. As we unloaded all of our luggage, we looked for a luggage cart to make it easier to haul everything to our room. Our party consisted of three adults and one toddler. If you didn’t know, a toddler generally requires luggage equaling 2 adults just for that one small being. However, we were informed that the luggage cart was in use. The luggage cart, as in, one cart for the entire 9 floor hotel.

Getting our luggage to our room was also a challenge. While there are usually two elevators for the hotel, one was out of service for our entire stay. And the one working elevator had a strange quirk: when going down, it would always stop on the second floor, before then going on to the first. All of this led to painfully long waits to get to and from the room.

It was made even worse when the one working elevator suddenly stopped working, right before we were able to load our luggage on it. So we carried large suitcases up 7 flights of stairs to our room (plus a toddler who’s just barely walking). I understand that you have a fitness center to promote healthy living, but I didn’t expect strenuous exercise to be a requirement for our stay.

Of course, the one working elevator started working once again as soon as we were finished unloading the car. We quickly settled into our two comfortable rooms and began to unpack. My toddler started exploring the room and quickly found several hazards, such as a knob on the dresser that was held on by electrical tape and easily came off in her hands. Nothing like a choking hazard to make us feel welcome.

We also were greeted by a loud chirping sound in one of the rooms. We called for assistance, and 20 minutes later the maintenance man came in and took our smoke alarm away for a new battery. Maybe you should stick by the general rule to change the batteries every 6 months?

It was around 7:30pm at this point, so we went out to eat. Upon arriving back to the hotel (and waiting a crazy long time to use the elevator again) we were given one more surprise: the key cards to one of our rooms didn’t work. This required another trip down the elevator to get the keys re-coded, and then back up. They worked, and we prepared my daughter for bed.

Once she was ready for bed, we put her in her portable crib, and then went next door to the other room so she could fall asleep without distraction (we brought our baby monitors so we could hear her if she needed anything). But when we tried to get back into the room, the key cards would not work. Again. Another trip down the slow elevator, and back up with newly-coded key cards. They still wouldn’t work.

At this point, I was starting to panic, as my child was locked in a room with no way for me to get to her. Another trip down to the front desk, and a call was placed to maintenance. The man responded with “Yeah, I’ll get to it eventually.” The front desk worker, bless her, was kind enough to reiterate the importance of this request, yelling into the walkie-talkie, “No! They’ve got a baby in there by itself! You hurry!”

About 10 minutes later the maintenance man arrived and cleaned the door’s card reader. He tried the (newly-coded, again) cards, and they worked. My mother was going to be sleeping in the room with my daughter, so I went to the other room and went to sleep.

Around 3am, I heard my daughter crying, so I went next door to try to help. Only my key card wouldn’t work. Again. My mother let me in, and after we got my daughter calmed down, I returned to the other room to go back to sleep.

In the morning, we got the key cards re-coded again, and they didn’t work. They coded them another time, and they didn’t work. We left to go sight-seeing at that point, and asked the staff to please have it fixed by the time we came back.

When we arrived back to the hotel, we were given the key cards and told all should be fine. We went to our room (slow wait for the elevator…Again), and to our shock and awe, the key cards once again didn’t work. Another trip downstairs, and this time we were told we would have to change rooms. After being out all day, and having a tired child who really needed a nap, we now had to drag everything to another room?

The first room offered was nowhere near the other room we had, so we insisted on something closer. They finally gave us a room across the hall from the other room. We went upstairs and spent most of an hour moving everything from one room to the other. The luggage cart was once again nowhere to be found. Finally, though, everything was moved, and we no longer had key card problems.

The hotel advertised wireless internet, and we were looking forward to taking advantage of it. However, we were never able to connect to it. Friends in other rooms also couldn’t connect. It seems the wireless network was not quite all that was promised. Luckily, we had an Ethernet cable, so we could connect.

Check-out day was a horror. Check-out time was noon, so we were packed and ready to load up at 10:30. We called and requested the cars from the valet. He told us they would be ready in 10 minutes. I went downstairs to ask for the mysterious luggage cart. But once again, it was in use. I asked if I could have it once the others were done, and the staff person said to me, “We only have one luggage cart, and others are using it. So forget about it.” Classy.

It seems there was a Bears game in town that day, and so while we were checking out, many people were checking in. This made the single elevator nearly impossible to use. We waited through several cycles of up and down, waiting for a chance for the elevator to be empty enough to put a few bags and one person on. 4 passes of the elevator later, we got a nearly empty elevator. We threw as many bags on as possible, and I climbed on and hovered over the stack of luggage precariously, trying not to fall into the nice couple sharing the elevator with me and my stuff.

When we got to the lobby, we looked for the cars. Only one was there. Where was the other car? And for that matter, where was the valet? 10 minutes later, the valet appears, and we ask politely where the other car is. It had been 45 min. since we called. “Too bad, I’m busy. You’ll just have to wait,” was his reply.

A few more trips up and down the elevator (with one person in the room at all times with our now cranky toddler), along with a few trips down the stairs with the most damage-resistant bags, and we had everything in the lobby. 30 min. later the other car appears, and we load up. The valet receives no tip. If it had been possible, I would have made him pay me for the experience. We were ready to checkout at 12:30; 2 hours after we started.

I checkout at the desk, and I am asked how my stay was. I relate all of this information to the staff member. I tell him how unhappy we were with the stay, especially since things were so good in years past. Not looking up from his screen, he says in an unconcerned voice, “Oh, well, I’m sorry to hear you had so many problems. I’ll knock $30 off your total bill.” $30? For a $750 bill? Yeah, that really makes up for it.

So, in conclusion, I don’t know what the hell has happened with the management of your hotel, but clearly there is a problem. The hotel is falling apart and needs a lot of work. Some of your employees need some manners and compassion. I currently don’t believe we will stay there again after this year, even though your hotel is the closest to the workshop. I’d rather walk the half block from the Essex Inn than deal with problems like this again.

And for Bejeebus’s sake, get another damn luggage cart!

Sincerely,

An unhappy mommy