Sabrina Dent: Freelance web designer, developer and internet marketer living in Cork, Ireland with one dog and a husband in no particular order.
Dear Radisson Hotel, Golden Lane, Dublin
Dear Radisson SAS Hotel, Golden Lane, Dublin:
Enclosed, please find a bill for €52.50.
On October 10th, 2009, I arrived to check into the Radisson, where I had reserved a room to attend the Irish Web Awards. Upon entering your hotel, I stood in a queue for no less than 23 minutes before I was afforded the privilege of giving you €160 in exchange for a room key.
The following morning, I stood again in a queue of at least 10 people, this time for 16 minutes, to be able to return said room key to you and pay €3 for a bottle of water to a desk clerk who could not make change for me. Finally, I queued a third time – this time for 27 minutes – to have my parking stub validated at a cost of €10.
It is beyond my comprehension how a hotel that is booked to capacity, as yours was for this event, can be taken by surprise at the notion guests may actually want to check in and then later, at the designated check-out time, check out. Given the completely inadequate levels at which you staffed your front desk on this weekend, however, I can only assume you were indeed surprised by this extraordinary display of guest behaviour.
Should your math skills be as compromised as the desk clerk’s, I will simply point out that on a trip where I passed only 18 hours in Dublin, I spent more than one hour of it standing in a queue at your front desk. As you might imagine if you too had been treated this way for these unacceptable amounts of time, by the third go round this experience was nothing short of enraging. Matters were very much not helped by the numerous members of staff who exited the offices to the rear of the front desk, literally walked through the lengthy queue, and then departed to do anything but assist with extending basic customer service to a lobby full of paying guests.
Please note that I am not asking you to compensate me for the irritation of your moronic lifts, the awkward lack of cloakroom facilities for event guests, the atrocity that is closing the residents’ bar at 2 AM, or the swill that passes for your coffee. I merely wish to be compensated for the actual, entirely wasted hour of my life I spent waiting for you to fail to extend the “personalized, professional guest service and genuine hospitality” for which you apparently strive.
Thanking you in advance for your prompt remittance,
Sabrina Dent
Etc.
15 Oct 2009
| In: Crankypants | Tags:Radisson, Radisson Dublin, Radisson Golden Lane
Interesting that you would mention the cloakroom…
My jacket / coat was stolen from it on Saturday night.
And while they promised to call me back on Monday they still haven’t!
Michele
15.10.2009, 4:24 pmany reason as to how you came up with €52.50 as a number?
15.10.2009, 4:26 pmOn the subject of things being stolen, I think we should remember poor Jen Davis(@jentertainment) who had her camera stolen
15.10.2009, 4:28 pmWell Done,
Too many people put up with poor service.
Ralph
15.10.2009, 4:29 pmRecession is going to be an excuse to the hospitality industry for a next decade.
Last Friday I was in Moran Hotel at Temple Bar… quite similar experience.
15.10.2009, 4:29 pmI didn’t have to stand in the queue, but was HIGHLY miffed at the RESIDENTS BAR closing at 2am. Hmph! Regular bars close at 2am on Saturday night. Hotel bars should not.
15.10.2009, 4:36 pmIts one of the perks of staying in a hotel – late drinks!!
‘Er, no sir, I’m afraid the Radissoff tonight.’
Recession is a motivator to work harder I would have thought. Oh well. It’s not like there aren’t other hotels looking for bookings.
15.10.2009, 4:38 pm@alex Well, I charge €50 an hour for most work, and I make total queuing time at just over an hour so I threw on some change. If you have the actual number, give it to me and I’ll correct the invoice before I really do send this!
@theft: A lot of stuff went missing that night – cameras, purses, jackets, etc. I am starting to suspect the
eventhotel was selected and swept by a team of petty thieves. Which would actually demonstrate better forward planning than the Radisson’s.i paid 250 for my room, i wasn’t waiting that long to check in, but the room wasn’t ready as the sink in the bathroom was blocked. Went to the bar for food and a hour later waited 20 min to be served my room key.
And what was it with those lifts, card in and press for floor, na doesn’t work, press for floor and then card in, nope. But after entering the secret code the fu**ing thing worked.
Wouldnt recommend the hotel.
Although i did have a nice chat with John & Sabrina :)
15.10.2009, 4:44 pmI also queued like an eejit at the Radisson in Belfast (for both check-in and check-out) for a large expo we were hosting at the hotel… extremely annoying….
15.10.2009, 4:46 pmSabrina
15.10.2009, 4:49 pmI want to congratulate you on this.
Its about time we stopped accepting such shoddy service in Ireland.
We pay some of the highest rates so why not expect some decent service.
I heard about a €4.50 cup of coffee yesterday in Sandymount !!!
My complaint is much less serious than stolen clothes or electronic equipment and standing around waiting for crap staff to serve you but I assumed I’d either be able to get cash back from using my laser card at the bar or there would be an ATM in or close to the Hotel…but no, I had to walk all the way to Dunnes on George’s St to get some cash to pay them for the copious amounts of booze I planned on consuming (and to pay for my IWA ticket)…and during the Ireland match too! Disgraceful ;-)
15.10.2009, 4:52 pmShould have gone to @GreenhouseL #Businesscamp & stayed at the Absolute. Residents bar open till silly o’ clock. But seriously though, well said. Give ‘em hell, and do keep us posted re their reaction
15.10.2009, 4:53 pmWow, suddenly thanking myself that I didn’t stay there and instead stayed in the comparitively cheap and cheerful Drury Court down the road.
Terrible news about @jentertainment’s camera and the othe items. Hadn’t realised so much stuff had gone missing.
15.10.2009, 4:57 pmAmen to that.
15.10.2009, 5:17 pmNicely done Sabrina, hit’m where it hurts.
Publishing your complaint here instead of in a letter to the hotel manager will surely have a larger effect on their bottom line then the €52.50 you’re billing them.
No doubt, the hundreds (or thousands?) of people who read this post will think twice before choosing that hotel over the local competition.
15.10.2009, 5:21 pmWell done Sabrina, but why file under “crankypants”? Nothing cranky about expecting a basic service…Please send it, with a link to this blog. We tolerate too much poor service!
15.10.2009, 7:06 pm[...] 10:30 pm on October 15, 2009 Reply Tags: idea (9) Sabrina Dent’s experience of queuing for an hour to check-in, check-out and have parking validated at the Radisson hotel [...]
15.10.2009, 11:30 pmHmm. This is a totally unsurprising level of service, and I wouldn’t have said that a couple of years ago. Radisson used to take their 100% Guest Satisfaction philosophy really seriously and put great emphasis on their Yes I Can! training.
Unfortunately, the way of dealing with this economic downturn for so many businesses, not just hotels, has been to slash staff numbers, the hours of those staff that survived the redundancies, hourly rates, training … and consequently you’re left with an overworked and underpaid workforce who just don’t have any pride in what they do. They’re mistreated by “the system”, so why would they give 100%?
It’s really sad that there’s no service in the service industry.
Well done on the letter!
19.10.2009, 12:53 pmI cant understand; what has the downturn and a €160, €250 room charge and so on and so force go to do with overworked and underpaid staff?. Is this exploitation? How about hiring some event temp workers? They are very cheap and do the job well. Otherwise why would one pay for radisson service and experience with all the expectations as opposed to (what you all got) and end up with hostel service and experience? And how is that got to do with the downturn? What does providing quality service at the right price and mantaning the same standard (five star?) got to do with downturn? Can somebody in the US or UK have the same experience as Sabrina’s because of the downturn? Or can Sabrina receive the same experience in a Radisson UK, Sweden etc.
02.11.2009, 2:39 pm