Careful in the hotels out there

cabrwab

Hi all,

I have recently, well a few months ago, got married in a hotel in the south east, I don't want to name the place, but its outside waterford has a golf course not too far away from dunmore east.;)

As myself and the new wife where packing our bags we got a call to come downstairs to say good bye to a relative who was travelling back to holland,
we ran downstairs quickly, while we were downstairs we decided we'd start the checking out process, writing cheque and collecting flowers and left over cake.

When we arrived back up to our room our bags had being disturbed, but thought nothing of it until the next evening when i went looking for a watch my wife gave me on the afternoon of the wedding with an engraved message on it was gone.

We had locked the door of the bridal suite and had our bags ready to go, i contacted the hotel and after months of investigating we did get reimbursed for the watch, but never got an apology from the hotel they still say they do not know of a problem of thieves working for them, even though i know of somebody else who had jewellery stolen a week later at another wedding.

I just want to let all the potential bride and grooms know that you are being watched by staff, and try be careful we hadn't used the safe in the room as we thought stupidly the bridal suite would be safe, we don't know if any other things/gifts were missing as you cant really ask if somebody gave you a gift or not.

Its a pity because we had a great day, enjoyed the hotel, but a few things as well as the missing watch spoiled the day from the venues perspective, rude barmen in the residents bar, rude receptionists, couple of rude guests(not the hotels problem i know), hotel manager not applying the 500euro discount on the final bill.

Still just be careful on your big day.

Gamb!t

Sorry to hear that.
Whats the name of the hotel ?
Spell out most of the hotel and leave a blank at the end.

Rew

Gamb!t wrote: »

Sorry to hear that.
Whats the name of the hotel ?
Spell out most of the hotel and leave a blank at the end.

Pretty easy to guess from the description, not a cheap hotel by any stretch of the imagination.

Gatica

To be honest I would not rely on the safe in the room either. We were "best men" at a wedding before and had kept the cards in the safe only to find the safe open when we came back upstairs.
We thought maybe we didn't hold it shut while the lock was activating but our pin didn't work either, so it had to have been locked while open by someone else.
We were told only the manager and some other woman had the overriding codes to the safe, but if all you need to know is the code, then who's to say someone else on their staff didn't know it. There was also no way to verify if anything was missing, as OP said, you won't be asking guests if they gave a card and if there was anything in the card.

big_heart_on

Regarding room safes, many are only "semi-safes" in that they have a generic default code that can unlock them in the event that the guest forgets.

These default codes can be found online :rolleyes:

I tried it out once in a place I stayed and opened my safe....

Cathmandooo

Where would be best to hold the cards and gifts if the room safes aren't safe?

Gatica

big_heart_on wrote: »

Regarding room safes, many are only "semi-safes" in that they have a generic default code that can unlock them in the event that the guest forgets.

These default codes can be found online :rolleyes:

I tried it out once in a place I stayed and opened my safe....

well there you go, even with overriding codes, I was sure that more than just 2 people know them.

SIBHCHEVIE

I'm the OH of the OP.

It's devasting that everytime we think of our wedding we think of been robbed, I said that to the Hotel and they offered no sympathy whatsoever. It was just like we have your money (a lot of it I might add) now sod off. We didn't want any free nights stay or anything (cause we wouldn't go back there) all we wanted was a sincere apology. I'm actually glad the hotel don't offer the bride and groom to return on their anniversay becasue as I said I wouldn't go back.

On another note anyway, I was speaking to the other woman who was robbed the following week after us. She told me her brother has been robbed about three times in 3 different Irish hotels. One instance he had a work casino night went to bed with a load of €2 coins put them on his bed side locker and woke up the next morning to find them gone. He now sleeps with a chair against the door in hotels.
Another woman I also know was staying in Wexford with her husband and she woke up in the middle of the night to find a member of staff in her room. Their excuse was they didn't think anyone was staying in the room that night. Yea right!!!!!

These stories and our own experience has opened my eyes to Irish hotels, I always take care when I am abroad but you tend to be a bit lax when it comes to home. I won't be anymore.

Oh and to answer someone else's question about what to do with cards etc: We heard of someone making a box and decorating it for the wedding, leaving it inside the function room and their parents took it home with them at the end of the night. Even if you don't have anyone going back home its pretty easy to see if the box has been opened, unless they decide to take the whole lot

clint_silver

Thieves are everywhere, not just the one in question here. Most of them are opportunists, see something on the bed, walk out, give item to a friend who leaves scene.

In this case though, if it was me, Id be the same as you, if the hotel cant guarantee the safety of your items of wherever you left them then they have to be offering some sort of maximum grovelling with follow ons, ie, "we called the guards, staff were interviewed, can we offer you meal/night stay for free etc". If they didnt, I'd go to town on them, name them everywhere on every site possible, have your own garda report of the theft to back yourself up.

that said, nice place though, Ive stayed over the years and always found all staff to be great.

Cathmandooo

That's very sad that you look back on your wedding and think of being robbed I hope that memory fades and you can remember everything good about the day! Shame on the hotel for not at least being sympathetic!

Good idea with the box, I'm not a fan of having it out on show so maybe a sealed box for under the top table might add to security a little!

cabrwab

My biggest problem with the box would be everyone would be looking at who did or didn't put a card in!!
But its a great idea raging we didn't think of that idea.

The hotel and the actual group have not once acknowledged that they have a problem with staff robbing guests because we were the first people to be effected.

The housekeeping manager was extremely helpful at the start of the process but when we escalated the situation by going to the gardai we, well sibhchevie, was actually dealing with the operations manager in F8l).
He told us to go to the gardai and take it from there, and he'd deal with the other complaints when the time came to close on the watch situation.
This is when the group became ignorant towards us because they relised we were not going away until we got some sort of result, we thought an apology at least.

On a plus the hotel itself looked good, some of the staff we were dealing were excellent the manager on the day the day was great, the chef was friendly came out to us and greeted us.

I put up a tripadvisor review, and the reply left by them on tripadvisor was rude and prove my point on how they have dealt with us after this situation.

pooch90

Just read their tripadvisor reply. That's so horrible, would never go there now.

Libby029

Just saw the response from the hotel on Trip Advisor, and I am not a bit surprised by it. I had enquired about this hotel myself when planning our wedding, and didn't like the first impression they gave whatsoever, so didn't return. I don't think there is any hotel out there, that can afford to be so complacent and presume that word of mouth will not do damage to their business, especially when a newly married couple have items robbed from their room during their stay with them, and they don't apologise to their customers. They should be falling over themselves to make sure ye were looked after, and should understand that even 5 months down the road and it still bothers ye, that they didn't do their jobs properly.

Monife

Oh my god...!! :eek::eek: The response from the manager is absolutely horrendous!! I am actually angry at reading that, the cheek! Disgusting manners! Definitely will never go to that hotel ever and will now make it my mission to warn others off it too!

cabrwab

Guys thanks,
I was disgusted by the response myself, but needed some other people to read it and see was it as bad as I thought or was I over reacting.

3ndahalfof6

You noticed your bags disturbed but left it till the next evening to check them? why did you not bring it to the hotels attention before you left, you say you had a great day but then go on to slate different departments in the hotel and other guests, which to me is very odd,

you were only missing a watch or was there other items missing? were there other items worth taking but were not?

the reason I ask these questions is I have worked in the hospitality area and have seen many complaints and accusations made which turned out to be false,

some people while I do understand they are spending a lot of money can be over demanding to the extent of impossible, sometimes nothing is good enough,

there are 2 sides to every story, one quick one that comes to mind, staff were being blamed for taking an envelope from the grooms room with the cash in it to pay for the meal, it was definitely in the room as he had it in the pouch of his suit case with other small amounts of money, the cops were called, staff put through the ordeal of being accused and questioned, house keeping felt very bad as fingers were pointing at them, the hotel got a call from the new wife 2 months later to say they were very very sorry that they found the envelope stuck at the bottom of the glove compartment in their car, so its ok now.

Fenian Army

Can someone give me a link to the trip advisor reply?

Quazzie

On our wedding day we paid for bottles of wine to be on the tables for the dinner. Everybody seemed to appreciate it and those that liked wine certainly enjoyed it. Am hour or so passed and the dinner/speeches etc were over and the tables were being removed as part of the process of moving onto the evening part of the wedding. Part of this process was collecting the cutlery, glasses etc which included the wine bottles. I was at the bar and I just happened to notice that my cousin was buying a glass of white wine, and a pint for her boyfriend. What shocked me was they filled a glass from the half empty bottles that came back from the table and charged her full whack for it. I asked the barman why he was charging for wine I'd already paid for, and he said they always done that. I seen red and demanded to see the manager. Long story short the manager agreed to do a count on the empty bottles out the back and agreed we'd only be charged for them. I couldn't believe the cheek of the Hotel trying to pull a fast one like that, but I didn't let it ruin my night. Its always the story I tell though if people ask what I thought of the Hotel.

cabrwab

The few complaints we had I brought to the attention of the duty manager who we settled our bill with.

It was a stupid situation of thinking my wife moved my stuff.
An it was talking about it retracing my steps I said you moved my bags, she informed me she didn't.

I contacted the hotel immediately on discovering and dealt with a helpful manager, thinking I left it in the room, they informed me nobody else was in that room.
There was cards with money in them, to this day I don't know what was missing. Or if any went missing, we don't know if they were disturbed while going through things.

But knowing somebody who had jewellery robbed one week later explains alot, that the hotel clearly has a problem with thieves.

I work within the hospitality industry myself and people can be difficult, looking for money off bills after everything is done and dusted.

I'm not looking for a free night, I wanted an apology and got nothing.
The staff we dealt with were good the manager was friendly, the chef was friendly both greeting us.
The night staff were not and we said this.

Cars, bags, presents were gone through the watch is/was gone.
My day was ruined by a watch going missing, were it went too I don't know.

This will be the story I tell off the hotel when somebody asks me.
Or when somebody asks me about my day the next question is the watch any word?

detoxkid

Disgraceful behaviour by the hotel manager- def doing himself no favours. we are getting married in July and I'll be taking tips from your experiences. Good to know about the wine situation also- I'd say that happens all the time..

tinkerbell

OP, I feel terrible that you and your wife had to experience this BUT you need to exercise caution in hotels. You just never know the situation of those who have access to your hotel room. You either put your stuff in the safe or else you lock your suitcases. You don't leave valuables lying around which could easily be robbed on you, it's common sense. Yes it was terrible it happened but there are ways where you can minimise the risk of crap like this happening.

pooch90

http://www.tripadvisor.ie/ShowUserReviews-g186638-d276042-r125714780-Faithlegg_House_Hotel_Golf_Club-Waterford_County_Waterford.html#CHECK_RATES_CONT

Fenian Army wrote: »

Can someone give me a link to the trip advisor reply?

cabrwab

tinkerbell wrote: »

OP, I feel terrible that you and your wife had to experience this BUT you need to exercise caution in hotels. You just never know the situation of those who have access to your hotel room. You either put your stuff in the safe or else you lock your suitcases. You don't leave valuables lying around which could easily be robbed on you, it's common sense. Yes it was terrible it happened but there are ways where you can minimise the risk of crap like this happening.

Your completely correct, You shouldn't, but nobody should've gone near the room!
We were checking out of the room taking stuff out of the room it's a tough lesson we have learned on this occasion, made us act alot smarter on our go honeymoon!

But as has being pointed out, hotel safes have a default code which is easily found out!
But as we about to check out our bags ready to go, when your head is still all over the place with the celebrations, talking to people taking everything in, little things get missed!
My thing missed was not keeping everything in a safe until the last second/ bringing our bags down with us straight away.

I still blame the hotel as there was a thief in there staff, and to not receive so much as an apology from them is insulting, and to claim they have no problem with thieves working in the hotel.

Yes they reimbursed my wife for the watch after we jumped through the hoops they demanded, then gave out to us because the Gardai dragged there heels over a watch.

I started this thread to warn people that just to be careful.

slowmoe

Quazzie wrote: »

On our wedding day we paid for bottles of wine to be on the tables for the dinner. Everybody seemed to appreciate it and those that liked wine certainly enjoyed it. Am hour or so passed and the dinner/speeches etc were over and the tables were being removed as part of the process of moving onto the evening part of the wedding. Part of this process was collecting the cutlery, glasses etc which included the wine bottles. I was at the bar and I just happened to notice that my cousin was buying a glass of white wine, and a pint for her boyfriend. What shocked me was they filled a glass from the half empty bottles that came back from the table and charged her full whack for it. I asked the barman why he was charging for wine I'd already paid for, and he said they always done that. I seen red and demanded to see the manager. Long story short the manager agreed to do a count on the empty bottles out the back and agreed we'd only be charged for them. I couldn't believe the cheek of the Hotel trying to pull a fast one like that, but I didn't let it ruin my night. Its always the story I tell though if people ask what I thought of the Hotel.

Is this the same hotel? Did you get any explanation for why they were charging you twice for the same glass of wine?

Quazzie

slowmoe wrote: »

Is this the same hotel? Did you get any explanation for why they were charging you twice for the same glass of wine?

No, sorry I should have stated this is a different Hotel. The reason I got was that it shouldn't and usually doesn't happen, and that it was just bar staff trying not to be wasteful. It was obvious from the barmans initial reaction that it was the norm there. It was my wedding day so I didn't bother getting too much into it after he said the half used bottles wouldn't be charged to me.

Clare Bear

OP I am shocked at their reply to you on Trip Advisor! I'm looking at weekends away for my parents at the moment and was very close to booking that hotel as I had heard good things and they wanted to stay local enough but they've just lost my custom to a hotel nearby now. I'm so sorry to hear your day was spoiled. I don't blame you, I'd feel the same, your day will be tarnished forever. But to get a reply like that just rubs salt to the wound. What a horrible manner.

clint_silver

as this is a public forum, can you mail this thread to the manager to see do they want the right of reply?

Ive stayed there 3 times over the years and couldnt fault anything about the place any time so Would like to hear their side of things.

That trip advisor reply does not make for good reading though, someone should have reeled him in before he made the reply.

Inform them that if someone does reply here representing the hotel, they must authenticate themselves with a moderator first or comments will be deleted. Interested to know do the same rules apply on trip advisor, ie, how do you know it was the manager who replied?

cabrwab

As you said public forum!
The trip advisor checks would be more strict then here.
I imagine the verification process would be very strict.

The GM had a reply to me already on tripadvisor, there side of the story doesn't bring back the watch!

I'd say it is a lovely hotel to stay in, but they have a problem they seem to be refusing to address.

So how many other hotels are doing the same?
Yes it took a while to resolve but as said already this was because the group asked us to go to the gardai.

This is what dragged on the complaint i wanted it resolved before Christmas instead it dragged until january/February.

The fact of the matter is the hotel helped towards ruining our day, not the surprise cherry picker in the church, not the hurricane weather conditions the morning of the wedding, but the bad attitude of a couple of night staff members, and then the watch disappearing.

tinkerbell

Just read the hotel's reply on TripAdvisor, SHOCKING :eek: Seriously, that is completely unacceptable and then telling potential guests in their reply to ignore your complaint? Your complaint is very serious.

clint_silver

I re-read the bit of the story where you said
"He told us to go to the gardai and take it from there, and he'd deal with the other complaints when the time came to close on the watch situation."

Does this not seem fair? You raised it with them, they would have raised with staff, would have looked at other complaints, seen what was there and decided themselves whether they had a problem, it may have been a guest staying there you said yourself there were rude guests, so may in fact have been a one off. It's a criminal matter at that stage and one to be dealt with by the Gards I would have thought.

cabrwab

There were some rude guests you were right.
It was perfectly fair for this but this took place in October/November, the guard 'investigation' took place but we had to go chasing down the hotel/group manager and it was January before the guard concluded his 'investigation'.

When we contacted the hotel to say ok here we go let’s move on we felt we were given out too as why you are complaining 4months later.
We were told to wait, and they told us these complaints weren't/couldn’t even be taken into account as it was too late to bring up.
So the hotel did not investigate.
We spent many THOUSANDS in this hotel (directly), brought in even more money (indirectly through guests) and the night staff, on the night was rude to the bride ignoring her when she was not being rude. We want the residents bar to remain open a little while longer.

But you are moving away from the fact that my watch, and maybe other gifts were robbed out of the bridal suite, one week later a pearl necklace was robbed out of a friends room at another wedding, and according to tripadvisor another person went through having stuff stolen out of a room.

This thread and my compliant/being upset and p1ssed off, is the fact I had a very personal gift stolen an engraved watch that I hadn't even had a chance to wear.
Every time you talk about the wedding, my wife regrets choosing this venue over ONE major incident, never mind the few annoying one's.

Then when I post up on Tripadvisor I receive the you’re a liar line from the gm, or somebody posing on her behalf.

To this date not once have I received an apology?

I don’t normally complain, I’m the type of person who sits there and takes it, but won’t go back, this is the first time in my life I have spent this much money on a personal event, and to receive the tripadvisor GM feedback I got annoyed me enough to start a thread here. Perhaps warn other future brides and grooms of the potential danger of having their gifts stolen.

Gatica

clint_silver wrote: »

...You raised it with them, they would have raised with staff, would have looked at other complaints, seen what was there and decided themselves whether they had a problem, it may have been a guest staying there you said yourself there were rude guests, so may in fact have been a one off. ..

Personally, what I got from the story is that this happened to them, and then it happened to someone else they knew a week later. The possibility that a guest stole their property is unlikely as they would not have had a key to the bridal suite, whereas the staff would have.

I think when it comes to personal events that you invest so much time and money into, they're that much closer to our heart. How the hotel handled it does not seem appropriate, even if they were waiting for the guards to investigate it, i.e. they should've felt like they had not done right by them and should've tried to make it up to them with an apology, at the very least, or offered something like free stays or dinner (even if the couple didn't wanna take them up on it after those events).
Isn't the motto "the customer is always right"? Why assume that your patrons are lying to you and trying to incriminate your staff? There's no need to respond to it by accusing your staff right out, but at least acknowledge that it could be true.

3ndahalfof6

maintenance and housekeeping are the only ones who should have a key to your room,

unless there are master keys all over the place replacing lost keys which would leave it possible for a guest to do it on both occasions (I have seen this happen, keys for rooms lost and master keys handed out)

which would still put the hotel at fault.

clint_silver

Gatica wrote: »

Personally, what I got from the story is that this happened to them, and then it happened to someone else they knew a week later. The possibility that a guest stole their property is unlikely as they would not have had a key to the bridal suite, whereas the staff would have.

I think when it comes to personal events that you invest so much time and money into, they're that much closer to our heart. How the hotel handled it does not seem appropriate, even if they were waiting for the guards to investigate it, i.e. they should've felt like they had not done right by them and should've tried to make it up to them with an apology, at the very least, or offered something like free stays or dinner (even if the couple didn't wanna take them up on it after those events).
Isn't the motto "the customer is always right"? Why assume that your patrons are lying to you and trying to incriminate your staff? There's no need to respond to it by accusing your staff right out, but at least acknowledge that it could be true.

I do agree in one sense, Only the thief will know who really took it so then right minded thinking people have to work off what was probable and what was possible after that. Its possible a guest did it but its probable a member of staff did it.
However, I disagree with the customer is always right, see someones earlier story about finding an envelope ages later when they thought it had been stolen. I have many of my own stories of customers thinking they were right whilst being nowhere near it. So what do you do? you must keep an open mind until anything is proven, what staff were on that weekend? could narrow it down to 3-4 staff very easily, have they any record of theft before or since, narrow it down further. If theyve no records of theft and the staff have been there years, what do you do as the hotel manager? staff have to have keys.
So now it comes down to how the manager interacted with them, at what point, whilst keeping an open mind, do you accept the customers version of events (in any circumstances not just here)?
You keep an eye on things, tell the customer youre working with authorities, only the hotel and the gards know theres been thefts there, you offer something, a hotel stay, a meal, something to appease and make the customer feel wanted, though Im surprised they reimbursed for price of the watch, that would be a matter for insurance I would have thought.

Most of all, after the amount of money OP spent, I would have thought they should have bent over backwards for them, it doesnt sound like they done that.

Gatica

I realise that "the customer is always right" can only be true up to a point. Even when the customer is wrong, like in the case that someone mentioned, where they found the envelope awhile later, most reasonable hotels and staff would still feel apologetic.
One may wait for the outcome of an investigation to right a wrong, if such occurred, but you don't have to wait for that to issue a "We're so sorry this has happened to you. We'll do everything we can to find a solution." Send them flowers, or offer whatever it is would make them happy. At the end of the day, the hotel's reputation often rests on these type of events and how then handle them.

cabrwab

I agree completely the customer is not always right, but you need to play down how you pawn them off with telling them they are wrong, you are right but still come across composed
.
I deal with the worst type of people in work, smile to your face tell you good job, but then look for money off the final bill.
Our bill was settled, we brought up the rudeness of the staff on the night shift.
Easy enough to know who was on that night.
Working very close with the hotel industry.

If the hotel said to us we are very sorry this happened in our hotel, we will look into it for you, after all you spent so much in this establishment, and instead of giving us a hard time because we brought back up the complaint a few months later, say we will put procedures in place this won't happen again, a staff member will not be so rude to a bride again.
We apologise.

If they did that we'd be singing the praises of the place.
Even though I genuinely do not want anything free, I want to highlight the fact they were rude on trip advisor, and rude in there final communication with us, informing us of a room safe.

I don't know who took the watch not for me to decide and I don't know if my insurance excess would cover much of the watch I don't know how much it cost but my excess is €500.
But they gave money thinking it would be the end of it, perhaps, if somebody even the sales girl we dealt with all the way contacted us.
The cheque arrived in a envelope with a compliements slip, no personal note nothing, like we were a company they owed money too.

cooranig23

i was in the Radisson in Dublin a few weeks back and i was shocked at this idea
of a 'turn down service'

they come in to your room at 6.30pm and place an apple on your bed.. it's pointless.. i wasn't there at the time..

.. but it's an open invitation for them to look around the room..

and as i was untidy i had all by belongings thrown around the place..

they obviously saw what i had in the room.. so what's stopping them from coming back

i'd never trust does foreigners.. they may seem nice but there's no guarantee

Gatica

I don't believe the issue is with "foreigners", as you put it... The problem with things going missing in hotels (or anywhere where someone is left unattended with someone else's belongings) has always been there, irrespective of where you are or where the dishonest people come from - they can be local as much as foreign.

Zaph

cooranig23 wrote: »

i'd never trust does foreigners.. they may seem nice but there's no guarantee

So you'd be ok with an Irish person doing the turn down service then? Because the courts and prisons never have to deal with them at all. :rolleyes:

Seriously, cop on to yourself, re-read what you just typed and then have a good think about how stupid it was.