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| - I AM A PREGNANT WOMAN -- WHO HOLDS GOLD STATUS AT STARWOOD--FORCED TO SLEEP IN THE HOTEL LOBBY BECAUSE THE MANAGER DIDN'T WANT TO GIVE US ONE EXTRA HOUR FOR LATE CHECK OUT AS A COURTESY. NO ONE WAS CHECKING INTO OUR ROOM AFTER US AND THE HOTEL WAS NOT AT FULL CAPACITY.
Front desk manager = she takes 100% blame for this crappy review.
As a threshold matter, I should tell you that I'm in the travel and accommodation business. I actually operate and manage vacation rentals. So, even from a business owner's standpoint, I would have been greatly disappointed in the front desk manager.
The Starwood hotel group has now stepped in to manage the Canyon Suites (the whole Phoenician hotel campus). We are not just Starwood members, but we are Gold Starwood members. In other words, we are an elite group of patrons of Starwood hotels. Said another way, we are their special customers. We get many different perks. At some hotels, we get free food, drinks and so on, even vouchers to the spa. At the least, as Gold members, we are entitled to automatic late check outs at every Starwood hotel, which is 4pm, as long as there's no one else checking into the room--key point for later. (I only mention all of this because any savvy business owner or management member knows to take care of their special customers. You go just a little extra for them. After all, they are usually your highest paying customers, and sometimes your most influential.)
Accordingly, we set our original check out time to 4pm (as guaranteed by our Gold status as long as room is available--front desk confirmed that no one else was checking in). But in the morning, I realized that our flight was later than I had thought and requested just an additional ONE HOUR over our check out time.
DID I MENTION THAT I WAS PREGNANT? I told the front desk manager, that I get tired and sleepy very easily due to my fragile condition and that I would love to stay just an extra hour. After all, it's a Sunday night, the end of the weekend, there was no big flow of customers coming through the Canyon Suites, and they already confirmed that no one was checking into our room that night.
So let's summarize....
Was there someone else scheduled to take our room? NO.
Was the hotel at full capacity? NO. NOT EVEN CLOSE. Peak season in AZ is not till December. (We're in October.)
Front desk manager's response was to charge us a half day's rate, cash or Starwood points, for that one measly extra hour!!!
Even her staff was trying to go to bat for us. (Can I mention how awesome and amazing Megan at the front desk of Canyon Suites treated us?) Members of her staff agreed that as long as there was no one else scheduled to go into the room, they saw no reason why the hotel couldn't accommodate ONE measly hour to a tired pregnant woman who has to get on a flight. We were told that the manager "vetoed" our request.
So what did I do?
I SLEPT IN THE HOTEL LOBBY BECAUSE THE MANAGER DIDN'T WANT TO GIVE ME--A PREGNANT WOMAN WITH GOLD STARWOOD STATUS-- ONE EFFING EXTRA HOUR AS A COURTESY.
We would have happily returned to the Canyon Suites to visit my in-laws again who are seeking post-surgery recovery in Scottsdale for the next month! Now, I wouldn't stay in that hotel even if it were free!
My husband and I agreed that had we asked for more than one hour or if we in any way inhibited another group from checking in, we would have gladly paid that extra amount. After all, we are acutely aware that most guests rarely leave exactly at the check out hour, because I have guests who check out late at my properties all the time. Hotel management and housekeeping expect that guests don't leave at that exact hour. It's all built into operations.
In the manager's attempt to gain $264 for that little extra hour, the hotel lost thousands of dollars that we would have spent at the hotel in the next month. Again, as a vacation rental owner, I deal with late check out requests all the time, and I grant them all the time as long as there's no one else checking in that same day. And none of my guests, at least none that I knew of, were pregnant and low on energy.
Her lack of basic business sense, appreciation for human life, compassion, and customer service skills warrants this place zero stars.
NOTE: The rest of the front desk staff, especially Megan, along with the amazing guys at the bell desk, were really great to their guests.
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