The Radisson Blu Palace Hotel in Spa charges a huge premium on standard rates during the four days of the Belgium Grand Prix. It’s promoted as a premium property BUT if you’re looking for a premium night’s sleep you may well struggle, like one customer did a few weeks ago.
He paid more than four times the standard rate and while the room was nice, he awoke at 3:00am to a stuffy, warm room. No amount of air con knob twiddling could reduce the temperature in the room. When he brought this up with front office staff the following day, they advised they’d look into it.
He awoke the next night at around the same time to another stuffy, warm room. And the next, and the next, and the next… The hotel claimed they could do nothing about it.
Upon checkout, the disgruntled guest asked for some level of refund given the air conditioning problems. The first response was that because he booked through an agent they couldn’t provide any compensation. Dismayed by that answer he pressed them more and it was eventually revealed that it was their policy to turn the air con down by 50% overnight to save money. He was then told that someone from management would respond to his concerns.
Three weeks later, no one had responded. He placed numerous comments on their Facebook page highlighting the company’s policy of reducing the air con at night in the middle of summer. Those comments were deleted, but a scathing TripAdvisor review still stands. And there has still been no response from management.
No business can afford to have disappointed clients, let alone angry ones like in this instance. Front line staff need to be given leeway to calm angry customers and fix obvious wrongs. If they can’t solve an issue on the spot, they need to find someone in the organisation who will take responsibility for righting this wrong before it gets out of hand.
The longer a company takes to resolve and issue, the more it will cost them both in time and money. In the meantime, if you want a good night’s sleep in Spa, give the Radisson Blu Palace Hotel a wide berth.
