At the time of posting, this matter has not yet been resolved.
When I arrived, the check-in was fine.
I have never stayed at a Hamptons by Hilton before and was initially very impressed with the decor. I had booked a King room.
However that all changed once I had checked my room.
At first glance the room looked great. However, once I had unpacked I realised that all was not well.
First of all, I discovered at least five hairs (some pubic) in the bedding including the pillows. I say at least. I gave up at five.
The bedside table had a dried stain on it. The toilet was full of shavings. i.e. someone had shaved over the toilet and the water was covered in a fine layer of short hairs. When I checked the shower, I found a wet flannel on the bench seat.
Now I don't think for a second that the hotel reuse the bedding so there must have been a real failure in standards with their laundry services. However, their cleaner made no attempt to remove the hairs. Nor did they clean the stain on the bedside table or the toilet or move the flannel.
This was simply poor attention to detail. What use is a cleaner that doesn't clean?
I returned to reception and asked for another room. The man on reception said that there was only a Queen room and gave me a key to the room next door.
The second room had some hairs in the bedding but the biggest problem was that the toilet bowl was full of splattered faeces!
I went straight back down to reception to say that I would be needing another room. I am pretty certain that the man on reception (who was trying to eat his supper) thought I was a "fussy sod", as he gave no word of apology. He simply grabbed a pass key out of my hand and stormed upstairs to check the rooms.
When he returned, he simply handed me another key and told me the room number. There was no acknowledgement that the second room was unfit for purpose.
When I got to the third room, I found three hairs on the pillow straight away. However after the way the man behaved, I didn't have the heart to go back down. Anyway, I had already wasted half an hour. I simply removed the pillow.
I did pop down to the dining area adjacent to reception later to get some supper and I was made to feel completely unwelcome.
I tried connecting to the internet in order to locate another hotel nearby but it was not working. If it had worked, I would have managed to locate another hotel and checked out in the morning.
There was no mention of a room discount of £50 due to my being given a Queen room which costs £10 less than a King room.
I finally managed to connect to the Hilton Customer Care site on Wednesday 26th October 2011 to leave a complaint.
On the following day Thursday 27th October 2011, I received two replies which was encouraging. The first was from Shelby Keenan, a "Guest Assistance Specialist / Advance Purchase Coordinator" based in the United States. He gave me an incident number of 8521362 and said that he had been in contact with the hotel who had 72 hours to reply. The second reply was from the Hotel Manager, Neil Parks [Neil.Parks@hilton.com].
On Monday 31st October 2011, I received an email from Neil Parks, the hotel manager. He offered his "sincere apologies for the shortfall in service and standards you experienced" and offered me a one night complimentary stay.
On the same day, I received an email from Shelby Keenan in the states who offered me "a refund in the amount of one night room and tax which will amount to approximately 64 GBP". Please could I "please verify a current mailing address, you will receiving this refund via mail in no more than 2-4 weeks".
Before I had chance to respond to either email, I received a further email from Shelby Keenan on Wednesday 2nd November 2011 saying "I was informed that the hotel property has made contact with you regarding the incidents of your stay and offered you a complementary night stay at their property if you wish to accept and make a reservation with the hotel property in order to redeem this offer. Please disregard the prior email stating address verification for refund of 64 GBP".
I immediately emailed both Neil Parks and Shelby Keenan that I would prefer the refund as I would be unlikely to visit Shrewsbury again. I also supplied my address for the refund to be sent to.
As I didn't receive a response to this email from Shelby Keenan, I sent a number of emails thorough November and December 2011.
Eventually, I got an auto generated email saying that Shelby Keenan's email address was no longer valid. He had presumably left the company.
I completed the Customer Care form explaining everything that I have recounted so far on the Hilton site on 31st January 2012 and received an auto response but nothing further.
As I hadn't received any communication from either Hilton or Hampton by Hilton, I sent another email to Neil Parks, the manager of the hotel on 26th February 2012 asking him to deal with the issue. i.e. organise the promised refund.
I sent him a further email on 5th march 2012 as I still hadn't received a reply. He then replied saying that he'd forwarded my emails to Hilton Hotels Head Office and Hampton Inns Head Office in the states. They would reply to me directly.
I gave them 2 days to contact me which they didn't.
On 7th March, I emailed Neil parks again to say that I had not heard from Hilton and as the problems were at his hotel on his watch, I was holding him responsible for dealing with this matter.
He replied saying "This issue is being investigated From what we see at Hampton Inns a refund has been processed by Hilton Hotels. This is currently being investigated Unfortunately I cannot intervene in this matter anymore than I have done".
I completed the Customer Care form a further time. This time there wasn't even an automated response.
So here I am 10 months later, still being given the "brush off" by Neil Parks the hotel manager and completely ignored by Hilton and Hampton by Hilton who do not appear to have an actual complaints department. I have been looking for all this time and not found one.
In addition to the frustration and anger at my treatment at the hands of the hotel groups and specifically the hotel manager, I must stress that the £64 that I was offered and am still waiting for is not even a proper form of compensation. In fact as I spent 5 nights in a Queen room rather than a King, I am entitled to a £50 refund due to the difference in price. That leaves £14.
Now I know that £64 wasn't intended to be a refund plus £14 compensation as Shelby Keevan probably hadn't realised that I had actually been downgraded in the process of switching rooms. It is just another thorn in my side.
The standard of cleanliness in the three rooms that I was given was dreadful but the treatment that I have received by the staff at the hotel and the Hilton and Hampton by Hilton groups have been an absolute disgrace.
I do not anticipate any form of compensation from any of the parties that I have mentioned or any response at all for that matter. Nor will I be sending any more emails. This post represents my drawing a line under the whole affair.
I am a great believer in "what goes around comes around". Well at least I like to think it applies.
So just imagine if one person reads this post and thinks "How awful. Do you know what? I'm not going to stay there or any of their hotels for that matter. They do not deserve my custom. I will stay somewhere else".
Well that's my compensation right there.
And what if 10 people do that? What if 100 people do that?
Incidentally, I did try and post this on TripAdvisor but they wouldn't publish it. Hence this new blog.
There are a few other organisations worth a post, so I will start posting here whenever the organisations in question fail to put things right.
So I am going to sign off and hope that everyone who searches for feedback on the Shrewsbury Hampton by Hilton with a view to stay decides to do otherwise. In fact, any Hilton or Hampton by Hilton.
And if you do? You have done a good thing.
Many thanks!
