Intercontinental Hotels Group - (Holiday Inn): False advertising, Deceptive practices, Noise - Multiple Consumer Complaints

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 16:53:51 -0800

This is the worst hotel chain outfit we have experienced. Other consumers have also complained: As of this writing, according to the Better Business Bureaus* of Salt Lake City and Atlanta, the Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) has failed in both their Guest Services division as well as Corporate Headquarters. Why? Consumer complaints have not been settled.

Here is our experience:

Have you ever needed a relaxing weekend vacation? Or wanted to spend a birthday enjoying another locale? We did, and thought Nashville, Tennessee would be a scenic and relaxing place to visit. The Holiday Inn of Nashville (Antioch) TN at The Crossings was booked during August 2007 for $108.49 per night. Upon arrival, the place seemed run down. The staff varied from jittery to frustrated. The hotel room had a faint hint of what smelled like animal urine - but it was not enough to deter weary travelers after a long drive. The air conditioner was turned on as the window did not open for fresh air.

About 10:30 PM, we heard a locomotive engine and boxcars. Looking out the window it could be discerned that the hotel was placed adjacent to a railway! The rails had been hidden by shrubbery, but the locomotives and boxcars were visibly and highly audibly apparent. And the trains kept coming all night... The room curtains were cheap looking and did not cover the window completely because they were too narrow. The room seemed poorly insulated against noise. Ear plugs rated at 33 decibels along with pillows were tried but did not block the noise enough. A hotel ad statement was on the bathroom counter promising: "Making your stay a complete success is our goal. Just let Manager on Duty or desk staff know if any part of your stay isn't satisfactory. We promise to make it right or you won't pay for that part of your stay." Unable to sleep, the front desk person (Art) was asked for help. Although the situation was explained and we were exhausted and needed sleep, he stated only two rooms were left, and in all probability would not be much better. There was no help from the hotel personnel. Only about two and a half hours of broken sleep was possible near morning. We were not able to continue with the Nashville plans due to exhaustion and feeling unwell after the Holiday Inn experience.

We talked to the morning front desk person Alex affirming that the stay had not been satisfactory. He was aware Art Milbert (General Manager) had been spoken with in early morning hours. Alex stated that the noise was a problem on one side of the hotel, guests had complained, that the hotel was going to be remodeled with added sound insulation on the side of the hotel adjacent to the tracks, but that the train tracks were placed after the hotel was built (seemingly in an effort to avoid responsibility and avoid keeping their refund promise.) Government and online maps proved Alex's statement false: They show the tracks present over 20 years before Alex stated the hotel was built.

We sent a letter to the Holiday Inn (Intercontinental Hotels Group) Guest Services division and relayed the situation. A Ms. Amanda Hopfensperger of Guest Services slowly responded via mail and did not supply a refund as advertised but instead sent $50 in proprietary Holiday Inn coupons good for partial payment on a future stay at a Holiday Inn. We returned the coupons to her and affirmed the need for a refund as advertised. We have been ignored, there have been no further replies from them. The Nashville BBB** was contacted to no avail: The BBB had a summary "Customer refused refund" etc, after Art Milbert contacted them. But it was not true because no refund had been offered. Since E-mails went unresponded to, the Nashville BBB was telephoned, the situation explained again, and it was pointed out that no refund had been offered. After a fellow there briefly reviewed the material, he said "They're not offering you a refund and we can't make them issue it. They're not a BBB member. What I can do is change the summary. I will call you back later today." Although they changed the wording of their summary, it was still not accurate and seemed biased. The fellow never did call back.

In comments forwarded by the BBB, Art Milbert admitted the hotel was built after the railroad when faced with the map data. But he then claimed their hotel policy is to inform guests about the trains beforehand: It was not true in our experience - No one forewarned us about any trains or ongoing noise problems at all. If they had, we would not have gone there. Mr. Milbert also stated "we had received" complaints and "addressed them" which was misleading: the implication was that he and Ms. Hopsfensperger directly followed up with us in an attempt to resolve matters. He did not follow up and contact us, only Amanda Hopfensperger from Guest Services in Salt Lake City sent the one initial letter but did not provide the refund as promised in their advertising. Art Milbert did however admit we had "a bad experience," which is an understatement. In our experience, we feel this Holiday Inn was of inferior quality and did not honor their advertised claims but rather used deceptive practices. The hotel room as we experienced it did not allow us proper sleep or rest. The vacation and what should have been an enjoyable birthday in Nashville was ruined.

There have been many other online complaints regarding Holiday Inn and IHG at multiple websites. Sometimes the person reporting the complaint asked the Internet community where to go for help. For informational purposes only***, resources to complain to include:

Federal Trade Commission's Consumer Response Center:

Federal Trade Commission

CRC-240

Washington, D.C. 20580

Tel: 1-877-FTC-HELP (382-4357)

web: http://www.ftc.gov/

The Attorney General in your state.

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*Article reference only:

Salt Lake City BBB (IHG Guest Services complaints):

BBB, 5673 South Redwood Road #22, Salt Lake City, UT 84123

web: http://www.saltlakecity.bbb.org/

Atlanta BBB (IHG Headquarters complaints):

BBB Headquarters, 503 Oak Place, Suite 590, College Park, GA 30349

web: http://www.atlanta.bbb.org

InterContinental Hotels Group, Guest Relations, P.O. Box 30321, Salt Lake City, Utah 84130-0321

InterContinental Hotels Group

Suite 100

3 Ravinia Drive

Atlanta, Georgia 30346

Nashville-The Crossings
Holiday Inn
201 Crossings Place
Antioch, Tennessee 37013
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**The Nashville BBB seemed to want to close the complaint prematurely. They stated via letter the case would be closed if a response was not made within 7 days. It was only by a margin of one day that the BBB online system was able to be used to respond as it did not function the first time. Multiple E-mails went unresponded to by the Nashville BBB. They also withheld information provided by the other party until after they had closed the case, thereby not allowing inaccurate information to be addressed by us. They stated the complaint was "outside the bounds of arbitration." A local BBB person stated that what they are doing "does not make sense" and had suggested we telephone the Nashville BBB and write an online report, amongst other helpful information.

BBB

Middle Tennessee Headquarters

201 Fourth Avenue North, Suite 100

P.O. Box 198436

Nashville, TN 37219

web: http://www.gobbb.org/

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***Disclaimer: Nothing herein should be considered as legal advice

Almond Casuarina Beach

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 06:00:05 -0800

The Almond Casuarina Beach hotel in Barbados was bought by Almond resorts, in June, 2005 it was closed for refurbishment. It was due to reopen December 2005.

This hotel is currently still closed with heavy contruction work in progress, many new opening dates have been advertised over the last 3 years. The latest advertised date is 1st May,08.

Bookings for this hotel have been taken over this time by holiday companies and then just before their departure date customers are transfered to their sister hotels at the other end of Barbados (Almond Beach Village & Beach Club) a completly different location and style of holiday.

No compensation is offered and companies like Virgin holidays will not allow any other hotel for the change without paying extra to move.

No details of the fact that the hotel is not open is given at the time of booking.

This hotel is being miss-sold! There is no mention of the hotel not being open.

Virgin Holiday's state in their brochure that the Almond Casuarina Beach is a Virgin Favourites hotel - quote "All hotels in the Virgin Holiday's Favourites range have scored highly in our customer satisfaction survey of previous customers. So you can be confident that the standards and service of our Virgin Favourites meet the expectations of our customers. They are inspected thoroughly on a regular basis to ensure our exacting standards are always met".

How can this be! this hotel was a self catering 3* accomodation that was closed down in 2005. Not a 4* All inclusive. How did they get their scores?

I am one of these customers due to travel on 1st June,08. I am getting no information from Almond or Virgin Holidays. I booked St Lawrence Gap which is where the Casuarina is situated because I have family there. I did,nt find out about the hotel until I did a Trip Advisor seach some weeks later. I cried after seeing the photo's of the building site that was supposed to be our dream holiday in the Caribean.

Virgin will not tell us we are transfered until close to our departure date, will not allow us to change to another hotel in the same location without further expence or compensate for the change.

Goodwill - what's that?

Sutori - Stories Tagged With 'Holiday'

Intercontinental Hotels Group - (Holiday Inn): False advertising, Deceptive practices, Noise - Multiple Consumer Complaints

Almond Casuarina Beach