Deceitful Service, Bad Experience, Uncaring Management
My husband and I have just returned from a weekend stay at the Fairmont Chicago (7/6-7/8). Upon check-in, everything seemed great. Mark checked us in and was very polite and helpful. We had booked our room through Priceline and were told by Mark that, "Everything has been paid for up front, however there is a $100 per night charge for incidentals." We were not aware of this upon booking, as it does not say this anywhere in our confirmation e-mail from Priceline. At the time, we were not happy about this but realized that there was nothing we could do about that. We got up to our room, which was OK at best. We had two issues in our room over the weekend stay, the first being that the TV did not work consistently throughout our weekend stay, While we weren't in Chicago to watch TV, we did find it frustrating that when we wanted to watch something, (ie, weather report as it was a hot weekend) more often than not it said "no signal" in the upper right hand corner of the TV. The second major problem that we had was with the maid service. The maid quickly and quietly knocked on our door at 9 am, but did not give us time to answer before walking in while we were getting ready to go out for the day. While we didn't have the "Privacy Please" sign hanging from the door, we certainly did not expect the maid to walk in our room at 9 am. That's very early for maid service to come around! The maid did not apologize, just said "Oh, I will come back later." RUDE! Our feelings about the hotel were solidified on Sunday morning when we looked at the bill that was slipped underneath our door. The bill indicated that our card was charged $117, which included a charge for a 5 minute local phone call that we did not make as well as 2 nights of parking at $58 a night. We were surprised to see this charge as Mark told us upon check-in that everything was paid for up front, and that the only additional charge was the $100 per night charge for incidentals. My husband went down to the front desk and first spoke with Mark, the person who checked us in. He told my husband that they might be able to remove one night of parking. A manager then came to assist and firmly stated that they would not do anything about the parking, as parking fees are posted by the valet desk outside the hotel but did agree to remove the charge for the local phone call that we did not make. As we were leaving, I took a picture of the valet desk in front where parking rates, are in fact, NOT POSTED. (See the picture I have included). In the end, we left the Fairmont with $317 dollars in charges that we were not aware of when beginning our weekend, especially having paid for the trip ahead of time. As we were driving home, we really felt as if the Fairmont was very deceitful about their service because as paying customers we were told that everything was paid for up front at check-in, only to receive a bill at check-out. We didn't want to write a nigative review, or pursue further action regarding the charges, until we tried to rectify everything with the Fairmont Chicago first. My husband called back on Sunday evening and spoke with a manager named Kristen. He let her know about our experience from check-in to check-out, including that we felt misled by the front desk service as Mark told us everything was paid for up front. Kristen gave him a brush-off apology that was not at all sincere and said, "It's not part of our policy to discuss parking with every single customer that checks in." He was also told that parking is not actually the Fairmont, but an outside service. In my opinion, outside service or not, if it is going to show up on a hotel bill at checkout, it should be talked about with the customer at check-in. This is a deceitful business tactic. Further, if the parking valet's are wearing Fairmont uniforms and nametags, they are just as much a part of the hotel as Mark at the front desk or Kristen in management in the eyes of the customer, and therefore this is not an excuse for poor service. Everyone should work together to inform the customer, not mislead them to think that all services have been paid for up front. We have stayed at several 5 star hotels in Chicago, as well as other locations, and have never been treated as poorly as we were at the Fairmont Chicago. While only a short stay, this was our worst travel experience to date. This hotel is NOT a five star quality, and the service is very deceitful. Not only would we never consider staying at any Fairmont hotel chain ever again, but we will be disputing the charges that we feel we were misled on. We are very disappointed! If considering this hotel, here is my advice: Ask about all fees prior to check-in, examine your bill closely as I have read other reviews about Fairmont Chicago having added on services that were not used, or best yet, check out other 5 stars in the area.