Totally Unprofessional policies and staff made my stay a fiasco
I was speaking at a large conference hosted at the Sheraton Gunter hotel and had made a guaranteed reservation several weeks in advance for a two night stay. Upon my arrival at approximately 9 pm the night before I was to speak at the conference, I was told by the front desk that there were "no rooms available," in spite of my guaranteed reservation, and that I was being bumped to another nearby hotel. Despite my protestations, the unsympathetic front desk clerk with a pasted-on fake smile began the process of giving me a voucher to the new hotel only to find out midstream that it had no rooms available either. They sent me to another hotel on the other side of downtown that was dilapidated, filthy and completely substandard. I returned to the Gunter and demanded a better alternative. After 20 minutes of calling, the manager on duty shrugged and said I had no other choice. At which point I called my business travel advisor who said there were plenty of rooms available at the hotel next door (the one they originally planned to send me to). Either the Gunter had no pull with this hotel, or they were unwilling to pay a higher rate--even though I was the one being inconvenienced. To add insult to injury, while I was arguing with the front desk, more than a dozen flight attendants and pilots breezed in (by now it was after 10:30 pm), checked in and were given rooms. Obviously the Sheraton Gunter valued the repeat business of the flight crews over my business, even though I am a senior executive with a national company with over 40,000 employees. The manager on duty the following day told me that this overbooking happens "frequently" and that dealing with it is "his least favorite part of the job." This hotel seems to have an aggressive overbooking policy, which hurts its customers. To their partial credit, they comped my room the second night with a suite. I was glad they saved my company money the second night, after me having to pay a higher rate to move to the new hotel the first night, but it did little to soothe my extreme exasperation and aggravation from the night before. It was a shame, because the suite and decor was decent when I finally got a room. However, this can't overcome the extremely poor and unprofessional customer service I experienced. I travel regularly and to San Antonio frequently, but this was my first and last stay at the Gunter.