Discriminatory treatment at The Jewel
My wife and I were shocked at the experience we just encountered when checking in at The Jewel. We arrived at the hotel a bit more than an hour earlier than the specified check-in time of 3 PM, although no check-in time was stated on our email reservation confirmation. Upon arrival the front desk staff started checking us in with no hesitation, until their computer gave a message stating "System Error - cannot continue." When I pointed this out to them (The Jewel uses customer-facing computers for electronic check-in), the woman in charge at check-in told us, "Check in is at 3 o'clock, so you can't check in yet; but we can store your baggage for you." As she was telling us that information, another guest arrived and was waiting behind us.
I went with hotel personnel to store our baggage in a locked room. Upon my return I saw that the person who had arrived after us was completing his check-in and the front desk staff was telling him how to get to his room. I than inquired, almost in a joking fashion, "Why was he able to check into his room and I wasn't?" The woman at the front desk then replied, "He has a different room than yours."
Well, we booked our room for The Jewel online at a very well known hotel booking site and paid in advance the full amount for our stay (with the starting prices for rooms at The Jewel being in the comfortable three-digit dollar amount -- that is, easily over $100 and upward). We were not told by the front desk that our room was not available at the time of our early arrival; rather, we were told (after completing the entire check-in process -- which I can verify by my bank's electronic notification of an early charge authorization from the hotel for any extra expenses) that "Check-in is at 3 o'clock." When the next guest was easily checked in early with no hesitation, though, the explanation given to us then was that he had a different type of room.
Apparently, as with the animals in George Orwell's classic book "Animal Farm", all animals are equal at The Jewel -- but some animals are more equal than others. My wife and I have traveled to multiple continents and stayed at a wide range of lodgings -- we had, in fact, just returned from an extensive European trip and chose The Jewel for a one-night stay before heading home -- and I have NEVER encountered this type of blatant "room discrimination" at any lodging, regardless of its size or price level.
We fully understand if rooms are not yet available for early check-in, or if a hotel chooses to enforce a strict check-in time. However, when it appears that the reason for denying early check-in has to do with neither of these circumstances, but with the quality level of the room booked, then this is clearly discriminatory to the traveler. I believe that this type of activity should never be countenanced and should be exposed for what it is: discrimination at a sorry level. Regardless of the quality of the accoutrements that The Jewel may offer, our treatment upon arrival soured our stay.