Let Down
By A Yahoo! Contributor, 1/11/08
We usually love the Four Seasons, but not this time. We arrived Dec. 4, 2007 & following the storm that hit Maul the power was out Dec. 5 & 6 at the hotel. Check-in was slow although we were upgraded from Garden View to Ocean View (far off in the distance from one side of the balcony.) We realize the hotel cannot control Mother Nature & we did sympathize with them, however, there was little done for the hotel guests in way of compensation or to help alleviate the situation. On the 5th the hotel passed out playing cards (usually given to children at check-in we were told) since none of the amenities could be used. Also lots of bottle water passed out.
While playing cards in the Lobby Lounge we ordered Bloody Marys...no Bloody Mary mix at this bar at that particular time. The hotel staff recommended staying put due to power outage, flooded roads & traffic jams which left us with only Duo restaurant serving food which was a cold sandwich buffet, green salad & ice cream to the tune of $25 per person, no drink included. We complained that the price seemed excessive since it was the only option available & they removed the charge.
Our biggest complaint or concern revolved around the Lobby Lounge. On Dec. 5 while the power was out we ordered a Corona & a glass of red wine. No menus were passed out & bills were hand written. The bill was $8 for the beer & $15 for the wine. We thought the prices were a bit high but that is what one expects at the Four Seasons. However, I looked at the room service menu, the poolside menu & later, the Lobby Lounge menu & in fact, the beer should have been $6.50 & the Red Diamond wine $11 (can buy a bottle at my local grocery for $7.00) We questioned the waiter who of course was not the waiter we previously had as to the discrepancy. He couldn't explain it & offered to correct our bill. At check-out we discovered that the drink charge had not been corrected, but we had actually been charged a second time at the incorrect amount. So now a $17.50 charge had become $52.00 (w/tip). Of course, when explained to the woman checking us out she promptly removed both charges. It made us wonder " was the Four Seasons or the waiter taking advantage of the guests while the power was out or was it an honest mistake' ? We'll never know. In a letter from the manager he acknoweldged the removal of the charges as doing us a favor, when in fact it was totally a hotel or wait staff errror. He also offered a complimentary 1 night stay in a Garden View room if available on a future stay. Nice gesture but highly unlikely to ever be used .
On their behalf, the hotel is beautiful, the game room is nice, internet availiablity is a nice amenity, as well as the business center, leis on arrival, & the conceriege had great restuarant recommendtions. We were offered a bite of fruit & ice water at the pool when the weather finally improved although the lounge chairs were wet from all the rain.
Room service came very late in the day a couple times which was a bit irritating, but nothing horrible. We had to call room service 3 times just to get a knife & the bed wasn't as comfortable as we would have expected. Minor issues, but it all added up. In the past couple months we have had reason to stay at a Hampton Inn & Hilton Garden in smaller towns with only those chain hotels available & in both instances overall service & value was much better. For the price of the Four Seasons we would have expected them to rise above the situation and at least have offered a free drink or possibly a few bucks off the price of the room....at least it would have felt like they had a bit of compassion for those that endured the 2 day power outage. It appears the only compensation anyone received that we knew of is if a complaint was lodged. It looked like a 5 star resort but they sure fooled us.