HORRIBLE HORRIBLE SERVICE
By A Yahoo! Contributor, 7/25/11
I stayed at the Hilton Scotts Valley/Santa Cruz on July 15-16. I paid approximately $200/night. The fee included complimentary breakfast and valet parking. My first disappointment was that hotel room purchase through Price line means NO Hilton Honors points, because the room was “sold to Price line, not to you.” OK, no huge deal…
I used the valet service for my first nights stay. When I looked out from the hotel lobby, I noted that MY car was the ONLY car parked facing out, as apposed to every other car simply driven straight into their respective parking spots. In the morning, when my car was brought to me, I walked to the passenger side and saw a large dent running down the side of it, with fresh paint transfer. I asked the valet attendant and he simply shrugged his shoulders and said “I didn’t do it.”
I was in a hurry, so only had time to have the valet kid fill out a short incident report. When I returned, I asked to speak to the manager in charge to figure out how my vehicle was going to get handled. The general manager walked out to my car with me and after seeing the damage, said “wow, that’s too bad. Unfortunately we are not liable and there is nothing I can do for you.” I was shocked and explained that his staff was the last to drive it. He told me to look at the fine print on my ticket and I would learn that they are not responsible.
In the end, he offered his business card and said I could submit a bill from my insurance, but that it would not be paid. He concluded by saying “I didn’t want your car to get hit.” I was pretty angry to say the least. When I returned to my room, after SELF PARKING my car, it was 5:30pm. I found that the room was not cleaned, as room service had not yet got to it. When I asked the front desk why my room wasn’t cleaned yet, they said it was a busy weekend.
As much as a hassle as it might be from this point forward, I will NOT, to the best of my ability, stay at a Hilton hotel, much less this specific location. I feel like they made ZERO effort to make things right. It was shocking that in this day and age, a hotel manager would think its OK to let a customer walk away with a screwed up car and a clearly articulated BAD experience without making ANY effort to minimize the damage. Really, they could save some money by eliminating the position altogether if all they can do is say “sorry.” I am almost more surprised with the bad treatment than I am angry that my car was damaged…NEVER AGAIN.