Amelia Hotel at the Beach, Amelia Island

Beware!! Amelia Hotel At The Beach does NOT honor their Groupons!!! Unbelievable? Better believe it. We called them today (03-13-’11) and talked to Leanne to make reservations for April to celebrate a special occasion, planned long ago. On the Groupon it has an expiration date of 03-31-’11, which is ridiculous to start with because it is a Groupon subject to availability, which translates to: otherwise there would be an open/unused room. NEWSFLASH: There should be no expiration date on a money-transaction that has taken place, by a possibly often re-visiting customer, but ok. By the way, let me add that the coupon was purchased in mid-February, which gives the customer a whopping month and a half window to use it! But now to the meat and potatoes of the Groupon’s fine print: Right below the expiration date it has clearly printed: “Reservations required” and therefore the most logical assumption is that reservations ARE REQUIRED by the date previously stated. Unfortunately, sometimes mankind can’t avoid dealing with illiterate, sometimes even borderline retarded employees at certain establishments. Well, let’s just say that we found ours in Leanne. After a long discussion, in which we pointed out the misleading, certainly ambiguous instructions and a long time on hold, for her to ponder the case, she comes back with the phrase: “I can’t help you, no exceptions are made”, instead of: “sir, we’d love to have you as our guests, since you have already paid for your stay”. Now, I don’t know Richard Germano personally, however, I have lots of experience with the ‘Crab Trap’ (all family owned). I DO know how Max values customer service, and therefore, I am willing to go out on a limb and say that Mr. Germano, and his daughter, would not have appreciated the way Leanne treated likely loyal guests. We are part of a large network and Leanne made a costly mistake, I promise. Very disappointing, we were looking forward to it.