Trouble In Paradise? Here’s what to do

What happens when – after months and months of planning, paying and excitedly anticipating your vacation – things don’t go as expected in the destination? Although this doesn’t happen frequently to my clients (*knock on wood*), it DOES happen. It’s helpful to know what to do in this scenario: the next steps and how I can help as your travel agent.

Very recently, one of my groups traveled to the Caribbean immediately after Hurricane Beryl, an abnormally early-season category 4 storm, “barreled” through some of the most popular tourist destinations in the region. Their destination was impacted, but they weren’t scheduled to arrive until 2 days after the storm passed over the island. The communication we received was that the island was open and ready for tourists. Unfortunately my group arrived to a hotel still in recovery from the storm – no air conditioning, spotty power and limited services. Needless to say, they were UNHAPPY. Now, some of this was due to Mother Nature and couldn’t be helped, but they still felt that the hotel was woefully unprepared for the storm and shouldn’t have accepted new guests in those conditions. Fair enough.

The example above is an extreme circumstance, as usually the matters I hear about are related to getting a room with a king bed instead of doubles (which also happened to them), the wrong view/poor view, or another structural issue (i.e. the shower has no hot water, broken toilet, etc).

So what happens when you get to your destination and things aren’t as you expected?

1. Go to the Front Desk. The front desk is always going to be your first point of contact. They have the ability to change your room if necessary and/or resolve most issues related to your stay. They may not be able to deal with it immediately (say, for example, if the hotel is at capacity and there’s no room to move you to), but they can come up with a plan. There are constantly guests checking in and out of the hotel, and a better room may open up for you. Work with them on it first.
2. Speak to Management. If you’re not finding the Front Desk’s solutions to be sufficient, or if they’re having a bad day and being unpleasant to work with (if happens, unfortunately), there is a manager on-site that you can consult with. Their job is make sure the hotel is running smoothly and that guests are satisfied. They can escalate some concerns for alternative solutions, so see what they’re able to do.
3. Shoot me an email. If items 1 and 2 are getting you nowhere, it’s time to let me know. You’ve established a paper trail at the hotel and have gone up the chain of command. Now I can get involved by notifying the supplier with whom the trip was booked and involving the hotel’s corporate resolutions. This process can often take a little longer and, depending on the situation, may result in some back-end resolutions instead of an immediate fix. (again it totally depends on the situation).

If your issue is so significant that you need to change hotels, skip right on over items #1 and #2 and contact me immediately. I will work with the supplier on finding another resort and ensuring availability for you and your party. Any price differential will need to be paid over the phone, and you’ll have to cover the cost of transportation to the new hotel.

Last thing. And I say this with alllll due respect, y’all.

BE NICE.

I understand the frustration of spending thousands of dollars to plan a trip, just for things not to go as you expected. It’s been a LONG day: you’ve been sitting on planes eating Biscoff cookies and drinking ginger ale, dragging 48 lbs of luggage through the airport, standing in lines waiting to get a passport stamp, and traveling in a van to get to your hotel. All of this just to get to the room and see that it’s not passing the vibe check. The annoyance and frustration is real.

You’ve taken time away from your job to visit these people at their jobs. And no one likes to be cussed out at work. Be assertive and be persistent, but (respectfully) don’t be verbally abusive or disrespectful. There is the saying that the squeaky wheel gets the oil, but “squeaky” doesn’t have to mean unkind.