Last year, I booked a pair of rooms at an advance purchase rate for a one night stay in July 2012 - overnight lodging prior to our cruise out of Southampton. We opted for the advance purchase rate as it was the only thing affordable due to the price-gouging going on at this hotel as well as elsewhere during the Olympics (noting that this advance purchase rate is 3 times the nightly rate just two weeks earlier). Last week we learned that one of the children had a mandatory school-related activity that required us to reschedule our holiday altogether, which ended up becoming a holiday within the U.S. instead. I e-mailed the hotel and explained our predicament, assuming that they would be sensitive to our issue and quite able to back-fill our absence with other patrons, especially since we gave the hotel over five and one-half months' advance notice of travel change.
Sadly, I received a cold e-mail reply from the hotel's Deputy General Manager this week, who offered no refund, no recommendation of alternatives, or any other offer of service or support. The hotel gleefully has now pocketed 300 British pounds of our money with no services delivered whatsoever. This smacks of a management team that has one priority: to maximize their personal bonuses at the expense of their clients. So to those of you who are looking into this hotel, my advice is: look elsewhere. This hotel is willing to hang their patrons out to dry with no sensitivity whatsoever. Go somewhere else where they truly care about their customers.
- Holiday Inn Slough
- Slough Holiday Inn
