I checked in at the The Chelsea Hotel with 7 other friends on January 12, 2012 in two Luxe Water Queen rooms. We had purchased the Living Social deal and we were looking forward to a one night getaway. The decor of the place was interesting, somewhat retro, though decidedly less glamorous than the website had depicted it to be, but then that's to be expected. We checked in without much issue, and we went to our respective rooms. There were some minor issues with the room. We noticed that there was a large red stain on the comforter, and when we called housekeeping to see if we could get it replaced, we were told that they had run out, and that our only option was to move to another room. Not wanting the hassle, we chose to stay in the room, and simply turn the comforter around. No big deal. But dealing with housekeeping was such a nightmare that I simply called the front desk for everything. In the morning when I politely asked for an extra bathrobe to be sent up, the woman on the phone snapped back, "hang up the phone, and i'll call someone to bring it up," which honestly surprised me. Later when i spoke to my friends staying in the other room, I was told that they had similar experiences. When they called to ask for a toothbrush, they were impatiently told that they had run out, and just as they were about to ask for extra toiletries, the person they talked to hung up the phone. Still, we've all had our share of less than stellar service so we all put up with it. After all, it was only for one night.
That night, I left my camera, a Sony Alpha Nex 5k/B on the nightstand behind the lamp, where it remained untouched until the next day. This can be confirmed by the three other people with whom I shared the room.
The next morning at approximately 7:30 am, I noticed the camera on the nightstand, but did not move it from its place. I had noticed it because it was at about that time I called housekeeping asking for a bathrobe, and the phone is right on the nightstand. As I was busy answering work emails and catching up on office work until approximately 10:30 am, there was a bit of a rush getting ready for standard checkout at 11:00. We left the room 5 minutes before 11, and checked out of the hotel without any issue. From there, we headed to a nearby Dunkin Donuts for breakfast. It was there that I realized that I could not remember packing my camera, and immediately assumed that I left it at the hotel. At 11:40, a friend and I went back to the hotel and I told the receptionist at the front desk, Monique, that I had left my camera in the room. She in turn informed Bob, the housekeeping manager of this, and told my friend and I to wait for him to retrieve it for us from the room. It is perhaps worth noting that there was a couple right behind us who also reported having left an umbrella in their room, and was also told to wait. After approximately 10-15 minutes, the housekeeping manager came down with the umbrella, and informed us that the camera was nowhere to be found. He offered to take us up to the room so that we could look for ourselves, and we agreed. We searched the room, pulled out the dresser that the camera had been on, but were unable to find it. The tables were bare, and it was not on the floor. The manager informed us that nobody had been in the room, and so if it had been left, it should be there. Admittedly, as I had not yet checked my bag for the camera, I did not search extremely carefully, as I assumed that as no one had been in the room, and the camera was not in the room, it must therefore be in my bag, and I had simply forgotten that I packed it. However, upon returning to the Dunkin Donuts, and searched the bag three times, we could not find the camera.
The eight of us then returned to the hotel, where we asked Monique again if we could go up to the room to search it again. She contacted the manager, who came down to the lobby and took us back to the room, where the eight of us more or less turned the place upside down in search for it. It was then that one of my friends pointed out that the tip that we had left was missing, which meant that someone must have been in the room. We informed the manager of this, who said that it was good that we had noticed that, as he had initially assumed that no one had been in the room, simply because the room had not been cleaned. He left to search for the maid, and came back about 10 minutes later, saying that the maid had admitted to taking the tip but had not seen the camera. He said that he had checked her cart and did not see it. He also said that they had not had a problem with theft at the hotel, and that they took such matters very seriously. He then asked me to wait while they sent someone from Security up to take my statement.
A few minutes later, someone from Security came up with a clipboard and a form. I explained the situation to him, and he handed me the clipboard and the form and told me to write down the incident. After I finished writing my statement, I handed it back to him, and he told me that they were going to investigate and that regardless of whether or not the camera was found, they would contact me in a few days to let me know of the situation. Afterwards, I returned to NYC.
In the days following, I called the hotel numerous times. The first time, the front desk wouldn't even transfer my call to Bob, and when the call was transferred, it would ring and go to voicemail. Despite leaving about four messages, asking for a copy of my original claim, I got no response. I began to grow nervous, and wrote up a police report to fax to ACPD. Finally, on 1/19/12, I got a call from John Weber, who said they were going to begin an investigation, despite the fact that they had told me they were going to investigate immediately. Later that day, my mother, who has also been helping me call the hotel, said she received a call from Russell Goss, the evening manager, but because her English wasn't very good, she couldn't fully understand him, so told me to give him a call. When I did, I told him that I had received a call from Mr. Weber that morning, to which he responded with surprise. Clearly, there was lack of communication between the staff.
After numerous back and forth between myself, Mr. Goss, and Mr. Weber, about a week later, Mr. Goss informed me that none of the people they had interviewed had admitted to taking the camera, and asked me how I wanted to proceed. I said honestly that I wasn't sure how to proceed at this point, as I wasn't accustomed to making demands, and Mr. Goss told me that it seemed like the only thing they could do at this point was the reimburse me the cost of the camera, to which I agreed would be an acceptable solution.
A few days later, when I emailed Mr. Weber to confirm the situation, as I understood him to be Mr. Goss's superior, he told me he knew nothing of what Mr. Goss and I had spoken about and that reimbursement was impossible, given the circumstances of the thorough investigation they had done. This struck me as odd, and I asked to receive a copy of the report. The next day, it was forwarded to me by Mr. Goss.
When I received the copy of the investigation report, I couldn't help but laugh in horror. It was a joke. It couldn't be anything else. I had a very hard time believing that the people who I had believed to be taking my case seriously and doing a thorough investigation had come up with exactly four sheets of paper. The first sheet was a simple incident form. The next sheet was completed by one Anthony Fermente who in his report, restated everything I said, but in grammatically incorrect terms, almost verbatim, in third person, with the inclusion of a single line that the maid they interviewed, did not see a camera in the room while she was cleaning it. The third sheet was my original claim. The fourth sheet said simply, "When I cleaned the room, I did not see a camera in the room," and was signed by the maid. And that was that. Just an apology that I was not satisfied by the way the investigation was conducted, and a sincere hope that I would return to the hotel again. As for the camera, well, the maid said she didn't take it. So, that's that. The dates didn't even correspond with what I had been told. The report from Mr. Fermente was dated 1.13.12, and the date of the maid's statement was dated 1.15.12. I was told that they were going to investigate on 1.19.12, and was updated on nothing substantial from that point forward.
I honestly hope for the sake of the integrity for the staff, that when I was told that a "thorough investigation" was conducted, that they had not seen the report at all, and were just saying that in the hopes that they could placate me. Much to my annoyance, I've had to take time from my already packed schedule to come back to Atlantic City from NY and file a formal report with the ACPD. Upon the conclusion of that investigation, if the camera is not found, I fully intend to bring my case to small claims court, which is something that I neither want nor have time for, but I refuse to be treated in this way. I'm posting this message on this site because I noticed that the general manager has been responding to people's posts, and I would like him to note my situation. I apologize for the lengthiness of the post, but I want people to fully understand the situation so that they can form their own conclusions regarding this hotel, and to get the attention of the Chelsea and let them know that I will not back down from my position. I'd appreciate if this situation was dealt with as soon as possible. Thank you very much.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
