"To summarise, the reception staff member Marcos and the Hotel Manager behaved in a rude and unacceptable way towards my elderly mother. These two people distressed and intimidated her to such an extent that she felt numbness in her left arm, and someone had to rush to get an electric blood pressure monitor so she could check her blood pressure. She then needed to take medication to prevent anything more serious. We had to cut our stay from 6 nights to 2 nights because my mother was uncomfortable even leaving her room after this interaction! The hotel offered 1 free meal voucher, acknowledged no wrongdoing, and rejected my request for suitable compensation.
The full series of events is below.
For context, I am a 25-year old man who wanted to do something nice for his elderly mother by taking her on a weekend getaway. We stayed with your hotel last year, and enjoyed ourselves, and so were expecting a nice and relaxing stay.
We arrived at the hotel after a reception staff member told us ‘sorry we can’t send you a taxi for 3 hours’. I understand it was a busy morning due to airport arrivals etc but a 5-star hotel would be expected to have taxis on reserve.
After much delay and a cancellation, the hotel sends a taxi without air conditioning. I start to feel lightheaded and unwell during the journey to the hotel.
When we arrived, we asked reception and they informed us that our room would be ready in 20 minutes. We waited 20 minutes, then asked reception again, and they informed us ‘no, it will be ready in 20 more minutes' - 40 minutes from arrival time (in the end it took about 1 hour 15 minutes vs the 20 minutes we were promised). The first person shouldn’t have misinformed us.
My mother (55, and tired from her journey) was then enquiring why we were told 20 minutes vs now 40 mins, when the reception staff member Marcos started being very aggressive and raising his voice at her. The voice was raised to such a loud volume that I (sitting about 15 metres away), heard the conversation and so approached to defend my mother. I mentioned 'You cannot speak to my mother in that way'. He continued. No one should speak to any elderly woman like that. Marcos continued being aggressive and confrontational to me as well, and kept interrupting me. My mother felt intimidated and very rudely treated by Marcos. He was clearly angry and frustrated for some reason.
Marcos then asked if we wanted to speak to the Hotel Manager, so I said yes. Whilst Marcos went to fetch the Manager, my mother and I went back to sit down and she started feeling tingles / numbness in her left arm (i.e. a heart-related problem) because of the angst Marcos had caused. I had to get her water etc. By the time the Manager arrived, my mother was visibly shaken and crying slightly because of Marcos and his sheer rudeness.
When I showed my crying mother to the Manager, he did not apologise for his employee, he did not ask her if she was alright, he did not even ask her if he could get her a refreshment.
He ignored her entirely and said something to the effect that meant 'it's not the fault of me or my employee'.
The Manager and I speak in his office, where he raises his voice at me. I ask if I can speak first to explain what happened. He says yes. I begin speaking but he interrupts me and does not let me finish, raising his voice in the process again.
I asked the manager what he has to say about the behaviour of Marcos, because it was unacceptable.
The manager responds, 'Marcos did nothing wrong because I know him, he's been an employee here for 5 years and he's been trained'. I tell the manager, 'You weren't there with me, so how can you know he did nothing wrong?'. The Manager in effect says he doesn't care and 'I know him' and that he couldn't have done anything wrong. The sheer unprofessionalism is shocking and I felt insulted.
My mother, meanwhile, was still so distressed by these events and of how the Manager spoke to me, to the extent that the numbness in her left arm got worse and I had to seek medical assistance. We needed to get an electric blood pressure monitor for her to measure her blood pressure because of how extreme the situation became. She then needed to take medication when she saw how high the reading was (about 140/80 if I recall).
The manager then walks over to say the room will be ready in another 15 mins (after we had been speaking for about 20 minutes). As mentioned, we get to the room about 1 hour 15 minutes later vs the initial 20 minutes which was mentioned. I emailed ahead the previous day explaining that I was travelling with my elderly mother and that I'd really appreciate it if the staff could be accommodating and allow her to lie down as soon after arrival as possible.
Finally, the staff member taking us to the room then takes us to the wrong room, and we have to travel yet more in the blistering heat to get to the correct place.
As mentioned, I am appalled and frankly disgusted by the way these employees treated my elderly mother. I am 25 years old, and tried to take my mother on a relaxing weekend away and this is the treatment we get. As I'm sure you understand, a man wants the best for his mother and to make her life as easy and relaxing as possible. Your staff members not only behaved rudely to my mother, but then failed to take any responsibility, apologise or make amends. My mother now even feels uncomfortable leaving our room - I'm sure you agree that's no way someone should feel when paying for an expensive suite."
