Harborside Power Outage

[RnU]

What a shame! What you're describing is the opposite of a vacation, nothing but stress and grief

 

[Passepartout]

I would be VERY tempted to call my travel insurance carrier and say "GET ME OUTTA HERE!!!" The above is NOT a description of a vacation.

Jim

 

[dundey]

Wow, 3 days that is really NOT the way you want to spend a vacation. I hope they do compensate you for it.

Having said that, this stuff happens. We were in OBX for hurricane Dennis several years ago. We were one of the only areas on the banks that did not have mandatory evacuation, so no refund or compensation at all for our expensive rented house. And the hurricane last almost the entire week.

The only thing you can do is try to have fun (drink!) and make the best of it. Life is too short.

 

[SueDonJ]

Seems like a natural disaster is a lot different from an infrastructure problem at a resort. For a natural disaster I'd expect the resort to have some kind of plan in place to ensure guest safety as much as is humanly possible (knowing that it's not always possible,) and that would be the extent of their responsibility.

But this is a disgrace! For what's happening at Harborside this week I'd expect more, MUCH MORE, and after 12 hours I'd be going right over the resort level and contacting Starwood executive level. It's understandable that if the properties are all booked then there's nothing they can do to put you up onsite, but once the problem continued into 14/15 hours they should have been searching high and low in the area for alternative lodgings and they should have comped them. Since they didn't do what should have been done, they've lost their chance to do the right thing and it's time for the big guns.

Here's your leadership team. The CEO and President of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. is Frits Van Paasschen. I'd use whatever customer service number you have and demand to be transferred to his office. The least you'll be doing is putting him on notice that you'll be contacting an attorney when you return home, because you believe that you are entitled to compensation. (And if I were a Harborside Owner, I'd be watching my MF's closely next year to make sure that the compensation isn't coming out of owners' pockets.)

 

[Passepartout]

(And if I were a Harborside Owner, I'd be watching my MF's closely next year to make sure that the compensation isn't coming out of owners' pockets.)

Where else would it be coming from? Owners by definition, OWN the resort and as such are on the hook for the repairs and compensation of those guests and other owners who have the bad luck to be there during this outage. It sux, but that's what happens to owners. I hope the management has a big, fat insurance policy to cover this.

Jim

 

[DeniseM]

Starwood monitors TUG, and I'm sure they are coming up with a generous plan, to compensate owners for the miserable failure of the management at Harborside to deal with this emergency. No doubt they will pay this compensation out of management coffers, since it's obvious that the management company failed Starwood owners, and ruined many vacations.

 

[SueDonJ]

Where else would it be coming from? Owners by definition, OWN the resort and as such are on the hook for the repairs and compensation of those guests and other owners who have the bad luck to be there during this outage. It sux, but that's what happens to owners. I hope the management has a big, fat insurance policy to cover this.

Jim

Management is Starwood Hotels & Resorts and they should be covering any compensation related to this one event because of their poor handling of it. That's what makes it a non-owners responsibility. The owners will be on the hook for whatever infrastructure repairs are necessary, sure, because equipment maintenance and replacement is a component of the MF's. But this situation has been handled very poorly by the staff, as if they have no direction at all from the management. Compensation due for endangering the health and safety of the onsite guests, in this case, isn't due to owner negligence or a result of owner action but rather management incompetence and inaction.

Is it possible that the exec offices aren't even aware of what's going on there? I'd find that very hard to believe but it's really the only thing that explains the resort personnel's apparent lack of any direction.

{ETA} What Denise said.

 

[BJRSanDiego]

Josh, Twitter is your friend in these situations. Use it.

I've had really good luck from Facebook. My record was three hours from the FB posting until the resort general manager called and said they corrected the problem. Here's a possible link that Starwood may regularly review: https://www.facebook.com/StarwoodVacationNetwork

 

[suzannesimon]

I've had really good luck from Facebook. My record was three hours from the FB posting until the resort general manager called and said they corrected the problem. Here's a possible link that Starwood may regularly review: https://www.facebook.com/StarwoodVacationNetwork

So I just checked out the Facebook page and saw this

"LAST CHANCE! Send us your best vacation action photo and you could win up to 100,000 Starpoints® from the Starwood Preferred Guest® (SPG) program."

I wonder if some vacation photos of the guests escaping the sewers backing up would get action.:hysterical:

 

[Joshadelic]

Not sure if the power or water is working at Harborside Phase II yet, but we finally got them to put us up at The Reef until we check out on Sunday. It's REALLY nice over here, but not nice enough to compensate for everything that has gone wrong.

 

[suzannesimon]

Not sure if the power or water is working at Harborside Phase II yet, but we finally got them to put us up at The Reef until we check out on Sunday. It's REALLY nice over here, but not nice enough to compensate for everything that has gone wrong.

Did they move everyone over there?

 

[Joshadelic]

Did they move everyone over there?

I'm not really sure. I've seen quite a few people that have moved over here, but some were put in The Cove into hotel rooms. I think where you were moved had a lot to do with how much you complained. They had no plan for where to put people.

 

[Joshadelic]

I've had really good luck from Facebook. My record was three hours from the FB posting until the resort general manager called and said they corrected the problem. Here's a possible link that Starwood may regularly review: https://www.facebook.com/StarwoodVacationNetwork

Apparently you can't post anything on their Facebook page without them approving it.

 

[chriskre]

Apparently you can't post anything on their Facebook page without them approving it.

Maybe reply to one of their already going threads.

Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk 2

 

[SueDonJ]

Glad to hear you've been put somewhere on a less-temporary basis, Josh. Like you I still think they're now on the hook for much more than a nice place and I'd be sure to follow up with that after the trip. But in the meantime, have they begun issuing food/drink (onsite if they have the capability, offsite if not) vouchers to guests?

 

[Joshadelic]

Glad to hear you've been put somewhere on a less-temporary basis, Josh. Like you I still think they're now on the hook for much more than a nice place and I'd be sure to follow up with that after the trip. But in the meantime, have they begun issuing food/drink (onsite if they have the capability, offsite if not) vouchers to guests?

They haven't done anything for us other than move us. I heard they had a 'free' cookout and open bar over at the Harborside pool a couple of nights ago, but we had already been moved to The Reef by that time.

 

[Joshadelic]

Maybe reply to one of their already going threads.

Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk 2

That worked. We'll see how long it takes them to delete the comments.

 

[chriskre]

That worked. We'll see how long it takes them to delete the comments.

Keep posting on all their threads.
That will get their attention.
They should be flying people to Hollywood beach here at the Westin diplomat.
The beach is gorgeous this week here.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Ken555]

Not sure if the power or water is working at Harborside Phase II yet, but we finally got them to put us up at The Reef until we check out on Sunday. It's REALLY nice over here, but not nice enough to compensate for everything that has gone wrong.

Good to hear. Hopefully you'll be able to enjoy the rest of your time there. I suggest you request they comp every single charge you've made to the room this week, as I think it's a reasonable request. Otherwise, and it rarely say this, but it may be time (for us all) to boycott Atlantis and Harborside.

The way guests (and owners) are treated by the staff, the professionalism and competence of the staff, the resort emergency policies and procedures, the timeliness of communication and more all factor into having a successful property...or not. I've always felt that something was missing from Harborside when I've been there, and in general it's the service. Your experience this week confirms that management has some serious problems.

 

[Ken555]

That worked. We'll see how long it takes them to delete the comments.

This is why Twitter is better for this purpose. You should post pictures, comments, the management responses, timeliness (or not) and more. #poweroutageatharborside #atlantissucks

 

[BJRSanDiego]

Apparently you can't post anything on their Facebook page without them approving it.

ahh... maybe that isn't true if you are a Facebook member. I made a post and it is still on their page. Also, a person by the name of Joshua B. made a post and link to TUG. I commented on his post. I encourage others to so so similarly.

 

[Ken555]

ahh... maybe that isn't true if you are a Facebook member. I made a post and it is still on their page. Also, a person by the name of [...] made a post and link to TUG. I commented on his post. I encourage others to so so similarly.

I think it's inappropriate to post full names on TUG. Please edit your post.

 

[BJRSanDiego]

I think it's inappropriate to post full names on TUG. Please edit your post.

No problem. I edited my post. Here is the link to the FB page with a couple of posts regarding the problem. Perhaps the attention will help resolve the problem in a timely fashion.

https://www.facebook.com/StarwoodVacationNetwork

 

[NJ2Aruba]

I was at the Marriott in Aruba several years ago, and they caught the tail end of Hurricane Felix. The power went out at Surf Club, but Ocean Club and Stellaris had power. Literally as soon as we made it down to the lobby after the power went out (Thank God we weren't on the 11th floor since my mother was over 80), there were people at the front desk going berserk. I'm talking only minutes after losing power. The staff was running around like headless chickens trying to address everyone's concerns.

I just wanted to know if the ATM was working. Since Ocean Club had power, we ran across, got completely drenched, took out some money, went to Champs, played some pool, ordered food to go for my Mom (who was provided with complimentary coffee in her lounge chair in the lobby while she watched all the activity) and by the time we got back to Surf Club, the rain had let up, they had the power back on, and even though total loss time was only a few hours, they still gave us $100 comp, which we went back to Champs with, since they were so nice during the power outage.

 

[Joshadelic]

I think it's inappropriate to post full names on TUG. Please edit your post.

Meh... I don't care. That was me who commented on FB.