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Shocking experience at Ritz Carlton Destination Club Lake Tahoe....

D

darius

TUG Member
Joined
Apr 26, 2009
Messages
182
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Hi there,

It deeply saddens my wife and I to post this, as we have enjoyed many Ritz and Marriott vacations in the past and we've never had an experience quite like this (we are also Chairman's Club and Platinum members) . We've also stayed at this property before in the past and it was absolutely wonderful - this time however, i'm not sure how to begin to share our frustrations.

We hyped up this property to great friends of ours who traveled a long distance to stay with us at this property... but here's how the check-in process went:

- Even though our friends were not on our reservation, they were allowed into our villa (and started to prepare dinner) without even the courtesy of a phone call to us if they were authorized to enter our villa. The front desk person didn't ask for any ID, credit card, zero - nothing. Their name was never on the reservation. Imagine, if this person wasn't truly our friend and was "waiting" for us in the room - scary. When I spoke with the front desk agent as to why this happened he simply said "They seamed like nice people" and he "Trusted them" - without any ID, phone call or credit card.

- The unit itself looks, somewhat tired - broken buttons to operate the dishwasher (buttons that appear to have broken off long ago), ripped cushions on the couch, sheets with holes in them, stains throughout the property on chairs - etc - and just a (hard to describe) dirty feeling in the room.

- DVD players no longer work in any rooms and all the movies have been removed from the owners library. The staff said this was due to an equipment upgrade that went wrong, and unfortunately DVD's will never make it back into the villas. They also removed the popcorn that the staff would bring up if they knew you or your family were ready to watch a movie - a nice touch that we enjoyed last year when we stayed here.

I've spoken to the top manager that I could get to at the property, and she is going to be contacting me tomorrow (we are staying here several days) but I wanted to ask: Has anyone noticed this property go downhill? Is it being ill maintained because, perhaps, this may be a property that will go the way of Hawaii and other Ritz Destination Clubs? For what it's worth, the manager said they are extremely short handed and it was a "human error" but I have not addressed the room condition with her yet - and frankly, I have never, ever stayed at any property (including a motel 6) that would just let someone walk right into someone elses room before the actual guest checks in.

Generally, I don't do not post too often on tug or other sites, but I feel so strongly about this and wanted to make others aware of this situation. I've taken several photos of the unit condition and am happy to share and post as well.

If anyone is curious, I'm happy to report the resolution (hopefully there will be one) at the end of this trip.

Thanks for reading, and I hope no one else has this experience here or at any property within the Ritz/Marriott system.
 
I'm really sorry to hear this -- I've been tracking this property as a desirable place to visit and will be disappointed if it does not meet expectations. Please let me know if anything further comes from this.

Best,

Greg
 
Very interested to hear what resolution is offered. I will be staying there the first week of March for a ski trip.
 
I agree that the resort should not let your friends in the room without proper authorization and ID.

But was curious why you would not contact the resort ahead of time and let them know your great freinds who are traveling a long distance would be arriving ahead of you and it is OK to let them in the room? If they were not allowed in the room, they would have been sitting in the lobby waiting for you.

Also, what kind of resolution are you looking for? I would see this a no harm no foul situation.
 
I could see the opposite thread... "we met our good friends at the Ritz. He and his wife are both doctors don't you know. So anyway, they got there early and the Ritz front desk didn't even have the courtesy to let them into our villa so they could start dinner. Our friends offered multiple credit cards, gave our phone number, etc...." Ok, so maybe my example is a stretch but the situation doesn't seem like the end of the world. In combination with the other things you mention it is disappointing that the property is not living up to the Ritz name and that the front desk person made an improper decision but it doesn't seem like that huge of a deal to me. I would not expect much in compensation (points, free food, whatever) here if that's what you are looking for. A free breakfast for the group would be the most I would expect.
 
darius said:
Even though our friends were not on our reservation, they were allowed into our villa (and started to prepare dinner) without even the courtesy of a phone call to us if they were authorized to enter our villa. The front desk person didn't ask for any ID, credit card, zero - nothing. Their name was never on the reservation. Imagine, if this person wasn't truly our friend and was "waiting" for us in the room - scary. When I spoke with the front desk agent as to why this happened he simply said "They seamed like nice people" and he "Trusted them" - without any ID, phone call or credit card.
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I just read this to my husband and asked his opinion. His response was: "I'd be furious!". He went on to say that a number of people stated that Ted Bundy was a nice guy. I sometimes travel without my husband and we would both be extremely upset if this ever happened when I was arriving by myself.

If their names weren't on the reservation and you hadn't contacted the resort to let them know your friends would be arriving before you then they should NEVER have been allowed into the unit without a phone call to you. What truly flabbergasted me was that they didn't even have to show ID. We have never checked in nor been given keys without showing ID at any of the numerous resorts we've stayed at. NEVER, EVER and we had 22-25 stays that we had to check in for just in 2016!
 
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IMNSHO - both parties dropped the ball: The OP should have arranged for their guests to check in, and the front desk should not have let them check in without formal authorization.
 
I am with the OP and am appalled that this happened. Hotels won't even give out room numbers to 'friends'; and they definitely had no right to let people who may have been complete strangers into your suite without your permission. Yikes! We had a similar incident when checking into the Renaissance in Las Vegas. It was late, we were tired, we checked in and went up to our assigned room, unlocked the door and walked in, only it wasn't a vacant room - it was an occupied room. No one was in there at the time, thank goodness, but they had all their luggage, clothing, and other possessions in the room. We could have robbed them blind! Worse yet, if people were in the room, they could have shot us dead if they felt threatened by us 'breaking into' their room. I was upset, and the manager promised us 15,000 MRPs (which we never received, despite me contacting her twice after we got home). I did not feel safe in that hotel after that. I'm glad we were only there one night.
 
First, I'd like to thank all of you for your posts and comments.

We did get in touch with a high up manager who did work hard to turn the situation around. Essentially, they admitted that they made a huge error and were extremely thankful that the situation didn't turn out with a bad ending and that those friends were indeed ours.

At the end of the day, the Ritz did make it right by offering credits for the stay, as well special experiences for our daughters and a generous dining credit for all of us. They were extremely apologetic and I believe they will be much more careful with this situation in the future. There is really only so much anyone can do after an error like this already occurred.

As for the property condition, we did speak with (and did not want any compensation for it) Nancy who is one of the on-site concierges at the Residences about various issues with the rooms. She is aware that most of the dishwasher buttons are broken in all the units, as well as damaged sofas (torn, etc) and bedding issues (with bedding having cigarette holes, etc - for example in the guest room). She admitted they are having a upgrade to the property starting in April which will hopefully resolve most of these issues.

I feel so bad for anyone who gets in a bad situation like this and has to experience the stress that goes along with it. I really appreciate all your comments in this post and thank you for reading! Denise, I don't believe we dropped the ball at all - we wouldn't have wanted any of our guests to check in without us being there first. That's why we didn't add anyone's names to the list - and if anyone came in early I would figure the resort would make a telephone call to authorize or simply deny access (which would have also been absolutely acceptable). Our guests actually said they were completely shocked as well when the check in agent simply gave them the keys without checking anything.

I do recommend this property but maybe wait until after they do their repairs come April and hope they can bring this property back to the Ritz standards it used to have. I'll give it a year or two minimum personally before attempting this property again.

Thanks again everyone!
 
I'm pretty OCD, so if I didn't know if I would be there to check my guest in, I would have a plan, and I would have made sure the guest knew what it was. YMMV :hi:
 
One last update on this, I just got a telephone call from the highest manager on-site. Very professional, and understanding about everything including the feedback on the unit condition.

She did confirm that the movies will come back to the resort in about 2 weeks, and that they will replace all of the soft goods and also the appliances will replaced as well. This will begin in April, so that for the next ski season the residences will be in brand new condition again.

I am really happy to report that it sounds like they are going to correct all of the issues and make this property like it was before.

As a side note, we've really enjoyed being owners with Marriott/Ritz over the years -- and am really glad we took advantage of the re qualification promotion that was offered last year. (Thanks Greg for your help and info on that as well) :)
 
Glad that Marriott has responded appropriately but unfortunate that it happened at all. This is not the norm of what we have experienced with Marriott so hopefully an isolated incident.
 
darius said:
One last update on this, I just got a telephone call from the highest manager on-site. Very professional, and understanding about everything including the feedback on the unit condition.

She did confirm that the movies will come back to the resort in about 2 weeks, and that they will replace all of the soft goods and also the appliances will replaced as well. This will begin in April, so that for the next ski season the residences will be in brand new condition again.

I am really happy to report that it sounds like they are going to correct all of the issues and make this property like it was before.

As a side note, we've really enjoyed being owners with Marriott/Ritz over the years -- and am really glad we took advantage of the re qualification promotion that was offered last year. (Thanks Greg for your help and info on that as well) :)
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I'm glad they are doing a refurb in April. However, I am perplexed that a resort that trades on the Ritz Carlton name could let its units deteriorate to such a level in the first place.
 
DeniseM said:
I'm pretty OCD, so if I didn't know if I would be there to check my guest in, I would have a plan, and I would have made sure the guest knew what it was. YMMV :hi:
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I would have done the same thing as you, but that is not the point of this thread. The point is that the property dropped the ball big time. And that is in no way the OP's fault.
 
BocaBoy said:
I would have done the same thing as you, but that is not the point of this thread. The point is that the property dropped the ball big time. And that is in no way the OP's fault.
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Absolutely correct.


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Ty1on said:
I'm glad they are doing a refurb in April. However, I am perplexed that a resort that trades on the Ritz Carlton name could let its units deteriorate to such a level in the first place.
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Yup. Not sure I would want to visit there this year.


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On the guests entering the room; they did know your name and I am assuming they also knew your address. It may not be standard protocol but I have seen on multiple occasions guests being given room keys at MVCI properties when they were locked out of rooms but they were not on the guest list. As long as they could answer the room number, name, and address, they were granted access. I witnessed on one occasion at Ocean Pointe where the guest didn't know the address and he was not given a key.

I have also booked two rooms at a Marriott hotel for a me and a co-worker. The co-worker arrived first and was allowed to check-in even though his name was nowhere on the reservation. In that case he only knew my name and not even my address. I guess that's different since he is providing ID and a credit card and essentially checking into his own room.

I suppose that as long as it's not a fixed unit and it's not sold out you could show up, not know about any guests who checked in, and then be given another room. That sounds like a fiasco for the front desk but I don't see harm on your side because you never actually checked in to the room. They instead mistakenly gave you room to another (who they may or may not have to now kick out).
 
FWIW, I recently checked in to the Four Seasons Aviara with family. They didn't ask for any ID from me, accepted a credit card from a family member, and let us go on our way with keys and parking pass, etc. Perhaps Four Seasons and Ritz Carlton have few incidents so they are more trusting. We thought this was surprising.


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Checked in at Four Seasons Aviara today and definitely had to show ID.
 
happymum said:
Checked in at Four Seasons Aviara today and definitely had to show ID.
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Glad to hear it. Most definitely didn't happen to us... though this isn't our first time here, so perhaps that makes a difference? Of course, that shouldn't...


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