Readers Letter . . . .
October 26th, 2009
Bad service at local hotel
Dear Sir,
I hesitate to complain about the service given by a fellow trader in Newcastle Emlyn. We all, from time to time, make mistakes or errors of judgment but I hope that we traders in NCE try to minimise these errors in order to maintain our good reputation.
I was most disappointed with my daughter’s experience of the local hotel.
When she arrived late afternoon there was no hot water and no heating. My daughter was told that they were aware of the problem and that an engineer would have it fixed later that evening. This was in fact done. Portable means of heating were not available.
On peeling back her bed she was dismayed to find that the duvet cover was soiled. A young member of staff was sent to change the cover and did so but only with the help of my daughter. In addition, Victoria, who is a seasoned international traveller, found it exceedingly aggravating and unprofessional not to be able to make or receive telephone calls in her room.
Furthermore according to my daughter the building works which she was aware of, started much earlier in the morning than the management had led her to believe would be the case. My daughter had words with the owner manager and left it to Dad to go and settle the bill. To compensate for these ‘inconveniences’ the management offered a £10 reduction on a £100 account. I declined this inadequate gesture and I hope that my minor protest will spur the new owners into ensuring similar situations to do not occur for other visitors to the town.
I do hope that the current owners will take on board this criticism. Too many pies and not enough fingers leads to a lack of control and complacency is never good for any business.
John Latter
Newcastle Emlyn
Any hotelier would be sorry to see Mr Latter’s comments, and especially in the context of our substantial investment in improving the facilities at the Hotel over the last few months. These are the culmination of a long and difficult planning process in which we have been striving to improve our service to our resident and non resident customers.
First, the lapse in cleanliness of the duvet cover is inexcusable, and we apologise unreservedly. We understand that the duvet had been laundered and had been returned by the contractor with a residual rust mark. However it is our staff who should have noticed and remedied the problem and we apologise again for the oversight.
We have taken every measure to mitigate the inevitable disruption of the alteration program; however it seems that it was the existing heating installation which caused the problems. This was repaired as soon as a service engineer was able to reach us and in any case will be replaced entirely during the next few months. Even so we regret that there has been a brief interruption to our normal standard of service, which was for reasons out of our control.
The building works which are mentioned are part of a comprehensive overhaul of the hotel which we hope will bring the hotels facilities, including heating and telephones up to 3 star standards. We have striven to keep inconvenience to the minimum by keeping the hotel open throughout the renovations, and we are optimistic that the final product will be a hotel of which the town can be proud, a service to any visitor to the area, and a resource for local business men and private residents in the town for many years to come.
We apologise to Mr Latter for his Daughters’ disappointment, and we hope that his family will be satisfied customers of the refurbished Hotel in the near future.