Richard’s Ramblings

Dear Sheraton Vistana:

Our stay at the Sheraton Vistana Resort in Orlando has so far been less than satisfactory. In fact, it has been entirely unacceptable. Your employees wear pins that express Sheraton’s goal to have “no unhappy guests”. Well, I am VERY UNHAPPY and no one has lifted a finger to make me any happier. I expect you to live up to your promise.

Check-in was an utter disaster. We arrived at the resort on July 21 at approximately 11:00 p.m., ending a long and tiring day of traveling from coast to coast. I went to the front counter to check us in and left the family in the car at the front of the reception center. After waiting approximately 15 minutes in line, Jodie the night manager performed the necessary registration steps and gave me five coded keycards for room 847 in the Springs section of the resort. I followed the directions she gave to the room and, once I found the room, the entire family gathered our bags together and walked up to the third floor of the building. I tried all five keys in the electronic doorlock and none of them worked, so I told everyone to wait back down the stairs and I drove back to the reception center.

More travelers had arrived in the meantime and, due to a lack of personnel at the reception area, I had to wait my turn until someone could help. By luck, Jodie turned out to be the one to help me again. I explained the situation to her and she moved us to room 853 in the same Springs development. Once again, I drove back to the building, told my family to follow me down to the new section of the building and follow me up to the third floor once again. We then tried to get into the room. This time, the keycards worked, but they let us only into a deck area with a second set of locked doors to which we had no key. I could see through the window in the door that there was another entrance door on the other side of the building. So I told my family to stay put, and walked around the building to what turned out to be the front of the building. Jodie’s original directions had led me to the back of the building, not normally the standard entrance.

Once again, the electronic keycard worked, but my opening of the door was halted by the security latch that was in place on the front door. Through the one-inch opening I could see scattered piles of dirty linens, plates, and silverware on the floor. It was evident that the previous residents had left through the back door of the room, and no hotel personnel had bothered to clean the room. For the third time, I went to the reception center with the sole goal of getting my family into our room so that we could have a restful night’s sleep. The person who helped this time whose name I do not recall switched us back to room 847 and issued five new keys, telling me that the keys are unreliable at the back doors of the units. I expressed my severe unhappiness and stated that I wanted to be contacted by a manager the following day in order to ensure our renewed happiness. The clerk assured us that that would happen, and he said that he’d make a special note on our account. I have not been contacted as promised.

After the third attempt, we were successful in gaining entrance to the room, almost TWO HOURS after we began the check-in process. It was 12:40 in the middle of the night, an unforgivable delay considering we were traveling with our two-year-old son and two pre-teen girls. It took less time for the Titanic to sink beneath the waves than it did for us to check in to the Vistana Resort.

Unfortunately, unlike the Titanic, our disaster is ongoing.

The morning after the tumultuous check-in, the Vistana outdoor cleaning crew decided to scrub the skylights in the early morning hours, waking up the girls somewhere between 6:00 and 7:00 a.m. who were sleeping directly underneath the skylight, far too early for any morning let alone one following such a poor registration process six hours earlier.

While our original party had five members, three visitors joined us for several days, bringing our total to eight. We called the front desk in the evening for extra blankets, towels and pillows and were told, much to our incredulity, that we would be charged for the towels as it was our responsibility to wash towels, despite the fact that not enough towels had been provided in the first place. When my wife complained about the policy, the person on the other end of the phone begrudgingly agreed and arranged to have three towels sent with the blankets and pillows. The linens arrived FIFTEEN HOURS later, requiring one person to use a filthy bedspread and two stained couch pillows for overnight bedding as no blankets were provided for the pull-out couch. I’ve spoken with other guests who have also experienced problems with either too few or dirty linens who, after complaining, received new sets of linens with no difficulties and at no charge. Yet, your staff singled us out and attempted to make us pay.

To top everything off, we were stuck into the worst, oldest, most disgusting section of the entire resort. Apparently the slums of Sheraton are reserved only for those people that trade weeks through RCI to stay at the Sheraton Vistana.

• The cushions on the pull-out sofa are stained.
• Many of the bed linens, including sheets and pillowcases, are stained.
• The bedspread in the master bedroom is ripped at the seams.
• The carpets in the main living room are spotted with a reddish goo that apparently managed to elude the cleaning service.
• One of the sinks in the master bathroom is rendered useless by a permanently closed stopper.
• A drawer in the secondary bathroom is broken.
• Of the original five keys (of the third set we received), only three are still working. The other two deny us access to the room.
• Some of the ceiling fans wobble so badly that they can only be used on the lowest-possible setting, eliminating their cooling potential.
• One of the closet doors closing off the washer and dryer is off its track.
• The knob used to turn on the outside patio fan is broken, and I have to use a screwdriver to turn it on.
• The bathroom door is hanging on a single hinge.
• The prizes for participating in on-site activities tend to revolve around free tube rentals to be used at the main swimming pools. The Sheraton Vistana is the only resort I’ve visited that charges for using pool equipment. The world-class Sheraton resort in Scottsdale, Arizona doesn’t charge for tube rentals (or extra towels for that matter). They provide their amenities for free.
• Even the cheapest fleabag motels supply coffee when they have an in-room coffee maker. Not so the Vistana which doesn’t provide a single use of coffee or laundry detergent despite the fact that the appliances are available in each unit.
• Speaking of fleabag motels, the Vistana thankfully doesn’t qualify, but the cockroach infestation is no more pleasant. Have you ever spent an evening with pre-teen girls who’ve had cockroaches scramble across their feet? I, myself, have stayed at a few TraveLodges so I have experienced far worse, but I expect a lot more from a Starwood property.

Now, I’ve discovered that your phone operators are telling people who are attempting to reach us that we’ve checked out. And we’ve had visits today from maintenance and cleaning people who have argued with my wife, saying that we’re not supposed to be here anymore. Phone service has been cut off.

At this point, nothing would please me more than to be staying someplace else that cares about their guests’ experiences and wishes to provide them with a clean, well-maintained facility. I am embarrassed, mortified that I hyped up the resort prior to our arrival, stating Vistana’s apparently unearned reputation at being a first-class resort. I believe I’ve lost face with our visitors who experienced firsthand the cockroach-infested, sheet-stained, unorganized mess that is the Sheraton Vistana Resort.

I expect you to move us to a nicer place for the duration of our visit at your expense and with your personnel’s assistance, either to the newest, most modern two-bedroom (or more) unit at the Vistana, or to a fine Disney-owned hotel. Your choice. I also expect all charges made during our visit from July 21 through the time you move us to our new location to be nullified as compensation for the terrible treatment we have received at your resort.

I refuse to engage in name-dropping at this point but, having worked closely with several members of executive management at Starwood in the last two years involving a $30 million investment transaction, I can assure you that they will personally receive copies of this letter, as will RCI, AAA, and several other consumer-oriented organizations.

One final note: make sure the new room keys work.

Sincerely,

Richard D. LeCour
Unhappy Guest

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