A Letter to Sheraton Vistana…
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
Again, nicely done! Let us know if you get any retribution.
How’s work? You know that answer. Work is only one of your problems. You and your wife have been fighting. She is not happy with you. She tells her friend all the time. You hate her friend but she knows your wife more than you do. She stays in the relationship for the sake of the children (one of them is going to have health problems soon.) You are not happy. You can’t be happy. You will NEVER be happy.
Stephanie, you are really, REALLY strange. Although, I do appreciate the free tarot reading. Thanks for visiting! - RDL
I worked for three years at Vistana as a security officer and trainer. I made many suggestions to security managers Phil Clement and Butch Rivet to fix the operations problems — especially the key card problems. Instead managers at Starwood go to meetings about “The Seven Habits of Effective People” and spend most of their time praising themselves. They are incompetent. Advise Starwood to terminate every corporate manager in every department and start over with more intelligent people who like to work. Vistana managers never work weekends, give lip service to customer service, and then claim to be “professionals.” They blame low-level employees for their lack of skills, and enjoy excellent pay and benefits. These same arrogant fools who ruined your vacation think they are fantastic leaders of the hospitality industry. They need to be terminated.
I guess we are very lucky Vistana owners.We have not only not experienced the problems you spoke about in your letter, in fact every problem I asked to be fixed was, in very good time.We came to Vistana first as visitors. We have been many places in the world, and decided to buy a week in 1996 because of its exchange value,and quality.I have never seen a insect inside.You must be incrediably unlucky.Which makes me happy,I thought I had the worse luck in the world!!
Violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) at Vistana Resort While employed at Starwood’s Vistana Resort from Oct 1998 to Dec 2000 I was frequently pressured by security managers/supervisors to work off the clock. There was both direct pressure and indirect pressure. Managers failed to respond in an appropriate manner. They failed to pay hourly employees for work performed. For example, one supervisor, Bob Cooper, instructed me to punch out and inspect security vans for damage and cleanliness at the end of my shift. This occurred for four months before I complained. When I wrote a memo of complaint, the assistant security manager Butch Rivet responded: “We know that our security officers love their jobs so much that they would work for free… However off the clock work is definitely not allowed” This mocking answer to a charge of violation of long standing Federal Law (the FLSA was passed in 1938) is shocking. It is an example of the organizational climate of Vistana where managers treat employees like slaves or prisoners. (Mr. Lincoln stopped slavery long ago.) Indirect pressure for “off the clock work” for managerial advantage was subtler. Interesting “homework” was give for security officers to take home and do on their computers. For example I was given the assignment of preparing a “Violence in the Workplace” seminar. I spent 20 hours of my time reading and researching. Then, I printed up a course and a test. I was not compensated for my 20 hours of “homework.” In other “cases off the clock” work was obtained from security officers by budget complaints. Phil Clemente communicated problems with his budget. He was always over budget limits. Overtime was not allowed. Implicit expectations required you to avoid OT yet workplace demands often required OT. So your shift was over at 11pm and you had just taken a report at 1055 PM it became custom to write the report “off the clock.” Many security officers including myself would punch out and do our paperwork, to help poor, pathetic Phil and his budget. We would write until 1145 pm or later. We weren’t paid for our efforts. The United States Code (USC) and labor case law is clear on industrial homework and unpaid paperwork time: it’s a violation of the law. Vistana managers should be ashamed for exploiting their people and treating them like slaves. While Starwood managers make 30,000 - 40,000 grand a year, some employee who earns 8 dollars an hour is doing their work for them.
To whom it may concern: My husband and myself just spent our eight day vacation at Vistana Resort Lake Buena Vista, we couldn’t agree with your comments more! Our one bedroom villa looked NOTHING like the pictures they advertise on the internet. Our villa had beer caps under the furniture, mold on the walls and carpets, torn sheets for the spare bed, cobwebs in corners and ceilings throughout the villa. The upstairs villa’s plumbing was broke as we heard the toilet flush every 2 minutes day and night for the entire 8 days!!!! The ponds on the property are absolutely filthy!!! They contain beer bottles, beer cans, lounge furniture etc. It is disgusting!!! Our checkin @ 11:00 pm was horrible. After traveling all day, the woman that was supposed to be checking us in, walked away in the back room for about 20 minutes leaving us at the front desk. We had clothes ruined from their washer/dryers. The sales person we spoke to about this problem told us it would be fixed immediately because “Vistana is #1 in the world”, so he says. YEAH RIGHT!! We were so disgusted we took pictures and documented everything so we can go to webshots and display our wonderful stay at Vistana Resorts. We saved over a year for this trip, and we are extremely unhappy with our entire stay at this resort. We have told everyone we know not to ever stay at a Vistana Resort. We were talking to the family that stayed upstairs from us and they feel the same way. They were there for 14 days and nobody ever came until day 13 to fix that noisy toilet.
I am sorry you had such an awful experience. We just came back from a week-long stay and had the best time, other than the abnormally cold weather. We were there Thanksgiving week of 2006. Our check-in took about 10 minutes through the Diamond Lane and our rooms were very nice. The pools were heated, almost as warm as the hot tubs. We would definately go back again. We took our 2 college age children with for relaxation and they really enjoyed it.
That trip sounds like a nightmare! WOW! It would be interesting to hear whether there was some attempt to make good by the resort. Has anyone heard of RCI exchange vacationers that have been moved primarily to the older section of the resort? Parts of the resort are older, so it may be that the age is catching up to the resort and effecting the overall desirablity.
Richard,
I want to clear a few questions up on this rambling. We were part of an RCI exchange with two 2 bedroom units needed. Not only did we receive units in the Cascade section but our rooms were next to each other. We went in June of 06 and the resort was completely booked. Knowing how resorts of this type work with late afternoon checkins, it benefits you to arrive about an hour before. If you arrive at checkin, there will be more people in the resort lobby than at Disneyworld. On the flip side, if you arrive at 11:00 at night, you can bet there will be more of a skeleton crew working the desk. Guess what, it sounds like good business practice not to have 10 extra people standing around after hours. I try to remember when I visit resorts of this size that they only have a few repair men available so you may have to wait a few minutes. If I were you, I would be mad at the guests that stayed in your room before you. They obviously did not complain about the issues in your unit. I am actually looking at purchasing units for my business associates at this time.
P.S. Next time you book a timeshare, ask what portion of the resort they are booking you in, old, newly renovated, or new. You do have a choice. And you don’t need to drop names, it was yellow posting your gripe let alone dropping names.
Satisfied customer