Letter from Trafalgar
I finally received a response from Trafalgar, the tour company which put us up in the worst hotel i've ever stayed in. While I give them credit for responding to all my points (in my 2-3 page letter), and sending a lengthy response, I do not at all agree with their answer. Trafalgar focused 90% of their response on the lack of air conditioning in the hotel. They pointed out over and over how air conditioning in Europe isn't always 'up to par' with a/c in the U.S., and that this is clearly stated in their brochures, etc... They pointed out how many hotels don't even have it, blah, blah, blah. Now, there are several problems with that answer. The first being that I made it quite clear to them that I understand that things break. But it was the attitude of the hotel staff in not caring that it was broken, not offering us water or fans, and moving my room from the 1st floor to the even hotter 3rd floor. The staff tried to lie to us about the length and cause of the broken a/c, but the truth finally came out and we learned it had been broken for several days, yet no repairman had shown up yet. The second problem I have with their answer is that other hotels in the area DID have air conditioning. They try to make it sound as if we were lucky that our hotel even had a/c, even if it wasn't working. That's just a crock of an answer. And the main problem I have with them focusing 90% of their response on the a/c, is that that was just a minor portion of my complaint. The main part of my complaint was about the dirtiness of the hotel and the rooms, and the fact that not all rooms were created equal. In fact, some of the rooms were a 7 out of 10, and some were a 1 out of 10, they weren't even close. It is not at all fair that I paid the same money as other people and they received a newer, cleaner, more modern room with a working bed. Whereas I received an ancient looking, dirty room with a broken bed and peeling wallpaper. In addition, Trafalgar wouldn't even reimburse $15 for a lost travel adapter which was misplaced b/c the hotel gave us 10 minutes one morning to switch rooms. They said had I spoken to the hotel about it the hotel would have found it for us. What an awful response.
Trafalgar said they would not reimburse us for anything. Not for the adapter, not the $500 we spent to change our plane tickets, nothing... Instead, they gave us a 5% coupon off of another tour. That made my laugh. Why on earth would I want to tour with them again after having just written a 3 page complaint? And to offer my 5% off. That's just a slap in the face.
So...I will be writing another letter this week and contacting my local Department of Consumer Affairs. I've already contacted the Better Business Bureau.
I'll keep you posted...
posted by Joshua Friedman @ 8:15 PM
