To whom it may concern:
We took some guests down to Quito, Ecuador last week and had a very poor experience at the Marriott hotel in Quito. The following is a brief summary of the major problems, and while my time is very limited, I think it is incredibly important this is put in writing, even if the losses have already occurred. The staff at the hotel was not helpful in resolving issues, and at times rude about the problems.
1. They charged our entire bill of $1742 twice. When we reserved the rooms (4 rooms, 3 nights) we put a credit card on file to hold them, and when we called the hotel to review some details they suggested we prepay since it was a large amounts of rooms and we did not want any problems. My agent went to the hotel in person and paid the entire bill, which we have a receipt for, in early March. While we were there they charged my cc that had been holding the room originally for the entire amount again mistakenly. At first they did not believe a mistake had been made, and until we argued with them persistently, they checked their records and eventually grudgingly and slowly fixed it. We were in their accounting office for over an hour, but this mistake had to be fixed, I could not afford to leave it.
2. They charged extra taxes to my guests, that the hotel said was a “new” tourism tax. I reimbursed my guest for this which cost us $30.00. When we checked in my guests put cc on files for extras, and even those who bought nothing were charged this tax. The hotel said it was a new policy upon check out but never informed us or our guests up front. We argued with them, but it was not worth it. This was separate from the entire bill and original quote which we had in writing and prepaid to avoid situations like these.
3. The charged us $30 .00 for airport pickup. This is the one thing that I am still trying to find in writing, but we may have made a mistake and not gotten it in writing, but we were under the impression was included in our group stay.
4. We were offered a welcome cocktail, but they did not believe us because the person who originally wrote our offer was no longer with them, and we did not have that paperwork with us that evening. They offered us a less desirable substitution of orange juice, which we had no choice to accept, because we had not brought our paperwork that evening to “prove” the issue to them.
5. I was credited only 5 miles to account #, I have faxed paperwork to your offices here in the US, but based on my other experiences, I doubt this will be resolved. The first agent I spoke to laughed at the problem because even he saw how obvious this mistake was, but he like nobody else could fix it, he is my favorite employee so far.
As you can probably tell I am not satisfied with the Marriott, and will not be returning ever in Quito, and I do not know in the US. We are taking another group down to Ecuador in December, and have already made reservations elsewhere. Since we started taking small tour groups down to South America, we expected problems with South American service. As of this point the only major issue we have had with any transportation company, attraction, accommodation, or restaurant in South American was with the Marriott.
By the way, this is the second time I wrote this letter because your website timed out. I hope you understand my concerns. Best, Adam
