Nate Newton

Review of Sheraton Meadowlands

To say that the customer service at this hotel is ...

To say that the customer service at this hotel is abysmal would be a grotesque understatement. I booked my reservation on Expedia, complete with payment, at approximately 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 16 for one night's stay that evening. There was no indication on Expedia to the effect of "Only X number of rooms left!" I arrived to check in at 2 a.m., having driven 14 hours from Tennessee. I arrived at the front desk, and the woman working could not have been less interested in her job or performing anything remotely resembling quality customer service. Now, I get it. I have worked in retail. It sucks. But it's called acting. This woman did not even PRETEND to give a care about my situation.

When I told her that I had a reservation and was checking in, she curtly told me that there are no rooms available. She asked when I made my reservation, and I told her around 7:30 that evening. She said that they booked up at 11.

I asked "A.M or P.M.?"

When she told me that they booked up at 11 P.M., I said that I had a reservation and had already paid. At 2 a.m. after a 14 hour drive, I was not the most pleasant customer in that moment, and I asked how this could happen.

She told me that they were supposed to call me to tell me that they had no rooms left. However, I never received any such call. And if they booked up at 11 p.m. and I made my reservation at 7:30 p.m., how does that make sense?

Let me be clear. AT NO POINT DURING THIS ORDEAL did the front desk clerk apologize and try to make the situation right. That is Customer Service 101, and this woman failed miserably in that regard. This woman coldly told me that I needed to call Expedia. When I was frazzled and trying to show her my receipt from my reservation, she just rudely asked, "Do you want the number?...Whenever you're ready."

A front desk clerk competent in customer service would have said, "I am so sorry that this has happened. There must have been some miscommunication with the afternoon front office staff. I am so sorry that our oversight has inconvenienced you. Let me call Expedia and we will get this straightened out."

Did this woman say any such thing? NO! She just sat behind the desk and rolled her eyes...metaphorically if not literally...as I, exhausted and apoplectic, explained my situation to the woman at Expedia, who DID do her best to rectify the situation. It was comical when the woman at Expedia called the front desk clerk while I was on hold, and I again got to hear the front desk clerk's perfunctory, couldn't care less tone, as the front desk person told the woman at Expedia that they have no rooms.

The woman at Expedia refunded my payment for the reservation and booked me a room at a nearby hotel...a hotel $98 more expensive than my original reservation.

I understand that sometimes oversights happen. The attitude of the front desk clerk who worked the Saturday into Sunday overnight shift on June 16-17 was unbecoming of a customer service representative, and counseling and coaching is imperative. You don't have to like your job, but you need to at least PRETEND to care.

Needless to say, I will never book this hotel again.

And when I finished the call with the woman at Expedia and was heading out the door, the aforementioned front desk clerk said NARY A WORD!!!

If I could, I would give ZERO stars.