Perla Rollan

Review of Sofitel Philippine Plaza Manil...

Sofitel, you disappointed us!

Sofitel, you disappointed us!
This is a case of your people making the hotel look bad, not that the hotel is really something we should rave about either. We've stayed in many hotels here and abroad, some smaller but with far better accommodations and with the best customer relation they give to clients, local or foreign. Sometimes it is truly better to stay in smaller hotels because they give more value to the limited clients they receive.

On Feb. 1, my husband and I asked the GF of my son to check us in your hotel. We had prior confirmed booking Nos. 2066341 & 2066342 for SUPERIOR rooms under spouses name (part of a 12-room booking for a wedding held in the same venue). The reception acknowledged the booking and referred her to your 10th floor express check in. Your staff gave her 2 rooms, one of which was a Club room. Please note that NO SPECIAL room was requested by our representative (since she had prior knowledge of a pre-arranged booking already) except that the rooms be close to each other. Your staff said that since the hotel is fully booked, the request can't be granted. The staff even told her that we can use the Club room facilities. We were under the impression then that your hotel was probably so full that you were kind enough to upgrade us to a clubroom. The nightmare began when we were settling our bills the following day. Sofitel was charging us for the Clubroom that we DID NOT request for, as evidenced by the details of cofirmed booking number. After much explaining and arguing, we were asked to go to the 10th floor to settle the matter. WHAT?!?!?!?! My husband said, "can't someone just come down to the lobby and talk to us?". Nooooo, we should be the ones to go to the 10th floor (with elevators that are always full and super super slow, takes ages to reach your floor). Way to treat your guests Sofitel! So, on the 10th floor, we had to explain again what happened. As I was frustratedly explaining, this girl named Rose, waved her hand at me and cut me off to say, "Maam (at least she said maam), your representative signed something when she checked in and that means that she agrees to all the terms and conditions of your stay." What!!!! Are you seriously telling us that we dont have the right to complain and just accept what you feed us!!! Our Rep signed in good faith knowing that there was a confirmed booking for 2 superior rooms under Spouses' names, and nothing else. Who would've thought that spouses (Mr & Mrs) for you guys meant differently ?!?!?!
You should re-train your staff on how to handle complaining guests to appease them and not to agitate them more. After more wasted time of arguing, your staff, Rose, acknowledged that a confirmed booking under my husband's name was cancelled by YOUR hotel (not by us). Isn't that evidence enough that this was your fault and not ours? Ms. Rose suggested that we talk to her Manager, Mr Ron Milan, since the discussion isn't going anywhere. We actually welcomed that. We again patiently waited for the Manager to see us since he is just one floor away and guess what.... Rose came back and said, "sorry but the manager is engaged but he agreed to give you a Senior's discount". How hard is it to travel one floor when you made us travel 10 floors? And was the 20 percent discount supposed to make us feel better, thankful, content and happy?The more furious and frustrated my husband and I got because we felt that Management cant even see a guest and spare a few minutes of their valuable time. What about the hour we wasted in waiting and explaining while your staff made us feel that were at fault here so we had to pay for what was erroneously given to us. We may not be worth your while because we aren't big clients so we wont cause a dent on your profit, but at least we were able to express our frustration. We are not asking for anything but the decency to treat your paying customers well and make their stay worth every hard earned cent they paid for.