Imagine sitting down in a chair in an attempt to enjoy a meal at the restaurant of the upscale hotel property at which you were staying — and paying a room rate of approximately $850.00 per night — only to find that the chair was covered in soy sauce which the members of the staff failed to properly clean from the most recent customer who previously sat there and spilled it.
Sitting in Soy Sauce: What is the Appropriate Compensation?
Now imagine that you were wearing expensive clothing at the time you sat down to look at the menu and choose the food which you would like to order — and suddenly, you felt like your derrière was drenched.
“Pants were from Cucinelli and cost around 700 bucks. Servers were apologetic (At time I didn’t know my pants were ruined just obviously wet) and offered me a drink which I said ok” is what FlyerTalk member Helpmeout — who experienced this incident — posted in this discussion. “Well they forgot to take this off bill and I was too tired to deal with when paying.”
Figuring that a dry cleaner would resolve this issue, Helpmeout found out that the stain could not be removed — and the expensive pair of pants were thusly ruined from the permanent stain as a result of the incident in question.
“Realizing after my pants are ruined, I wrote a review when the hotel asked for feedback”, according to Helpmeout. “I wasn’t expecting any type of comp but the manager stated he was going to have points credited to my account. What would you deem appropriate?”
Summary
Some FlyerTalk members opined that Helpmeout should have immediately informed someone at the restaurant — or the hotel property itself — of what happened, rather than waited until receiving the bad news from the dry cleaner before contacting a member of the management team at the restaurant or hotel property.
What do you believe that Helpmeout should get as a form of compensation as a result of this incident — if anything at all?
Please do not respond with “a lifetime supply of soy sauce” as the answer…
Photograph ©2014 by Brian Cohen.
