It was snowing. It had snowed much of the day. And it continued snowing through the night. I managed to make it to my hotel (the Hampton Inn in Oak Creek, WI) without incident as my snowdriving skills kicked back in (6 years of living in MT will teach you something). I pulled into the last parking spot, and dragged my luggage through 8" of snow to the check in desk. It continued to snow throughout out the night.
The next morning I got out to my car and prepared to dig out in my dress shoes. But when I got out there, the Hampton staff had already dug out my car, and those belonging to the other guests. Not only that, they had wiped the snow off the car and scraped the ice off the windows. They saw me walking over to my car, and met me over there so they could sweep and scrape the windows again. The guy even offered to pull my car out of the spot for me so I didn't have to walk in the unshoveled snow next to the car.
I've stayed at a lot of hotels over the years, including some really pricey ones. Still, the customer service I've gotten from Hampton Inn is second to none. I never expected this kind of service from a hotel, especially one where I don't pay for parking. This unexpected effort on their part is the kind of thing that will keep my coming back.
It seems it's always the inexpensive hotels that provide the freebies and excellent service. Over the summer I wrote about another great experience at a Hampton in Clemson, SC.
While $200 and $300 per night hotels will charge $20 or $30 for parking, plus $15 for a continental breakfast, a $50 package acceptance fee, and $9.95 per day for WiFi, the inexpensive Hampton includes all this in the room rate. The rooms and toiletries may not be as fancy, and they may not offer room service, but the little things they do are outstanding.
3 comments:
That's beyond awesome. It's an experience to stay at a really nice, more expensive hotel. But ultimately it's the exceptional customer service that we remember, and that keeps us going back.
Sounds cool and interesting
woww I've never stayed at a hampton but now I think I just might have to put them on my try list. thanks for the recommendation. it makes a travel agent feel good to see a recommendation like this especially on something as special as snow.
great post
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