Compensation Clinic: Novotel Barcelona City

This week the Compensation Clinic pays a visit to an Accor-affiliated hotel in Barcelona where one of our readers had an unsatisfactory stay.

Remember that you can always reach us by email, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, including photos. We’ll try to cover a Compensation Clinic case here regularly.

You can access Novotel Barcelona City here.

READ MORE: Accor ALL Rate & Bonus Points And Miles Promotions

Here’s the email from the reader:

I would like to share with you my bad experience at Novotel Barcelona City. Almost everything there went wrong – staff approach, communication with clients, service in the restaurant and handling of the complaint.

Apart from trying to solve issues on the spot I sent a complaint after a stay to GM (shown at the end of this message) and in the after stay questionnaire. Then I sent a reminder to GM without any reply.

So I opened the case with All Accor support. Finally I received a response that you can see below. The response answers complaint partially and provides requested compensation of 3000 points worth 60 EUR on a 2 night stay for which I paid 123 EUR.

But what really impressed me was excellent approach of All Accor staff. Response from the hotel shows all correspondence between the hotel and All Accor (not really professional for the hotel to send to the client).

Clearly Novotel Barcelona City wanted to ignore the claim. All Accor team was very persistent. They sent 5 e-mail and made a phone call to the hotel. I consider this exceptional.

Here’s the response from the Novotel Barcelona City Guest Experience Manager Barbara Carazo:

Good morning from Novotel Barcelona City,

First of all we regret the delay in our response. We have read carefully your complaint sent not only to Customer Care but also sent to our Manager, and we are really sorry that we didn’t sent you an answer on time.

We have had some meetings with our team in order to know and fix several details informed by you. Our main goal is to provide the customer a pleasant experience and offer them a pleasant stay. Is for that reason that We are so sorry that you didn’t enjoy your experience at our Novotel Barcelona City.

We upgrade you due your All Status. Maybe we did not explain well to you but the reason for the upgrade was his status and not that the Suite rooms were near the elevator. In fact the Suite rooms are at the end of the left corridor (short corridor) after exiting the elevator. We could have offered another room closer to the elevator, but it would not have been a suite room.

Normally the pool is open in summer, and we inform in our site. Also it is an external pool, as photos we have in Accor site.

Your stay, Mr. REMOVED was at the beginning of April, when it was still cold, and the pool was closed to use it. Also we had government regulation and pool must be closed in that period due Covid situation.

We have had a meeting with FB department in order to know what happened during the dinner. It is true that due the actual situation we had some staff not-working, and normally all the staff speak more than one foreign language. We are sorry for the inconveniences caused during dinner time.

We hope, Mr. REMOVED, you can excuse us for not being live up to his expectations, we will take into consideration all your comments, and the next time, for sure we will improve our service.

We hope to have the opportunity to welcome again you and bring you a nice and wonderful stay with us.

We are really sorry for all the inconveniences caused and we have charged in your account 3000 courtesy points.

With my best regards, and hoping to welcome you again in our hotel I wish you a happy nice day,

Accor sent THREE emails for the property to reply to the reader’s concerns:

Hello Novotel Barcelona City Team,

I am coming back to you about the folder 03878928 regarding Mr. REMOVED PMID: 00589914 concerning his complaint and demand for courtesy points.

Following our call to the front desk with Vitoria regarding, it appears that we have not received yet an answer from your not to mention our several reminder emails. We would be grateful if you could send us an update regarding this matter as soon as possible before we escalate this matter to the higher level.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Above was the last one before they responded.

Conclusion

I am surprised that Accor followed up the reader’s concerns with THREE emails to the property and “threatened” to escalate the issue unless it was resolved. I was not aware that they process these then instead of storing them in the x-files.

I am glad that the reader was resolved with the property that was acceptable to his party.