The Compensation Clinic makes a stop in Florida this week where I had my last stay of the year at the Hyatt House Ft. Lauderdale Airport & Cruise Port – not my favorite way to end the Hyatt year.
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It was the end of the membership year and my cruise was coming up so there weren’t all too many options around, especially with prices scraping the $300 level for an airport/cruise port hotel on a Saturday night.
I still needed the 40th night to hit my Hyatt Milestone and on the other hand, I still hand a Hyatt Free Night Certificate sitting in my account that was going to expire on January 1st so naturally, I selected one of the Hyatt properties near the airport in FLL. None of the Hyatt options struck me as great choices but the Centric in downtown was not available that night and I arrived at 10 pm so I thought what the heck, just burn it at the Hyatt House and regret it later.
The shuttle service worked surprisingly well. You have to call the hotel and get routed directly to the shuttle, the driver will then come over. The bus is shared with the Hyatt Place next door and the Hyatt House and the bus was full by the time we left the airport.
I was the first who got off the bus and to enter the hotel, no customers anywhere. Some JetBlue crewmembers entered the property after me and the front desk clerk began to start dealing with them, explaining the property and a whole spiel where you could have thought she was checking them in at the Park Hyatt Paris. No other associate was around (11 pm by now) so I asked her to please speed it up a little if she already prioritizes flight crew before other guests.
Then another lady appeared, who brought her personal coffee cup to the front desk which promptly spilled over all their documents on the table. To a few questions about the property and laundry room she just replied “I don’t know, I don’t work here!” … Well, wth then why on earth are you checking me in??
I was starting to be visibly irritated by all this so the original associate finally hands me my room keys. The room had two beds rather than the one King I had reserved and the hallway smelled like a fast-food restaurant. Disgusting!
I brought this to the attention of the manager the next morning who was shocked by the experience I had and immediately went into the back office to consult the video footage from the night before.
Following this, she promised 12,000 points (one night’s worth) would be deposited into my Hyatt account which happened within 24 hours:
The compensation is more than generous but I guess a combination of the incorrect bed type, the weird lady who claims she wasn’t an actual employee of the hotel, and the overall condition of the property that day led to a full night’s compensation.
Conclusion
This was one of the most bizarre check-in experiences I had for a long time. I have really no idea what’s going on at that property and almost certainly wouldn’t stay there again. The price they charged that night is nuts too, $300++ for this place? And I’m sure they got full rack rate reimbursement from World of Hyatt too considering the high occupancy.
The staff during the day shift was absolutely professional and couldn’t have been nicer but I have no idea where they found these people from the night before. Sometimes you really think you’re on candid camera.
