This story is from a trip when we used points to book a Marriott Residence Inn in Manhattan along the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade route. While the full review of the hotel is here, I’d like to share a quick story about the shower in the room.
After waking up at 5 AM to get dressed in as many layers of clothes as we could, we headed out into the 22-degree weather to wait for the parade. While we were cold, it was totally worth it. Immediately after the parade, we headed to our room to take a well-deserved nap.
Several hours later, we started to warm up and wake up to face the rest of the day. That meant nice warm showers (and a much-needed shave for me, as I let my beard grow out for the previous week, hoping it would keep my face warm. It didn’t).
When I went to take my shower, this was not what I wanted to see.
We decided to wait until the next morning to let the hotel know as, with the handheld shower working fine, there was no need to have maintenance head to our room on Thanksgiving evening to fix the plumbing.
That’s exactly what we did. When we left the room to go and get coffee at the Pret A Manger across the street, we told the front desk about the showerhead being broken. I couldn’t explain it well so I just showed the picture to the associate helping us. She said they would have someone up right away to fix it. I said that wasn’t necessary as we’d be out most of the day but whenever they could get someone to look at it.
And yes, sometimes we get a late start and the first meal of the day is lunch.
As it turned out, we stopped back at the room after finishing our coffee and sandwiches. Wouldn’t you know, they fixed the shower while we were gone.
Being one who reads plenty of blog posts and Facebook groups, my next thought was what kind of compensation should I ask for from the hotel? Should I ask for some of the points I used to pay for the room back? What about a hotel credit to spend at the restaurant or bar?
Do you know what I decided to ask for? Nothing. You heard me. Not a thing. Do you know why? I discovered a problem with the room and within 30 minutes of alerting them, someone from the hotel was sent to my room and fixed the problem.
What more could I ask for? Besides having to use the handheld shower for one day, I didn’t suffer any major inconvenience. I think that we’re conditioned to think that everything should always be perfect and if it isn’t then we’re supposed to get some sort of payment for our displeasure. Not everything is perfect. We’re not entitled to anything if a problem is fixed when brought to the attention of the management.
So the next time your room isn’t ready exactly when it was promised or the batteries in the remote are dead, instead of looking for something in return, try to just thank the person who helps you. If you stop trying to look like the victim every time, you might just enjoy yourself a little bit more when traveling.
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