Beyond frustrated at Portofino Bay

[dbavis]

It's 11:30 at night. I'm sitting in my room at Portofino Bay waiting for housekeeping to come change the sheets on the bed and thought I'd vent...

We checked in this evening, around 6:30. When we got to our room it was muggy and smelly. The luggage services guy immediately turned on the AC although he didn't say anything about the smell. My wife and I talked and we decided to go get dinner and see if the room was better after the air had a chance to run for a bit. Maybe we were just being sensitive after a long travel day and everyone being hungry.

We went to dinner and when we got back to the room it smelled just as bad. We went to the front desk to see what could be done. As we get near the front desk we run into the luggage guy from earlier who said something along the lines of 'oh no, does the room still smell?' He gets his manager for us who ends up putting me on the phone with someone else. This guy tells me that they don't have any other two queen rooms available (there are four of us). We can stay in the smelly room until tomorrow and then move or we can go to a King room with a rollaway and then move again tomorrow.

We decide to go to the King room. We couldn't take the stink of the first room. So, with the help of a luggage services guy we pack everything up and move to the other room. A little while later, the rollaway shows up and the gentleman manages to move all the furniture around to get it to fit in the room. We settle in, try to put the nonsense behind us, and get to bed so we can start enjoying our vacation in the morning.

I pull the sheets back and there is a hair clip between the sheets! By itself, this might not have been that big of a deal. The clip looks to be new although I didn't study it closely. But coupled with the stink of the first room, I'm starting to really worry about the quality of this place.

Well, since i started typing this, a housekeeper has changed the sheets. I guess I'll go to bed now and hope that tomorrow is a better day.

 

[dbavis]

Actually, since the housekeeper was kind enough to leave the hair clip on the night stand after she left, I took a closer look before throwing it away. It's definitely not new. Ugh!

 

[bumbershoot]

I'm sorry about all of this. In the morning please take the time for someone to talk to the day manager face to face about this.

 

[dbavis]

I spoke with a manager this morning. I explained that I didn't want too move rooms again. We can make it work in this room and I want to settle in and enjoy my vacation. I also explained that I didn't think that I should be charged for last night.

We're staying in this room. She is crediting us $200 and gave us a voucher for breakfast. I don't care about the breakfast. Id rather just have had a better night last night.

 

[quandrea]

This is a terrible story. We stayed at HRH last January and had no complaints. I'm booked at Cabana Bay for this coming January because the deluxe hotels are so expensive. RPR is $454 per night! At those rates, room quality should not be an issue. Hopefully housekeeping will be extra attentive from here on out.

 

[PoohIsHome]

I spoke with a manager this morning. I explained that I didn't want too move rooms again. We can make it work in this room and I want to settle in and enjoy my vacation. I also explained that I didn't think that I should be charged for last night.

We're staying in this room. She is crediting us $200 and gave us a voucher for breakfast. I don't care about the breakfast. Id rather just have had a better night last night.

Sorry you had such a rough start. We've always stayed at HRH and have never had a problem (knock on wood). We're back in November and hoping for another great experience.

Hoping the rest of your trip is full of magic!

 

[damo]

Sorry to hear that you had a bad night. PBH is our favourite hotel and we haven't had issues but every hotel will have some now and then. I'm glad to hear that you reported and and that the manager made amends.

Sometimes the hotel will need to clean part of the carpet because of an incident and it doesn't dry quickly enough and leaves that musty smell as it is drying.

 

[gotomu212]

Ugh nothing is worse than hotel problems on your travel day. You're already tired, a little stressed, and then there's one more thing. I've had it happen at otherwise great hotels but it always feels crappy.

I'm glad they compensated you and hopefully everything will be on the upswing now.

 

[schumigirl]

Sorry to hear that you had a bad night. PBH is our favourite hotel and we haven't had issues but every hotel will have some now and then. I'm glad to hear that you reported and and that the manager made amends.

Sometimes the hotel will need to clean part of the carpet because of an incident and it doesn't dry quickly enough and leaves that musty smell as it is drying.

That's what happened to us at RPR.

The carpet had been thoroughly washed and because the airocon doesn't come on if no one is in the room, it hadn't been on and the room smelled awful when we went in.

We were given a new room immediately, no issue there.

OP, I wouldn't worry about the quality of the Portofino.......it is a top class hotel and you very rarely hear anything negative about the cleanliness there. Sounds like the hair clip fell off the housekeeper. Not good, but these things can happen anywhere.

Glad you were decently compensated though as you were inconvenienced.

 

[theSurlyMermaid]

That takes me back to when we found a bunch of crushed Oreo cookies (actually Oreo ripoff cookies Hydrox) in the sheets when we stayed at Hard Rock Hotel. It took 3 calls and several hours for anyone to change the sheets, which they did at 11:30 at night. We never ever stayed there again.

 

[bumbershoot]

Id rather just have had a better night last night.

I hear that.

Got a villa at SSR once that was nearly a mold farm. We hadn't gone in until late and I nearly fainted when we walked in. It was a 2 bedroom and we had 5 family members coming in later.

I'm insanely allergic and went into some sort of hallucinate-y zone and let dh take care of it. Except he still asked me questions so based on my bad answers we all slept there that night. I was absolutely out it. Dh was miserable because I was. My aunt, cousin, and cousin's daughter were all sick by morning. And then we had to move. Housekeeping manager came in ready to scoff at us until he got 3 feet in and smelled it. Then the compensation required us to set up a room charge, and that process was messed up and took about 1.5 hours to get going. Dh did this and missed the whole pool time before the storms set in.

That stuff isn't fun.

Ugh nothing is worse than hotel problems on your travel day. You're already tired, a little stressed, and then there's one more thing. I've had it happen at otherwise great hotels but it always feels crappy.

Yep.

Sounds like the hair clip fell off the housekeeper. Not good, but these things can happen anywhere.

Hadn't even thought of that.

 

[bumbershoot]

That takes me back to when we found a bunch of crushed Oreo cookies (actually Oreo ripoff cookies Hydrox) in the sheets when we stayed at Hard Rock Hotel. It took 3 calls and several hours for anyone to change the sheets, which they did at 11:30 at night. We never ever stayed there again.

Now THAT must have been a sight to see.

 

[theSurlyMermaid]

Now THAT must have been a sight to see.

It's weird because it was just crushed cookies but to pull your covers back and find anything....well, it might as well be a roach. It's just gross!

 

[bumbershoot]

It's weird because it was just crushed cookies but to pull your covers back and find anything....well, it might as well be a roach. It's just gross!

I'm trying to imagine how that would have happened. Disgruntled housekeeper's last day perhaps?

 

[dbavis]

One last update to give proper credit... on Saturday morning when I spoke with the manager about our issues the night before, the front desk attendant could tell that I wasn't happy with the resolution with that manager. He was right, it seemed like that manager was simply going through her checklist to do what she had to I'm order to get rid of me. I walked away assuming that the matter was resolved the best that it was going to be and was ready to move on. But, the other gentleman decided on his on to raise the issue with the next manager on duty. As a result, they ended up comping a full night's stay.

Honestly, I felt totally better about the situation as soon as I heard of what the front desk guy did. He recognized that I wasn't fully satisfied and took the initiative to raise it up. That was an exemplary level of customer service that made me feel much better about the situation.

The rest of the stay at Portofino was really nice. Sals was so great we ate lunch there two days in a row. We had the breakfast buffet another morning at the other restaurant who's name I am forgetting at the moment. The resort really is beautiful, the boats to the parks are super convenient, and the express passes are just the best cherry on top.

 

[adisneyaunt]

One last update to give proper credit... on Saturday morning when I spoke with the manager about our issues the night before, the front desk attendant could tell that I wasn't happy with the resolution with that manager. He was right, it seemed like that manager was simply going through her checklist to do what she had to I'm order to get rid of me. I walked away assuming that the matter was resolved the best that it was going to be and was ready to move on. But, the other gentleman decided on his on to raise the issue with the next manager on duty. As a result, they ended up comping a full night's stay.

Honestly, I felt totally better about the situation as soon as I heard of what the front desk guy did. He recognized that I wasn't fully satisfied and took the initiative to raise it up. That was an exemplary level of customer service that made me feel much better about the situation.

The rest of the stay at Portofino was really nice. Sals was so great we ate lunch there two days in a row. We had the breakfast buffet another morning at the other restaurant who's name I am forgetting at the moment. The resort really is beautiful, the boats to the parks are super convenient, and the express passes are just the best cherry on top.

Great to hear!!!