But! We got our wedding hotel block done! Oh man. So. Ok story time.
(Source)
At first we wanted to go with the Larkspur Hotel in Mill Valley, which is 3 minutes from the venue and newly renovated. Sounds good, right? But lemme tell you, terrible customer service. So here's the lowdown:
- Call Larkspur Hotel, gets put through to the sales department's voicemail, leave voicemail on Monday
- No reponse, so call back on Thursday, and talks to general manager
- General manager apologizes for delay in responding and says sales manager will respond on Friday
- Laaaaate afternoon Friday, gets call from sales manager regarding rates and a few details. She promises to send the contract soon.
- She calls on Monday; askes for email again -- apparently she got it wrong the first time.
- I receive the contract and look it over.
- There were strange numbers on the contract I couldn't figure out where they came from (like that we wanted 30 rooms? -- we asked for 15, and even if I added rooms per night together, they did not equal 30), some spelling typos I was willing to overlook, and a different rate than she told me on the phone.
- I email her my list of questions. She responds promptly, with changes to a new contract.
- However, she doesn't answer why there are strange numbers on the contract, and I realize they want a credit card number (for a courtesy room block). So I email her back with my old and new questions.
- No response for SEVEN (7) DAYS.
- So I call her and she informs me:
---- I didn't return the contract by Jan 22nd, so all the rooms were released back to the public. (Even though she never got around to answering my questions like... why do I have to put down credit card info, why are there so many mistakes on the contract, etc.)
----- The higher rate she quoted from the first draft of the contract of $125/night (though she said $119/night on the phone) was cause she didn't realize it was Memorial Day weekend and that the $125 was infact correct. (Lady, is that my fault you didn't realize that?)
---- She barely mutters an apology and THEN she closed it with... but now all the rooms are booked for Memorial Day weekend.
She then said she could try to get me in touch with the sales manager at their sister hotel The Lodge at Tiburon. But I'm not gonna hold my breath.
Thank you very much for sending me a courtesy email that you've dropped us. Did you think we would just forget we tried to do a room block at your hotel? Did you think I asked too many questions? Cause I sure hope before you sign a contract you would read it and ask why there are weird numbers, and find out why they want your credit card number before you sign on the dotted line. And on top of that, it's pretty funny that I can still book a room for our exact dates at your "sold out" hotel online.
They also charged $20 for each third or fourth guest in the room, so a $120 room would actually cost $160 for four people. Yeah some places do do that, but really? Don't be shady like that. Larkspur, we don't need your high and mighty nonsense. You are just a renovated Holiday Inn Express.
At the place we did do our hotel block at, I called yesterday and got rates and my questions answered in 5 minutes by Bob. I relayed the details to my future in-laws (for whom this room block is for). They thought it sounded great (I think exactly what they're looking for). I called Bob back today, and got our room block done in pretty much 3 minutes, I think. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how it should be done.
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