Jun '10
Jennifer Priest
I know this is not "scrapbooking" but I was at a Scrapbooking Retreat when this happened. The retreat owner is just as disgusted with the hotel as I am and has canceled her next retreat there and moved it to another hotel chain. But I wanted to share my experience in case any of you plan to go to an EMBASSY SUITES with your family for a retreat.
This occurred at Embassy Suites Palm Desert, CA.
On Friday June 11, 2010 at about 8pm my son fell between the stucco railing on the patio outside the salons (halls where the cropping was going on) on the 3rd floor of the south side of the hotel. He fell between the railings and tumbled onto the awning covering the patio of the Sonoma Grille restaurant located at the South side of the hotel. After he rolled several times, he was able to run back to the patio and hoist himself up between the railings to safety. At this point I was able to help him back through the railings to safety. If he had been a mere 2 feet over to the east of the portion of railings he fell through, he might have fallen the 2.5 floors to his death.
At this point, I was unaware he had actually fallen -- I thought he was trying to look through the railings and I pulled him back and scolded him for being too close to the edge of the patio. I noticed he was scratched and bleeding on his arms and legs but I thought it was from the stucco on the railing. As I took him along the 3rd floor walkway on the West side of the hotel towards the lobby elevators, I heard people calling my name. As I arrived on the first floor, event attendee D.T. approached me and said that she and her party were dining at the picnic tables next the fountain in the courtyard (south of the pool) and saw my son struggling to get up from the awning to the 3rd floor patio outside of the Salons after he fell. Event attendee N.J. witnessed my son actually falling from between the railings. Event attendee K.E. and her friend were sitting on the Sonoma Grille patio eating dinner when they heard my son fall and saw his feet running above them as he struggled to get back up to the 3rd floor patio. The event attendees who witnessed this were very shook up and witnessing this near tragedy really affected their experience with the hotel.
We examined my son and determined that he had no broken bones or injuries other than scrapes and bruises. He was also very scared and in shock.
As I was in shock and my family was ready to go to dinner, we decided to just try to calm down before I approached the hotel about what had happened. At dinner my son was nearly catatonic and did not talk or try to eat for 30-45 minutes until after the event. He was in shock and very shaken up and scared.
After we had calmed down, we returned to the hotel at about 9pm. I approached the front desk and spoke to Mr. Yoshimura behind the front desk. I don't remember his first name but I remember his last name because as I approached the desk he was checking in some event attendees and was remarking about how he and one of them had the same last name. After he finished with those guests, I told him that my son had fallen from the third floor balcony outside the salons and that I was from the Scrapbook Retreats party. He asked for my room number, 169, and then asked skeptically why were we up on the 3rd floor and I told him AGAIN that we were with Scrapbook Retreat and that is why I was up there with my son. My son and I had gone up to get my purse from the Salon so I could drive to the restaurant to take us to dinner. After Mr. Yoshimura treated me so rudely and skeptically, Tricia from the front desk stepped in and asked me what had happened. She expressed her sympathy and apologized profusely and said they would get the problem resolved. She sat with me in the lobby to get the details of the incident and fill out an Incident report. She called the General Manager and Hotel Engineer about how to remedy the problem and repair the railing and assured me that the problem would be taken care of. I had expressed to Tricia that I believed my son was okay, just bruised, scratched and scared, and that I really just wanted to see the railing repaired to avoid any further accidents or the death of a child falling through the railings. Tricia told me to expect a phone call from the General Manager on Saturday.
Tricia then followed me up to the Salons and interviewed the witnesses.. Tricia then talked with the event coordinator at length about the problem and our concerns about safety since there were other children staying at the hotel.
I expected that I would see some repair, whether permanent or temporary, to the railings on the morning of Saturday June 12, 2010. At 1pm on Saturday June 12, 2010 I exited the Salons to go the lunch that the Scrapbook Retreat was providing and saw that there STILL had been no repairs done and no signs to warn anyone of the dangers. There was nothing done and not even a sign warning people with children to stay away because of the falling hazard. I went to the lobby and asked for a Manager at the front desk. Erica came out to talk to me. I told her about my son falling and she said she was aware of it. She informed me that the insurance company would be calling me. I am not interested in the insurance company calling me. I am interested in the problem being fixed so that a child does not die or suffer serious injury!! How is the insurance company calling me going to fix anything?
I told her that and that I had been coming to this hotel ever since that retreat started using it for their events and I intended on coming to the hotel with my family for future events. I wanted at that point to still be a customer of the hotel. I asked her why nothing had been done, why no signs were there to let other people know of the danger at those railings. I was especially concerned because there were other children at the hotel that weekend who were smaller than my son and could more easily fall through the railings. She then asked if anyone was supervising the kids. This really upset me, her insinuation that we were just letting our kids run around willy nilly. We were right there when my son fell through the railings.
I told her that of course we were watching the kids but it just took a second for my son to fall and isn't the risk enough to warrant some action on the part of the hotel? I asked her what were the maintenance guys doing and why had no one put up a temporary fix, like stapling screening to the railings or something like that? She then said the maintenance man was not on site and she said she did not know what he was doing but he MAY be getting supplies for a fix, she did not know either way. I told her to at least put up caution tape or cones or block the area to help minimize the risk to the other guests. She shrugged me off. I then told her that I understand repairs take time but it was obvious by the speed they were moving that they did not care that my son could have died and that the hazard was dangerous and serious. I told her that if they did not do some kind of repair by Sunday morning, that I would be calling the media. She said, "Do what you feel you need to do," in response to that statement. I was livid at her cold, unapologetic, and uncaring attitude and could not believe that she did not care about the bad publicity the hotel would get from the media in this case. Erica again shrugged me off and did nothing.
I went to the room where lunch was being served and was so upset that I could not eat. I returned to my hotel room, walking through the lobby. Erica had ordered pizza and she and her staff were going to eat it instead of doing something about the problem. At this point I was livid with their inaction so I called the Hilton/Embassy Suites corporate office. They expressed their sympathy and assured me that something would be done to remedy the problem and that they would be calling Erica immediately. I talked with my husband about the incident and then returned to the Salons, about 30 minutes later. I saw that one string of caution tape had been strung across the top of the railings. About 3 hours later, at 4pm, I noticed a second string of caution tape. Still, no repairs had been done.
I was later informed by retreat attendee C.G. that she had overheard the staff talking in the lobby that night about how they were not sure what to do about the falling incident and doubted they should take it seriously. That they would just openly talk about this in front of guests, with such a cavalier attitude, is just appalling.
On Sunday morning (June 13, 2010), I entered the Salons at about 10am and still nothing had been done to remedy the problem. It was at this point that I took photos of the area and measured the distance between the railings; 7 inches. I could not believe the attitude of the hotel in dealing with this incident.
My husband had ordered breakfast for me at the free hotel breakfast area and called me to come to eat. When I tried to eat, I noticed my eggs, which my husband had ordered over hard for me, were burnt on the outside and raw and runny on the inside. I ate the tortilla form the huevos rancheros he ordered for me and left. As I was leaving the breakfast area, the Guest Services Supervisor asked me how my food was and I said awful. So I talked to her about my eggs and she offered to get me new ones--I declined the offer but talked to her about my experience and concerns about the railings not being repaired. She asked me to fill out a comment card so I asked my husband to do it as I had to go back to the Salons to pack. He gave it to her at about 10:30am and he talked to her about the incident and the other concerns with the Retreat attendees' experience at the hotel that weekend. She said she would tell the proper people to help get the issues resolved. About two hours later, we were packed and left the hotel. At the time we left the hotel, around noon on Sunday June 13, 2010, no repairs had been started on the railings.
Also, we were not offered any concessions or discounts for our bad experience. Not that I am looking for something but the failure of the hotel to offer ANYTHING further underscores their cavalier attitude about this entire incident. If I had dined at a restaurant I would have gotten a discount or portion of my meal free if I had a bad experience. If Starbuck's makes a mistake on my order, they give me a coupon for a free drink. But at Embassy Suites if your child falls through balcony railing and could quite possibly have died, you get snarky hotel staff and no repairs done. This failure of the staff to offer any kind of concession at all (nor repairs the dangerous railings) shows to me that Embassy Suites is certainly not the kind of business who values my patronage nor the safety or experience of their guests.
On Monday June 14, 2010 I again called Corporate Customer Service. I was told the hotel manager was to call me within 3 business days of the incident.
On Wednesday June 16, 2010 I called Corporate Customer Service again. I was told that the manager was supposed to call me to help resolve the issue. While I waited on hold, the representative called the hotel and spoke to Erica. I told her I did not want to talk to Erica and that they needed to get the GM on the phone to call me. I went ahead and called the General Manager Gina myself. She said that Code Enforcement had been out to look at the building (thanks to a call I made to report them) and that they were waiting for their report before they did anything. She said that she also replied to the BBB complaint I had filed and that it was confidential so she could not discuss it with me. However, I found out that the event organizer had met with her earlier in the day and she told the event organizer that she could not issue me a refund since the event organizer paid for my room and I had paid the event organizer. The organizer said she would sign a form stating that she would forward the refunds to me but the GM said that was not possible. If it was confidential, why could she tell the organizer and not me?
The GM also said she was not supposed to call me, that since I had brought Corporate into it, I was supposed to call corporate. She said the people at Corporate were mistaken when they said she was supposed to call me. The people at Corporate said I needed to deal with the hotel. She also said that they had not had anything like that happen in 25 years and that the hotel was up to code so they would not be making any repairs since there was no danger.
This is unbelievable. So please be aware, that if you stay at Embassy Suites Palm Desert your child may fall and die and you will be told that the building is up to code and they won’t be fixing it. This is so unbelievable it makes me sick.
I called Corporate AGAIN on June 16, 2010 after this phone call with the so-called General Manager and told them what the GM said. They again said I needed to deal with the hotel. The hotel was supposed to respond to them by today and if they did not hear back by tomorrow, then the hotel would get a call from Corporate and then I am supposed to call Corporate back on Friday to follow up. Why am I calling them? Are they not concerned about customer service? Goodness Gracious!
So just please research the hotels you are going to with retreats and check them out on sites like Yelp and Google Travel because now that I have been filing complaints, I can see that this hotel has LOTS of complaints about it. And now that the event organizer is aware of the issues, she is taking her business elsewhere. It is not her fault and now that I am more informed, I'll be doing my research as well. And I can only thank God that nothing serious happened to my son.
This occurred at Embassy Suites Palm Desert, CA.
On Friday June 11, 2010 at about 8pm my son fell between the stucco railing on the patio outside the salons (halls where the cropping was going on) on the 3rd floor of the south side of the hotel. He fell between the railings and tumbled onto the awning covering the patio of the Sonoma Grille restaurant located at the South side of the hotel. After he rolled several times, he was able to run back to the patio and hoist himself up between the railings to safety. At this point I was able to help him back through the railings to safety. If he had been a mere 2 feet over to the east of the portion of railings he fell through, he might have fallen the 2.5 floors to his death.
At this point, I was unaware he had actually fallen -- I thought he was trying to look through the railings and I pulled him back and scolded him for being too close to the edge of the patio. I noticed he was scratched and bleeding on his arms and legs but I thought it was from the stucco on the railing. As I took him along the 3rd floor walkway on the West side of the hotel towards the lobby elevators, I heard people calling my name. As I arrived on the first floor, event attendee D.T. approached me and said that she and her party were dining at the picnic tables next the fountain in the courtyard (south of the pool) and saw my son struggling to get up from the awning to the 3rd floor patio outside of the Salons after he fell. Event attendee N.J. witnessed my son actually falling from between the railings. Event attendee K.E. and her friend were sitting on the Sonoma Grille patio eating dinner when they heard my son fall and saw his feet running above them as he struggled to get back up to the 3rd floor patio. The event attendees who witnessed this were very shook up and witnessing this near tragedy really affected their experience with the hotel.
We examined my son and determined that he had no broken bones or injuries other than scrapes and bruises. He was also very scared and in shock.
As I was in shock and my family was ready to go to dinner, we decided to just try to calm down before I approached the hotel about what had happened. At dinner my son was nearly catatonic and did not talk or try to eat for 30-45 minutes until after the event. He was in shock and very shaken up and scared.
After we had calmed down, we returned to the hotel at about 9pm. I approached the front desk and spoke to Mr. Yoshimura behind the front desk. I don't remember his first name but I remember his last name because as I approached the desk he was checking in some event attendees and was remarking about how he and one of them had the same last name. After he finished with those guests, I told him that my son had fallen from the third floor balcony outside the salons and that I was from the Scrapbook Retreats party. He asked for my room number, 169, and then asked skeptically why were we up on the 3rd floor and I told him AGAIN that we were with Scrapbook Retreat and that is why I was up there with my son. My son and I had gone up to get my purse from the Salon so I could drive to the restaurant to take us to dinner. After Mr. Yoshimura treated me so rudely and skeptically, Tricia from the front desk stepped in and asked me what had happened. She expressed her sympathy and apologized profusely and said they would get the problem resolved. She sat with me in the lobby to get the details of the incident and fill out an Incident report. She called the General Manager and Hotel Engineer about how to remedy the problem and repair the railing and assured me that the problem would be taken care of. I had expressed to Tricia that I believed my son was okay, just bruised, scratched and scared, and that I really just wanted to see the railing repaired to avoid any further accidents or the death of a child falling through the railings. Tricia told me to expect a phone call from the General Manager on Saturday.
Tricia then followed me up to the Salons and interviewed the witnesses.. Tricia then talked with the event coordinator at length about the problem and our concerns about safety since there were other children staying at the hotel.
I expected that I would see some repair, whether permanent or temporary, to the railings on the morning of Saturday June 12, 2010. At 1pm on Saturday June 12, 2010 I exited the Salons to go the lunch that the Scrapbook Retreat was providing and saw that there STILL had been no repairs done and no signs to warn anyone of the dangers. There was nothing done and not even a sign warning people with children to stay away because of the falling hazard. I went to the lobby and asked for a Manager at the front desk. Erica came out to talk to me. I told her about my son falling and she said she was aware of it. She informed me that the insurance company would be calling me. I am not interested in the insurance company calling me. I am interested in the problem being fixed so that a child does not die or suffer serious injury!! How is the insurance company calling me going to fix anything?
I told her that and that I had been coming to this hotel ever since that retreat started using it for their events and I intended on coming to the hotel with my family for future events. I wanted at that point to still be a customer of the hotel. I asked her why nothing had been done, why no signs were there to let other people know of the danger at those railings. I was especially concerned because there were other children at the hotel that weekend who were smaller than my son and could more easily fall through the railings. She then asked if anyone was supervising the kids. This really upset me, her insinuation that we were just letting our kids run around willy nilly. We were right there when my son fell through the railings.
I told her that of course we were watching the kids but it just took a second for my son to fall and isn't the risk enough to warrant some action on the part of the hotel? I asked her what were the maintenance guys doing and why had no one put up a temporary fix, like stapling screening to the railings or something like that? She then said the maintenance man was not on site and she said she did not know what he was doing but he MAY be getting supplies for a fix, she did not know either way. I told her to at least put up caution tape or cones or block the area to help minimize the risk to the other guests. She shrugged me off. I then told her that I understand repairs take time but it was obvious by the speed they were moving that they did not care that my son could have died and that the hazard was dangerous and serious. I told her that if they did not do some kind of repair by Sunday morning, that I would be calling the media. She said, "Do what you feel you need to do," in response to that statement. I was livid at her cold, unapologetic, and uncaring attitude and could not believe that she did not care about the bad publicity the hotel would get from the media in this case. Erica again shrugged me off and did nothing.
I went to the room where lunch was being served and was so upset that I could not eat. I returned to my hotel room, walking through the lobby. Erica had ordered pizza and she and her staff were going to eat it instead of doing something about the problem. At this point I was livid with their inaction so I called the Hilton/Embassy Suites corporate office. They expressed their sympathy and assured me that something would be done to remedy the problem and that they would be calling Erica immediately. I talked with my husband about the incident and then returned to the Salons, about 30 minutes later. I saw that one string of caution tape had been strung across the top of the railings. About 3 hours later, at 4pm, I noticed a second string of caution tape. Still, no repairs had been done.
I was later informed by retreat attendee C.G. that she had overheard the staff talking in the lobby that night about how they were not sure what to do about the falling incident and doubted they should take it seriously. That they would just openly talk about this in front of guests, with such a cavalier attitude, is just appalling.
On Sunday morning (June 13, 2010), I entered the Salons at about 10am and still nothing had been done to remedy the problem. It was at this point that I took photos of the area and measured the distance between the railings; 7 inches. I could not believe the attitude of the hotel in dealing with this incident.
My husband had ordered breakfast for me at the free hotel breakfast area and called me to come to eat. When I tried to eat, I noticed my eggs, which my husband had ordered over hard for me, were burnt on the outside and raw and runny on the inside. I ate the tortilla form the huevos rancheros he ordered for me and left. As I was leaving the breakfast area, the Guest Services Supervisor asked me how my food was and I said awful. So I talked to her about my eggs and she offered to get me new ones--I declined the offer but talked to her about my experience and concerns about the railings not being repaired. She asked me to fill out a comment card so I asked my husband to do it as I had to go back to the Salons to pack. He gave it to her at about 10:30am and he talked to her about the incident and the other concerns with the Retreat attendees' experience at the hotel that weekend. She said she would tell the proper people to help get the issues resolved. About two hours later, we were packed and left the hotel. At the time we left the hotel, around noon on Sunday June 13, 2010, no repairs had been started on the railings.
Also, we were not offered any concessions or discounts for our bad experience. Not that I am looking for something but the failure of the hotel to offer ANYTHING further underscores their cavalier attitude about this entire incident. If I had dined at a restaurant I would have gotten a discount or portion of my meal free if I had a bad experience. If Starbuck's makes a mistake on my order, they give me a coupon for a free drink. But at Embassy Suites if your child falls through balcony railing and could quite possibly have died, you get snarky hotel staff and no repairs done. This failure of the staff to offer any kind of concession at all (nor repairs the dangerous railings) shows to me that Embassy Suites is certainly not the kind of business who values my patronage nor the safety or experience of their guests.
On Monday June 14, 2010 I again called Corporate Customer Service. I was told the hotel manager was to call me within 3 business days of the incident.
On Wednesday June 16, 2010 I called Corporate Customer Service again. I was told that the manager was supposed to call me to help resolve the issue. While I waited on hold, the representative called the hotel and spoke to Erica. I told her I did not want to talk to Erica and that they needed to get the GM on the phone to call me. I went ahead and called the General Manager Gina myself. She said that Code Enforcement had been out to look at the building (thanks to a call I made to report them) and that they were waiting for their report before they did anything. She said that she also replied to the BBB complaint I had filed and that it was confidential so she could not discuss it with me. However, I found out that the event organizer had met with her earlier in the day and she told the event organizer that she could not issue me a refund since the event organizer paid for my room and I had paid the event organizer. The organizer said she would sign a form stating that she would forward the refunds to me but the GM said that was not possible. If it was confidential, why could she tell the organizer and not me?
The GM also said she was not supposed to call me, that since I had brought Corporate into it, I was supposed to call corporate. She said the people at Corporate were mistaken when they said she was supposed to call me. The people at Corporate said I needed to deal with the hotel. She also said that they had not had anything like that happen in 25 years and that the hotel was up to code so they would not be making any repairs since there was no danger.
This is unbelievable. So please be aware, that if you stay at Embassy Suites Palm Desert your child may fall and die and you will be told that the building is up to code and they won’t be fixing it. This is so unbelievable it makes me sick.
I called Corporate AGAIN on June 16, 2010 after this phone call with the so-called General Manager and told them what the GM said. They again said I needed to deal with the hotel. The hotel was supposed to respond to them by today and if they did not hear back by tomorrow, then the hotel would get a call from Corporate and then I am supposed to call Corporate back on Friday to follow up. Why am I calling them? Are they not concerned about customer service? Goodness Gracious!
So just please research the hotels you are going to with retreats and check them out on sites like Yelp and Google Travel because now that I have been filing complaints, I can see that this hotel has LOTS of complaints about it. And now that the event organizer is aware of the issues, she is taking her business elsewhere. It is not her fault and now that I am more informed, I'll be doing my research as well. And I can only thank God that nothing serious happened to my son.
