Venetian Hotel Sucks Part 2: The Update And Review

UPDATE: Thank you to all the bloggers and social media. You are wonderful. The room is now going to be occupied thanks to @sugarjones telling people about this room. I am more in awe of the power of blogging. Even on this tiny scale of $159 plus tax. There are no words to describe how amazed and thankful I am. From the bottom of my heart. Thank you to everyone who tried to help. And thank you to @bridgetayers who ended up needing a hotel room and wound up with mine! <3

Before I go into my updated rant on how awful Venetian Hotel in Vegas is. And by the way, you can find them on @VenetianVegas on Twitter, too. I want to say…

I was so touched by the kindness of this awesome, wonderful community that we are in. Bloggers. You people. With all the drama and everything that comes along with it. When it comes down to it, no matter how big or small the problem, you have the biggest hearts. I am so overwhelmed right now by the amazing generosity that this group called Collective Bias, that I’m so lucky to be a part of. Amy Callahan, thank you. Your offer has touched me in a way that I can’t even explain. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you. It’s times like these, even when it’s not about me, that makes me proud to be a blogger. You are all bigger than rock stars. update: I completely forgot to mention @geekmommy who is the reason that Collective Bias even knew about my little plight. Thank you. XOXO

Now. For the rant.

The Venetian. You people should be ashamed of yourselves. This was my second phone call. As pleasant as this little girl was who I spoke to, this was way worse than my first phone call.

The person who I spoke with on Monday(Phyllis?), after telling me that I’ll have to (and this is now my favorite word for when money is basically…EXTORTED) FORFEIT my money, she recommended in her snotty way, that I find someone to take over the room for me.

And it had seemed that I had a couple of people who were interested.

So I called the Venetian. And was put on hold for 20 minutes here. 15 minutes there. Forever. To be told by a nervous girl with a baby voice that the supervisor said that my reservation was canceled with permission from me by someone named Melissa and did I want to speak to her. I tried to explain that I never spoke to someone named Melissa but this girl kept nervously talking over me. I would remember if I spoke to a Melissa because DUH…that’s MY name.

So, I said yeah, I wouldn’t mind speaking to Melissa. Although I knew there was going to be no one by that name coming to the phone…except for my side of the line.

And the little girl with the diaper voice came back on and told me that I never actually did speak to a Melissa. No, really?! But she spoke with the supervisor who said that they will just change the status of the reservation from cancel to reinstated. And she asked me how that was.

I asked, in my nicest, kindest, most forced patience voice, if I could speak to the supervisor.

This. Never. Happened.

The diaper voice chick got back on the phone, after my being on hold for another 10 minutes, WAITING FOR A FUCKING SUPERVISOR, and told me that I should just go ahead, per her supervisor, and get someone else to take over my reservation. In the meantime, this reservation will remain on my credit card in my name.

And was there anything else she could do for me.

I gritted my teeth. I said NO. Thank you very much for being so (not)helpful. I’ll call her if and when I have someone to take over my reservation. I strangled my phone. And I hung up.

Because obviously the way the Venetian Hotel customer service works is, keep the person with the problem going around in circles until they are really dizzy, tell them thank you for their patience and hang up.

It worked.

I was spinning. And fuming.

But one thing is for sure. I will never stay at the Venetian. My friends who are go to Vegas every year, will not stay at the Venetian. And all my 2300 friends on Twitter, and all their friends who follow them who saw the tweets, know how awful this experience was.

This is not about my alleged mistake. This is not about freaking extortion…give me a break. This is about how disrespectful, insensitive and awful that customer service at a top notch hotel on the Vegas Strip is.

The good thing that comes out of this is experiencing, first hand, the way the blogging community reaches out and helps. For something that isn’t like a sick child or worse. It’s 159 bucks plus taxes. Which seems like nothing to some. But for me, if it wasn’t going to be used for a conference to learn how to take my passion…blogging…to the next level. Then that $159 plus taxes(not to mention the $200 for the conference itself, which will be transferred to the next conference, thank you sitsgirls xo) from my own private piddly bank account, would be used for groceries when the family account is negative. Which happens, for real. And to my family, the bloggers, this was a big enough deal for them to want to do something about. My heart is full.

Had I truly realized that this reservation need to be canceled a week in advanced…dontchya think I would have? It’s a freaking phone call. And seeing as the hotel policy is 72 hours and I was 48 hours earlier than that even, I was thinking I was right on top of it.

But the Venetian is horrible.
Bloggers are wonderful.
And it’s nice to know that all of you were as outraged by this whole thing as I was.
Thank you.

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