The Grove Hotel, Chandler's Cross - Arrogant, Uncaring And Dismissive Management

I wanted to highlight the treatment we recently received at The Grove Hotel in Chandler's Cross as it is considered as a 5 star luxury hotel which also caters for children. After the experience we had and more importantly the subsequent reaction to our complaint, surely there must be many more accommodating hotels around to spend time with your families. I know that many Musical Minis families are always looking for places to go to for a short break, I would suggest giving The Grove a miss and going elsewhere.

To place this in context we were the parents of the groom who was getting married at this hotel. It is our treatment upon checking in that led to our complaint. We spoke to the staff on duty the day of the wedding and followed it up with an email on 2nd April, which is copied below.

Dear Sir or Madam

We are writing to express our disappointment with our recent stay at The Grove. Our son got married at your hotel on Sunday March 17th. Part of the package included some free bedrooms and we booked another 3 rooms ourselves on top of the ones that were included. In the weeks leading up to the Wedding we confirmed our request with the hotel, via Reception Staff, to have access to one of our rooms early as we wished to change at the hotel and have hair make up etc. done there. We would imagine that this is a common request that you are used to handling given the number of functions held. Indeed, we were told this shouldn’t be an issue and that our request had been noted. On the Saturday night, the evening prior to the Wedding, we had dinner for 10 at Collette’s and being at the hotel we again checked with Reception staff that our request for an early check in was noted. We were told once again that it shouldn’t be an issue as the hotel had empty rooms that night.

We were therefore quire surprised to find that upon trying to check-in on the Sunday at midday we were told that no rooms were available. When we questioned this we were told that the hotel was full and on recounting our conversation of the night before we were told there had been a rush of bookings on the Saturday night. We were also told that a few hotel guests for that Sunday night had arrived early and rooms were being sorted out for them. Sally, who was looking after Reception seemed quite agitated and flustered and kept asking for our understanding on the basis that she had a number of rooms she was trying to fit guests into. In turn we kept telling her that out of the rooms we had booked, it was only ours that required an early check-in as our daughter was a bridesmaid and therefore sorted and for the others there was no urgency. We got the impression that she just did not get this fact and remained flustered throughout the process.

When a room was eventually found it was totally inappropriate due to the lack of light and poor facilities to undertake hair and makeup. After speaking to Sally again we were eventually placed in a more suitable room albeit the hair and makeup people arrived before we were in the room as they arrived at 1pm.

As the parents of the groom, hosting a wedding with you, we feel our request for access to a room was not dealt with adequately. We should have been given priority over any other guests – the bride’s parents, bride, groom and best man having all stayed the Saturday night so already had a room. The excuses we were given were wholly unacceptable. We were led to believe that not a single guest staying on Saturday night had checked out before 12:00. We know for a fact that the groom (our son) and his best man, who had stayed the Saturday night with you, had been moved to a different room on Sunday morning so either we could have had their old room or you needn’t have moved the Best Man and we could have had the room they were moved to - when the checked in on Saturday they were told the best man had the same room for 2 nights so why the switch occurred is a mystery to us, especially as there apparently was a shortage of rooms. . In a luxury hotel when check out is at 12 surely housekeeping could have organised a room for us shortly after that as a priority considering we were the grooms parents.

As an aside, the room we were moved into had a broken hot water tap that meant the bath was as good as useless. After running it for 30 minutes there was just a few inches of water. We did raise this at check-out and we appreciate that we could have called maintenance but there just wasn’t the time.

In conclusion, the poor and inadequate manner in which the matter of getting us into a room was handled left us feeling unnecessarily stressful ahead of the wedding. This feels particularly galling as we championed The Grove as the wedding venue, having previously held a party with you in The Greenhouse some years ago when we were really happy with you, hence were keen to book you for the Wedding. We had envisaged booking you again for our other children (our other son is getting married in 2020) but obviously after this experience we have changed our minds especially as there will be a number of out of London guests who will need rooms for a few nights. Between the hiring of the venue, additional rooms and the pre-wedding supper at Collette’s, we spent a considerable sum of money with you that was not reflected in the service we received.

Please can you look into this for us and let us know how Reception could get this so wrong and what you can suggest to remedy our disappointment.

We look forward to your reply.

The response we received was a telephone call on 12th April advising that this matter had been looked into and that The Grove were satisfied with the way this matter was handled. I informed the caller that this was not a satisfactory reply but I was told there was nothing I could do about it. Feeling even more aggravated after the phone call, I raised this on Twitter and was told to email Guest Relations and the Rooms Manager via email, which we did on 5th May.

We explained that we would have preferred to go directly to the General Manager but apparently we are not allowed to do so. We expressed the fact that the situation is extraordinarily frustrating and a clear sign that The Grove is not open to any feedback or criticism. The lack of clear communication between reception and housekeeping is not something we have come across before to this extent. We have ample experience of staying at 5 star hotels (the Mandarin Oriental Group, the Oberoi Group, the Four Seasons Group and many other independents including those part of The Leading Hotels of the World) and we have never known such defensiveness in the face of honest criticism. We have not even received an apology for the unnecessary stress we were caused on the day and certainly no suggestion as to how the hotel can remedy our disappointment.

On 7th May, Byron Fiddler, the Rooms Division Manager, responded with the email below:

Thank you for your e-mail, and I am sorry to read of your continued disappointment.

The person that you mention having spoken to on the 12th April is Ranjna Kashyap, our Senior Sales Manager in Meetings and Events. Having looked into your complaint, we are confident that we have done all that was reasonably possible to accommodate your early arrival requests and meet your expectations as best as possible, given the occupancy of the night before and that these were not guaranteed in the first instance.

Please be assured that we do take all guest feedback seriously, and I am sorry to read that you feel that this is not the case. As in previous communications with you and not wishing to aggravate you any further, we do not believe that any further action is required.

We appreciate that they feel that the matter is dealt with but we do not! We tried to phone Byron Fiddler on numerous occasions but his phone was always on answerphone. We left messages asking him when we could phone for a quick chat to personally speak to him about our disappointment but had no reply.

On 10th May we sent Byron Fiddler the email below:

I have tried phoning you on a number of occasions but each time the call goes to a voicemail message. Whilst I am sure that we all want to put this matter to bed and get on with our lives, I would like to speak with you to understand the process you have gone through and your deliberations. From our side (as long standing visitors to The Grove and previously loyal customers) we are struggling to understand your reluctance to acknowledge you could have handled matters better. So, to facilitate closure, please can we set up a time to talk so that we may gain clarity.

On May 13th, Byron Fiddler emailed the following dismissive  reply:

I am sorry that you are not happy with your arrival and that you feel that we could have handled the situation better. I am confident that our teams endeavored to help facilitate your party’s early arrival as best as possible, given the circumstances and ultimately that early check-ins were not guaranteed. I appreciate that it was an important day for you and your family, however as previously communicated having reviewed your complaint with the relevant departments, whereby the General Manager’s office has been involved, we do not feel that any further action is required; thereby do not see a call necessary and consider the matter closed.

We replied on the same day by email and said:

I cannot help feel there is an agenda here that you are not sharing. Not only can I not understand the manner in which you have chosen to address the matter raised but not to make yourself available for a chat about it is really quite extraordinary.

It would be really upsetting for us to stop coming to The Grove because of this. We have enjoyed countless celebrations with you including birthdays, anniversaries, Mothers Day, finishing exams, passing exams and of course more recently the pre-wedding dinner and the wedding itself. We also have enjoyed many meals in the Glasshouse, Stables and Club House for no reason other than we like it and as an aside bought golf lessons at the Grove for my sons birthday a few years back. And up to now, all without a murmur of complaint. Even without the wedding we have spent a considerable amount at The Grove over the years.

Please reconsider making yourself available for 10 minutes.

Thank you.

Over 6 weeks have passed since our last email and we have received no communication from The Grove. Clearly the Management Team is not interested in anyone who dares to question the way things are run. By refusing to speak to us only highlights the clear arrogance of the Hotel's Management and the fact that customer satisfaction means very little to them. By meeting with us or speaking on the phone, even perhaps a goodwill gesture like a complimentary meal in one of their restaurants, we would have felt as if we were valued as customers - clearly we are not.