It all started last summer, my wife and myself had won a raffle prize of a complementary meal at a well known hotel. We made our reservation as existing customers of this hotel group explaining that this was a prize and that we were looking forward to an enjoyable evening.

On arrival I noticed that alongside the reservation in bold letters was the word COMPLIMENTARY. For some reason this started alarm bells ringing, and was I proved right.

The sevice that we received was appalling, for example being told by a waiter that my wife could not substitute chips for mashed potatoes. When I asked why I was told that it was hotel policy and if we wanted mashed potatoes we would have to pay extra for them as the meal as ordered was served with chips.

Things went from bad to worse. The Maitre 'D made it quite obvious that he did not intend comming to our table even though he was visiting other paying guests. There were far too many incidents to mention in this story, but suffice to say we left very dissapointed with both the meal and the lack of customer care.

As we were also staying overnight I waited until the morning before speaking to the manager of the hotel, who assured me that this was not the usual standard of the hotel and appologised for our dissapointment. The only thing that he offered in way of compensation was his assurance that he would look into the matter.

We left the hotel advising the manager that I would be writing to the hotel's Customer Service department, which I did once I returned home. I will relate the results in my next article.