Yours is a very bad hotel: a graphic complaint

Customers have the power to create and destroy a company and this is important mainly in the service industry, where the interaction between the company and the client is part of the service. The company must create a strong relationship with the customer, gaining his/her trust and creating a long-term relation. To achieve this result, the company has to offer good products that meet the needs and desires of the customer and it is important to correct eventual mistakes. Errors will always happen, but what the company must resolve it. In this way, the client will be satisfied and can forget the initial error, but when the company doesn't sympathize with the customer, consequences can be very serious and damage the company's image.

This is a lesson that a lot of companies have learnt thanks to the saga "Your is a very bad hotel".

Few years ago, Tom Farmer and Shane Atchison booked a room at DoubleTree Club in Huston. They arrived at the hotel at 2:00 am, but when they tried to check in, the night clerk refused to give them the room because it was already given to other people. The couple tried to explain that the room was held for late arrival with a major credit card and that Tom had a Hilton Honors Golden card, but everything was useless: they weren't given the booked room and didn't receive excuses. 

Back at home, they described their experience in Huston in a PowerPoint presentation that was sent to the manager of the hotel and their friends. In the last slide they invited readers to send the presentation to other people, if they wanted. The presentation traveled far and wide and our couple was contacted by more than 2.500 people from all over the world. They received injurious epithet by 2% of people, but the biggest part of contact was formed by marketing managers, PR professionals, Business School teachers and workers of the hotel industry, asking for more information. The hotel was contacted too, in order to obtain clarification about what happened and the affairs suffered.

The hotel finally apologized and offered a refund that was later devolved to the "Toys for Tot" campaign by Mr. Farmer and Mrs. Atchison. 

The presentation is still online and you can read it here: http://www.slideshare.net/politicsjunkie/yours-is-a-very-bad-hotel . It is even funny to read. For example, the couple let us know that the possibility to book again in the hotel are inferior than the probability that the world will be expelled by the solar system due to the force of gravity of a passing star (1 in 2.200.000).