Followup On Our Crowne Plaza Debacle

After having a full day to digest our most recent stay at the Crowne Plaza in Williamsburg, VA, I found myself rather irritated with the overall situation and the totally sub standard room that we stayed in, while we were at the aforementioned Crown Plaza.
I partly blame Priceline for their ridiculous rating system that truly misrepresents the quality of the hotels that they are rating. I can't for complete certainty say that this is true in all of the hotels that Priceline has rated but I can honestly say with certainty that this was the case with the Crowne Plaza in Williamsburg, VA.
The rest of the blame falls on the shoulders of the InterContinental Hotels Group PLC
From what I understand, and I might be wrong here....This hotel has paid for and has some sort of licensing agreement with the aforementioned entity and has the right to use the Crowne Plaza name on their property.
If the InterContinental Hotels Group PLC does not already do so, they should check and have someone to personally review and check out the properties and condition of all aspects of the properties that they are allowing to use the Crowne Plaza name.
If I were the owner of a different Crowne Plaza hotel, one that takes pride in their property and pride in carrying the Crowne Plaza Hotel name and logo, I would be really angry at the owner and those who are in charge of this lowly Crowne Plaza Hotel in Williamsburg, VA.
This hotel is representing the Crowne Plaza name, the overall brand and the level of quality that is associated with that name and unfortunately representing it in a very poor fashion.
The paying customer that stays at this hotel, will surely leave the property thinking that this property represents what they can expect from any and all Crowne Plaza properties.
Corporate personnel from the InterContinental Hotels Group PLC should visit this property and see for themselves the quality and level of this property and decide if they really need those licensing fees versus the low quality product that is being offered to the paying public while carrying the Crowne Plaza brand name.

I feel that The lobby might be satisfactory and the property might be sprawling but the room we had and the service that we received, or should I say didn't receive, was really pathetic at best. 
When the manager takes a complaint via room to front desk phone and does not even write the issue down on a list that they keep, and also tells me that someone will be up shortly to take care of the issue....2 1/2 hours later we are still awaiting the arrival of hotel personnel to take care of a television issue...there is a problem.
Couple this type of service with the really poor condition that our room was, lack of basics in our room upon arrival...such as any bars of bath/hand soap, lack of proper cleaning of the room on the following day, and what you end up with is a really sub par hotel and definitely not one that should carry a 3 star rating by neither Priceline nor any one else that is supposedly doing a reliable, trustworthy and competent rating system.
 I have decided to post some more of the photos that I took of our room.
For those of you that are planning or will be going to the Williamsburg/Colonial Williamsburg, VA area, do yourself a favor....spend your hard earned money at any other accommodations that are in the area but  don't waste your time nor hard earned money at the Crowne Plaza Williamsburg at Ft. Magruder, 6945 Pocahontas Trail. Williamsburg, VA 23185
Lastly....We were unable to get changed to a different room due to the fact that this hotel was all booked up dud to the William & Mary Homecoming weekend and football game. Followup review will also be posted on TripAdvisor.

Our sink was not cleaned at all the next day...we were their for 2 nights


Photos showing poor condition that this room and the furniture in the room is in, For more phots, please see blog entry just prior to this one.
















1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Just FYI

Like many chains with thousands of property i know they strive for a balance of having a hotel available in an area vs. trying to kick someone out of the system so the quality can vary widely. they do not provide a rating system per se, but IF YOU HAVE THE OPTION, i would try to stay at one of their properties who have at lease a 'commendable' rating on their Quality Excellence- you can see that on their website for the hotel (ichotelsgroup.com)- no rating, then they were not in the top 20% or so.
However, that is a risk on Priceline- all of them are lumped together in their bogus star ratings.
I got a property they 'upgraded' me to that was 3 star- a Hilton that was in worse shape than the 2.5 star HI Express.
I wish priceline would do a better job too!

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