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Family · September 20256/10
We have carefully chosen Summum Boutique Hotel for our stay in Palma, booking it almost an year before our trip. I have worked in the tourism industry for the last 12 years, and having travelled to mo...We have carefully chosen Summum Boutique Hotel for our stay in Palma, booking it almost an year before our trip. I have worked in the tourism industry for the last 12 years, and having travelled to more than 100 countries, I know exactly what to expect, what to tolerate and what is unacceptable for a 5 star hotel. Whether it is a huge resort or a small boutique hotel, providing a smooth arrival experience after a long day of travel is essential for the comfort of the guests, and even more important, for giving them a nice first impression of the destination itself. Unfortunately, that didn't happen to us. Moreover, we were met with a very aggressive attitude when things didn't go as expected, and instead of trying to calm things down, the hotel management escalated the tension to an almost unbearable level, and I sincerely hope the same level of aggressiveness won't be shown when and if they reply to this review.
Let me start by highlighting the positive aspects:
- After all the inexcusable incidents of the arrival day, things started to improve from the second day onwards, and the service got way better. The hotel was able to improve our experience during our stay, which is why I am giving it a general 3 points out of 5.
- Breakfast was excellent, very charming ambiance, great background music, and the gentleman who worked there during the first 3 days of our stay did a perfect job.
- Great bathroom amenities from Chopard in the room; quality of the towels, bed sheet and bathrobe was great; room was very clean, and the daily turndown service is a plus.
- The manager apologized to us after the first day incident described below, which shows a dignified and honorable attitude.
Now to the negative part, which almost obfuscated any positive aspect of our stay. A month before our arrival, the hotel sent us an email asking for our estimated arrival time, which was promptly replied. We arrived little less than an hour before the check-in time, which is 3:00 p.m. We were met by the general manager, who accommodated us in the lobby while making all the necessary stuff and talking to us about our trip. Everything was going very smoothly, and being aware of the official check-in time, we were not in a hurry. However, after a considerable amount of time of small talk in the lobby, we started to notice that something was wrong. That was not a normal length for any check-in process. That's when, around 2:35 p.m (30 minutes after our arrival), the manager informed us that one of the rooms we'd booked wasn't ready, because the previous guests did not vacant the room by the right time. So they would need some time to clean the room before my parents could get in, which, according to his words, wouldn't be later than 3:05 or 3:10 p.m. He then said he would think of a compensation to give us due to that delay (we didn't ask for any compensation until that point, he spontaneously offered it) . At first, we didn't bother with that small delay, considering that at least one of the rooms was ready. However, right after that, we noticed something was going wrong there. The hotel staff started to get agitated. More than 30 minutes after we started our check-in process, we still hadn't receive our passports and credit card back. The manager then disappeared for some minutes, running nervously to the guestroom area.
It was when we realized the previous guests were actually STILL inside the room. At that time, it was almost 3:00 p.m. When the manager returned, he informed us that the guests were still there, and said that those kind of unforeseen circumstances might happen anywhere. By that time, it was clear that my parents' room wouldn't be ready by the time frame that was previously mentioned. When the manager joked that if the guests kept refusing to leave the room, he would personally remove them from there, I joked back that maybe they could discount my parents first night stay in that room and charge those irresponsible guests a late check-out fee, since the laziness and complete lack of common sense from those guests were delaying our day. That's when we were met with an anger explosion by the manager, who started to yell at me that he was the manager of the hotel and didn't need anyone to give any suggestions on how he should do his job. He yelled that he wanted to make clear the position of each person in that room, and that he would manage the property the way he wanted. We were left in shock with that unbalanced reaction. I deal with clients in the hospitality industry as well, international travelers like us, and I know how difficult it can be sometimes. But if there's one thing we need to have to work in this market, it is the patience and the ability to think on our feet when we face a problem. We cannot vent our angriness towards our guests. The same way he was having a rough day, we were also tired after a long trip, and we were starting to feel harmed by that long check-in process and the delay in getting my parents room ready.
When I joked about charging our first night stay from the previous guests, I told it in a humorous way, just a way to extravasate our frustration, just a loud thought, the same way the manager joked before that he would personally take the previous guests out of the room (which of course he wouldn't do). However, I wasn't even given a chance to explain myself. The manager got so out of control, that even my parents later admitted that they stood quiet by that time because they were afraid of a possible violent escalation of the conflict. I guess he realized how unbalanced his reaction was right after his explosion, because immediately after that, he offered a vacant room for my parents while the other room was starting to being cleaned. He tried to calm things down by saying he would think of a compensation for that (which, by the way, was never offered/given), and in a wrongful and unsensitive way, he even suggested that we should have a positive thinking, because if we think positive, issues like the one that had just happened wouldn't happen again (yes, I guess it is our mindset's fault that the previous guests were disrespectful to the hotel rules and that the hotel didn't manage the problem well).
I always thought there were rules that should be followed in any hotel. If a guest cause any disturbance, smokes inside the room or breaks anything, he might suffer consequences. The same way, if a guest was not given any late check-out privilege, and the same guest refuses to vacant the room for the next one, he/she should be charged a late departure fee. But according to the manager, there's nothing he can do about it, and we should understand that this kind of situation might happen sometimes. And if we dare to complain, we will be met with an explosion of anger. I guess the hotel would also be very empathic and understanding if anyone cancel their stay less than 24 hours before check-in due to any unforeseen circumstances and demand a full refund, right? The rules must be the same for either sides of the counter. Instead of being firm with the previous guests, they opted to yell at the new guests who were just arriving. It was a terrible start, and I might say it even gave us a bad first impression of the destination. All that angriness and bitterness kind of ruined our first day, it is a little bit hard to stay where you don't feel welcome. We even considered moving to another hotel, but being high season, it would be something difficult at that point.
After we returned from bitter our walk in the city, my parents room was finally ready. And then we had our second issue of the day, when we realized the room they had been given was very different from the pictures from the hotel's official website. Way smaller and tighter, and less private. The manager wasn't there anymore by that time, we complaint with the front desk, whose answer was that the hotel puts their best room from each category in the website pictures due to marketing purposes, and that the characteristics of each room inside the same category might have a huge variation. Well, then I guess they should sell each room separately, or at least they should put an advice on their website stating that the pictures are just illustrative and the rooms might have a big difference inside the same category (I am not talking about small differences like the disposition of the furniture or the color of the walls, but huge differences concerning the room size and the lack of privacy in the bathroom area, depending on which room you are assigned). After a few more minutes of discussion, a good solution was found: on the second day of our stay, two other rooms from the same category would get vacant, and my parents could choose one of those rooms to move to. So, on the day after, they moved to a new room - and that's when things started to improve.
When the manager showed them the new room, he apologized to me for his behavior the previous day, recognizing he overreacted to my comment, and explained he was very nervous because of all that situation with the previous guests. As I wrote before, that was a very honorable attitude, which certainly contributed to improve our guest experience from the second day onwards. That, along with the fact that the hotel did its best to accommodate my parents in another room, made space for a more relaxing and overall nice stay.
However, I cannot ignore the fact that our first day was badly harmed due to all the stress caused not only by the situation itself, but also by the overreaction to a simple comment that was made. It scared my parents, and it left me speechless. Since I did not want to escalate any tension, and was only trying to help my parents to have a comfortable stay, I stayed quite - but I guess the disappointment on our face was pretty clear. I really hope all that incident served at least to teach a lesson on how to deal with unforeseen circumstances like that. I really think it could have been handled in a very different way from the beginning - they had more than 2 hours from the official check-out time until our arrival time to manage those irresponsible guests. It seemed that they only realized the size of the problem when we got there - and then they couldn't hide their own nervousness from us.
By the way, we are very well traveled people and were NEVER really looking for any kind of financial compensation. But a small gesture as an apology, like a handwritten letter, a cheap small bottle of cava or three macarons, would be a sweet and gentle touch that would certainly had made our stay even better. We had minor issues in other hotels, which were responded in that way. It's something small, but it can generate a very good impression. Maybe because of everything that happened, the manager has never sent us the email with his restaurant recommendations - something that I've read in other reviews and that he told us he would send when we checked in.
Once again, this very long review is not written with any revenge intention, but as a constructive criticism, and I hope it can be understood in that way. Thanks for the apologize and for helping my parents to get a room that was more suitable for their needs.Show More
