I read, did research and really poured my heart into finding a great top-of-the-line hotel for an Oct trip to NYC. I had a difficult travel companion and thus wanted a hotel that catered to her every need. The Lowell DID live up to this expectation. They were always there when we needed them and treated my travel companion with respect even though she can be rude, impatient and otherwise difficult to manage. The place was a little too fancy (and almost too snobby at times) for my taste (completely personal) but nonetheless, it was still a very classy hotel that is in a league of its own.
HOWEVER THIS IS WHERE THE PRAISE FOR THE LOWELL HOTEL ENDS!!
We had made some large purchases in NYC and needed to have some items shipped home. I told staff the package was fragile and that we needed to buy insurance for $3,000. The items arrived to our home in the original bag I had given the staff to pack, in a box with no bubble wrap or other cushion and that was about double the size necessary for the contents inside. In addition, very little tape had been used to secure the package. Needless to say, about $300 worth of items arrived broken. The shipper denied the insurance claim for $300 because of the poor packing of the fragile items.
Given the caliber of The Lowell Hotel and how they are known for such intimate personal service, I just expected much more from them on handling the package. Besides the obvious lack of packing material inside a box 2x too big for the bag shipped, they just put the bag (which was incredibly heavy with glass and lead crystal balls and bowls) in the box. Placing the order for $3,000 worth of insurance should at a minimum have been a flag for the staff to take additional steps to ensure the package was shipped securely.
However, that was not even the worst part of the whole experience. I had several conversations on the phone with the hotel staff and the lead manager, expending a lot of effort to make my case as to why the hotel should pay our $300 claim. The hotel denied ever being told the package was fragile (thus, in effect, implying I was lying). And the manager participated in a very lengthy dicker-and-ticker with me trying to explain rational reasons why the package was handled in the way that it was. We spent over $4,000 at The Lowell and yet, they decided to put me through a grueling, tiring batter of the blame game in order to avoid paying a measly $300 claim. Never once did they offer anything for my troubles and damaged items. Not even 10% off our next stay in The Lowell; not that I would even stay there for free now.
In closing, The Lowell is a good, nice hotel and I hate to see them treat a customer this way, particularly one that spent so much there. I guess a $4,000 hotel bill is a pretty measly chunk of change compared to their usual clients and they don't mind losing us. Maybe we did not live up to the ideal of a Lowell client. Whatever the reason, they should have paid the $300 claim, written it off as a loss and subsequently ended up with a very satisfied client happy to come back any time. Instead, their actions have produced this review and created bad word-of-mouth into the general circulation of a well connected and influential former client.
My ex-boyfriend's name is Lowell too. I should have known trouble would be around the corner!!
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