They just dropped the ball

I posted this review on epinions.com. It's a good example of a highly rated hotel in the Newport News, VA area forgetting about customer service once you've made the sale. A question for you after you've read about my experience, "Would you return to this place, or recommend it to a fellow traveler?"
Here it is in its entirety:

There are better choices in the area. Written: Jul 10 '08 Product Rating: Pros: Nice decor. Good customer (prospect?) service. Cons: Poor cleanliness and responsiveness to guest feedback. The Bottom Line: I recommend you find another place in the area. Cleanliness on the road is important and requests for providing clean rooms should not fall on deaf ears.

kharriso's Full Review: Omni Newport News Hotel

I stayed at this hotel because I was on a business trip. This is one of the recommended places to stay. The description on its own website and through AAA was more than adequate enough to appease my conservative tastes. After all, they are a self-described "...upscale suburban hotel that's the picture of quintessential luxury." I made my reservations and was very happy with the customer service I received from both the front desk as well as the reservation representatives. The photo of the hotel was an impressive one that made me feel that I was going to be staying in a wonderfully exquisite place. When I arrived quite early for check-in time... 10am, my room was not ready. That was quite understandable. Check-in wasn't till 3pm. I was advised when making my reservations that early check-in was quite acceptable and even very common, so, while I was not really very happy, I was certainly not overly disappointed with the room not being ready so early. Even though I was extremely tired from not sleeping the night before and could have just curled up on the lobby sofa, I graciously accepted the cold-hard fact that I would have to wait. I drove to the place I would need to be at 4pm for my business meeting. Killing two birds with one stone I managed to stay awake for another hour and map out my route for later when I was sure to be rushing, last-minute after waking from the short sleep I was getting very anxious to take. When I returned to the hotel I found that they had a room for me. I was elated. Normally, when I check into a hotel room, I explore. I look for previous occupant "dirt." This time I was just happy to find an inviting king-sized bed with fluffy pillows in a nicely air-conditioned room. No sooner did I get undressed and under the covers when the phone rang and the concierge was asking if I was happy with my room. I answered, "Yes, it's cool in here and it's got a big bed." I hung up and went into a pleasant sleep. I awoke, as expected, with barely enough time to get ready to leave. Still no exploration. I got back to the hotel around 12:45am and was again tired enough to pass out into the fluffy bed. When I turned out the lights, I saw that there was a red light flashing on my room's phone, telling me that there was a message waiting for me. It was the concierge desk again wanting to know if I was happy with the room. I didn't return the call. When I got up on the second day here I finally took the time to get comfortable with my surroundings. The room, of course, had the bed I mentioned in which I had already rested comfortably twice, it also had a sofa, a glass and curled-iron coffee table, a desk with a lamp and power-strip that's big enough to charge a laptop, a Palm TX and a cell phone. An Ethernet cable was anchored on the desk by the phone for high-speed internet connection, even though wireless internet is available. Although, the front desk will tell you that wireless internet is not available anywhere but in the 4th floor lobby... I still can't figure that one out... I am posting this review to Epinions on the hotel's wireless internet connection from my room on the 5th floor. Go figure. A cabinet which matched the headboard contained a TV, a small refrigerator and four drawers. The room had nice amenities like a hair dryer, a coffee maker, an alarm clock (with an MP3 adaptor, which was a very nice surprise) a nice painting on one wall, and a gilded mirror on another wall. I would say the room was nicely furnished and had nice bells and whistles. But... I was sorely disappointed in the cleanliness of the room. The bathroom had a substance on the floor that I was able to ignore on my first trip to the shower, but I had to call and request that it be cleaned when the maid service had failed to do so. Even though I had alerted them to this oversight, I ended up cleaning it myself. Gross. The floor on the far side of the bed looked as if no one had traversed back there in weeks... maybe months. The carpet was dusty. Yes. Dusty. I don't think you should be able to notice dust on a patterned carpet, which also had a permanent stain in front of the cabinet. Maybe something spilled out of the refrigerator from some former occupant. It's hard to complain about the stain... that comes with a hotel that looks like it's starting to age. But the bathroom substance and the dusty carpet... the hotel staff could have easily taken care of those items. But they didn't. So, I was happy with their customer service when I was a prospect, but not once I was a customer. Special Note on room shape: The bathroom, closet, and front-door were situated in such a way that if one of those doors were open, it was difficult to maneuver. Also, there was no room to set up the ironing board.

Poor Customer Experiences - Ignore them at your peril

I take each and every communication with a customer as a very important event. Your customer-facing employees (you if you're in this by yourself) may have dozens of customer contacts a day. But your customer? How many contacts does he or she have with your business daily, weekly, monthly or even annually? Very few, IF you're keeping them happy. But what about when they feel the need to communicate with you? I'm not talking about routine placing an order type of communication. I'm talking about a non-routine "I have a problem that I need you to take care of" type of communication. Maybe once a year? Of course, this depends on the type of product or service you're providing, but I think you get the idea.

I'll be sharing some good customer experiences in this blog that will be open to your comments. As I've said, I take customer service very personally and I wholeheartedly believe that anybody with a product or service to sell will take it that way also.

If a company I deal with fails to satisfy me, then I will not do business with that company for long. I'll find someone else providing the service that I can be happy with. If my original company does not pay attention to these experiences, they'll never even know why I left them.

Customer Experiences

This is a blog devoted to my personal experiences as a consumer and my professional experience as a customer service manager/writer/consultant. This is how I feel (passionately) about the subject.

As a consumer: If I am spending money with your company for your product or service, you need to keep me happy in order for me to remain a customer of yours.

If you fail to keep me happy you will have failed to keep me as your customer. My patronage is not something to be assumed. It is not something to be taken for granted. Too many companies and businesses have gotten away from the "customer first" or the "customer is always right" philosophies that make great companies great.

As a business: If I expect to keep you as a customer, I need to make your experience with my company/business as pleasant as possible. Any obstacle that I add to your experience with us is an invitation for you to do business with my competitor.