Introduction

Before we arrived to Costa Rica, my girlfriend and I were looking for decent places to stay. Our main goal was good value for money. My girlfriend Gita found a place called Costa Rica Guesthouse. Their photos and reasonable rates drew us in and they also had decent reviews on a website. At $45 a night, that seemed like a great deal. So Gita put in a booking for an ensuite room with a king sized bed and private bathroom through their website.

Unfortunately, they had no availability for a private room on the first night of our arrival. So we decided to find somewhere else nearby for the first night.

Arriving at Costa Rica Guesthouse

The next day, we got to Costa Rica Guesthouse the next day. The place looked pretty nice, and the receptionist was pretty friendly.

Unfortunately, 3 management errors led us to decide to no longer to staying there, and leave with a bitter taste in our mouth:

Error #1: The person who booked us in mistakenly put us into a room with a shared bathroom, even though we specifically booked for one with a private bathroom through their website. In fact, we even called to confirm a couple of days before, and were told to do it from the website as all would be fine.

Error #2: The nice receptionist swapped us to a private room, but the room was extremely loud as it was right by reception and faced the street. Asking whether they can put us in the other rooms as we were the first guests of the day, she said she can’t, as it would be ‘unfair to the other guests’.

Error #3: We moved into this room that would be ‘unfair to other guests’, and realised what would be so unfair about it: the plumbing did NOT work! My girlfriend went to the bathroom and there was no water! Yep, we now got a noisy bedroom right off the main street, with a private bathroom. Except… there was no water.

And it was dry season in Costa Rica.

“Sorry, it’s your fault”

I explained to the receptionist that based on the circumstances, this was unacceptable. We will just find somewhere else. I just wanted our deposit back.  She called the manager who was out to lunch. But instead of refunding our deposit, he told her to insist to us that this was somehow ‘our fault’.

No, he can’t refund the 5% deposit, because he didn’t process it. And no, because we’ve booked in and it’s now within 48 hours, he will also have to charge us for the 1st night, whether we choose to stay or leave.

“You are about to lose your job”

Wow. Congratulations.
Someone needs to go back to hotel (or hostel) management school.

But I was mostly pissed off that he made it seem like it was our fault. I saw my girlfriend put the booking through. She did it correctly. It was their fault, and they needed to accept it and stop blaming their customers.

So to prove this point, I went on their website.

I clicked on the link clearly under the ‘ensuite’ booking. It took us to some 3rd party site who took deposits on their behalf, called
‘powerhostels’. It appears that Costa Rica Guesthouse is an affiliate of this website.

There was only one option on that website for a ‘private double room’. When you click through a link on their website that led you here, guests would obviously assume that this is the only room type. It also states 1st night is only charged in the case of ‘no show’.

Clearly, the guest house is not even aware of this.

I showed this to the receptionist. But we were right there, standing at reception because we had a room that was ‘unfair to other guests’ and had no running water.

I asked her to call the manager again. Explain to him he can keep my money but he’ll also probably lose his job. How can you outsource your booking process without having a clue on the management?  Clearlythey had no clue what was going on.

A few minutes later, she got off the phone. She said the manager said he still can’t process our deposit. He also won’t be returning to talk to us about this. But he won’t charge our card any further.

Wow, that’s nice to know. Thank you sooo much. What great service indeed!

Conclusion

Was it this difficult to keep your customers happy? Hotels need to realise that your customer is your business. Whether it
is $5.95 on a deposit or $300, you have to realise that holding onto that money for your bottom line, and making your customer feel like it is their fault, is not the way to do business. It will only affect you in the long run.

Fortunately, we found a much better place to stay in…

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