Mercer Hotel in New York Doesn't Understand the Power of Word-of-Mouth
When I do the math, I figure the Mercer Hotel in New York's Soho made at least a $50,000 mistake in mistreating me during my recent visit. Likely, the price will be much greater.
I had a bad experience at the hotel. Upon check in, I thought my week-long stay was prepaid and presented the hotel with a credit card to cover only incidental expenses. Through no fault of The Mercer Hotel, it turned out that my room had not been paid in advance, and when the hotel tried to charge my entire stay plus incidentals, my credit card company rejected the expense. (Had I known just how much the Mercer intended to 'block,' I would simply have used a card with a higher limit.)
None of that was a problem or should have been a problem. It was a simple misunderstanding.
Yet each time I tried to explain to the hotel's clerk that if I had known the Mercer Hotel was planning to charge the entire fee in advance to my card I would have used another card, she insisted that the hotel's actions were standard operating procedure and I should have been aware of it. She was not at all pleasant about it.
In fact, her tone with me was so rude that I immediately asked to speak with her supervisor. You see, I know from experience, that you can't hold an entire institution responsible for the attitude of a single employee. To my real surprise, the supervisor was no better. Indeed, the supervisor told me that she had overheard the employee's tone and found nothing wrong with it.
What was I to argue in response to that? That the supervisor is tone deaf?
So I asked the supervisor to have the hotel's general manager, Philip L. Truelove, contact me the next morning during regular business hours. I also sent him an email recapping my version of my exchanges with his employee and her supervisor. "There was a nice way for Angela to explain the hotel's actions and position and then their was the haughty way. I feel she chose the haughty way," I wrote.
The next day Mr. Truelove did not call me or stop up to personally apologize. Instead, he emailed me back saying that he had received no previous complaints about the employee in question (which must prove that my version was wrong). "It does surprise me that it was the case and it is the first time that anybody has commented in that way about Angela – many great comments but none about rudeness and unpleasantness," Mr. Truelove emailed.
He, nonetheless, offered to buy me and a guest dinner in the Mercer Hotel restaurant as a "gesture of goodwill."
A true gesture of goodwill would have been to offer me a face-to-face apology. I wasn't gunning for a free meal and I didn't accept his offer.
I found all three employees arrogant and rude. The hotel, I believe, is owned by Andre Balazs, who also owns the Chateau Marmont in Hollywood. I wonder if Mr. Balazs knows how the three employees I encountered are squandering his profits?
Here is my math. I won't ever stay at the Mercer Hotel again. As I told Mr. Truelove, I would have checked out immediately but for the fact that I had already arranged multiple business meetings at the hotel that I would have had to rearrange -- inconveniencing my guests, a colleague and me. But now that I've checked out, I've checked out for good.
My business alone will cost the hotel at least $50K in lost revenues over the next year or two. And the question then arises, how many other people who hear my story and read my reviews -- which I've begun posting on travel sites, will also opt out of the Mercer Hotel?
Maybe it doesn't matter. Maybe the Mercer Hotel is so successful and Mr. Balazs so rich that he need not concern himself with $50k here, $100k there. Maybe he, too, is willing to stand behind his employees, even if he doesn't have the facts in hand.
Or maybe, just maybe, it will all add up. Reputation is an art and subject to change. The Mercer Hotel could have stanched this with a simple, heartfelt apology from the employee, her supervisor or Mr. Truelove. Instead, it has given an incident that could easily have been forgotten a permanent life on the Internet.
It will be interesting to see just how far my complaint -- which went nowhere with Mr. Truelove and the hotel's personnel -- will travel on the Internet and beyond.
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TravelPost.com Review
Stay Away From the Mercer Hotel - Not at It!
I had a bad experience at the hotel. Upon check in, I thought my week-long stay was prepaid and presented the hotel with a credit card to cover only incidental expenses. Through no fault of The Mercer Hotel, it turned out that my room had not been paid in advance, and when the hotel tried to charge my entire stay plus incidentals, my credit card company rejected the expense. (Had I known just how much the Mercer intended to 'block,' I would simply have used a card with a higher limit.)
None of that was a problem or should have been a problem. It was a simple misunderstanding.
Yet each time I tried to explain to the hotel's clerk that if I had known the Mercer Hotel was planning to charge the entire fee in advance to my card I would have used another card, she insisted that the hotel's actions were standard operating procedure and I should have been aware of it. She was not at all pleasant about it.In fact, her tone with me was so rude that I immediately asked to speak with her supervisor. You see, I know from experience, that you can't hold an entire institution responsible for the attitude of a single employee. To my real surprise, the supervisor was no better. Indeed, the supervisor told me that she had overheard the employee's tone and found nothing wrong with it.
What was I to argue in response to that? That the supervisor is tone deaf?
So I asked the supervisor to have the hotel's general manager, Philip L. Truelove, contact me the next morning during regular business hours. I also sent him an email recapping my version of my exchanges with his employee and her supervisor. "There was a nice way for Angela to explain the hotel's actions and position and then their was the haughty way. I feel she chose the haughty way," I wrote.
The next day Mr. Truelove did not call me or stop up to personally apologize. Instead, he emailed me back saying that he had received no previous complaints about the employee in question (which must prove that my version was wrong). "It does surprise me that it was the case and it is the first time that anybody has commented in that way about Angela – many great comments but none about rudeness and unpleasantness," Mr. Truelove emailed.
He, nonetheless, offered to buy me and a guest dinner in the Mercer Hotel restaurant as a "gesture of goodwill."
A true gesture of goodwill would have been to offer me a face-to-face apology. I wasn't gunning for a free meal and I didn't accept his offer.
I found all three employees arrogant and rude. The hotel, I believe, is owned by Andre Balazs, who also owns the Chateau Marmont in Hollywood. I wonder if Mr. Balazs knows how the three employees I encountered are squandering his profits?
Here is my math. I won't ever stay at the Mercer Hotel again. As I told Mr. Truelove, I would have checked out immediately but for the fact that I had already arranged multiple business meetings at the hotel that I would have had to rearrange -- inconveniencing my guests, a colleague and me. But now that I've checked out, I've checked out for good.
My business alone will cost the hotel at least $50K in lost revenues over the next year or two. And the question then arises, how many other people who hear my story and read my reviews -- which I've begun posting on travel sites, will also opt out of the Mercer Hotel?
Maybe it doesn't matter. Maybe the Mercer Hotel is so successful and Mr. Balazs so rich that he need not concern himself with $50k here, $100k there. Maybe he, too, is willing to stand behind his employees, even if he doesn't have the facts in hand.
Or maybe, just maybe, it will all add up. Reputation is an art and subject to change. The Mercer Hotel could have stanched this with a simple, heartfelt apology from the employee, her supervisor or Mr. Truelove. Instead, it has given an incident that could easily have been forgotten a permanent life on the Internet.
It will be interesting to see just how far my complaint -- which went nowhere with Mr. Truelove and the hotel's personnel -- will travel on the Internet and beyond.
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TravelPost.com Review
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Mr. Rotbart,
I had a similar experience and it left me wondering how The Mercer Hotel has remained so popular. Perhaps, the people booking these rooms don't read reviews like yours. They should.
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Silly boy. Did you really think the $500 or so a night that you plunked down at the Mercer Hotel would buy you any respect? Get real. Unless you are regularly featured in People magazine, you are just 'filler' for the hotel, while it serves its 'real' guests.
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I stayed at the Mercer Hotel a couple years back and found the staff very nice. Are you sure you can draw any conclusions from just one stay? Maybe you caught the staff and management on an off day?
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Dean,
Thanks for the heads up. I found your blog because I was doing Internet research for a luxury hotel in NYC. You've convinced me to scratch the Mercer Hotel off of my list. Sounds like you did me a big favor. Thanks.
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Living off an out-dated reputation can only last for so long. If the Mercer Hotel expects to stay in business, it simply can't afford to alienate as many travelers as it does. Dean, you can't blame your experience on a single employee or supervisor. Obviously, the problem is pervasive and may only be properly addressed by a complete staff housecleaning or the sale of the property to someone who really knows the meaning of the word service.
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Isn't this the same hotel where actor Russell Crowe went ballistic after he received poor service? Why did you stay there in the first place, you fool?
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The Mercer is an amazing hotel, I have stayed many times and find the staff and service nothing but wonderful.
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Mr. Rotbart, I think Andre Balazs is just p.o.'ed that he broke up with Uma Thurman, and he is likely making everyone who works for him miserable. Balazs owns the Mercer Hotel, along with the Chateau Marmont and the Standard out your way. I know that if I just broke up with Uma, I wouldn't give one twit whether or not you were a satisfied customer in my hotels. Bet he doesn't either!
Next time stay at a Hilton. Old Conrad is long dead, so you don't have to worry about downturns in his social life. Then again, there is Paris Hilton... Hmmm.
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While I have only stayed at the Mercer one time, and enjoyed every last second of it, from lobby lounging to the serenity of the seemingly soundproof rooms, I have waited on thousands of customers during my years in the hospitality industry. To some I served draught beer, others Martini's; to some I served lobster, others chili-boats. I checked some into rooms at 3 a.m., and others I poured free coffee for after they'd lost everything, including their car, at the tables. What all of these establishments had in common, from Tahoe to Chico to San Francisco, were customers just like Dean Rotbart. And, what all these "Mr. Rotbarts" had in common were credit cards that didn't work. Every last one of them had an excuse - an excuse that moved the little pointy finger away from them and back in the direction of the establishment...just like the little spinners on cardboard cutouts in a (spoiled) child's board game. Now, I'm no longer in the industry; I'm an English teacher. As such, I have just one more thing to add, from the master himself: "Methinks thou doth protest too much."
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Hi Lisa,
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I don't know why anyone would stay at the Mercer Hotel, which I also find very, very rude to its non-celebrity guests. NYC is filled with so many other fine hotels.
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What a sorry excuse for a hotel review. If you've got the dough to stay at the fancy Mercer Hotel, you don't got no problems. How many hungry folk could you have fed if you'd stayed at the Holiday Inn stead? A-hole!
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Hey Dean,
Your comments are in the real minority when it comes to reviews of The Mercer Hotel. I'd say 90% to 95% of the reviews I've read are gushingly positive. But when it comes to forking our $1,000 a night or so, I think even a 5% likelihood that I'll get treated like dirt is reason enough to stay away.
Next time I'm in Manhattan, you'll find me elsewhere.
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As a born and bred New Yorker (same with husband), when we broke down and moved to the 'burbs we made it a point to go once a month into the city and we have always gone to the Mercer (about 8 years I think now). Also from 2003-2005 my husband's job relocated our family to London, so whenever we came back to the states we made it our home. I am always fascinated by people such as yourself, who stay in ultra-chic, snobby hotels and then seem startled when something happens to you where you feel you are not be treated with the respect you deserve (which is very well possible, but NOT the point). You seem like a smart man, and The Mercer is, what the Mercer is - a snobby, chic, boutique hotel that has rock stars, film stars, fashion designers, rich Europeans, all staying there. The point of staying there is to be part of "that scene". It's silly, but that's the "fun" of it. It's so much more than just a hotel. If you want a hotel with good service, there are plenty of those in NYC, but I find the staff at the Mercer so kind and helpful, but when I go there, but I know to look a certain way because I want to become a "part" of the hotel's scene, not just a paying guest. You are in one of the hippest cities in the world, and you're in the hippest hotel, in the hippest city -- you have to play the part. Otherwise, as someone else mentioned, stay in a Hilton. Staying at the Mercer is about "the scene", and if you don't get that -- it's totally fine -- but I don't understand the intelligent people who stay at snobby chic hotels with beautiful quiet rooms, and the best lobby of any hotel in the whole world with the brown velvet downy soft couches, not to mention the Mercer kitchen which is quite reasonable and delicious -- and then complain because they were treated snobbily. You probably had on dockers, or maybe you had on clothes that said you were not going to be a regular guest. It's a place where people have not necessarily labels, but a "look". If you look like a tourist, then your not the guest they are looking for. The Mercer is a family and a big old snobby one, but if you don't want to play the game, don't let your feelings be hurt and I can't believe you actually took the time to write to poor Mr. Truelove. All I know is when I stay there, they automatically have it in their files when our anniversary is (and their are flowers and champagne waiting), and when I exit the noisy Soho streets to the hushed environment, for a few minutes I get to forget I'm a housewife in the suburbs and I can wear all black Jill Sander and be "cool". Everyone wanted to be the cool kid back in high school, and the Mercer lets you be JUST THAT if you go along with them. If you're a Hilton guy -- totally cool -- stay there. But the boutique hotels are NOT your standard hotels and maybe you should avoid them, and the W by the way is not a boutique hotel. There are probably only about ten of them in the world and the Mercer started it all.
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Perhaps the Mercer Hotel should have a warning sign for guests upon arrival: If you are not 'hip', we'll treat you like dirt. Then it could hand out directions to the Hilton.
This I will say, I'd rather stay at LaQuinta and be treated with respect, than mingle among rock stars and be mistreated by the hotel staff.
I don't know if the rules you abide by when you stay at the Mercer make you a member of its big old snobby family or just a well-heeled sap who pays for the right to be spat upon?
As for me, I'll keep wearing my Dockers. They are comfortable and affordable, kind of like the hotels I favor.
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"They are comfortable and affordable....." You might add cheap!
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Your experience interests me directly as I am a fresh hotel manager and I am rather interested in possible bad customer experience... I don't want this to happen in my hotel so here I am listening to everything you have to say. Thank you!
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Good luck to you. Since I wrote the article, I've visited many quality hotels without a repeat of my awful experience at The Mercer Hotel. I'm sure you will make a great manager.
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