Rome without a VIEW
This was my 19th tour with Tauck. The room assigned at the hotel in Rome was 101. The windows to the outside were frosted and when I opened the window, it gave me a beautiful view of pipes, wires and air conditioning system but nothing to be seen of the beauty of Rome or what I paid for with Tauck. I contacted my tour director, Roberta Wagner, and asked her to meet me at the front desk so I could complain to the hotel manager. I did complain not only about the room view, but the insult that the hotel would give a Tauck Customer a view of Rome that was so bad they frosted the windows. I got an apology and offer from the desk clerk to move to the 2nd floor but since I was there one night I declined. This isn't the first time I have been on a Tauck Tour by myself and given a very undesirable room view. When you travel single, you pay a premium and that should equal the same quality of room and view of all Tauck Customers. I took 4 pictures and went on social media to show what my view of Rome was like. Here is a link: https://photos.app.goo.gl/84WDdeFP79ARJGUj9 Shame on this hotel for treating a first class tour company like a 3rd rate moped and shame on Tauck if they don't do something about this situation and future situations where single travelers who pay extra get the worst views and/or rooms.
Comments
There's a full moon, isn't there?
We’ve all had our turn at getting rooms with a poor view, it’s a bit of a pain, but for one night. We spend very litter time in rooms on Tauck tours. I can quote at least one tour we have been on where we had a small room and a single traveler has a huge room, She showed it to us. For one night, I would not waste my energy complaining. I can quote another tour where a couple spent a great deal of time complaining about a room location, it might have been the exact room we stayed in on another tour, it was fine. We arrived a night, it was the rain forest. We left at dawn, so no view to see of a city like Rome and yet they gave the Manager and TD hell. With a large group in a popular hotel, they are not going to save the best rooms for Tauck guests especially as right now, a good number of Tauck guests cancel last minute. Sometimes you get a fabulous room, sometimes you don’t, it balances out. We learned a long time ago that how many tours you have been on doesn’t matter.
We have had one room where we had a very noisy A/C, very noisy snd it was very hot outside, it could not be fixed, the TD found out and got us another room. We later learned he had given us his room and spent the night in ours.
This is at least Bob's third time complaining on the forum about his room. I'm less than impressed that after complaining about it to the hotel and TD and being offered a new room he turned it down. Guess it wasn't so bad afterall.
We've had some truly wonderful rooms and some with "lovely" views of rooftop HVAC units and a parking garage. The later was what a few of us in Lucerne got instead of looking at the lake. Same tour we also got awesome lake view rooms in Lausanne and Lugano. It happens to us all.
And sometimes the room without a view works out for the best. On one tour, in Florence, our friends were assigned a beautiful room with a fabulous view. We had a room we fondly refer to as the “dungeon room”. Very spacious, but on a lower level and no view, because we were basically in the basement. Our friends had two nights of little sleep because of street noise. We slept like babies in our dungeon room.
I’m sure the person who complained had beautiful and acceptable rooms on other parts of their vacation. Yes, if they moaned and groaned that much, they should have switched rooms. It’s not that hard to do, and perhaps they would have tried to be happier.
On a recent cruise, the people in the Owners Suite (imagine the price) complained of the passengers who were walking/jogging above them practically before sunrise and here I was sleeping without distraction a few floors below. There are tour companies more prestigious than Tauck, that the same complaint from guests has happened.
As I said before, some people simply are not happy unless they have something to complain about. When a trip review focuses only on one element and nothing else, it speaks volumes.
On a Tauck Canadian tour there was a gentleman who repeatedly complained about not having enough drawer space for his drawers (I am not making this up.) He actually went form guest to guest on the bus to ask if everyone had adequate drawer space. He did this throughout the tour and then at the farewell dinner, he complained to the tour director that all the guests had ignored him, including his wife. As my father would say..."not the sharpest cleaver in my butcher shop."
My dad would say "thank you for coming, and thank you for going".
Or my husband's favorite "here's your hat, what's your hurry".
I saw this thread and it peaked my interest as we have recently gotten back from our Classic Italy Small Groups tour and our only minor disappointment was the hotel in Rome. I thought bob, the thread starter, might have stayed at the same hotel we did, the W Hotel in Rome. The hotel name wasn’t stated in the post so I looked it up on the Tauck itinerary and it appears to be Baglioni Hotel Regina who are members of the Leading Hotels Of The World group. My experience is that these are all very nice upscale hotels.
I did a review of our Italy tour and I explained our only disappointment of the entire tour was with the W Hotel in Rome. You can see the review here. The W Hotel in Rome was a substitution for the original hotel in Rome the Grand Hotel de la Minerve. We got a notice from Tauck in January that the hotel would be closed for renovations and they were going to substitute the W Hotel for our Rome stay.
My last river cruise in May I stayed at the Savoy 4 nights my view from the room was either another part of the hotel or another building I could see a sliver of the Thames, for the time I spent in the room it did not pay to complain, I never do unless there's a problem with the AC.
Bob - It's the luck of the draw. Tauck singles in my experience often get better rooms than others, even corner rooms, though I have wondered if order of sign-up is a factor; I've been told that determines seating on the bus. p.s, I've had far worse views; as a photographer, I see geometric beauty in what you posted. Easy enough to step outside and see Rome. If you want more choice, smaller hotels and independent travel may be your best bet.
No, sign up is not a factor Tauck have always said they have no control over rooms. I once saw a couple put down they wanted a room near reception, so that”s want they got. A low floor with no view, they complained like crazy until the TD pointed out what their request had been
I didn't think I had a photo of our Lucerne room view at the Schweizerhof but low and behold I did. It's the parking garage of a grocery store behind the hotel.
And that was on the same tour where we had this view in Lausanne.
Not exactly correct, in my experience. They don't have control over INDIVIDUAL rooms, but their block is supposed to meet certain criteria. For example, on my recent Hawaii trip, all rooms were ocean view.
On one trip I did, that had a bunch of solos, the TD said that solos are supposed to get the same size room as everyone else, yet some hotels will try to downsize them. He said if there are any issues to contact him and he would work it out. In my case, I never had a room issue, other than once at the Hotel Bristol in Vienna, the AC not working well. They switched me to another room and everything was fine after that.