Good Afternoon Mr. Hilsinger and Ms Barber,
I am a volunteer with the Canadian Red Cross and in my working life I have a hospitality background and let me tell you…after working in the industry for so many years, I have never experienced such amazing service(outside of the service I provided to my guests of course). When you work in the industry and provide top service, you are typically disappointed by service at other properties.. at least in my experience (I do a fair bit of travel for work/volunteer). But for the first time in a long time what I have experienced with your hotel, will leave me in awe for years to come!
We asked a few months ago if we can have a little corner to store our “GO bag”, so it is accessible to our volunteers 24/7 in case of a disaster and with out hesitation you said, Of Course! and that has been working GREAT for us and I can’t tell you how much we appreciate that! Your staff has been amazing and quick acting every time we have had to come in to respond to an incident.
Now for yesterday (Jan 1 2020) I am still in absolute AWE! and I’ll never be able to express enough to you, your managers and staff exactly how amazing you all were! Right from my initial call to your front desk requesting to speak to the Manager on Duty and then explaining the situation to her so she would be able to relay it on to the manager as there was no one on currently. I anticipated a delay as she would need to get in touch with the manager and it was New Years Day so I am figured the poor manager was most likely up late last night, but I was amazed when just moments later she called me back and said not only could we set up there to receive any clients who may be affected by the power outages but that you had a private room just off the lobby that we could use to set up a central office .
As things progressed, the city of SSM asked if we could open a warming centre for residents to come and keep warm, and shower if needed while they waited for power to be restored at their homes…and what You and Wanda did next, I don’t think I’ll ever forget! We asked if there was a larger room for a few tables, hot beverages, water and simple snacks. (We could see your kitchen was getting slammed with the restaurant orders and wanted to not create any additional stress to you or your team) and You set up the library with tables, tea, coffee, water, fruit, cookies, cake pops (which were so good by the way)! It all looked so nice and beautiful (Pictures attached). You did this and so fast I could not even fathom it.. Your team I can’t say this enough is absolutely Amazing!
For showering I asked if i was at all possible to set people up with passes for the Club Cabana so that while families with kids were waiting to go home they could easily keep the kids entertained in the pool for a bit and warm up in the hot tub or sauna, then shower and feel a bit more relaxed and refreshed to go home. Wanda was all over that idea and created passes in just moments!
Stories that were shared with me from guests, and from my team kept coming and it was great to hear!
Your front desk I heard was authorizing late check outs for people who came there on their own for relief from the power outage.
I had a young girl come to the warming/information center asking about when they thought they could go home, and wanted a hot beverage, but didn’t like tea or coffee and asked if there was hot chocolate. There was not as I found out when I talked to Wanda that the hot chocolate was made fresh through your Star Bucks, but she sent me over there and told me to tell “Kim” she sent me and she would make one for this young girl… I was just blown away by that, as were the mother and daughter when I came back with a Star bucks Hot Chocolate!!
We asked for a warm up for coffee and with in minutes there was fresh coffee and hot water
We had a couple sitting in the warming center and they tried the cake pops and I guess has asked my volunteer if we happen to see someone from the kitchen she would love to know how they made them. We asked someone in the kitchen if he had the instructions for making these, could we pass it on to this client. The volunteer said, I know you are busy and understand if you don’t have time right now, it’s not something critical, she was just asking how you made these… which your staff member responded with no, not at all we love it when someone appreciates something that they have created and didn’t just send us with a piece of paper but was more than happy to come out and speak to her.. All of us and this woman were just wow’d that he took that time out of what I am know was an absolutely crazy day for you all to talk to her about cake pops 😀
A HUGE THANK – YOU for your warm, caring compassion in this situation! Your staff is absolutely the best and we the volunteers appreciated everything you did to help us to help our city!
Thank You,
Angel Jolicoeur
Canadian Red Cross Volunteer
