The courage to not let issues fade out

On Tuesday evening last week, I checked into a hotel in Mumbai. An important presentation for a re-seller that Friday had been canceled, so I mentioned my stay would be just for two nights instead of three, and I planned to checkout on Thursday instead of Friday. The receptionist told me there would be no problem and adjustments would be made when I checked out.

On Thursday, while checking out, the man who took care of me explained that my room rate had some special discount for a three-night stay or more. If I were to change it to a two-night stay at the regular rate, it would be more expensive than the total of the three-night stay at the discounted rate. So, I accepted his suggestion and signed for the three-night stay invoice.

When I got back to Japan, I got an email from that hotel. It said:

Dear Mr. Sakamoto,

Greetings from Taj Santacruz!

At the outset, please accept my sincere apologies as we have charged you for the room for Thursday 11th April; although my colleague had said that we would not charge you for the same upon check in.

Please note that the room charges will be refunded to your credit card at the earliest.

We do hope you treat this as an unfortunate instance and that the overall image of the Taj has not worsened.

Please feel free to get in touch with us for any further assistance.

Warm regards,

I was impressed. They did not just let the situation be but handled the issue professionally; probably discussed ways to deal with the situation and sent me that email. I was ready to accept their original suggestion.

I was happy not because of the refund, but by the fact that the issue did not fade out and I got a better offer. Thinking back to our business, I hope we don't let issues fade out just because our customers accept our claims but discuss the real issues and inform customers honestly if required, with our dignity maintained.