A good note is the tenor of great customer service

Omni Hotel, 

I travel a lot. As exciting as it may sound, travel is hard work. It is very demanding and every day causes you to deal with some type of adversity. There is always something. A bad cushion on your plane seat, or the person sitting next to you. Canceled flights, close connections, unhealthy airport food. Taxi lines, traffic lines, hotel checkin lines. Yadda, Yadda, Yadda.

Life happens, happiness is learning how to roll with it. At 2:54 a.m., the fire alarm went off at the Omni Shoreham Hotel. The alarm was effective, including a loud low horn and a voice that clearly told everyone to head for the stair case. The staff were everywhere, helping anyone who needed help.

When we hit the lobby, we were told that it was a false alarm. Another guest pulled the alarm. Of course, everyone was angry. Some blamed the hotel, which was unfair. It took me more than a few hours before I fell back asleep. I woke up tired and cranky.

As I headed to the door for my first meeting, I was welcomed with a letter from the Hotel Manager:

Dear Valued Guest (a mail merge would have been more impressive),

Please accept our apologies for the inconvenience you experienced when the fire alarm sounded this morning.


When the trouble alert was activated, our Emergency Response Team along with the District of Columbia Fire Department immediately responded to determine the cause of the alarm. When teh cause was determined as a non-emergency and the Emergency Response Team was satisified that there was no danger, the alarm system was reset...... and so on.....The alarm was caused by a fire alarm pull station.


Clearly this was not the hotel's fault. They did not need to send the note. But this is the tenor of Omni Hotels. Wherever we go, they somehow seem to do a little something extra I recognize as an effort to make travel somehow more enjoyable.

Thank You Omni Hotels. I liked your note.

Now lets all get together and hang the dork who pulled the alarm.