Unconscionable: Paralyzed vet forced to crawl down stairs at hotel while mocked by hotel staff
Lots of you have been clamoring for this story, but wanted to explain why I am so late to this party. I actually got this sent to me fully a week ago. In retrospect I wish I had posted it back then, but the only link I had to it at the time was from CNN’s iReport, and I’ve been kind of burned by iReport in the past because CNN does not vet any of those stories. In fact, we’ve gotten one or two Stolen Valor guys from self-reporter stories of their heroism reported on iReport that later turn out to be fables. Nonetheless, now everyone is running the story, so it must have been confirmed, and even the hotel chain, Best Western, has made a public statement.
First, the video (from CBS 7, by way of Huffington Post):
Best Western has this up on their website:
Best Western continues to focus on the recent event at one of our hotels in Monahans, Texas, and how to prevent such an occurrence in the future.
Following is an update on the situation.
- As we’ve previously shared, the individual involved at the hotel is no longer an employee.
- We continue to have a conversation with Mr. Staples with regard to resolving this matter. We have offered our sincere apologies and the hotel has refunded the money for his stay.
- We consistently communicate with our hotels about how to assist guests with special needs and disabilities, and will continue to do so. In response to this matter, we have communicated with every one of our hotels to ensure that all of our guests – those with disabilities or otherwise – are treated respectfully, and that our hotels always meet their needs.
- From the beginning it’s been our goal that a greater understanding and awareness of how to assist individuals with a disability result from this event. With this purpose in mind we’ve come to an agreement with the American Hotel & Lodging Association’s Educational Institute to sponsor industry-wide training on how to assist guests with disabilities, titled “Enabling Independence: Service for Guests with Disabilities.” Our agreement has made this important training available to the hotel industry at no cost. Additionally, we are making the significance of this training very clear to other hotel companies by making this training mandatory for all front desk employees at Best Western hotels in North America. We are also advising our international affiliates around the world to do the same. We join Mr. Staples in the desired outcome of increased awareness and a better industry approach to assisting guests with disabilities or special needs, and we will continue to examine ways to do this in the future.
For customers who wish to share additional concerns we invite you to share them directly with us at customerfeedback@bestwestern.com.
I’ve seen various calls for boycotts of Best Western and other things all over the Internet for this. I’m completely agnostic on boycotts, but do appreciate that at least Best Western seems to be trying to address it. I’m not much of blaming an entire chain of hotels for the actions of one degenerate employee, but the way the manager hid in a room while the news was trying to get a response was pretty poor as well. At the least I’d hate to think that someone would be employed as a manager who thought that hiding from a news crew would somehow make the story go away.
Either way, I think we can all agree that SSG Staples crawling down steps is wrong on a level that is nearly unimaginable. He deserves more than coupons for a free stay.
Although not to the level that SSG Staples had, I’ve had problems in hotels too. About a year ago I was flying home from San Antonio and a young lady who got bumped from a flight was crying hysterically, and I offered to give up my seat to her. The airline graciously allowed her to fly and me to be bumped, which was fine because I wasn’t in a huge rush. So I got a flight for the next day and the airline put me up in a local hotel. After I got bumped, I realized that my prescription sleep meds were enroute to Indy, so I would have to go the night without. Undeterred I went to the local store, bought a bottle of Excedrin PM to knock me out and went to sleep. Or tried to.
About 10pm, with a flight at 5:15 am I was finally dozing off when all of a sudden the room to my door opened. Someone had my key. I’d put up the little chain, but whoever it was kept trying to force the door open, nearly breaking the chain. Of course now I’m freaked out, so I grabbed a lamp and prepared to do battle with the interloper. After a minute the banging stopped and the person went away, but I was pretty freaked out, I mean, who gives someone elses room key to someone who shouldn’t be in there?
I hid in the dark wielding my lamp as a weapon for about 20 minutes before I went to the door. It turns out that the hotel had given a master key to some pizza delivery company that was dropping off advertisements. I found it wrapped up in the chain on the door. Now, I probably have a touch of the PTSD, so this made me really mad. When I called down to the desk to complain, I got a rather bored sounding individual who offered nothing in the way of an explanation or anything else. I complained to higher HQ the next day and they sent me some coupons for a free stay in their hotels, but I threw them out. I don’t think I slept that night, and I’ll never stay in that chain’s hotels again. If the person in the lobby had been the slightest bit cognizant that this wasn’t the way to treat a customer, I might still stay there.
So what do you guys think? Is a boycott in these instances the right punishment for the companys?
UPDATE:
Anonymous below brought up about him not being mocked, and that's my fault, I should have included this other story as well. That was my bad. From FoxNews' story about it:
“He wanted somebody to take his bags and wheelchair down,” Robert Staples told FoxNews.com by phone from his Maine home. “Basically, the girl said, ‘Are you serious?’ He said, ‘Uh yeah, I’m in a wheelchair. I need some help.’”
The hotel employee, Staples said, replied: “’What do you want me to do about it?’ She laughed at him.”
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Comments
Anonymous (not verified)
August 16, 2012 - 2:32pm
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I'm sorry, but nothing in the
I'm sorry, but nothing in the story indicates he was laughed at or made fun of. The SSG did not appear to indicate that he needed to get to the ground floor. I think I'm missing something here. I salute the vets (being one myself), but I can't see anything more than a missunderstanding...
Mike McCormick (not verified)
August 16, 2012 - 2:34pm
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SSGT Staples
I am appalled by the treatment of a wounded veteran by any company's staff. This incident borders on being criminal. I can't blame an entire industry or chain for the actions of one hotel location, but that location should be boycotted until a change in management occurs. Management is aware of its employees personalities and behaviors and have a responsibility to ensure that personnel who demonstrate insincere attitudes, lack of patience or lack of concern for patrons are removed. Management is suppose to demostrate leadership and control, not hiding behind a door afraid to answer for thier employees actions. While Best Westerns aren't the flagship hotel chain, they are responsible for the conduct of thier employees and managers. I think Best Western should provide Staff Sargeant Staples with a Hotel Pass for Life that enables him to stay at one of thier hotels for free whenever he travels. This would be a reminder to the hotel and the industry that there are long reaching consequences for thier employees actions. Now boycotting all Best Western Hotels until this happens would be an idea.
Richard Keiser (not verified)
August 16, 2012 - 2:45pm
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Disabled SSG Staples made to crawl down stairs at a Best Western
Incredible and unconscionable behavior on the part of the employee at the Best Western. SSG Staples is due better compensation than a book of coupons and agree stay.
desert dweller (not verified)
August 16, 2012 - 2:59pm
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vet treatment at best western?
Having been a police officer for a number of years and being a vet myself...I think that if this happened the way it was told, its inexcusable! However, having investigated many many cases, I have found that the true story is usually somewhere in the middle..you can't take one side as gospel.....Her statement says he was irate because the elevator was inoperable...thats understandable..but I hope his anger did not embellish the story based on that....if the clerk actually did laugh at him and ask him what he expected her to do, then thats a completely different story......just my opinion.
Anthony S Valdez (not verified)
August 16, 2012 - 3:31pm
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Vet
Obviously the VET was dealing with a pretty immature person. The hotel staff should have handled things differently, but the VET should have asked to speak to someone more in authority. Seriously, he should have stated what he needed/ wanted to happen. Why risk further injury on the stairs just out of spite? Best Western should not be blamed for the ignorance or unprofessionalism of one person. In the future, I would hope this was a lesson learned. I for one would only seek hotls with first floor accomodations. I wouldnt put myself in a position where I needed to rely on someone else to rescue me if I could help it. Just my thoughts...
Earl McLachlan (not verified)
August 16, 2012 - 3:48pm
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SSS Staples
seems someone missed the TRUE happenings here WHY did SS Staples even get a room on 3rd floor? I am disabled and a vet and have NEVER even though of a second floor nor ever been offered anything NOT on ground floor, Seems SS Staples is making up this story as far as I am concerned
MOTHAX at home (not verified)
August 16, 2012 - 3:50pm
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Earl- if that was the case,
Earl- if that was the case, why would Best Western fire the employee and put up an apology on their website?
Robert Ireland
August 16, 2012 - 7:36pm
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A national boycott of Best
A national boycott of Best Western seems more than a bit extreme in light of the remedial efforts the company has made to rectify and prevent similar events in the future, not just with Best Western employees but throughout the industry, and the firing of the despicable employee that obviously never should have been employed. At this point I'll defer to SSG Staples' judgment on whether or not Best Western owes him anything as a monetary settlement in addition to the corporate steps taken in response to his unconscionable treatment by the Monahans, Texas Best Western Hotel. (BTW I think he deserves more, but that isn't my decision to make.)
With all that said, I think if a boycott is the individual's choice I don't think that boycott should extend beyond the Monahans, Texas Best western Hotel. This is the business that screwed the pooch and this is where ultimate penalties should be applied.
Robert Ireland (PUFL)
Frank in West Texas (not verified)
August 16, 2012 - 7:52pm
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I live about 40 miles from
I live about 40 miles from Monahans. SSG Staples was on the third floor because the hotel was full. He was fortunate to get a room at all. The motels and hotels between Pecos and Big Spring, about 150 miles, are all full of oilfield workers. The elevator was inoperable due to a "rolling blackout" of electricity. Staples could have waited for the power to be restored, but he instead called the young lady at the desk, cursing and being generally rude. In my opinion, Staples was being a jerk.
Frank Seals
USMC
1965-73
Nevada Todd (not verified)
August 16, 2012 - 9:08pm
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The Boycott Alarm was raised immediately when BW failed to act..
Like you said, this is a week old.
Within 24 hours of the incident it was already all over the net, but Best Western at the time had acted poorly. When you have a chain of any kind of business that is this big, your complaint line people have to be trained properly. In this case, the complaint line person was almost as big of a failure as the person that laughed at him. If the complaint line person had handled it appropriately, it may not even have made the media or the net. Imagine this, a complaint line person with this response: "Sir, that sounds terrible. I will forward this report to the Corporate GM's assistant and it will be reviewed to decide if the employee will be retrained or terminated, but let me reassure you that you will be reimbursed for your stay and our corporation would like to give you a free weeks stay in any of our facilities, we will mail you the coupons. We will notify you if there is anything else we need from you in the case of our internal investigation and also to notify you of any actions taken; and we would like to thank you for your service to this great country. I apologize for what you had to go through sir, is there anything else I can help you with?" Seriously, with that response would you complain any further? Too often the people that you are supposed to complain to only make a report, they can't comp you anything, they can't comment, they won't even say who gets the report. That is poor customer relations.
Now that Best Western has finally fixed the issue, I see no reason to boycott them, but I doubt that they learned anything from this. The fired the employee (probably rehired her in one of their other chains), they set up training for their staff, they refunded his money and apologised. But did they figure out that the problem would have disappeared if the person taking the complaint for the corporation had been able to provide a real response? I doubt it.
Remember, the biggest problem in this case wasn't the deplorable thing that happened, it was the shoddy response he got from the corporation, they didn't own their problem when they were called. Each Best Western may be a franchise owned by someone else, but when someone calls the corporate hotline with a complaint it is about a hotel bearing THEIR name.
my two cents
Freaky Deaky (not verified)
August 21, 2012 - 12:48am
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Good thing the place wasn't
Good thing the place wasn't on fire.................................
jumpinjn (not verified)
September 7, 2012 - 3:29pm
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Corporate decisions
I stayed at a motel in VA last summer graduation at Quantico everything booked for miles. After I registered I looked for the elevator as bad knee doesn't like stairs. "we don't have an elevator can't you just get up there? Could someone help with my luggage my wife has had back surgery? We don't do that." National chain and they don't care about ADA. So the young lady at the counter lacked sypathy or awareness but the corporate brass are just bums.
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