Sharp Metal Found In Hotel Breakfast Food, Manager Goes Silent

A longtime OMAAT reader asked for my take on a situation he recently dealt with. I’ll share my perspective, and then I’m curious how others feel.

Crowne Plaza guest makes alarming breakfast discovery

An OMAAT reader who asked to remain anonymous (since he frequents this property) shared the following unfortunate hotel breakfast story with me:

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On one of my stays at a Crowne Plaza, I almost got hurt badly by a sharp metal shrapnel in the bakery item at breakfast. I say almost because luckily that day, I had time to kill and was eating slowly, so detected it immediately on biting. I raised it to the hotel and they were clueless what to do. They didn’t take away the bakery items, didn’t apologize, and offered no compensation — just “manager is busy in a meeting and we will call you tomorrow.” That was July 31st. 

For additional context:

• I have stayed at this property multiple times prior. It’s nothing stellar, but breakfast has been decent and is attractive with points bookings. I had paid for this stay using points. On prior occasions, there have been ants in the room, a hair in breakfast, but I have let it slide.
• For this stay, I initially stayed 4 nights on points and encountered the issue on my last day. I had to then extend my stay so I paid on my own for a 5th night and was told by front desk that my 6th night was already paid for (unsure if this was the manager’s way of compensating, but I had clearly mentioned that it was not acceptable).
• I tried contacting several times, but got the same “busy” response, so I contacted IHG. After multiple follow-ups to IHG, apparently they were also getting the same message from the hotel, that “she will call tomorrow.”
• Finally after escalations within IHG, the supervisor just told me – hey we cannot do anything. It is the hotel’s fault and we will ask the GM to call – the person avoiding any comms is the GM in the first place. The supervisor was also clear that the hotel is our franchise and they know best – we don’t get involved in quality and other matters. 

So, this reader poses several question to me and the OMAAT community:

• Has anyone encountered a similar situation, with IHG centrally not taking any responsibility for what happens at a property?
• What are a guest’s rights in situations like this? He notes that “even though there was no physical trauma (thankfully), the mental anguish stays,” and “it seems IHG is punting me to the hotel GM, who is not responsive in the first place”
• How should one handle a situation like this, and could he have done something differently?
• Are some hotel groups better than others when it comes to actually taking care of guests in these kinds of situations?

My take on this frustrating hotel situation

If you ask me, there are two separate issues here — the food problem in the first place, and then the general manager’s lack of responsiveness.

I’m really happy that the hotel guest discovered the metal in the food immediately upon biting into it, and nothing terrible happened as a result. That’s positive, because this could’ve been much worse. People will have vastly different takes as to how a hotel should handle this, and how much liability they should have. Here’s my personal view (which is no more valid than anyone else’s):

• I tend to think that stuff like this happens every once in a while, terrible as it might be; even when best practices are followed, mistakes happen
• I of course think a hotel should cover any medical expenses or other issues that arise from something like this, though fortunately it didn’t get to that point here
• I also absolutely think it’s important that the situation is taken seriously, and that the guest feels like the staff and management understand the gravity of the situation; you can’t help but feel dismissed when that’s not done
• In addition to an apology, I think the hotel should share what actions are being taken to investigate this, and also offer some sort of reasonable gesture of goodwill

Unfortunately it sounds like none of that was done. What bothers me more in this situation is that this happened several weeks ago, and the hotel has just gone totally silent. The hotel promised to get back to him, but that never happened. Even when he reached out to IHG centrally, the hotel still didn’t get back to him. That’s unacceptable, and shows poor management on the hotel’s part.

Is there something the reader should’ve done differently? No, it sounds like he tried to express his concerns, and was basically dismissed, so I’m not sure that could’ve really been handled much better on his part. If he wanted to have the issue taken more seriously, perhaps leaving negative reviews on every review platform would make sense, and blasting the general manager by name (that might get her attention). I suppose one could also contact local media in the city where the hotel is. It’s really frustrating when as consumers our only real recourse in some situations is to be super annoying online. 😉

Here’s the sad reality, though — I don’t think IHG is alone in simply not wanting to help guests with individual property issues. I think this has just become the norm among the major hotel chains, given the extent to which they prioritize growth above all else, and increasingly treat hotel owners as their customers, rather than the actual guests. I wouldn’t necessarily expect that Hilton, Hyatt, or Marriott, would handle this any better, sadly.

Bottom line

A guest at a Crowne Plaza found sharp metal in his breakfast while biting into a bakery item. Fortunately he immediately discovered it upon biting. However, hotel staff didn’t seem to take this issue seriously, and while there was a promise he would be contacted, that never happened. Even after escalating and asking to speak to the general manager, no one ever got in touch with him. Centrally, IHG has basically told him to pound sand, and that it’s a hotel issue.

Back in the day, booking a chain hotel would at least give you some reliable level of service, and assurance that if something goes wrong, there’s a system of escalation. Unfortunately that concept seems to be a thing of the past.

What do you make of this Crowne Plaza breakfast situation?