I am writing this review on behalf of my parents - although, this isn't entirely based on hearsay…read morebecause I have stayed in this hotel a few times myself. As a family, we adore this particular Ritz Carlton in Tyson's Corner. It's probably our favorite hotel collectively - you can't beat the amenities, the service, the staff, and the location. My parents have consistently gone back to this hotel for a yearly weekend getaway consistently for nearly 20 years, continuing to choose that hotel despite the ever-changing landscape due to COVID. Therefore, it is with great disappointment that I write this negative review about this hotel because it has truly served us well over the years.
My parents booked a weekend trip from November 14th through the 17th in celebration of my mom's birthday. Unfortunately, my mother came down with COVID-pnemonia that week, showing symptoms on the evening of Monday Nov. 12th with an official diagnosis by the evening of Tuesday Nov. 13th. Realizing that they could not travel under such conditions, my father canceled the booking for their weekend trip via the website on Wednesday, Nov. 14th. While he was able to cancel the trip, the company withheld a 500 dollar, non-refundable charge because it was 'not within the three day limit' as stated on their website.
Now the problem here is this - what constitutes as three days? Are we talking a full 36 hours here or are we talking three days as counting by fingers? Because the trip was canceled Wednesday morning with a 4pm Friday arrival - Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday are three days. I hate to cherrypick the Bible (although it is common practice these days), but if we're going by Jesus' rules, he died on a Friday afternoon and was resurrected on a Sunday morning, and it constitutes as three days by church law - but apparently, this timeline is not good enough for the Ritz Carlton.
Believing this was unfair, my father called the hotel themselves and explained the situation - they are longtime customers, my mom was nearly hospitalized due to Covid, they had a doctor's note as proof, is there anything they could do to lessen this exorbitant cancellation fee? The staff's answer was essentially "apologies, but no." The staff said my father should have called the hotel directly instead of canceling it online and they could have done more for them, and that it actually wasn't three days but more like two and a half, and the charge would unfortunately stay.
Now, we understand that hotels are subject to inflation and economic woes due to the state of the world, and some sort of penalty due to the cancellation is understandable - but let's look at the facts here. My mother was diagnosed with a highly contagious virus, and they did the right thing by canceling their trip a few days before as opposed to risking several people in the hotel. This was not a morning-of cancellation - this was a cancellation on Wednesday for a trip that technically wouldn't begin until check-in time at 4pm on Friday. Was there absolutely nothing the management staff could have done to rectify or soften this blow? If removing the fee was out of the question, there are other things the management could have done instead of saying "sorry, not sorry" about the 500 dollar charge. They could have offered a voucher, or a credit for rebooking a different weekend, or offered free dinner at one of their restaurants - something to make up for this loss. My parents would have accepted any of these things - because really, THEY are the ones missing out here - no trip, a terrible illness, and out 500 dollars because they did the right thing by canceling.
To me, this is just poor business practice. It is important to reward loyal customers, and the Ritz-Carlton is supposed to be the height of luxury - and yet, apparently the 500 dollars is more important than maintaining a 20-year long relationship. It's truly disappointing. The irony is that the Ritz Carlton has a '$2000 rule' to make guests happy, but apparently they need my parents' 500 dollars in order to make this golden rule work for other customers.