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Apr. 10, 2008
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Hotel plans to issue refunds

Company cites good 'customer relations'

By ARNOLD M. KNIGHTLY
REVIEW-JOURNAL

The lobby of The Westin is seen Friday. The hotel's corporate parent is shifting course and refunding charges made to patrons for unpaid convention bills.
Photo by Jeff Scheid

The owner of The Westin has reversed its decision to charge attendees of a dental conference for the conference organizer's unpaid bills.

Legal counsel for Crestview Hills, Ky.-based Columbia Sussex Corp. sent registered letters dated Tuesday to attendees of a conference held at The Westin in October announcing the hotel would refund any charges made to the attendees' credit cards to recoup the unpaid bills.

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    • "We've decided as a matter of customer relations to issue the refunds while continuing to pursue payment from The Coaching Center," Columbia Sussex spokesman Hud Englehart said Wednesday.

    The Coaching Center of Austin, Texas, has yet to pay nearly $57,000 in unpaid food, beverage and other costs incurred during a dental boot camp conference held at the Flamingo Road property.

    The hotel's decision to start charging attendees' credit cards for the unpaid bills surprised many convention industry veterans who told the Review-Journal last week that they had never heard of such a decision.

    Suzanne Black, owner and president of the Coaching Center, said the hotel's actions damaged the center's reputation and its relationship with clients.

    "They should have never done this," Black said. "This was damaging to them and it's damaging to people's experience of Las Vegas, and it may potentially hurt our reputation."

    Last week, Englehart defended the company's decision to charge about 85 attendees and said a clause in the registration agreement that attendees signed empowered the company to recoup the money from third parties.

    "I'm glad that cooler heads have prevailed," said Don Dible, a conference speaker and co-author of "Chicken Soup for the Dental Soul."

    Dible and other conference attendees and speakers began noticing the charges on their credit card statements in March.

    "While this was a pretty nasty customer service issue, ultimately it's a legal issue," said Dible, who was charged $664.63 on his credit card.

    Amy Ashton Shaw, Columbia-Sussex's assistant corporate general counsel, writes in the letter to attendees that the decision to refund the charges is an "effort to show our good faith" but recognizes that the organizer "is truly at fault for the expenses incurred by all the parties."

    Black has admitted that she overextended the center by going ahead with the October conference.

    "I had part of the money saved and thought I would have the rest, but then the market got the best of me," said Black.

    Dible, however, is not totally satisfied with the hotel's solution and said the company should provide some extra compensation for attendees who had to deal with the hassle of The Westin's decision.

    Dible, who first alerted the media to the dispute and has been in contact with many of the other attendees, said some people thought they were victims of identity theft and canceled credit cards or disputed charges.

    "When you look at how many people were involved, hundreds of hours have been expended needlessly as a result of the unilateral actions of The Westin," Dible said.

    Contact reporter Arnold M. Knightly at aknightly@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893.

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    set up........ wrote on April 26, 2008 07:48 PM: I eat,drink and sleep at a hotel for X dollars which I paid to my group leader, my group leader pockets the money, Am I a part of he group? If yes then you are responsible to pay or are you part of the fruad. Go after your group originazer. Why does your group leader not just pay? They talk alot, show he Weston the money,,, no more talk. other Hotels bewhere of this dentist group.


    Joel Rossetti wrote on April 12, 2008 07:07 AM: "Westin Hotel & Resorts" you won't forget that name for quite a while. Only news that travels faster than good is bad news.


    strad wrote on April 10, 2008 12:31 PM: Hahaha. I thought charging someone other than the party you have a contract with was a joke. Then I read the article. Absolutely amazes me the lack of intelligence among people in responsible positions, that they would even think charging the attendees would fly. Hey, let's just burn all our contracts right now -- they don't mean a thing! Chaos, absolute chaos.


    Tom, Burbank wrote on April 10, 2008 11:43 AM: This is not the guests' fault, nor the Westin's. The failure to pay in a timely manner falls upon the Coaching Center. If I owned the Westin or any other hotel I would never go after attendees of a convention if it were the organizing entity stiffing me. I would follow up with the organization with which I'd signed an agreement. The terrible publicity this not unforeseeable blunder generated was not worth the trouble for the Westin, as they're discovering. That's the type of consideration a non-ignorant business would make.


    HEY COACHING CENTER IDIOTS wrote on April 10, 2008 11:42 AM: PAY YOUR BILLS DUMMIES!!!


    Mr Steep wrote on April 10, 2008 10:48 AM: Reader Yarborough(below) is right. The fact remains that the organizers stiffed the hotel. The hotel has every right to charge the guests the money they are owed. Let the guests take it out on their organization who caused this to happen. Stop whining and pay your bills,enjoy Las Vegas and go home!


    thom wrote on April 10, 2008 10:47 AM: This is not the Westin’s fault. It is unlikely that the agent that booked the conference has the assets to go after (as she already stated), so Westin went after those that used their services, and keep in mind that these people agreed to these terms. The agent that booked the conference is ultimately responsible and if I were an attendee I would be pursuing all legal action against her for the time that I wasted in correcting any issues with my credit card.

    Grow up people, this is not “Big Brother”; this Westin location is privately owned and if you owned it yourself you would probably take all actions necessary to recover any monies owed as well.


    Tom, Burbank wrote on April 10, 2008 10:05 AM: The Westin is the one that made the suicidal decision to attempt to charge the guests. Their corporatespeak comment, ""We've decided as a matter of customer relations to issue the refunds while continuing to pursue payment from The Coaching Center,...", translates to English as, "In light of the awful publicity we've received from our bass ackward decision to bill guests of a convention, we're trying to save our reputation and look like good guys at the same time."
    True morons at Columbia Sucksit.


    Charles wrote on April 10, 2008 09:32 AM: Further proof that this is an idiots city, run by idiots. Why all of a sudden do a 180 and realize the individual guests are not responsible?? If the leaders of this city would just for once use what little brains they have, and stop making business judgements with their wallets this might actually become a respectable city. But that won't happen any time soon.........


    Lee Yarbrough wrote on April 10, 2008 06:36 AM: The Coaching Center should be the ones giving the refunds and paying her bills as the hotel like she contracted for.

    The attendee's need to be mad at the Coaching Center Manager, she is the one that put them in this position. She should have canceled her convention if she could not afford to have it. Why did she feel the Westin should provide services for her and her clients without her paying. She admitted she did not have the money to pay the bills.

    The Westin was within their rights even if it does look bad but Doble was not within her rights to hold a convention she could not pay for.

    She collected money from her clients, what did she do with it?


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