Sunset Key Rip-off

Last year I wrote a column praising Sunset Key, titled “Sailing to Wisteria.” It described a wonderful wedding anniversary stay-cation Cynthia and I had with treasured friends, ending with our evening sunset on a beach that reminded us of one on Vanuatu, except riotous Key West was only five minutes behind us on the other side of the island. I thoughtfully wrote that one alternative to cruise ships was places like this, and maybe if that happened to Wisteria, it wouldn’t be all bad.

Oh boy, have I had a change of heart. I got so screwed by Sunset Key while trying to arrange another anniversary overnight there that I now understand the nature of the opposition. Why is this important? The owners of Sunset Key, the Walshes, are partners with the Bernsteins trying to develop Wisteria, as well as the main funders of the pro-cruise ship side of the recent referendum that overwhelmingly rejected widening the channel for monster cruise ships. My recent experience shows them to be not only unethical, but short-sightedly foolish in running  their own business.

What happened is that this year Cynthia and I decided just to have an anniversary dinner at Michael’s, next door to the beautiful garden at a friend’s home where we had our wedding eight years ago. The dinner was great, but we reminisced about the previous anniversary stay-cation overnights we had spent at Tranquility Bay, Cheeca Lodge, and then Sunset Key. As soon as we got home, we decided to book a room for the next year: so as not to forget, and maybe save some money—it was over $1,000 for our previous year.

So I got online and pressed the right arrow key 12 times to go from May 2014 to May 2015. And yes! We could get a one-bedroom cottage for the bargain price of $680. I guaranteed the room with my credit card and we were both happy with our decision.

A few days later I was a bit puzzled by an email from Sunset Key asking us how we had enjoyed our stay.  I thought that was odd, it being over a year ago, but maybe it was just trying to drum up more business from us by tweaking our memories. But the oddity stayed at me, so a couple days later I went back to the email and was shocked to read that they were asking us how we had enjoyed our stay on the night when we were at Michael’s, the night I had made the reservation for the next year.

Sure enough, the reservation letter they had sent me the night I made the 2015 reservation said it was for that same night in 2014! The time was 10:15 PM. They had made us a web reservation for their hotel at 10:15 PM on the same night, which makes no sense at all. Then, when we of course did not show up, they charged the full amount of our credit card, which we had given them to hold the reservation for next year, not pre-pay anything at all.

At first I thought this was an amusing misunderstanding which would be cleared up with a phone call, and we could make a reservation for what we wanted in 2015. When I called the reservation number for Starwood, their blanket management organization, I was first referred back to the local hotel, Sunset Key. The locals sounded sympathetic, but said that since the reservation had been made on the web, I’d have to clear it up through national.

And the same with the national reservations lady I spoke with. She sounded sympathetic, saying she would email a refund okay to Sunset Key.  Through her, I made the correct reservation for May 6, 2015.  I waited a few days for her promised email to be processed and called to confirm with our locals.

This is where it got weird.  Reservations said they couldn’t make any refunds, I’d have to speak to the hotel manager.  After a few days of phone tag, we finally spoke. He simply refused to give me a refund for an absurd “reservation” that I never made, and for which Sunset Key was not inconvenienced in the slightest.

Realize, not only did they not have to make up the bed, or suffer any normal wear-and-tear from an overnight room use, but the “reservation” they made for us hardly stopped them from releasing the room to anyone showing up after 10:15 PM wanting to use “our” room. It’s a resort.  People arrive well before dinner.  No one shows up for a late snooze.

At this point I canceled the 2015 reservation.  They could do that.  The national people were surprised that even for that reservation, the full amount had been charged to my credit card a full year in advance, instead of being used, as is normal, to guarantee the reservation.

So I appealed to the credit card company I had used, Citi MasterCard. They immediately issued me a provisional credit, and asked me to send in my side of the story in two weeks. I did so, but was unhappy to get an email from them saying my credit had been revoked.  It turns out the snail mail hadn’t made it there for a week, but the postmark qualified, so it was back in play.  They would contact the hotel, they said, to let them make their case.

I thought it would be a slam dunk. I had gotten nothing from Sunset Key and they had not spent a penny giving me a service. The reservation on the web at 10:15 PM for the same night was preposterous on the face of it. My good faith about making it for the next year was supported by my having re-made the reservation, since canceled, for 2015.

I wondered how on earth they would try to justify their charge. There was no recorded phone reservation with my voice saying, “Yes, I want it for tonight, I know it’s late.” I know I toggled ahead 12 months, but if I lied, would they have a record of my key strokes? If I indeed had clicked “buy” on a May 6, 2014 reservation, a screen snapshot of that would be evidence, but, unlike a phone recording, that could easily be faked. And in fact no honest such evidence existed.

I heard nothing for a month. I called, and while credit card holders get two weeks to respond, the hotels get two months. I began to worry, fearing a slanted playing field.  But no, after the two months, I got the happy ending, saying my refund was permanent.  Hooray for Citi MasterCard!

So what on earth were Starwood and Sunset Key thinking? I told them I had written a laudatory article the year before,  and would pursue my refund through my credit card company and the New York Times’ The Haggler, who helps out in cases like this. In fact, they could not sustain their ridiculous claim at the very first hurdle.  They lost my business, have to put up with articles like this not only here but in web reviews, and if they really get what they deserve, The Hagglerwill slam them nationally.

These are the people who want to develop Wisteria and encourage larger cruise ships. I had been willing to go towards them on a compromise on Wisteria. I now see their their dealing with me to show not only their self-serving, unfair business dealings, but that they really may not know what their own long-term best interests are. They are like the fisherman who want to take the shorts and egg-bearing lobsters.  Short-term gain today, and the hell with alienating customers or poisoning their own well in the long term.

Conclusion: what the Walshes want, cruise ships and island development, is all about them, right here and now. It is not about their community or even their own long-term development. A lesson learned.

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