telecom@bu-cs.BU.EDU (TELECOM Moderator) (12/01/88)
A press release I received today says that Hyatt Hotels Corporation got tired
of listening to complaints from guests about the outrageous cost of phone
calls made through the <A>lternate <O>perator <S>ervice outfit which had been
serving the entire chain, and they dumped them effective immediatly in favor
of AT&T.
Gordon Kerr, vice president for management information systems at Hyatt's
corporate offices stated, "The reality is that the service was only [of]
acceptable to poor quality, there were often times delays in putting calls
through, and the charges were, frankly, outrageous."
Kerr went on to say that guests had complained repeatedly. He noted that
critics of the hotel industry especially dislike the way hotels try to make
a profit center out of their telephone service. He said the AOS companies,
"...mislead us to think that guests would receive good telephone service, and
pay no more than they do with AT&T......when they signed us up they did say
we would get 15-17 percent commission from their revenues on a fee basis.....
they said AT&T was a 'rip off'...."
Hyatt management said the increased commission was attractive (AT&T and local
Bell Companies do pay commissions to hotels, but less than what is offered
by the AOS'), but the press release concluded, "....we decided the level of
service offered, and the average 60 percent markup over AT&T was not acceptable
to us or our guests, whom we value. We are not going to subject our guests to
this any longer, so we have asked AT&T to take over, and have signed a contract
covering all of our properties nationwide."
============================
An inquiry locally found that the conversion is in progress now; all Hyatt
properties will be routed through AT&T operators at AT&T prices by the end
of the year.
One by one, the prodigal children all return to the fold don't they? All the
bulljive in the world about 'AT&T rip-offs' and expensive service just does
not wash in the end. Next time you need to make a hotel reservation, you
might want to choose a place (like Hyatt) where you can make calls from your
room at a reasonable price.
See ya next time!
Patrick