Yes I was a FEMA refugee being housed at the beautiful Sheraton Atlantic City Convention Center Hotel. Although I wish the circumstances for our visit would have been different, I must say the staff treated us with the utmost respect and courtesy as if we were regular paying guests at the hotel. Initially, I was a little upset at the lack of amenities that this hotel had to offer inside the rooms. Then I realized that this hotel is primarily for business people who usually have expense accounts and can write off things without cost being a factor. Our situation was slightly different. We came with nothing but a suitcase having either been flooded out of our homes or lost our homes completely. We were asked for a $50 deposit either cash or credit card for incidentals in the room. I hesitatingly gave them my Visa. I had no intention of using any incidentals in the room. In addition, we were charged $20 for a refrigerator to be put in the room for the duration of our stay. I was then told it was $14.00 per day to park in their parking garage and there was no other options for parking. In addition, their rooms did not come with microwaves; only a Keurig coffee maker. In addition, free WIFI was only available in the lounge on the second floor or the main lobby on the first floor. There was no wireless Internet in the rooms. If you wanted to use the Ethernet connection in the room, it was $9.95 per day!!!! Ridiculous. Even the worst hotels have free WIFI, microwaves and refrigerators in their rooms. That part I found hard to comprehend as I stated before, this is a businessmens' hotel primarily. I guess that's another expense write off. So needless to say, I spent a lot of my time in the lobby and second floor lounge since I needed to stay in communication with my job as well as friends and family given the circumstances.
Now with that being said and given the extenuating circumstances of not only myself but over a hundred other people that were staying there as part of FEMA emergency housing, the refrigerator fee ended up being waived as well as the parking fees.....thank God! I'm not quite sure if that was the result of my phone call to Sheraton corporate or if FEMA stepped in after the mounting number of complaints about those fees.
Aside from that, the stay was wonderful...the place is spotless and the staff was courteous and knowledgeable.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
November 24, 2012
Thank you for your valuable feedback and your kind comments about our staff & hotel, we will ensure that they all know how you enjoyed your stay. Hurricane Sandy is truly something that everyone will talk about for a long time as all communities on the east coast work together to get back on their feet. The hotel was one of a very few in the area that worked directly with FEMA and was following the program that was outlined by FEMA from the very first day. It was solely the hotel decisions to waive the fees for parking & refrigerators and discount breakfast every morning – we wanted to ensure we were doing the right thing for everyone. Please understand that with all that was going on it took everyone including the hotel & FEMA a couple of days to get a smooth process in place as we changed our normal operating procedures to accommodate long term guests. We look forward to seeing you back in Atlantic City in the near future. If you have any associates who assisted you during you that you would like to be recognized please contact our executive offices we would love to reward & recognize them for you.
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This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of TripAdvisor LLC.