Update: Country Inn & Suites Rapid City Issue

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I wrote about our Last Minute Hotel Change of Plans at the Country Inn, Rapid City about three weeks ago. I’ve been meaning to write an update to what the outcome was but Club Carlson and the Country Inn property were very slow to act on the matter.
Here is a quick recap:
For our first night in Rapid City, South Dakota we booked a room at the Country Inn & Suites. Upon check in we were informed of a water issue- there wasn’t any at the moment! The problem was being worked on and was supposed to be fixed by 6:00 that evening. When we returned to the hotel we were told the problem was not what they thought and everybody had to find rooms elsewhere. They offered to help us find another room and the option was a hotel nearby which was “only” $13 more plus tax for the night. I declined and found my own room. My main concern was what would happen to the Stay 1, Get 1 Club Carlson points we were supposed to earn for our stay. Before leaving the hotel I checked with the desk to make sure that we would not be charged and was given a paper. The paper seemed more like what you get when you check out not a receipt for a reversal of the charge.
A couple of days later I contacted Club Carlson through Twitter and received a speedy response. They asked me to send an e-mail regarding the situation. Soon after sending the e-mail, we received a response that the problem would be resolved. We were told that we should expect to hear back from them again after the weekend.
We did not hear back from the rep after the weekend but I was really happy to see that the 44,000 Gold Points bonus (and other points associated with the booking) did post to Kim’s Club Carlson account! I was really impressed that they did the right thing and gave us the bonus for our non-stay.
About a day later I was wondering- maybe the points posted because we were charged for the room, not due to Club Carlson being so kind. I had Kim check her credit card statement and what do you know, we were never refunded for the stay!
a large building with a sign on it
We decided to deal with the hotel directly to get our refund. I wasn’t worried about getting the money back but was worried that Club Carlson might take back the Gold Points bonus. 
Getting the refund was a bit frustrating but it got taken care of in the end. It took us four calls spread out over a few days to get it done.
  1. July 5- Spoke to Jake. He told us that he was busy checking guests in and would give us a call back which he never did.
  2. July 7- Call #1- Spoke with Jake again. He transferred Kim to the general manager’s line to leave a message. The phone kept ringing & the answering machine never picked up for Kim to leave a message… Go figure!
  3. July 7- Call #2- Kim called back and spoke with a female employee (we did not get her name). She said that she would look into the matter and call back which she never did.
  4. July 8- Spoke with Shelby. She told us that managers do not work on Sundays. We explained the situation and she actually seemed to care. She said that she would look into what was going on and call back in 15 minutes.
  5. July 8- Shelby did call back (when she said she would) and was able to refund Kim’s card for our non-stay. Finally a competent employee!
While this back and forth was going on we had discussed the idea of reaching out to Club Carlson social media. We decided against it since that did not lead to much happening in the past. Another option was to file a claim with the credit card company. Filing with the credit card company can be a pain, sending in documents and proof so we felt calling the hotel directly was the way to go.
In the end I think that Kim’s Gold Points bonus posted due to the mistake of Country Inn & Suites charging her for our non-stay. Maybe I am wrong and Club Carlson responded to our e-mails and awarded the points bonus for our troubles but I doubt that this is the case.
I waited a couple of weeks to post regarding this situation because I wanted to see if Kim’s bonus points would be taken back by Club Carlson.. I am happy to say that I’ve been checking on a daily basis and her account has all of the points earned from the Rapid City Country Inn booking.
For this headache, Kim earned:
Jul 2, 2012 Adjust Adjustment – Discretionary Award 3,000
Jul 2, 2012 Earn Country Inn & Suites By Carlson, Rapid City, SD – Jun 27, 2012 to Jun 28, 2012 – Country Inn – Rapid City , SD US Points|Room Earning 20 Points per USD 2,535
Jul 2, 2012 Earn Country Inn – Rapid City , SD US Points|Online Booking Member Bonus Points 1,000
Jul 2, 2012 Earn Country Inn – Rapid City , SD US Points|Country Inns So Go Country 44,000 Point Bonus 44,000
Jun 19, 2012 Earn Radisson Hotel Valley Forge – Jun 15, 2012 to Jun 16, 2012 – Radisson – King of Prussia , PA US Points|Room Earning 20 Points per USD 2,224

I think that in the end this whole ordeal was worth the time we put in to earn 52,759 Club Carlson Gold Points!

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