I visited the Harrisburg Hilton for a one day business meeting on August 25, 2009 and the valet lost my key--a Toyota Prius key which is not a normal key, but an electronic key fob which is difficult and expensive ($350-500) to replace.

At the end of the day, I presented my paid receipt ($16) to the valet and was told to wait on the other side of the building, where my car would be returned to me. Long story short, after waiting over 30 minutes and inquiring several times at the valet stand, I was told that they could not find the key to my car and had to validate that it was a Toyota Prius that I had driven in that morning. I had my business colleagues drive me home that night and fell ill. I went to the dr. the next morning and had strep throat, so was in bed for a couple of days. When I contacted the hotel late on August 27th, I was asked when I could come get my car out of their garage--no apology at this point, but was told that once I presented a receipt for a replacement key, I would be reimbursed--no offer to reimburse for the $16 valet charge.

I contacted a local Toyota dealership who had to obtain the appropriate key fob from the Toyota manufacturer, which took several days. Once the dealership had the key, I had to bring in my spare key and car and wait at the dealership for 2 hours for the new key to be programmed. The cost for the key was $387.

After faxing a copy of the receipt and a "complaint" for the trouble I had been put through, I received a call from a gentleman named Mike Boyer (front office mgr) letting me know a check for the dealership charges would be ordered and mailed to me and then he said "we hope you come visit us again soon." I literally hung up out of frustration, but then later called back and apologized. I explained that I was extremely frustrated and shocked that the hotel had not even reimbursed the valet charge. Mike assured me the $16 would be included in the check mailed to me. When asked what else I would like, I stated I would like a night or two at the hotel for my time, which he immediately agreed to and specified that if I called him with a date in December, he would arrange it.

The next day I received a call from a gentleman named Phillip (another front office mgr) who told me again that I would be reimbursed for the key and the valet charge as had been promised the day before, and asked me "what else is it that you want?" I suggested a couple of nights as I did the previous day (just one night would be great!), but was actually told "I don't think having you come back for a couple of nights is appropriate". He specified that the hotel had already agreed to reimburse the key charge and that there was no obligation on their part to provide anything else to me and finished the conversation with "Have a nice day."