Letter to the Hawthorne Hotel

Christmas fact # 5: Wreaths - In ancient Rome, people hung decorative wreaths as sign of victory. The hanging of Christmas wreath seems to have derived from this. Denoting the victory of God over Satan with Jesus' birth into the world.

I have posted in the past my dislike for making e-mails between people public on web sites or blogs, etc. However, due to a certain situation that has transpired...I thought my letter to The Hawthorne Hotel should be made public. That way there would be no hard feelings, or have any of their staff members feeel that I have been unfair to them or unjustly written harsh words about the establishment. My blog is for myself, and my friends to read, enjoy and comment on. I have no problems with ANYONE reading my blog or commenting on it...but still feel the need to put this to rest misunderstanding to rest. The manager of The Hawthorne Hotel ha posted in part 2 of my Salem Thanksgiving trip which is what prompted my e-mail to her. So without further ado, I give you my e-mail:

Subject: Please forward message to Juli Lederhaus

Dear Juli,

I am writing this e-mail to you to clear up some hard feelings that seem to exist between the Hawthorne Hotel and myself. Under no circumstances did I set out to offend or hurt you or any of your staff as you seem to feel I’ve done, by reading and then posting in my blog: Sarcasm & Cynicism...served up by Single Grl
Just by the title of my blog alone, you could expect that some of the things I say would be sarcastic…but I do speak the truth in each post…that is for sure.
Perhaps I should start from the beginning in this e-mail to you, so you could understand why I would dub the Hawthorne Hotel as ‘evil’, but yet sing its praises in the blog. I do note that you failed to acknowledge the nice things I had said about the establishment. Back in June, my aunt and I had visited Salem for the first time, and although we didn’t get the chance to visit the Hawthorne, made up our minds to stay there in the future. Fast forward a few months, to my trying to make reservations to have my family spend time in Salem for Thanksgiving. What I had wanted to do was spend two nights at The Salem Inn (where I had stayed previously) and two nights at The Hawthorne Hotel as well as have Thanksgiving dinner at The Hawthorne Hotel. My one challenge was that we’d be bringing my two cats with us this trip….two gentle cats that are not destructive. You could imagine my surprise when I was quoted a price of $20.00 per cat per day by the reservationists of The Hawthorne Hotel, and was informed that it was a non-negotionable fee as I was bringing animals with me. Don’t get me wrong, I understand the need to keep the establishment in pristine condition, and concern about pets doing damage to a room or soiling it. However my cats have a litter box, and do not mess on the floor…and everyone would agree that the upkeep of a cat is easier than a dog. So I was a little disheartened, that I would have to pay $80.00 for my cats to be guests at the hotel…where as when I made my reservations at The Salem Inn for this visit was also informed of a pet fee. However…they made an exception and told me we’d be charged $20 per day for the two cats. I am very pleased to announce that when I checked out of The Salem Inn on my last stay, which was for the whole of my visit due to the information I got from your hotel, they (The Salem Inn) only charged me $20.00 for my cats for the whole visit. It is the little extra steps that The Salem Inn took on both of my stays with them that have made me decide to only stay with them on my trips to Salem.
As for my Thanksgiving dinner plans, those two had gone awry, when I attempted to make them at The Hawthorne Hotel. I had called to make dinner reservations for 2:30 on Thanksgiving day, in the beginning of October. When I had spoken to the restaurant, was told that they could seat my party of 3 people at 11:30am for Thanksgiving dinner, as they were not ready to make afternoon seating charts yet. Now, I don’t know about you…but I have never eaten stuffing, and corn and yams, not to mention turkey at 11:30am. I was offered to be put on a waiting list to have a reservation for the afternoon, ‘once the manager got around to making the table seatings.’ I took that option, giving the hotel the benefit of the doubt. Again, my plans to have a pleasant Thanksgiving experience at The Hawthorne Hotel was dashed, when I got a call on November 10th from the Dining Service Manager of the Hawthorne Hotel, James Kluge who was very pleasant yet offered me a seating for Thanksgiving dinner at 11:00am. Yeah, I was still going to have to pass on having dinner for breakfast sorry. But I do note, and in my blog acknowledge that I got a call back, and that Mr. Kluge had tried to accommodate us with a seating. So my mom, aunt and I had Thanksgiving dinner at The Omni Parker House in Boston, and it was a lovely experience.
We did manage to have coffee and dessert in the Tavern at The Hawthorne Hotel on November 24th, and got to experience Santa arriving and coming down off the roof of the hotel. In part 2 of my blog, in which you had e-mailed me as to why I called the hotel ‘evil’ I did comment: Mom had a lot of fun...and after there we did a bit of ghost hunting by foot, followed by coffee and dessert at The (evil) Hawthorne Hotel. Although I do have to give credit when credit is do...and the Hawthorne is a beautiful building, and the dessert was awesome. Ida had strawberry parfait, mom had lemon torte, and I had bread pudding. That last part is a direct quote from the blog entry. In all fairness, you should see my point of view…both dinner and staying plans had not been met by the hotel. Granted my family is not the only people whose needs are desired to be met. However as I have to deal in customer relations for my department, where I work…I do also know that sometimes you need to go that extra step to make a customer or potential customer happy. I too also understand that your staff has many people to tend to, many guests and events to accommodate…and I take that in to consideration as well. In part two of my blog, when I referred to the hotel as The (evil) Hawthorne Hotel, I was being sarcastic, and keeping in the same tune as my original post of my dealings with the hotel. I apologize if you took offense to my comments. My blog is a diary of sorts that my friends read….and my friends know and understand my sense of humor or manner of writing. There are no hard feelings towards The Hawthorne Hotel staff at all, other than my disappointment that Thanksgiving didn’t work out there. But on my next visit to Salem, will gladly dine at your hotel.

Kindest regards, and warmest holiday wishes,

Rose (Last name being ommitted from here for my own privacy.)
(Company signiture was here. I am erasing it for blog)