Luxury Hotel Sends Folio To Wrong Person, Causing Family Drama

An OMAAT reader shared an interesting story with me. While it’s not the world’s biggest service failure, it does seem like a pretty significant lapse on the part of the hotel. Worst of all, the hotel is now ignoring him, and hasn’t even apologized…

Hotel shows disregard for basic guest privacy

An OMAAT reader recently stayed at the One&Only Palmilla, in San Jose del Cabo, Mexico, for the second time. For those not familiar, One&Only is regarded as a top hotel group, even a tier above mainstream brands like Four Seasons. Both of his stays were excellent, with one glaring issue on the second stay.

At check-in, he was surprised to find to find that his mother’s information was listed on the registration form:

I share the same name as my father, even though we have different middle names. I had not realized this, but apparently my father also visited this property 10 years ago. Well the first trip I had no issues, this second one, when I arrived and went to check in, the forms were listing my mother’s information. I immediately asked the manager to correct this, and asked how that could happen since I used my personal email address and information that I used to book in 2024. He didn’t have an answer and assured me that info was just used for marketing, and that he would have it corrected.

That might not seem like a big deal, but then this happened at the end of the trip:

Well flash forward to the end of the trip, my butler for the week texted me my finalized folio, and also sent it out via email. Well the email was sent to my father, with every detailed charge I made for the week, from drinks purchased to the couples massages I booked with my boyfriend. 

Now, I’m not a kid, I’m 39 years old, and I haven’t been financially dependent on my parents since I was in college. However, to me this feels like a massive invasion of my privacy. Within minutes of the email going out, I received texts from my father telling me how extravagant my lifestyle is and how he can’t believe I’d throw around so much money. Texts from mother ensued soon after and frankly caused a little rift in my family.

The guest has sent three emails to both the hotel and One&Only corporate, and so far has received no response. He has asked if I have any advice. At a minimum, he’d like an apology, and he also expected some sort of a gesture, since he intends to return to the property.

My take on this hotel folio drama incident

It goes without saying that this is hardly the biggest mistake a hotel has ever made, but still, this seems like it shouldn’t happen:

• If a guest specifically comments about how the wrong information is on a guest profile and is assured that will be corrected, it should be corrected
• This is actually one of the downsides to not having a formal loyalty program; hotels still keep track of guests, but at times, the tech isn’t great, and mistakes like this happen
• Given that he specifically asked them to update the information, it’s pretty bad that it was then still sent to someone else
• Even worse is that the hotel hasn’t even apologized; we’re talking about a true luxury hotel group here, so this is very bad service recovery

Admittedly everyone’s family is different, so some people might perceive this as being overly dramatic. Like, if my hotel folio was sent to my parents, and seemed extravagant, they’d probably say “good for you.”

But I’m not here to judge other family dynamics, and this is a very simple case — it’s an invasion of privacy, especially after the guest already asked them to update that information. If you’re spending a lot of money to stay at a hotel, it shouldn’t contribute unnecessarily to family drama.

With that in mind, what do I recommend, in this situation? I think he has done everything he possibly can, and sending more than three emails over something like this is probably an overkill. Hopefully by drawing some attention to this, the hotel will at least respond to him and apologize.

Otherwise, I think it’s time to just vote with your wallet and stay elsewhere, because what he has requested from the hotel is very basic, and they haven’t even been able to do that…

Bottom line

While an unconventional complaint, a guest staying at the One&Only Palmilla is frustrated by the fact that the hotel sent his folio to the wrong person, despite a specific request to update contact information. This doesn’t seem like it should happen, and even worse is that the hotel hasn’t apologized, and has just outright ignored requests for a response.

What do you make of this hotel folio incident?