Oakland couple's Vegas vacation ruined by hotel ceiling leak. Here's how 7 On Your Side helped
OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- An East Bay couple says a weekend trip to Vegas went terribly wrong after their room's ceiling began to leak. The hotel refused to compensate their full stay until 7 On Your Side got involved.
The couple was convinced that the water that was leaking into their room was raw sewage. The hotel says it was not. After 7 On Your Side got involved, the hotel turned things around for the couple.
Alexander Pitt and Meghan Waters planned a two-night stay at the Golden Nugget in Vegas to celebrate Meghan's birthday and spend time with her sister, but what happened in Vegas followed them home.
"So this is everything that I bagged," said Pitt.
"It was traumatizing," said Waters.
Pitt says after midnight on the couple's first night at the hotel he heard something coming from the bathroom.
"Drip, drip, drip, drip, drip," Pitt explained.
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When he went to investigate --
"I got a face full of it, I look up and it's coming from the ceiling."
"There's so much (expletive) water leaking holy (expletive). The whole ceiling is just (expletive) coming down. I'm literally covered in (expletive) water. I need to (expletive) wash my hair," Pitt could be heard saying in cellphone video he recorded.
That's when Megan woke up.
"I just see this massive waterfall coming into our room," said Waters.
"It smelled like fecal matter," she continued.
Pitt says they called the front desk for help and someone came to the room.
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"He sees what's happening and he just goes oh no," Pitt explained.
Pitt set up buckets and attempted to salvage what he could.
"Look at this (expletive) nasty (expletive) water. I think we just need to get the (expletive) out of here," Pitt says in the cellphone video.
While the couple understands that 'stuff' happens, they say what happened next was unacceptable.
"We asked maybe four times to talk to a manager and they wouldn't even leave their office," said Waters.
Pitt says the Golden Nugget offered to waive a resort fee, a current promotion he says they already had going. He says they then agreed to comp one night of the couple's two night stay, but not both.
They continued to ask to speak to a manager --
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"Ran to the back, they came back and they said that I had run out the conversation," said Pitt.
"Exhausted the conversation," said Waters.
They switched rooms.
"Our entire stay was taken up with this," said Pitt.
Back home in Oakland, they reached out to 7 On Your Side.
"At the very least we'd like an apology," said Waters.
I reached out to the Golden Nugget.
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Shortly after, the hotel's senior VP and assistant general manager reached out to the couple, refunded their entire stay and agreed to compensate them to replace Meghan's makeup and any cleaning charges for their clothes.
Writing in an email to the couple in part, "I want to again express my sincere apology for our lack of customer service when you requested assistance from my team. I am embarrassed by their lack of responsiveness."
The Golden Nugget assured the couple, "...this was a cracked clean water pipe connected to the tank of fresh water and was not sewer water, thank goodness."
The hotel also offered the couple a future complimentary two-night stay with dinner.
A Vegas bet they're not sure they're willing to make.
Regarding the color and smell of the water, the Golden Nugget tells 7 On Your Side, the water traveled through the walls and ceilings, picking up dirt and dust causing it to appear discolored. The hotel also told the couple that it scheduled customer service retraining for the front desk team to prevent instances like this in the future.
In an email to 7 On Your Side, Cindy O'Keefe, Golden Nugget Las Vegas Senior Vice President/Assistant General Manager, writes, "We sincerely regret the inconvenience our guests experienced during their stay. A clean water pipe connected to the fresh water tank unexpectedly leaked into the room. We have been in direct contact with the guest and are actively working toward a resolution."
