Review of Hyatt Regency Köln 5*

We would like to warn other guests who stay here for the staff members of this hotel. Unfortunately some staff members feel the need to steal deposit money from customers (they ask for a deposit but they don't give you a receipt nor do they put it in the system). When you try to get your deposit back it becomes impossible. We talked to the accountant, a gentleman who is extremely rude and angry. He denied the whole thing and just said they never take deposits! He refused to watch the security footage of the payment. He promised to call us back but never did. So we tried to call the hotel. But as soon as the people from the reception recognised our voice they hung up on us! This happened about 9 times and eventually we gave up. We called back the next day, and the guy from the reception who picked up simply told us: "We spoke to our colleague and she denies the allegations. So you have two options, you can either trust me, or I have to put you through to the manager. " So we told him to connect us to the manager. We discussed the matter with her, and also urged her to just watch the security footage, since it will show that we paid the deposit. But also she refused vehemently to look at the footage. She called the next day and told us she talked to the receptionist, and she denied she had taken our money and since there was no receipt or excess money in the cash drawer we never maid the payment and hence she could not give us back our deposit. Again we asked her to watch the security footage. She eventually said she would do that. She called us back and told us she couldn't see that we paid the deposit money. It wasn't about the money at this point anymore, but about the fact that we were being called liars and they were stealing from customers and everyone was covering it up. We told her we would put a lawyer on this case and go to the police in order to get the security footage of the payment. She suddenly told us she would watch the footage again but that the "IT-guy" was on holiday for a week so we would hear back from her in a week. I'm not sure why she would need the IT-guy to look at the footage "again" since she was so adamant about the fact that she had watched it carefully and she could not see we made a payment for the deposit. However, only a few hours later she called us back and told us she wanted to give us back our deposit money! No manager in their right mind would view security footage which clearly shows that NO deposit has been made, and STILL decide to "refund" the amount. All of a sudden, as we told them our plans of getting a law firm and the police involved, we were called back and refunded the money within 3 hours! The most bizar thing is we wanted to check in at The Wellem by Hyatt a few days later, and there was a lady who was extremely upset and was pretty much yelling at the reception (the whole team including the security staff was gathered there) that someone from the reception had signed off her package (the person who had delivered the package had told her it was signed off at the reception) and they all denied this had happened. And also she was telling them they should watch the security footage, and they were telling her that no one from the reception had signed it off and there was nothing to see on the security footage. Obviously after seeing this whole scene we decided not to stay there, since it seems like the Hyatt has an overall lying and stealing staff members problem. We tried to highlight this matter to the head office (legal department) in Chicago. We sent them a letter and an email explaining the whole ordeal in detail to make sure other guests are protected and the staff members who are in on this scam get fired. We called them several times and asked them if they could look into this matter. We never got any response back from them so I guess the safety of their customers is of no regard to them.