I would like to take this opportunity to respond to Ms. Grace Chen's letter.

My name is Terry Butler, and I have lived in Aspen for the past 44 years.
I started my hotel 25 years ago on the upper floor of a beautiful, historic, downtown building that was built in 1886.
I am the owner/operator of this small business, but unfortunately I do not own the building....

Through the years as I worked with my landlord, I remodeled the apartments one by one, and finally was able to transform them into a boutique hotel. I am a small Mom and Pop business, I being the Mom, and Max, my beloved 4 footed partner, has been the Pop for 14 years until we lost him a few months ago. We still struggle with that awful loss.

I live in the hotel, and I personally take most reservations and meet and greet practically every guest.

Due to the economic downturn three years ago, I have had to cast a wider net..........and have started using some outside booking agencies to increase reservations.
Unfortunately, in casting the wider net, you do lose a certain amount of control, and mistakes will be made.........and they have.

I am so sorry to say, apparently, Ms. Chen's reservation was one of those outside agency mistakes.

With such a short season in a mountain town, almost all hotels here have to have minimum stays for holidays.
I have had a minimum 4 night policy for over 15 years during The Food and Wine Festival every June. If I had broken the policy for Ms. Chen......... in order to be fair, I would have had to break policy for every other potential client asking for a lesser stay. How unfair to all my former guests who have abided by this policy for all these years!

According to Ms. Chen, when she made her reservation with the agency, they did not inform
her of the 4 night minimum.

We called her immediately when we realized their mistake, and asked her if she could increase her stay to meet our 4 night minimum. Our prices are so reasonable that many of our guests book for 4 nights even if they can only stay 3......this happens often.
Ms. Chen wanted me to break my policy of 4 nights for her, and when I told her I could not, she became quite aggressive.
I told her we had not taken any money for her reservation, and she still had plenty of time to find alternate accommodations that fit her schedule, as the festival was still almost 5 months away.

I am so sorry that the booking agency made this mistake, and that I simply could not fix it.

As a small hotel, I must maintain minimum night stays for special events.........taking into consideration that Aspen is a seasonal town.

I pride myself and my business on our customer service. Most of my guests are repeat customers and have been staying with us for as many as 15 years now.

This unfortunate, isolated incident is in no way a reflection of how we conduct business at the Residence Hotel in Aspen, Co.

Looking forward to seeing you soon.

Terry Butler
Owner/operator