Best Western Rewards - Recognition Guaranteed with BW Rewards

There is a "Recognition Guarantee (http://www.bwrewards4me.com/)" for BW Rewards customers.

I was not happy because a BW hotel did not give me a complimentary room upgrade. They wanted to have 10 € additional money for a room with air condition and much more for the "best available room".

I feel this is against the BW Rewards policy and I filled a complain for that very reason.

The answer from BW Rewards customer service came within half an hour:

Hello Lord Lounge Dragon

Thank you for taking the time to contact the Best Western Rewards
Department. We value this opportunity to assist you.

We are sorry to hear that they were not able to accommodate your
requests. However, please be aware that the hotels are not required to
give an upgrade if all they have are rooms that are considered specialty
rooms or suites. Online it does state the following "may not include
specialty rooms or suites". Again we do apologize for this but for the
inconvenience, I have posted 1000 Rewards points to your account. Your
new balance is now xxxxx.

https://goldcrownclub.bestwestern.com/members/levels.asp

We appreciate your continued loyalty in choosing Best Western and
welcome any further questions or concerns.

Best Regards,

Ms. N. L. | Best Western Rewards
Best Western International | The Worlds Biggest Hotel Family(SM)
P.O. Box 42007 | Phoenix | AZ | 85080
www.bestwesternrewards.com

This email is only for the use of the intended recipient. Any
unauthorized use or distribution is prohibited. If you received this
email in error, please reply to the sender and destroy all copies of the
email.

Please consider the environment and only print this email if truly
necessary.



Original Message Follows:
------------------------
Values submitted from web site form:
First_Name : Lounge
Last_Name : Dragon
Email : lord@lounge.dragon
Rewards_Number : xxx
Rewards_Number2 : xxx
Reservation_Conf_Number :
BW_Full_Hotel_Name : BEST WESTERN Hotel Domicil
Hotel_City : Frankfurt
State_Province :
Hotel_Country : DE
Check_in : xx/xx/xx
Check_out : xx/xx/xx
Comments : When I was in the BW Domicil in Frankfurt on xx yy zzzz, I
was give a single room. When I asked for a room upgrade I was told that
I would have to pay additional money (e.g. 10 EUR for a room with air
con and even more for a higher class room). The BW Rewards T&Cs clearly
say that a Diamond member should get the \"best available room\". The
hotel did not care about that and ignored my request for a complimentary
room upgrade.
submit_x : yes
submit_y : yes

Hmmmmm.... It is nice to get 1'000 points but what does the answer from N.L. tell us? - The hotel can do whatever it wants. The customer has no rights with BW Rewards. What a silly joke to declare a room to be a "special room" because of an air condition!

My summary: It doesn't make sense to be loyal to BW :rolleyes:

The email also says, "This email is only for the use of the intended recipient. Any
unauthorized use or distribution is prohibited."

It seems the both of you are not playing nice.

Oh, and are you a "loyal" BW member, or was your status matched? That doesn't change what the hotel didn't provide, it just weakens your argument if you're exaggerating.

My summary: It doesn't make sense to be loyal to BW :rolleyes:
If you expect upgrades, then indeed it makes no sense to be loyal to:



Best Western
Choice
WyndhamRewards (no elite program at all, but can you tell the difference? :) )
Priority Club (the theority is that Platinum is too easy, and thus it's up to the individual hotels as to whether they offer any benefit for it at all)


at the very least.

If, on the other hand, you can manage to take on the attitude of "expect nothing, then be happy if your expectations are exceeded", then you'll have a lot less problem in the lower-end programs (plus Priority Club).

I view the sole certain benefit of BW Diamond status to be that I can earn twice as much in certain promos as people who have little or no status. Plus that I earn some extra points on points stays. That's it!!!

If I get the occasional upgrade or welcome amenity (more likely in my experience at a BW Plus than an "ordinary" BW, and in any case the second more likely than the first!), wonderful. But I don't "expect" (unless perhaps at a hotel where I stay recurrently and where I see a pattern of what I get every time).

Although it does seem a little extreme to charge more for aircon.

"Hmm, you want a toilet in your room? Our standard room has a hole in the ground. A flush toilet will be an extra charge."

The email also says, "This email is only for the use of the intended recipient. Any
unauthorized use or distribution is prohibited."

It seems the both of you are not playing nice.

Oh, and are you a "loyal" BW member, or was your status matched? That doesn't change what the hotel didn't provide, it just weakens your argument if you're exaggerating.


I was status matched but I had over 20 stays last year - because of the status match @:-)

If you expect upgrades, then indeed it makes no sense to be loyal to:



Best Western
Choice
WyndhamRewards (no elite program at all, but can you tell the difference? :) )
Priority Club (the theority is that Platinum is too easy, and thus it's up to the individual hotels as to whether they offer any benefit for it at all)


at the very least.



Right, I will most likely never be happy with such crappy programs, and therefore, I will finish my BW experiment and keep all my nights with SPG, HHonors and to a lesser extent to GHA and Hyatt.

I do indeed expect a hotel chain to fulfill their promises.

Right, I will most likely never be happy with such crappy programs, and therefore, I will finish my BW experiment and keep all my nights with SPG, HHonors and to a lesser extent to GHA and Hyatt.

I do indeed expect a hotel chain to fulfill their promises.
Which promises are those? WyndhamRewards, as I said, doesn't have any elite program, and doesn't promise any upgrades. So why is it a crappy program?

In other words, decide. Is the problem that you're not getting upgrades, or is the problem that you're not getting what you feel is promised? Those are two differnt things in the case of a program that doesn't have any elite status at all nor promises any upgrades.

It seems to me, if you're ever needing stays in small towns, you need some program that has properties there. None of the biggies work well enough for me for that. In fact, I've been to plenty towns (where I either wanted or needed to stay) where the only choices were only Best Western and indie (which requires even more research!), or only CHoice and indie, or only WyndhamRewards and indie.

I'm surprised that you did such an experiment in Best Western if you never stay in towns where only the "lower end" programs are found. (I would think most of us use Best Western because of that. It doesn't mean we use it only there, but if not, it's because we use it elsewhere to get points to use in places where BW is the only points redemption option and all the cash prices are high.)

I hope this isn't one of those "I'll never fly this airline again" things for you. I hear that comment so much from people around me whenever a plane has a mechanical or something, buit the fact I know is, if they fly enough, they'l eventually run into that at every airline, and if they really never fly each of those airlines again, they'll have to stop flying! (Plus they picked "this airline" purely on price again, so are they really not going to pick purely on price the next time?)

Just called and got upgraded 5 days in advance in MKE downtown BW from 1 Queen Bed to King Parlor 2 room suite. Now let's see if this hotel is good :)

There is a "Recognition Guarantee (http://www.bwrewards4me.com/)" for BW Rewards customers.

I was not happy because a BW hotel did not give me a complimentary room upgrade. They wanted to have 10 € additional money for a room with air condition and much more for the "best available room".

I feel this is against the BW Rewards policy and I filled a complain for that very reason.
....


My summary: It doesn't make sense to be loyal to BW :rolleyes:

While I agree with your frustration and that an air conditioner should be included, I also noted that the Recognition Guarantee only applies to North American properties. I'm assuming from the euros that this BW was not North American. Not sure why they don't guarantee it worldwide....