wharvey

Did they offer to move you to one of the vacant rooms when you complained at the time?

scubaccr

Unfortunately instead of upon seeing allocated room and refusing it straight away and returning to reception immediately to state room is unacceptable and you want xxx and yyyy. , you can be considered by hotel to have accepted accommodation, and forfeited any right to compensation purely on basis the room you just accepted does not measure up.

The above reasoning is totally different to when room allocated is correct but has other functional issues like no TV channels , Shower not working etc when some compensation may be due

Remember it would have cost the hotel nothing to move you if you had immediately rejected the room as hotel was not sold out,

you can not play a game of taking the offered room and enjoying it and then looking for redress only at check out time.

zachary

I just can't agree with that. First, it seems from post #3 that the OP did discuss the matter with someone at management. Second, just because OP didn't complain right away doesn't mean he "accepted" getting less than he paid for. The hotel promised him a certain room; they didn't deliver. I'm not sure what the compensation should be, but the fact that the OP didn't demand to be moved doesn't mean he accepted being downgraded without compensation. Imagine if I bought an F airfare and wound up in Y due to some kind of IRROPS. I get a refund of the fare difference regardless of whether I make a stink about it with the gate agent at the time I'm downgraded.

BrlDsguise

And he was told they had 10 rooms available which match the standards of the room he booked but he couldn't have one?

OK if that is the case he deserves more than 5K points compensation, but you would think this detail would not have been omitted from the first two posts.

SFO_FT

OP here. This hotel has two check-in desks. Main desk for main hotel and a special desk, 10 feet away, for the GRW Towers rooms. Checked in Sunday night at 8pm and only the main desk was open. Was told by the check-in agent that I was being given a "nice" room -- top floor and facing the train station, which "will be quieter", so falsely assumed this was as good as it gets. Upon checking out, and speaking with the GWR Tower mgr, he indicated that the main desk agents don't know that a few of the GWR rooms are inferior (ie, not as advertised) and advised that I shouldn't have been assigned one of these. Upon arrival I was tired, and it wasn't until the next day I remembered that the reason I'd booked the GWR rooms was because they're supposed to be larger than the main building rooms. Was in meetings all day and upon return to hotel, the GWR desk was again closed. The main desk people are obviously clueless about the GWR rooms, so didn't bother asking the night shift staff there. The room I was given was the same size as a regular size room in the main bldg and also had several maintenance issues: broken desk lamp, missing bedside reading light (just a whole in the headboard where it's supposed to be), TV would reset every 15 minutes, etc. 5k compensation for the multitude of service issues on a $700 stay is insulting.

razzaba

Having stayed at this hotel numerous times over the past 2-3 years (10-12 times), the front desk folks at Paddington certainly leave a lot to be desired. I had a similar issue in staying at the GWR a few weeks after the tower opened, and had scaffolding outside, lots of noise, etc. They front desk folks claimed ignorance.

BrlDsguise

A missing bedside light is trivial, a broken desklamp or TV issues warrants a call for a replacement or repair.

I think the hotel should always be offered the opportunity to make things right, and if you didn't say anything and couldn't even remember your room wasn't what you thought you booked until checkout you accepted the room you were given.

If you go to a restaurant and they give you the wrong meal or it isn't cooked right you don't eat it and ask for a credit do you?

pauleeepaul

Of course you do this is FT

SFO_FT

OP here. When checking in, I asked whether any upgraded rooms were available (which would represent a query that I'm requesting the best room available) and was told "we have a great room for you, which is on the top floor and has lots of natural light" (an answer I took to being this is the best room available right now). As such, I had no basis for being able to complain. Plus, as an experienced business traveler, I have no interest in wasting a further hour or more arranging for a room change. The heart of the matter of this situation is that the hotel is advertising and charging non-refundable rates for a product that for my stay did not exist. If the hotel had indicated that some GWR Tower rooms do not have a "separate living area" then I wouldn't have a basis for complaint. But that's not what's advertised. Instead, the hotel advertises that GWR Tower rooms do, and that's patently untrue.

SFO_FT

Broken room items. Agree. I could have waited in my room for the hour or so it would have taken to fix these. But sometimes when traveling for business, and in/out of the room frequently, plus in need of sleep, I have no interest in dealing with this. I'm not seeking compensation for these service lapses, but it does highlight lack of management oversight on the "little things". Let me ask a question on a recent stay at a different property: arrive at a hotel at 11pm. Room is $350 per night. Hop into bed to watch some TV before falling asleep and the TV doesn't work. Same goes for the hour or so while preparing to head out (and checkout). Is that a reasonable basis for complaint? Besides using a working bathroom and having a decent sleep, the only wake time spent is wanting to watch some TV to relax, but that's broken. No interest in waiting an hour and/or having the late night mechanic come into my room to try to fix. Is the lack of a working TV a reasonable complaint/compensation worthy event for a $350 per night 5-star hotel? if not, then it's not a 5-star property as these service issues shouldn't exist. 3-star property, no complaints. 5-star, then yes. That's part of the reason one pays for a 5-star facility.

SFO_FT

Here's a picture of the room (photo credit to jdtravels ... appears we were booked into the same room). Compare this to the description and photos shown on the hotel website. The chair and desk (to the left) comprise the "separate" living and working areas!

kirkwoodj

This is supposed to be a GWR Tower room?

SFO_FT

Yes! No larger than a regular room.

SFO_FT

If I order a meal, let's say a pepperoni pizza, during my 45 minute lunch break, and instead they deliver to me a cheese pizza (either because the restaurant ran out of pepperoni or because on certain days they don't serve pepperoni pizzas and the menu/order taker was incorrect) and I don't have time for them to make a new one, the restaurant shouldn't charge me for a pepperoni pizza. Instead, they should compensate in some form (such as the difference in price between the two pizzas and a goodwill gesture). If I had time on my lunch break, they can rectify the "mistake" but not if I have limited time, as was the case in my business stay at this property.

SFO_FT

Totally agree it's a different situation when staying somewhere for leisure, and room changes are a nuisance, but tolerable -- but different circumstances when on a business-intensive stay.