Programs: AA Plat 3MM+, 1 yr AA ExP, AMEX Cent, US Air Plat, Delta Plat, SPG Plat, HH Gold, Marriott Gold
Posts: 629
May need Starwood Lurker's assistance with St. Regis, Florence Reservation Mistake
On Friday night, I booked the St. Regis, Florence for a three night stay. Two rooms. Lot's of dollars. Booked buy two get one night free, non refundable rate. This is more than we typically spend on room but it's our family vacation, wife loves Florence and the kids have never been. So a little splurge.
After I made the booking, Tripit sent me my itinerary and it had the right dates but the incorrect Month. I had right clicked the calendar on the SPG site since it defaults to January and February and I wished to book March dates. Somehow, I still ended up selecting February. I did this again when booking Le Meridian in Barcelona but caught myself before pressing the final Ok as I was looking for this as I had just booked the St. Regis incorrectly.
I receive my Tripit plan about an hour later and immediately emailed the property (had email from previous stay) and also called St. Regis central reservations. However, since the St. Regis Florence office is closed over the weekend, I have not heard back regarding my email or the fax that St. Regis reservations sent to the property.
The rates for the next month are higher at 470 - 670 euros per night vs my 300 euro per night per room rate I had booked. Right now, I'm out $2,000.00 for my three night Feb reservation. I don't believe they have charged my card yet as St. Regis reservations told me that the properties reservation office is closed over the weekend. I would rather not spend $3,600.00 for three nights.
Anyone have any experience with what's happened to them in the past with a situation like this. Will they cancel the reservation for me? Will they require me to book at the higher rate? Will they tell me too bad? I'm hoping that a high end hotel who lives for customer service will figure out how to make this work for our stay. Thanks for your thoughts.
Probably totally depends on the hotel. I booked the wrong rate at the Sheraton Park Lane London. I meant to book a free award stay and ended up booking the prepaid rate. I had to call the hotel and negotiate with the girl in charge of bookings to get her to drop it to a cash and points rate. But at no point would she let me cancel it and change it to the points booking. Said no way. But this was some random Sheraton. Also, my credit card had not yet been charged so probably could just cancel it, but it was probably more the hotel trying to stick to its principles.
At a higher end hotel, Vedema, we had a prepaid reservation and arrived one day late due to a flight cancellation. The hotel would not issue a refund, but did allow us to use the amount of money lost for the one night towards incidentals. That was a lot of euros to spend on incidentals. We ended up booking a night at Mystique with some of the money so if anything, they managed to get us to spend more that we had anticipated.
Programs: AA EXP 2.9 MM & LT PLT, SPG PLT 100 and LT GLD, TG, AC
Posts: 4,319
You indicated that you're SPG PLT but not what level. If you have an Ambassador, I'd give this to him/her for help straightening it out as my first level response. Otherwise, I'd ask a PLT Concierge. If neither of those gets any results, then I'd go to the hotel directly (e-mail the Reservations Manager or GM e-mail link). I'd use the Lurkers here as a last resort if nothing else works. Do it all by e-mail so you have a record of everything.
Programs: AA Plat 3MM+, 1 yr AA ExP, AMEX Cent, US Air Plat, Delta Plat, SPG Plat, HH Gold, Marriott Gold
Posts: 629
I don't pay close attention to the amenities that come with program status. I've never spoken to a Platinum concierge or Ambassador. How do I check to see what I have regarding contacts and services? I'm an SPG Plat 50
Update: I looked on line and I need 100 nights, so I don't have an Ambassador. I'll look for a Platinum Concierge.
I sent an email to spgchampion@starwoodhotels.com and asked that they have an Ambassador or Platinum Concierge look into this for me.
Anyone have any experience with what's happened to them in the past with a situation like this. Will they cancel the reservation for me? Will they require me to book at the higher rate? Will they tell me too bad? I'm hoping that a high end hotel who lives for customer service will figure out how to make this work for our stay. Thanks for your thoughts.
I had a similar situation a couple years ago and a Plat. concierge (I called immediately after my online booking mistake) helped me out and contacted the hotel directly to take the 'wrong booking' out of the system.
I don't pay close attention to the amenities that come with program status. I've never spoken to a Platinum concierge or Ambassador. How do I check to see what I have regarding contacts and services? I'm an SPG Plat 50
Update: I looked on line and I need 100 nights, so I don't have an Ambassador. I'll look for a Platinum Concierge.
I sent an email to spgchampion@starwoodhotels.com and asked that they have an Ambassador or Platinum Concierge look into this for me.
Sometimes picking up the phone works wonders your platinum concierge number is available through your SPG.com account
Programs: SPG Plat, BA Executive Gold, Skywards Silver
Posts: 1,843
I think it varies from hotel to hotel but it in my case I've had more of the luck of cancelling a stay. I had a stay once at a New York property, booked for 2 weeks a suite for around 10K USD (pre-paid), I did not have any status back then, I had an issue and the hotel agreed to cancel and refund the full amount.
Customer Service like that made me love Starwood so 4 or 5 years after that, I'm maintaining my plat status every year.
Hopefully your situtation will work in your favour.
I would have immediately picked up the phone and called the property. I would still do that even though time has passed. Faxes, emails and the like all pile up and there's a stack of them after a weekend.
You want to reach a live human being at the property, enlist their help in fixing your mistake and being gracious about it. It's the hospitality industry and giving people a chance to be hospitable and help to fix problems is the way to accomplish your goal.
It's much easier to say "no" to a fax than to a person. Don't over-estimate how much properties care about people calling them from corporate.
Programs: A3*Gold, SPG Plat, HyattDiamond, MarriottPP, LHW exAccess, ICI, Raffles Amb, NW PE MM, TWA Gold MM
Posts: 19,573
Quote:
Originally Posted by EXPLAT
On Friday night, I booked the St. Regis, Florence for a three night stay. Two rooms. Lot's of dollars. Booked buy two get one night free, non refundable rate. This is more than we typically spend on room but it's our family vacation, wife loves Florence and the kids have never been. So a little splurge.
After I made the booking, Tripit sent me my itinerary and it had the right dates but the incorrect Month. I had right clicked the calendar on the SPG site since it defaults to January and February and I wished to book March dates. Somehow, I still ended up selecting February. I did this again when booking Le Meridian in Barcelona but caught myself before pressing the final Ok as I was looking for this as I had just booked the St. Regis incorrectly.
I receive my Tripit plan about an hour later and immediately emailed the property (had email from previous stay) and also called St. Regis central reservations. However, since the St. Regis Florence office is closed over the weekend, I have not heard back regarding my email or the fax that St. Regis reservations sent to the property.
The rates for the next month are higher at 470 - 670 euros per night vs my 300 euro per night per room rate I had booked. Right now, I'm out $2,000.00 for my three night Feb reservation. I don't believe they have charged my card yet as St. Regis reservations told me that the properties reservation office is closed over the weekend. I would rather not spend $3,600.00 for three nights.
Anyone have any experience with what's happened to them in the past with a situation like this. Will they cancel the reservation for me? Will they require me to book at the higher rate? Will they tell me too bad? I'm hoping that a high end hotel who lives for customer service will figure out how to make this work for our stay. Thanks for your thoughts.
I'm confused by what exactly the OP wants. It sounds like a room was booked for the wrong month for $2000 but OP doesn't want to pay the stated price of $3600 for the right month. The hotel isn't going to allow OP to stay in the more expensive month at the price that was offered for the cheaper month. (If so, we should always just make a booking for the cheapest date we can find and then plead that it was a mistake.) If the higher prices means that OP isn't going to stay in the hotel at all, the usual voluntary fix for wrong dates of crediting the prepaid amount for some dates that the person can use isn't going to work either. It's hard to see why the hotel should give OP a refund when OP plans to stay elsewhere in Florence due to prices.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by EXPLAT
However, since the St. Regis Florence office is closed over the weekend, I have not heard back regarding my email or the fax that St. Regis reservations sent to the property.
The lack of email reply is understandable. But surely but calling the St.Regis in Florence you'll get someone who can help. Similarly, why not just call the toll-free SPG line and see what they can do?
I'm confused by what exactly the OP wants. It sounds like a room was booked for the wrong month for $2000 but OP doesn't want to pay the stated price of $3600 for the right month. The hotel isn't going to allow OP to stay in the more expensive month at the price that was offered for the cheaper month. (If so, we should always just make a booking for the cheapest date we can find and then plead that it was a mistake.) If the higher prices means that OP isn't going to stay in the hotel at all, the usual voluntary fix for wrong dates of crediting the prepaid amount for some dates that the person can use isn't going to work either. It's hard to see why the hotel should give OP a refund when OP plans to stay elsewhere in Florence due to prices.
I think what the OP meant was they thoght it was $2000 for March when they want to go. Once they saw the res was Feb and not March they emailed or whatever to get it CXed.
I dont think the OP expects to pay $2000 for March, but nor do they want to pay the going rate in March, so I think the OP wants a Full CX on their res and will book at another Hotel for the March dates they want
That would be awfully nice of the St Regis, not sure if they will agree to that,they may agree to giving the OP acredit in the amount they paid thus far $2000 towards whatever their rates are in March, which the OP doesnt want due to it being expensive
OP if the SR will only give you a credit towards the March rates, youd probably come outa head paying the difference , rather then taking a $2000 loss, since you will end up spending the difference anyway on a cheaper Hotel in March. So the new hotel will have to be a great Hotel and cost well under $1600 for all the nights for it to work out cheaper then the SR would be
Hope the SR refunds you w/o simply giving you a credit towards a future stay
