MSPeconomist

Of course it's standard when someone wants to check in EARLY. However, the OP was attempting to check in LATE, many hours AFTER the hotel's check in time. Making the reservation for two days rather than one when the OP just needed a room from about 1 am (probably about ten hours after the hotel's check in time) would not have helped. The reservation would have been cancelled for a no show when the OP failed to arrive by checkout time of the first day, probably about fifteen hours before the OP planned to arrive. Making the reservation for a first check in time almost forty hours before you will actually arrive would have made the probability of actually getting the room upon arrival much lower, namely roughly zero.

m0hamed

You clearly don't understand how this works.

OP wants to arrive on Sunday morning at 1AM. Solution is to rebook Saturday night, tell the hotel such, as well as book Sunday night. The room would not have been given up in this circumstance.

Past midnight is an early checking, not a late arrival.

m0hamed

You clearly don't understand how this works.

OP wants to arrive on Sunday morning at 1AM. Solution is to rebook Saturday night, tell the hotel such, as well as book Sunday night. The room would not have been given up in this circumstance.

Past midnight is an early checking, not a late arrival.

jmastron

Unless I'm reading a very different OP than you, the OP did exactly what you said -- booked Saturday night, arriving at 1AM Sunday morning, which is indeed a "late" arrival (as guaranteed by the reservation). He booked exactly the day that he meant to and should have.

My minimum expectation if a hotel walked me (absent additional benefits due to status) is: An equivalent hotel as close as possible, fully paid transportation to and from, no charge from either hotel for at least the first night, and flexibility for a multi-night stay -- if I book 2 nights in order to get ready for an event in the middle of the day, for example, and they are moving me back to the booked hotel, they need to coordinate so I can move immediately (either a late checkout or early checkin) at a time convenient to me.

Happy

I think you clearly dont understand what OP's booking is - he booked a Saturday night and had a very late arrival. He PREPAID his stay so his night should have been PROTECTED - it is not just having a CC guarantee which should protect the room, but he actually PREPAID it already.

Talk about Not Understand how it works - may be you need to re-read what OP has said...

My speculation is the hotel sold his room but tried to tell him it was a maintenance issue. Many hotels would try to sell rooms on late arrival thinking they can pocket the money twice.

In our travels (all personal) we have had many situations we would arrive hotel very late - I always contact hotels multiple times via emails to make sure they acknowledge the late arrivals so to hopefully avoid situation like this from happening. On occasions our originally booked rooms were indeed gone, but with the exchanges of emails, inevitably we were put in an much upgraded rooms instead of being walked.

Doc Savage

No, YOU don't understand. The OP wants to stay Saturday night only, but check in at 1 am Sunday morning, checking out at 11 am Sunday morning. The hotel gave away his room for Saturday night.

travelswithmyself

Actually, the hotel said his room was flooded and that they didn't have another. Not quite the same thing, if true.

Doc Savage

I've got some oceanfront property in Nebraska for sale, too. Interested?

sbrower

I am sure you are right. There has NEVER been a damaged hotel room.

Cathay Boy

Takes a lot of balls to have no idea what you're talking about and claiming everyone is wrong. Please reread OP and try again.

MSPeconomist

Of course I understand how it works, despite two identical posts claiming otherwise.

OP made a reservation for Saturday night and arrived at a 1m Sunday morning to learn that he/she was being walked. This was not a case of trying to check in very early for a reservation but rather of arriving well after the hotel's check in time to learn that there was no room for the OP.

Your earlier assertion that the solution would have been to reserve Friday night would not have helped at all.

neuron

Welcome to FT and sorry to hear about the issues, but for several parts, it looks like the hotel dropped the ball. While it sounds like the GM tried to be helpful by giving you a lift, as MSPEcon mentioned, it was probably outside protocol (though they also prob wanted to save money by using a DIY approach). A walk usually means you will get the night comped, but yes, a Days Inn is subpar to Aloft.

KENNECTED offers some good advice and I will add some more notes below:

You may not receive anything (aside from your hotel comp) but they may offer some goodwill points. If you had to use transportation in the morning to your workplace which was close to your original hotel, you can ask for that to be reimbursed, but there is no guarantee of getting that back. To elaborate on KENNECTED's question on "what would make you happy", it is better to making an explicit (and brief) comment like an apology, goodwill points, taxi cost, how the hotel would handle the situation in the future.....

You can also mention that there are 3 other major hotels within a block of the Aloft - Homewood suite, Holiday Inn Express and Hampton Inn - and if the hotel even bothered to check those. Given you wanted to be in the area, they would have been derelict in duty if they did not check these hotels.

Going forward, if you are late (and know you will be), call ahead to try and protect your room by telling them you will arrive late. As others mentioned, if you are walked, ask which hotel you are going to, how far, is this the most comparable hotel available. Most times, when people arrive late, they are a bit discombobulated and just want a bed, while the front desk just wants to get rid of an irritated guest who is being bumped. A few minutes to sort things out may be worth the hassle (and probably same time as it takes to get to the new hotel).

I would not give up on SPG just yet. Hopefully you will get a favorable resolution to the matter. No program is perfect but compared to IHG, I find SPG to be much better.




I have met MSPEconomist and I would strongly note to you that MSPEconomist does not how it works. In fact, better than most on FT, which is already a travel-savvy group.


Your point about booking an extra night to get the room the OP wanted is non-sensical. Based on the first post, the OP traveled on Monday Aug 18th and arrived at DFW around midnight. Its about 30 minutes to the hotel, so OP would have arrived around 12:30-ish on Aug 19th.
The OP booked for arrival on Aug 18th and likely got to the hotel on Aug 19th. Your suggestion of booking for Aug 17-18th as insurance does not help the situation. In fact, if OP booked Aug 17-19th, they would have cancelled the whole reservation when the OP did not show up on the 17th.

SPG reservations now also include a time when the guest expects to arrive (early checkin - as early as 7am, as well as late checkout - as late as 4pm), in addition to the note section where one can include a late arrival. I have done that before, esp if the city is expecting high occupancy due to large conventions and have had staff indicate that the requests I made in the comment section have been noted.



From my experiences, I prefer Alofts over 4Pts, maybe its just that the Alofts are still new, but the ones I have been in have been nicer/cleaner than the 4Pts (though I try to avoid 4Pts if I can).

craz

Ive had that happen at 1 of my reg hotels that I stay at and they were down 6+ rooms because of it. When I showed up at 2am they already removed my res = they thought I wasnt coming and didnt process it as a no-show due staying with them so often. When I walked in they werent happy as they had to walk me and they didnt want to do that either.

OP SPG has in place what a person who is walked is entitled to, and yes its vased on what if any status a person has. eg a Plat 1- still receives their welcome gift and pts as if they indeed stayed there,2- gets a stay credit,3- isnt charged for that night by either hotel,4- if needed gets a ride to/from the new prop (taxi or whatever)., the # of pts it takes for a free night in that hotel eg a Cat 3 means 7k being put into ones acct

Not sure what a Preferred gets but Im sure not everything that a Plat does (besides no welcome gift) I believe thats why they ended up paying for your cab the next day. So if it was a cat3 dont expect 20k in pts thats even if a Preferred is entitled like a Plat to that benefit. SPG (the Hotel) doesnt have to give you anything that they arent required to. Its sort of like a flight being oversold and no one willing to volunteer, the last people checking in are SOL and may not get a flight till late the next day and instead of 1st class its a middle seat in Coach

OP why not simply call up SPG and ask what if anything is a Preferred member entitled to if they are Walked. As for a DI well if everything is booked out then thats that. I had afull service Sher want to put me into a Red Roof since thats all thatw as available in the area when I said hey I have a car whats available within say a 20 min drive they booked me into a FS Hilton. another time I had a 20 min drive to a Super8 since everything else was booked and I needed to be back in the area early the next day

OP did you call any of the other nearby hotels to see if they were available?; In all my Walks I wasnt the only person walked so by the time I arrived they pretty much knew what was and what wasnt available

jabbered

I've stayed in a Days Inn before that I much prefer over an Aloft in the same area.


Late at night would be a good chance of a flooded room unless a pipe bursts.

GSSmith

I was walked recently and though I wasn't thrilled at the time, calling SPG got things handled with the Plat benefits that craz mentioned (and they seemed genuinely bothered that one of their properties walked a Plat).