Originally Posted by
FlyingQuant
My wife and I stayed for 5 nights at the end of August. I'm a Platinum Ambassador (not Royal). I'd expected a one category room upgrade, so booked an Atrium Suite expecting an upgrade to a Villa.
When we arrived they apologized that an upgrade was not possible to a Villa due to room availability, but said they would give me a 15% discount on food instead. I was disappointed. I checked on the internet and there was villa availability, so I went back to reception to ask why they said there was no availability. The receptionist spoke to a manager, who came out and explained that it was their policy never to upgrade to villas. I didn't manage to get an answer as to why they told me initially it was an availability thing.
The manager said it was okay, because I would get a 15% discount on food instead of an upgrade. I asked if I would have been upgraded to an Atrium Suite if I had booked the category of room directly below. The manager said yes. I pointed out that my room rate would have been over USD 100 per night less if I'd booked the lower category of room, and that I would need to spend USD 700 per day on food for the discount to be equivalent!
They thought about this, and then agreed to downgrade my reservation one room category (saving USD 102 per night), and then upgrade my room back to the atrium suite. So I ended-up with a rate downgrade rather than a room upgrade. Which from my perspective was an acceptable outcome. Disappointing that they don't do villa upgrades as part of the Ambassador programme.
Well done you avoided a crafty trap that I am 100% sure that the manager who offered you a measly 15% discount (maybe worth $30/day if you spend $200/day as two of you) on food was very much aware of.
(And manager is also trying to tie you into eating all meals at the hotel with his 15% off, which a rate refund does not )
Where an IC can not (or in this case will not) provide the "Guaranteed Upgrade" the Ambassador program provides, my position and expectation is that the IC must refund the difference in price between booked room , and price of room that would upgrade to booked room.
Having been caught in the act so to speak, I think the manager had no choice but to refund the $100/night. In hindsight the manager may rather have kept your $510 and given you a Villa, but manager could hardly change his stance at that point.