Originally Posted by
jeffandnicole
Long answer short: Yes, you're being unreasonable to request a monetary refund.
Long answer:
It's an unfortunate chain of events, but some things you did, along with some assumptions you made, didn't help matters.
You said when you got to the room it was hot, and you made several phone calls to the front desk, then to room service. I'm not sure if the front desk was in another country, but how hard would it have been to personally walk down to the front desk? I would've done that immediately, or after the first phone call. Heck, by doing it immediately, with your luggage in hand, may have been a better way to get to another room. Instead, you constantly waited on them to bring you stuff, which is always going to be time consuming.
You also said you made the reservation 2 weeks prior, with a confirmation 1 week prior. But what if that large group made their reservations 6 months ago? That certainly trumps your 2 weeks-in-advance reservation. It's doubtful they just walked in off the street. Sure, the clerk you spoke with (did you actually talk to the front desk a week prior, or did you talk to a general reservation line?) shouldn't have made a promise they couldn't keep, but that unfortunately happens often. While not specific to this case, overbooking is a form of a promise that possibly can't be kept, although it happens often and is often an accepted part of traveling even though most people don't care for it. Heck, when it comes to airlines, some people actually do hope for it in a way to get a free future flight!
When you decided to leave, did you talk to the hotel about alternative lodging, or did you just leave? If you simply left, you chose to do that on your own. Technically, your first hotel has no responsibility to refund you anything, but clearly they were aware of your reasons which were justified and did refund you the points. If you asked the front desk to locate an alternative hotel for you (such as the one that would have sent over the crib), you would've had a lot more leverage on what you would need to pay, if anything.
But then you chose a hotel on your own. There may have been hotels that would've charged $100, or $300, but you chose to stay in a hotel that cost you $600. No one has any obligation to refund you money that you chose to spend.
Basically, now you're saying you want to pay for lodging you didn't use, and get a refund for lodging you did use. That in no way makes any sense.
Sorry to hear about your experience, and with a baby it makes everything all the more hectic and inconvenient. But in no way should you be refunded the cash. If you complain and they do it, consider it a huge Christmas gift.
Yes, I make sure I actually talk to the front desk whenever I call. How hard is it to have a known quantity of cribs and allocate them on a first-come-first-serve basis? All the front agent could have said when I called about the crib was "Unfortunately, all of our cribs are showing reserved" and we would have brought our own.
When I made the first request to another hotel, the front desk agent said she'd move us to another room but didn't have a crib. At that point, I made the decision to leave. I called the Hilton property less than a mile down the road and they were booked full.
The next comparable hotel (same brand, same city, same room type) was the one we ended up at. The rate at the second hotel has no bearing on this. It's not like I left a Hampton and checked into a Waldorf.
The long day, cranky infant, and hot room caused me to lose my cool and I left. I'm beginning to see that full reimbursement of the room rate is unreasonable, but I still think something on top of the points is due.