Originally Posted by
danielonn
Either they upgrade you to a suite, book you at the Le Meriden, Plaza Hotel, Ritz Carlton or Four Seasons or refund your points and cover the cash amount per the hotel walk policy at a hotel of equal or more cost of a hotel of your choice and you get to keep the points. Its very bad business to downgrade you to another hotel of less value and a breach of contract to do so at the same point value as the same property.
The Hotel Concierge was obligated to contact you and inform you of your options rather than just automatically rebooking you at another hotel that is of less value.
Propose different options.
EDIT: Ignore the following. It applies to points redemption bookings made through More Rewards, which is not the case here.
This is not true.
Again: The booking was made through
More Rewards, a third party Southwest uses to sell hotel (and other) Rapid Rewards points redemptions.
It wasn't made directly with the hotel, so the "hotel walk" policy doesn't apply, and despite the claimed reason for the change, the hotel and/or the hotel concierge has no obligation to do anything at this point.
The booking is subject to the terms and conditions More Rewards stated when the booking was made. While I do not know what those terms are, they may very well say that hotel substitutions are allowed. I'll suggest -- again -- that the OP review those terms.
Southwest customer relations will just throw issues like these back to More Rewards, dismissing any responsibility they have to the customer. More Rewards are the only ones empowered to actually do anything about the situation.
With persistence, one may be able to get a Southwest customer relations phone rep to get a More Rewards rep on the phone, which might help. But that's about it with regards to Southwest's involvement.
Unfortunately, problems with More Rewards travel bookings are a common complaint.