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Old Oct 1, 2018, 10:36 am
  #98  
bhrubin
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Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Southern California, USA
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Originally Posted by kamel123
I am about to travel to Mauritius with my family, for 2 weeks, staying at Constance Le Prince Maurice, St Regis (using up my last SPG points), and One and Only Le St Geran.

St. Geran is a bucket-list place for me; I know a few people (of the old money/grande dame type) who stayed there 30 years ago. I always wanted to go there, and after their recent reopening, this seemed like a good opportunity.

The reservation process with St Geran has proven incredibly difficult though. Please see below what happened so far (sorry for the lengthy text). At this point, I am so frustrated that I am about to move my stay somewhere else. I feel foolish having to do a special effort on my side to even reserve with them.

What is your point of view: 1) Would you keep trying? How? ; or 2) If moving my stay, where?

This is the recount of the events:
All rooms regardless of size have a max. occupancy of 3 in the online booking system, so I was unable to book online with my 2 children. This is quite normal.

From there it went downhill: An e-mail reservation request to the hotel directly went unanswered for a few days. I then contacted One and Only central reservations, and I got a confirmation within a few hours. After that, I also got an offer from the hotel (days after I had already reserved). Even later, the hotel asked me again for all details I had already given to central reservations (names of travelers etc.).

Then, for some reason I received a second confirmation, which was wrong (4 nights instead of the 5 I had asked for). Not sure why, I never asked for 4 nights, I never changed my dates. I followed up, they had availability for the “additional” night, though, and I thought everything was fixed. I had to e-mail in a signed and scanned credit card form so they could charge the deposit (25%).

A few days ago, 6 months after the booking, they wanted to charge the remainder (they require payment in full 2 weeks before arrival), and the total was wrong, because in fact I was still booked for 4 nights. It took another two calls to the hotel to fix it.

Or so I thought. In the second call, the person confirmed that there is availability for the fifth night, and promised that I should receive a reservation confirmation. Instead, I received a message that they understand I want to extend for one night, and they need to check availability. ???

Not once during the process did I receive an apology. What I did receive though in the meantime was numerous messages attempting to upsell to half board, which I did not want.
At this point, I would call central reservations and insist that the General Manager of the property call you. I’d make it quite clear that the errors thus far are not acceptable and you’d like some gestures to both make up for those unacceptable mistakes and to assure you that your future stay will be to the highest standard. Depending on how aggravating this has been, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask for upgraded accommodation or even a free night. If the GM cannot provide reasonable assurance and/or compensation, or if the GM is not able to reach out, then I would cancel and extend my stays elsewhere.

Never force a stay. If it feels like it’s going to be bad, let them know how you feel, and why you’re feeling that. If they don’t make it up to you, don’t stay. If they do make it up to you, chances are better that they will take good care of you.
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