Originally Posted by
hotturnip
Hmmm. I didn't realize this.
If the hotel was unwilling or unable to provide a cash refund, they should have provided a letter or voucher for a free night's stay. Whatever it takes to give the guest the first night free (or equivalent).
Just as an aside, if you're ever walked on a Priceline or other pre-paid reservation, I would ask for points equivalent to one night's stay. They don't even know how much you paid, so they can't refund it. With PL or HW you can subsequently ask for a first night refund directly from them as well. But in a package deal as described by the OP, I doubt AAVacations would be willing or able to separate out the room rate.
I would add that AAVacations response is equally unacceptable. It wouldn't matter if the hotel had walked them to the St. Regis or another hotel that was equivalent or better to the 4 Seasons. The fact is, they were WALKED. Their PRE-PAID reservations were not honored. Both the hotel and AAVacations should not be brushing this off as a minor inconvenience.
Walks happen, even in luxury hotels. The issue is how the hotel should handle it.
OP should look at the AAVacations contract to check whether it's Four Seasons or has some "or alternative hotel" language and exactly what that language says. If the GM is adamant that the Marquis (is this a former Marriott Marquis?) is equivalent, I wonder whether this is actually true is some Mexico hotel classification system and if so, whether the contract allows some other hotel of the same category as the Four Seasons. Often packages and package tours done have ironclad guarantees about where one will stay. IMO it's one (of many) reasons to avoid all such packages and either book through the hotel/chain or through luxury level real live human TAs such as Virtuoso and AmEx FHR that will go to bat for their customers (unlike AAVacations) when problems arise.