Originally Posted by
rfrost
A quick update to the above post re the Savoy. I mentioned when I checked out how disappointed I was with my treatment, and that, while I would still return from time to time, I would not be staying as frequently as in the past. I don't know if it was as a result of that conversation, but my next stay was as good as any during my FPC days: room ready on my early arrival, even though I'd said it wasn't necessary, warm welcomes from many staff members, welcome note and amenity in the room. I suspect, though, that it was all due to the fact that I've probably stayed there 45 -50 times since the hotel reopened, rather than to my Accor Platinum status. On the subject of which, my sole disappointment was the arrangements made for the much-vaunted Accor Plat welcome drink--in a hotel renowned for (among other things) its bars, the welcome drink is not poured there, but is instead delivered to one's room, and IIRC is chosen from a list of only 2 wines and a number of non-alcoholic choices.
While my stay several weeks ago at the Savoy, described above, was indeed lovely, my stay this week was not.
I'd requested (via Moncton, when I applied my last room upgrade cert) early checkin. The room was not ready when I arrived shortly after noon (well, it's not guaranteed, right?); the receptionist offered to "prioritize" housekeeping (with a request on file, shouldn't it already have been prioritized?), but I told her not to bother, as I had to be somewhere around 2 pm, and figured I might as well go to lunch then, but that I'd be back sometime between 4:30-5. I requested that my bags, which I left, be placed in the room when it was ready. I returned to the hotel in that timeframe, picked up my keys from the receptionist, who assured me, in response to my query, that the bags had been delivered to the room, declined her offer to accompany me, as I do know my way around the hotel, and went upstairs. No bags anywhere to be seen.
That set the tone for the stay--wrong toiletries in the room until they were partially replaced my second day, non-working electrical outlet in the room (one of the only 2 reachable without climbing behind the furniture) and a 40-minute checkout (matching my 40-minute checkin the one time I stayed at an Ibis courtesy of BA)--charged for a breakfast that I didn't eat, missing credit for a positive balance in my account from a gift card I had used on my last stay (for some years I'd been just allowing anything left on a gift card to be held in my account for the next stay, as it took them forever to issue a new gift card, which the first receptionist wrongfully claimed been credited to my CC, during which the second receptionist told me that it was an Accor rule that gift cards had to be entirely consumed during that stay, which of course was utter nonsense, as a week earlier I'd used only a portion of a gift card at the Scottsdale Princess and was directly contradictory of my discussion upon checking out from that prior stay).
To be sure, I experienced the occasional Fairmont service blip over the years, but taken in the aggregate, these were more than disappointing, and certainly, more fitting for a low-end Hilton or Four Points than for the Savoy. I had purchased several GCs in the last 2 sales, thinking that I would use them at the Savoy, which has been my favorite London hotel for years (I don't think it's the best, but the history, location, and thoughtful service I received there as a frequent guest made it a no-brainer choice for me). Even with an ideal location for someone like me who spends half her London time at the Royal Opera House, I am not interested in staying at an Ibis d/b/a The Savoy. I don't have any plans to be anywhere else near a Fairmont in the foreseeable future, so am not quite sure what to do now...