OsakaWino

This is a rant on my personal experience, which might be a one-off. It might not be that relevant to others, so feel free to skip it.

We were booked for 2 nights as a GoH. Arrived at 1 pm on Sun, expecting that the room would not yet be available, but looking to get the paperwork done and then go out until around 5 pm. Got out of the taxi and the doorman offers me an umbrella; have no idea why, since the weather was fine and we were headed into the hotel. He says they will take care our bag (I glance back at the taxi trunk to make sure it is empty) and escorts us to the lobby, where he says to take a seat and someone will be with us shortly.

We sit and wait. The lobby is not very busy, just one couple who seem to be waiting for their room and another than seem to have already checked-out. Staff at the 2 counters also do not seem too busy, mostly helping guests with packages their sending home.

After 20 minutes I realize that the doorman likely did not tell any of the front staff that we were waiting so no one is going to check us in! I go up to one of the counters, where there are 2 staff, one Asian and one Caucasian, not doing anything and I say I want to check in. The Asian staff looks at me and says, “I’m sorry, I don’t speak Japanese”. This really caught me off-guard; I read and write English everyday but often go months at a time without actually conversing in English. I was so nonplussed that I did not say anything for a moment and she immediately said she would get someone who speaks Japanese and rushed off. Well fine, I return to my seat and wait.

After a few minutes someone comes out and takes my name and goes for the paperwork. Comes back a few minutes later with the registration form. I sign it and give here my cc and she goes back to the counter. While we’re waiting I check Hyatt.com to see what room types are available, and see that although there is no suite, there is a Deluxe King. We wait more than 5 minutes for her to come back; it has now been about 40 min since we arrived.

She comes back and says our room is ready, and I ask her what room type it is. She says it is a King and I ask if there is no upgrade available. She says they could give us a Garden Terrace, but we would have to wait. I ask about the Deluxe King. She goes back to check and comes out to say no. I show her my phone showing that is available on Hyatt.com and she goes to check again. She comes back to say their system shows no availability and I stress that it can be booked on Hyatt.com. She checks again and says they are planning to do some “gardening work” outside the room so she cannot give it to me for both nights, but we could switch rooms if we want. I say if we are going to switch rooms, then how about switching between a suite, which is showing availability for one night, and the other room. She replies that she can’t give us the suite because I’m an Explorist. I explain that since this is a GoH booking, the upgrade should be the same as a Globalist. She appears clueless and I get exasperated and ask here to get a manager.

After 10 min a “Rooms Assistant Manage” comes out. We’ve now been here for 60 min. She apologizes for staff not realizing I was a Globalist and I say that I’m not, but the reservation is a GoH booking. She goes to check on that and comes back to say they have no record of that and asks if I have a printout of my confirmation. It is in my bag, which the doorman has. She asks what my bag looks like and tell her. In any case, I corresponded several times with a “Rooms Host” and clearly stated that it was GoH and he added my own WoH No., since it was not on the GoH booking. She goes back to her counter for a while and finally comes out and says they have confirmed with central reservations that it GoH.

So now I ask about the Deluxe King. I show her my phone showing that it available on Hyatt.com and she asks if I have refreshed it. I think that maybe they have taken it out while we are talking, but I refresh and it still shows up. She takes my phone and refreshes it herself and it still shows. She ask us to wait a bit and offers a beverage. Finally she comes out and says they can give us the Deluxe King but it will not be ready until 6 pm. I say fine, since we’re going out.

Total time taken for all this was 90 minutes. In hindsight I would not do it again, but once I got to fighting for the upgrade it was difficult to stop. I naively thought there might be some sort of apology for all this in the form of a half-bottle of champagne or at least a note from someone, but nothing at all.