Originally Posted by
Markie
The Andaz may be open, pretty much everything in London is closed now.
Nope, I just got a virtually identical email from the Andaz cancelling my booking there.
I shall now attempt to explain what I thought many posters above already knew. Unlike the airlines who act like the oligopolists they are, upscale and luxury hotels usually maintain a good sense of customer service even in tough situations.
For example, I would not have expected these London hotels, when block cancelling reservations, to simply refer the guests they are abandoning to a res center in Chicago, Illinois. Hyatt central reservations is highly unlikely to be of any help whatsoever in finding an available room that is not in their computer system. At the very least, these general managers (who know the local market) should have offered their assistance upon request. The GMs did not do this; in fact, they did not include their contact information. Of course, I know how to find this information but most customers do not. If the GMs wished to go a step further, they could have easily blocked some rooms at a fair rate at hotels that were going to remain open. And there are things beyond that should have been offered to regular guests.
None of this happened. I am not looking to take undue advantage. But all of us who were unceremoniously dumped without recourse should have been, and could have been, treated better.
This is a good time for me to stop posting on this thread, so I will except to respond to any remaining factual questions.