Originally Posted by
GLOOMER
The hotel is one of those who recently opened with a lot of non-working little things. In addition, for the first time, without my choice, they brought a plate of fruit to the room in advance. After complaining, they said it wasn't a welcome gift, then retroactively credited 500 points.
Sounds like they are trying to do right by you if they are sending you a fruit plate at a Residence Inn! That's pretty unusual for a RI.
It sounds like you wanted the points, in which case just ask for the points (and if they don't post, file a claim for them).
If instead you wanted a F&B amenity, and there was no market, it's hard to see how a fruit plate wouldn't count.
If what you really wanted was simply the choice -- so that you could then claim the compensation when it wasn't offered -- it doesn't sound like this is a particularly compelling case for it. There are plenty of properties that are malicious with noncompliance, and I encourage getting the compensation from them. But here it sounds like they are still learning... they were willing to give you the points, and the fact that they sent up a fruit plate (quite unusual -- I'm guessing this was outside the US) makes it sound like they're not just trying to screw you. If it is indeed a new property then it would not surprise me if they actually did not know/realize/understand that you were supposed to have a choice between points and F&B as a welcome gift.
In any event, for my "welcome gift" at a RI, I usually ask if there's bottled water in the room, and if not, I ask if I can just take a few bottles for the welcome gift. Usually 2+ bottles isn't a problem, some places limit to one.