ricohitman

I have a stash of suite upgrades that I am burning through so I reserved an Ocean Front Balcony Suite over a month ago.

UAPremierGuy

Stayed here for 1 night using a Cat 1-4 Cert and was upgraded to the Miami Suite as a Globalist.

MarkOK

Nice. I stayed at the top floor Miami suite a few years ago, and found it to be very nice for a TSU-upgradable suite for the family. You miss out on the beach view, but true separate bedroom, the living room can easily enough accomodate a roll-away bed, there is a small table for eating at, enough windows on two different sides of the building for a cross breeze, and the views west are nice in their own right (and when airplane traffic goes East-to-west, decent plane spotting).

craz

So why did you make your 1st post? If you are using an upgrade that was already processed, you wont run into "sorry we are soldout and cant offer any upgrades", if it ha sto do with the so called Welcome Gift that AFAIK never existed anyways, nothing to worry about if told you are getting it just ignore it, you arent.

ricohitman

I'm saying I don't want a bad experience. I wasn't referring to anything in particular. Why do you ask rhetorical questions?

craz

The only "bad experiences" that gldbld spoke about was 1- being lied to that the hotel was soldout and therefore no upgrades being available, which doesnt pertain to you, and 2nd about a Welcome Gift being sent to their room, which again doesnt pertain to you since at this hotel there is no such creature

I guess we can debate #2 which wouldnt bother me if the FD person didnt know what they were talking about and offered something that shouldnt have been. All i would do is as gldbld did and say No Thx and make sure mgmt knows what transpired w/o any compensation to me , just so that the same mistake isnt made to someone else

Now if you end up being downgraded at checkin thats something else but I wouldnt expect that to happen unless youre the last person checking in for that type of room and the last room left is no longer able to be given eg the bathroom flooded and the place is a mess. Personally I never worried about that with any of my countless stays every year. So I just dont understand why you said you hope that you dont get the same experience when you arent in the same pair of shoes

coleslaw

If the staff are lying about availability then it’s very possible they’ll lie about other stuff too. Likewise, if they’re not communicating with each other about welcome amenitities that don’t exist and are giving guests the run around (/asking them to wait and never following through) then it’s very possible they’ll do the same for other situations too.

saying “oh you’ve got an upgrade so you shouldn’t worry about the staff being incompetent or anything” is probably missing the point a little.

craz

Ive been there numerous times now both as an Explorist and Globalist and never once was a Welcome Gift mentioned. Could be the csr is new and had worked for Marriott where they were used to giving Welcome Gifts to Elites. It was no doubt a one off

What other stuff can they lie about? But in my book any Lie is 1 lie too many, no matter how minor the item is! and no reason at all to lie.And Ive gotten the LIE that we are soldout the dates you are with us from not only this hotel, but from IHGs,Hiltons and Marriott hotels as well. I usually answer when told they dont care for that part of the program, I dont see anyone holding a gun to the owners head that this hotel MUST be a part of the chain, why doesnt this Hotel just Deflag

coleslaw

I think this is a Hyatt owned property, so it would be a little odd if it reflagged and changed to a Marriott

craz

Not really, a few years ago (maybe still today) Hilton owned SPGs and SPGs owned Hiltons, I believe the same was true with all 4 majors owning hotels in the other programs.

ChurnieEls

Which makes it all the more infuriating that F&B doesn't accrue WoH points, particularly when one spends a thirsty day by the pool bar!

The check sleeves from the pool bar even advertise the damn program!

craz

Is this the case with all Unbound Collection hotels? or just this Hotel?

River in Sight

I guess it varies, I believe I've always gotten a small welcome gift while staying here, typically a selection of chocolates but I also found this in my files. Certainly could be that it's been discontinued lately.

I think it's a solid property & agree with MarkOK's assessment above.

craz

OK having rethought it thru, I only started staying here this past winter, so could be before Covid they did give out the Gifts. But in my case my history goes back 6 moinths, doesnt explain how an old time employee would make a mistake and offer something that hasnt been offered in some time, maybe they havent been working since Covid. But it does leave a bad impression, but to me That they Lied about no upgrades being available is worse.

MarkOK

Yeah, I've gotten gifts here in the past - chocolates, if I recall right. Never any wine, though I've seen them deliver a similar spread to craz's post to other rooms, and wondered who is getting the wine! (which I'd prefer).

Last winter, they gave nothing when the globalist lounge was open, but were giving a voucher for a couple free drinks at the bar -- I stayed one day past the closing of the lounge, and made a point of giving me the drink voucher my last day still. Others I think reported the vouchers as well.

Maybe like lots of things about this property, the key word is inconsistency.