sadiqhassan

I made a reservation the Alila Uluwatu for the end of August using points. I do not usually stay at Hyatt properties and so am not overly familiar with the program but found award availability for four nights (I had some flexibility with my dates). I transferred the points from my chase credit card and confirmed the reservation yesterday and then booked my flights and transport accordingly. Today I got an email stating

"Greetings from Alila Villas Uluwatu, Bali.
Kindly be advised that we will have a wedding buyout. Therefore, we are unable to confirm you reservation. Please accept our sincere apologies for the inconvenience that we have caused regarding the forced () buyout of the property, but we are seeking your kind understanding." (Emoji added by me)

I will book somewhere else but now I have 110,000 Hyatt points that I do not have much use for - I am posting mostly as a warning to others so that the same thing doesn't happen to them! I will see if they transfer my reservation to another Hyatt/Alila property but the other properties are all a lower category so would be cheaper to just rebook myself.

Gertjaars

Look at the recent posts on Alila Uluwatu regarding the bad experiences from weddings - that hotel is popular for 3+ weddings each day. On one hand, the hotel did you favor for not staying there during the wedding.

On the other hand, you can use those points at the other Bali Alila properties/SLH like Viceroy Bali etc.

steveholt

I'd file a complaint with Hyatt. You had a confirmed booking and the hotel isn't honoring it.

Kacee

Yep. The property should be rebooking you for free (i.e., full points refund) into another property.

Based on the recent cascade of negative reports here, did not consider this property for upcoming trip, and boy was that the right call.

sadiqhassan

Thanks - will reach out to Hyatt also. I had read the reports of the issues with regards to weddings and was not too bothered about the noise etc but I did not anticipate not being allowed to stay at all!

I would have expected that they would offer some sort of alternative but they did not except free breakfast if I choose to re-schedule. I am finding out if they can accommodate me at another hotel instead.

For sure! There are so many other great options in Bali and I have learned my lesson for next time. I am not sure if this is an isolated hotel specific issue or a Hyatt program issue but will be more cautious about transferring points to Hyatt in the future.

Kacee

It's extraordinarily rare. You didn't do anything wrong. It's just very poor conduct by the property.

MSPeconomist

The hotel shouldn't be allowed to cancel an confirmed reservation with no compensation or penalty. The offer of free breakfast if you rebook for a later date is nothing. Bali isn't like a weekend road trip that you can easily reschedule for some other date.

Ghoulish

Well, free breakfast might change that calculation, lol.

Matt4200

This had me falling out my chair laughing!

I’ve never seen a case where someone is re-accommodated prior to the stay dates AND fully refunded.

It’s basically the same scenario as showing up and being told they’re sold out, despite having a reservation. Their obligation is to re-accommodate you, but not to re-accommodate you AND refund you. That’s just ludicrous.

Hyatt May throw in 5-10k points as a gesture of goodwill for the poor experience, but I would definitely not expect or even think that the 110k points would be refunded and basically a free 4 day vacation provided as compensation.

Aventine

Definitely escalate to Consumer Affairs. Property shouldn’t be doing this and promising free breakfast as compensation.

hotturnip

When I worked at Hyatt lo-these-many-years-ago, we backed out about 100 reservations. It was a screwup by "those .......s in Sales," as my boss used to refer to them. They had overcommitted the hotel on rooms for those dates, and one group was less important (and had incredibly cheap rates). But we at least placed them all at a nearby hotel at the same rate. "Hey, we're not honoring your confirmed reservation. You're on your own," is not acceptable.

skj

This may be "extraordinarily rare" but it's certainly not unheard of. There are multiple reports of reservations being cancelled on relatively short notice at VBS due to corporate or wedding buyouts. This also happened at other properties when they offered "bubbles" to sports teams during the height of the pandemic. Unfortunately, the only accommodation I recall seeing was moving the reservation to a different date.

just2010just

You were right in this case there will not be a refund and re-accommodate. However, in case of a sold out situation (and guests being walked), most chain hotels' policy is to re-accommodate AND refund.

CLEguy

Push for reaccommodation at Amankila.

stargold

They should just re-brand themselves "Alila Weddings Uluwatu" and be done with it. Let's drop the pretense that this is still somehow a luxury property.

As mentioned by someone further up, I had the most incredible experience with a wedding taking place there for several hours, which could be seen and heard clearly and loudly from the Six Senses that I was staying at, nearly 1km away from the Alila.

It's not ideal if you were looking for a private villa experience, and arguably a step down in terms of level of luxury, but I had a great experience at the Andaz in the standard suite if you were looking for WoH alternatives.