Points Surfer

In contrast to IC Shanghai .... we just finished a stay at IC Toronto Center on a Bogo this St.Patricks Day weekend. They were very busy but I was still aiming for a room with a parlor but best upgrade was two King rooms with a connecting door so (2) mini-bars. Then moved to another 2-room King set-up on the second night with another (2) mini-bars so thats (4) fully stocked mini-bars in two nights.

IC Toronto Center encourages you to "enjoy the RA benefit" entirely guilt free. Didn't clean them out but didn't run out of favorites either so used maybe $100 at cost worth from the (4) mini-bars but left the IC with a $950 spend overall so the point is happy guests tend to spend more at the real bar, restaurant,spa etc. Unhappy guests cost far more than a few bottles of juice/pop/booze.

This IC encourages RA guests to enjoy their benefits and "celebrate the reward" as the PCR Customer Service manual states. Excellent concierge staff at IC Toronto Center...really go out of their way to make you're stay enjoyable whether RA or Amb and give you a reason to go back.

scienm

The Ambassador Services replied to me.

'We were informed by the InterContinental Shanghai Expo that no empty bottles were found in your room and that the total amount of your consumed beverages did not tally to be consumed for personal consumption.'

It's horrible. The hotel did count empty bottles to check on my consumption of the mini-bar. More horrible thing is, the hotel informed to IHG that there were no empty bottles at all.

Fortunately, I have a picture of the second night, drinking moment.
There are many bottles of alcohol, sodas and a cheese plate by In-Room Dining in the picture of the ROOM.

I sent an email again with the picture to get an apology from both the hotel and the ambassador services. Apologies are all I want to get from them.

From now on, RAs should be careful about numbers between consumption and empty bottles.

TheBeerHunter

That is completely insane. Counting empties in your trash? Seriously?!

Tell them you don't trust the hotel to do proper recycling and so you took your recycling away with you.

I seriously want to go empty the minibar here and present them with a bag full of rubbish on checkout!

scienm

Surprisingly, they did. And I think they will continue to do it.

But I'm not sure whether another ICs are doing it also or not.

tangey

I'm sure somewhere they are covered by terms and conditions but it seems, at the least, unsettling, that a hotel feels it is ok to report your alcohol consumption levels to what is,effectively a 3rd party (I assume the hotel in question is not actually owned by IHG but is a franchise).

Or what about if your partner "took" the bottles, unknown to you, and now the hotel has been the instigator of a family squabble.

Or what if the staff checked you are an RA and took them ?

jpdx

The whole "we went through your trash and counted bottles" thing isn't just offensive, but it also doesn't work in practice. Most ICs I've stayed at will have trash emptied at evening turndown, and then housekeeping will refresh the room in the morning, usually long before the minibar guy shows up. It's hard to imagine any hotel could come up with an accurate count of beverages consumed unless they devote serious resources (i.e., a minibar detective who snoops through rooms and makes sure all bottles are accounted for; training sessions for housekeeping; etc). If a hotel does indeed devote such resources, I would question the mental health of the management in charge. Otherwise, they make serious accusations without accurate data, which seems even more insane!

offerendum

That´s the point! Very often, staff takes out empty bottels, when they are in the room. OK, ít can´t explain an empty minibar, but I whould with pleasure pay the double price for an hotel, that don´t treat me like a criminal. I´m so tired bagging for upgrades and privilegues They must learn one thing: If their weren´t the upgrades and the free minibar, I whouldn´t stay in very much IC´s

FlyerTalker688786

I do not agree with most of people here. Frankly I think this is bound to happen. There are few RAs selling their invitations online, and then there are few RAs take the entire minibar home with refills...

So should hotels tolerate bad customer behaviour or should customer change their bad behaviour?

I beg most of you here changing your attitude towards this issue. I know many of you are good customers, like me, never abuse the system. But, let us face it, if we want the free minibar policy continuing, or the minibar still stocks premium drinks for us, we HAVE to have good behaviour. Under the pressure from hotel operators, IHG have to take consideration to crack down minibar usage abuse. As someone above mentioned that some premium alcohol drinks are expensive in certain countries. I have been in ICs where the one minibar stock revenue is almost 1.5 times of the room revenue. If the pressure mounts, IHG have to take notice and maybe change the policy of free minibar usage. That would be a sad day for most of the RAs.

Many asks the question whether IHG or hotels have the right to count your empty bottles. Yes they do. And i believe OP has been targetted as a frequent stayer in that hotel. The hotel must have very hard evidence in order to send OP the email. It is their right to contact you if they thinks you have been over the line. I hope more of us to realise that if we like the benefits and hope it exists, we should be more thankful and not to blame the business operator without realising who is paying for the benefits. Still, I believe the email was sent after very careful consideration from IHG.

CokeandTaco

I am sure if this had occurred at other IC's the many RA's on FT would have already posted their experiences. Hopefully this will not be a new policy going forward....

You may want to include the responses from AMB services in your follow-up emails to the GM/Hotel....

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On another note....is it known who (Hotel/IHG/AMB Services/Priority Club) actually pays for the RA Minibar benefit?

AJLondon

Wow. That is diabolically poor. Both from the hotel and also from the agent who had the missing brain cells to type that out and send to a RA.


One hotel I shall certainly stay away from.

MrHalliday

... ahhh... but this IS PRC, so..

Doc Savage

How tacky can a company be? This is certainly above average tackiness.

How can they prove the staff didn't imbibe, etc. ?

scienm

Are you serious? The hotel notified to IHG that there was NO empty bottles in my room. That means I took everything away from the hotel and it makes me so bad customer.

I know there are customers with bad behaviour but it's not the point of this thread. You're losing the point.
The problem is that I consumed the mini-bar in my room but the hotel notified to IHG with wrong informations.

Does it means I'm liying?
Also, It was my first time to stay at IC Shanghai EXPO. I've never stayed at this hotel before.

scienm

That's what I'm talking about. At least, the Ambassador Services should have been more careful to send an email like that to their most royal customers.

midnight

I am not shocked or offended about the hotel checking the bin for empty bottles.

They don't do it under normal circumstances, only if the mini bar has been wiped out.

There would be no hunt for a murder weapon if no murder took place .