Originally Posted by hcuk94 (Post 24954492)

Update! I heard back from the Director of Sales.
Obviously they won't guarantee anything, and they've reminded me that they're refurbishing currently so some rooms are out of action, and also that they do have many large corporate clients. However - they have said they will try their best to upgrade our Plat and Gold members if they can, AND - the important part - they've manually upgraded all of my upcoming stays to exec rooms - so I'm happy!

I consider that a reasonable result - I wasn't expecting to suddenly be treated like royalty, but to have their word that they'll try and to have all my upcoming stays upgraded was a pretty reasonable deal.

I guess I just got lucky in the other property where I've been upgraded on every stay (including 3-4 week stays) over the past year or two I've been staying there - this is probably more the norm.

Thanks all for your help and advice - very much appreciated and I think that was the right way to approach it. Cheers.

Originally Posted by jedicat666 (Post 24938314)

First off, I hope you've joined the "IHG® Business Rewards", it can potentially nett you alot of points as a corporate booking decisionmaker. Feasable for your particular situation or not, you need to investigate.

Secondly, im not sure about your friends/colleagues, but room upgrades are subject to the member's room only. And If I were you I would be bugged by the inconsistency of upgrade policy they are enforcing.

You should leverage your power as a valuable client (since you bring them so much business) , by talking about your negative upgrade experiences to someone with power (E.G Director of Sales to write an official email to reservation/frontdesk staff). (etc. loved the upgrade i was getting and proposed to my company to sign corporate rates, but now unhappy that not getting upgrade as plat at least for my own rooms)

Lastly, i've made it a habit to ALWAYS check my app for the next category and next next category room (from the one that i booked) before checking in anywhere. This has been my saving grace a couple of times, for example when i called out the frontdesk staff when she said that all suites were full for the Crowne Plaza Singapore, showed her the app that suites were available. And suddenly she said that a suite is free :)

Originally Posted by view-with-a-room (Post 24965542)

The online reservation system does not match reality, now and then. To "call out" the front desk staff is not an ideal situation. Note the availability of the room via the app prior to provide the staff an opportunity to accommodate. Upgrades are not at the full discretion of the front desk staff and side conversations with management are often involved with upgrades.

Originally Posted by hcuk94 (Post 24937115)

It makes sense from their point of view yes, I appreciate that.

However, other Holiday Inns don't do that, and given how much I'm spending with them it'd be nice if they'd honour it.

I could split the reservations and that would also work to my advantage in terms of welcome drink/points, but if I'm honest the standard rooms aren't /that/ bad that I'd go through that palaver!