Smoking preference guarantee
 

Some time back, I booked a smoking room at an IHG hotel in London for next week. The booking was confirmed as smoking. Since then, it seems that the hotel has gone all non-smoking. I have had no contact from the hotel.

I seem to remember reading somewhere the IHG hotels are bound by the Ts & Cs to give the first night free if they don't honour the booked and confirmed smoking preference.

Does anyone know anything about this?

Where hotel no longer has smoking rooms available , I would not expect that .'guarantee' to a stay to apply or try to claim against the possible guarantee. As it is no longer a failure by hotel at checkin regards room.

I disagree. IHG's "Online Reservation Guarantee https://www.ihg.com/hotels/gb/en/cus...ith-confidence simply says that "Your room is guaranteed" and that it applies "If your reservation cannot be honoured..." but without listing any exclusions as to in which way(s) it isn't honoured. If the guarantee was just to provide any room for your stay, as you imply, and not to also honour the room type etc., then it should say so otherwise it's rather unfair.

So if I had a confirmed reservation for a smoking room, and the hotel could no longer honour my booking for a smoking room, then I'd certainly be looking to invoke the guarantee and expecting them to find me a smoking room elsewhere. At the very least they could have contacted you in advance about their move to all non-smoking rooms to discuss it with you and avoid any issues at check-in.

OP - did you definitely book a smooking room, not just a "Standard room" but with a non-guaranteed preference of smoking (as per your thread title), and has the room type in your reservation since been modified to a non-smoking one?

Yes, I definitely booked a smoking room. The reservation clearly states "Two Single Beds Smoking". It has not (yet) been changed. I do have a screenshot of the confirmation in case there is any attempt to change it.

That's good, though it's odd that your booking is still showing a Smoking room so near to your booking if they no longer exist at that hotel. Which hotel is it and what makes you believe they've since changed to all non-smoking?

Holiday Inn Heathrow M4/J4.

When I go in to try a dummy booking on the app, I see the message "This is a non-smoking hotel".

Yes it indeed now appears to be all non-smoking, and looks like this follows a refurbishment program.Interesting scenario since you've still got a booking for a smoking room. Maybe you should contact the hotel beforehand just to confirm that you still want a smoking room and then see what they say and whether they'll attempt to find you a smoking room elsewhere.

Thanks for the advice. This is particularly annoying as I have a non-refundable booking and paid over the odds compared to similar hotels in order to get a smoking room.

Undoubtably a result of refurb of the 'smoking floor'. Smoking ends up permeating the entire room and floor, room carpets, curtains, walls etc, even the corridors on the floor. Fully refurbing a rooms is the only way to get back to the feel of a non-smoking room, and at that point hotels will these days mostly switch to a 100% non-smoking policy to pr.otect the investment in the refurb

UK is a predominantly (enacted by law) non smoking country in public spaces (hotels, bars count as public spaces), with some small exceptions, which currently includes restricted hotel areas (ie smoking floors) that hotels can optionally choose to have.

To be honest if stay is imminent, I am suprised hotel does not proactively contct guests with future smoking room res's. However very few guests will be aware of the room guarantee, and the free first night (room only cost of stay) only applies to 'smoking/non-smoking preference' and not to 'bed type/room-type' .
As many will be transit (LHR) guests on 1nighters, it is in hotels interest to contact guest, explain hotel is now 100% non-smoking and to cancel guests ADR booking. If guest wants to then confirm happy to stay in non-smoking room, hotel can modify booking to non-smoking, and the guarantee would no longer apply.

@The_Bouncer,
with a non-cancelable ADR, if you contact hotel, the hotel will agree to cancel your night without charge in a situation like this. However good luck trying to find another hotel with smoking room option, they are very few.

Glad you've changed your view and now agree that he guarantee applies in the OP's case, but where is it documented that the guarantee only applies to smoking preference and not also to bed/room type as both are an integral part of all IHG bookings - in fact the room type also confirms smoking or non-smoking - unless "Standard" or similar room type is booked where it clearly states that "smoking and bed type cannot be guaranteed...", so can equally be dis-honoured and therefore surely invoke the guarantee?

Thanks for the info, guys. I'm seriously struggling to find an alternative smoking room, so I might be forced to invoke the guarantee.

I have not changed my mind , the mention is only an internal guidelines , and does not form part of booking a rooms t+c

The only mention of first night is a very specific sentence (akin to list of bullet points) in IHGs walking-guests guidelines to hotels and is very specific in referring to smoking/non-smoking preference of a guaranteed reservation .
Documentation is not actually a guests guarantee but guidelines to IHG hotels on how to treat guests. Hotel manager could well refuse to grant OP a first night free if asked, especially as now 100% non-smoking rooms, and OP may need to write/email IHG customer care team post stay.

neither is the relevant 'guarantee' taken/available off of IHG hotel booking or IHG booking website, so a mute point about enforcability by a guest as the only mention is contained in IHGs internal (should be ) non-public documentation provided to hotels , in dealing with walking guests.

Be careful, this is not a guarantee, but purely regards IHG internal guidelines document, setting out responsibilities of hotel if for titled "dishonoured reservations" (apparently dealing with to walking guests only based on first paragraph and evey sentemce bar the smoking point ), it is an internal doc that joe public should not have access to so can't rely on. The doc we know of may have been superceded for all I know and no longer apply


DISHONOURED RESERVATIONS

In the event an overbooking occurs due to an unforeseen stay over or any other circumstance, and a room is not available to a guest holding a reservation (prior to 16.00h), or a guaranteed reservation, the hotel must do the following:

etc etc
• If a hotel does not deliver the guaranteed reserved and confirmed smoking/non smoking preference, the hotel must provide the guest with their first night’s stay free (room only).
etc etc

This leaves me with a dilemma as to what to do next. I am seriously struggling to find an alternative at this late stage.

Obviously, the ideal result would be if the hotel were to out-book me to a suitable alternative (and thereby provide what was promised, booked and paid for), but something tells me I'm going to have a battle on my hands.

I am reluctant to contact the hotel, as they will probably just change my booking to non-smoking, leaving me no recourse via Customer Support.

At this stage, I'm guessing I'm going to get stuck with a non-smoking room, trekking down to a freezing parking lot several times in the middle of the night.

All I can add is that if for some reason you can only get a non-smoking room, please, please, please do not smoke in the room anyways. Been to too many hotels where I walked into my non-smoking room and it reeked of cigarettes. Fortunately they have been able to move me to another room except for 1 time where they tried to put one of those noisy machines in the room to clear the smell.

But it does sound like form your posts that you would not smoke in a non-smoking room and I commend you for that. But as a non-smoker, there is nothing worse than walking into a room someone smoked in.