aviator33

Had a paid conference stay for 5 nights. TV was not working properly. Both the audio and video would skip intermittently. I had maintenance up to the room a couple times to fix it. Finally, on the 4th day, they replaced the TV. I wasn't proactively offered anything at checkout for the long time to correct the problem. Called up later and spoke to the manager who offered 5000 points - which seemed exceedingly low. Room rate was $110 nightly. I am Platinum Ambassador. What is reasonable compensation?

scubaccr

If you are conferencing/working+sleeping on 5x weekdays, then you would only need TV a maximum 1/4 of a day 1800-0000 for the 3days you lost out.
But why leave it so long to force hotel to change the TV if TV was that important to you. Did you make hotel aware TV access was important, as not everyoe needs/wants to watch hotel TV, especially where service is very limited number of channels.

Your maximum loss is circa 3nights x 1/4day (1800-0000) x $110 = 3/4 x $110 = $82.5 ==> 11,800points (at p+c values)

I'd suggest 10k would be maximum value of the loss of your TV amenity/inconvenience. As you already have 5k, I'd just move on.

Flying Lawyer

TV in the US is to my humble belief always poor....

The adaequate compensation certainly is a 10 percent reduction of the rate and not any points.

vexorg

Try asia where many channels don't work, and asking about it just gets shrugs. I've spend weeks with no watchable channels.

fireworksboy

Four nights with bad/broken tv? I know I'm in the minority on this one but I'd be asking for more than 5k points.

At the least, the bare minimum I expect from a $100 per night hotel is a clean/secure room, hot water, heat and air, a working tv with basic cable, and a mattress that doesn't look like it's been thru a war.

I don't need fancy or even average breakfast, I pretty much know that's going to suck. And in big cities, I expect to pay for parking if that's typical. I don't even need a great additive from staff - I know people are people and many FD staff aren't exactly highly paid, invested employees.

But the other things are well within the management's ability and they need to deliver on a regular basis.

I'd be satisfied with 20k which feels to me, almost a free night at a comparable hotel award.

Just me and I can understand why others feel differently.

peter1962

I'd probably pay extra to have a room without TV!

Doc Savage

OP, why didn't you demand a new room the second night?

raph

This.

I never even had the idea of asking for compensation for TV issues.

I think 5000 Points is a very generous offer. Anything beyond that (actually IMHO even those 5k) is just greedy.

vexorg

Well, I must be due about a million points given the amount of days I've not had the english channels working where I usually stay.

darthbimmer

OP implied s/he reported the issue 2-3 times, maybe more. Whether or not it's worth escalating from that to demanding a new room is hard to say. Is having a working TV worth packing up & switching rooms late in the evening after a long day? For me I'd say no as I haven't actually wanted to watch TV in a hotel in over 10 years. By the same token I wouldn't demand a lot of compensation for it. 5k would seem plenty to me. Obviously OP sees more value in TV than I do, though. So what's fair? Maybe 10k points? At 0.7cpp that's worth $70, about one-third the nightly rate for the 3 nights the TV wasn't working. That strikes me as very generous for a fritzy TV.

fireworksboy

Good point.

To those that don't think the OP deserves any compensation - I'll make another point - can we all agree that guest have different priorities when they check into a hotel? And that those priorities can change for guests depending on the trip?

First, some guests could care less about upgrades. They're ok the road for work, only in the room to sleep and to them, upgrades are worthless. But that shouldn't mean that any guest how has booked one or is deserving of one via the rules of the program, don't have a legitimate beef when they're denied one.

What about beds? Some folks can sleep anywhere. To others, all beds are the same. To people with a medical issue - bad back - the bed is the most important part of their stay. But to the people that couldn't care less, are these people ridiculous for their complaint of bad bedding?

What about no hot water? We've all seen it happen before. To some, it's a 5 minute issue, no biggie. To others, it's a basic room function and they might have the meeting/interview of a lifetime that day - to them, it's a big deal.

Nonfunctioning air conditioning / heat? Big deal? Just let slide? Live and let live.

My point is - just because I don't think a broken tv system is a big deal (personally, I don't but I'm willing to see the other side of the coin) doesn't mean a guest deserves less than what's promised.

Sorry for the rant. I'm probably completely wrong.

MXM135

Was the TV non-functional from day 1?

If a working TV was that important, he should have insisted on a replacement when maintenance came the second time to the room.

Whenever I travel and bring family with me, I ensure that the TV is functional from the start and on a few occasions when it was not, I insisted that they find a replacement immediately. The hotel would bring a replacement to the room and whenever I would pass by the check-in desk, they would enquire if all was OK.

mxm135

Dave Noble

If it is something of high importance, then ask to move to another room. If that request is unable to be fulfilled, then maybe compensation may be due

nicolas75

+1

(I must say that most of the time I never watch tv: am I the only one?)

aviator33

Escalated to Platinum Ambassador service team and was offered an additional 5000 points or $55. Accepted the cash. BTW, there weren't any other high floor rooms available so moving wasn't an option.