ericgartner

I have noticed some talk about a fee an individual hotel must pay to priority club if you make a complaint about a hotel. Is that true? Does anybody know the details.

mkt

If you call guest relations, depending on what you're calling about... generally it must be a quality issue, the hotel gets his with a $75 penalty. If they don't respond within 72 hours (24 if the guest is in house) they add another $100 to the hotel and guest relations will then resolve it. If there is any cost for the compensation, the hotel is billed for it as well (generally $5 per 1k PC points or the cost for any vouchers/refund)

Aisle Seat H

Amazing. I never ever heard of this. Great to know. I will be complaining more now !!! Seriously, I will because before I often would not bother as I did not think anything would come of it, but knowing the place will be 'fined' after they treat me bad would make me feel a lot better !

ericgartner

I have never had a experience that was bad enough to call, but it is nice to know that if they treat you like crap you can make a call to priority club.

mkt

I'd bypass Priority Club and go straight to Guest Relations, since all calling PC does is add more middlemen

ericgartner

Thats a good point. Hopefully I will never have to do it. But, it is nice to know if there is a problem. When a customer knows info like this and you share it with the hotel they may be more likely to solve the problem. I am sure alot of people make threats and do not follow thru.

smartassmurf

Very interesting indeed, I am surprised this never came up before, I do not remember this being covered either...

mkt

I could go into even more detail about this... who's in the mood to be bored?

htb

Me! It sure would help to know the system a bit better if the need to complain arises.

HTB.

Luca T.

I would be interested to know more about it too. Thanks in advance

ericgartner

please bore us...

perthite

I'd be interested to hear more (boring or not). On these boards you only see what is happening on our side of the fence, and I have always wondered about some of how the back room stuff works. Like what carrots and sticks PC have to get hotels into line and sto on.

GoodYear

I logged a complaint to RA guest center about the price discrepency in StayBridge. PC actually paid the price difference for me. Good service.

mkt

alrighty...

Hotels are ranked based on various aspects. Priority Club surveys (those actually mean something!), IHG/Hotel Reviews, and Guest Relations.

Any time a complaint is filed with guest relations, one score goes down.... the more complaints, the less likely IHG CRO agents are to sell the property.

If the overall scores dip low enough (combined from surveys, GR, etc) for long enough, the hotel goes into default of its franchise agreement. This can apply to both franchised and corporate properties. The hotel is then given an ultimatum by IHG, shape up, or ship out.

If the hotel gets its scores out of default... ie, higher than 60%, then it's fine. Almost every property has 1 month here and there that its in default. That's not a big deal. However, if it spends too much time in default without improvement, the franchise agreement is null and void, and the hotel loses its flag.

This has happened in Orlando most recently to the Holiday Inn Downtown Orlando and the Holiday Inn Express International Drive. Holiday Inn International Drive was in default for a while, but they've implemented programs to get themselves out... and they worked. They're not the #1 property for scores in their area by any stretch of the imagination, but they're where they need to be to stay afloat.

I believe the current #1's in Orlando are the Crowne Plaza Universal and the Nickelodeon Family Suites.

Sending a bad survey can actually hurt a hotel more than calling guest relations, due to the small percentage of surveys that are actually answered. There have been times when a hotel only gets 1 survey back, so that's all or nothing. If the hotel receives 1 bad survey... that's 1 week in default. And depending on the hotel, that may warrant a phone call to you asking more detail about yoru stay and offering compensation for your bad stay.

Now for guest relations...

They're pretty straightforward. You call them, they grab the hotel by the huevos and force them to do something. Something negative happens to you in the aspects of service, quality, or lowest rate guarantee... the $75 fine is assessed immediately. The hotel is then contacted, generally via email/intranet. Depending on the severity of the situation, or if the guest is in house, they may get contacted directly by phone with the guest relations agent while the guest is on hold. For billing issues and anything not related to Service/Quality/Lowest Rate Guarantee, the hotel will not be assessed a penatly.

The hotel is ultimately liable for the cost of any penalty, late fees, and the cost of any compensation provided (unless GR agrees to pay for part of it), and is paid on a monthly/quarterly basis per the hotels franchise agreement. The compensation can be anything from IHG $$ Vouchers to comp night certificates, to PC Points ($5 per 1k points... my record has been issuing 50k points).

One thing that might shock you is being walked... calling GR after getting walked to another property doesn't qualify for a penalty for the hotel unless the hotel that you've been walked to is not at least equivalent to the hotel in which you initially held reservations.

I've ranted enough for now... any questions so far?

Aisle Seat H

mkt - you de man ! ^

fascinating, and great to hear that complaints really do have the effect that they should.

but these surveys you speak of - what exactly are you referring to, and how does a dissatisfied customer get one/is able to fill one out ?