Fee for connecting room?
I have an upcoming stay for 3 rooms. I e-mailed the property to request a connecting room for two of the rooms and was told it would be a $50/night fee.
Has anyone heard of this? I don't typically travel with kids so this is new to me. 3 of the 6 adults are Gold, and while I know I don't get upgrades, etc, I would think they can at least give me a connecting room (assuming availability) |
What brand of property is this?
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Originally Posted by doctor15
(Post 30297855)
I have an upcoming stay for 3 rooms. I e-mailed the property to request a connecting room for two of the rooms and was told it would be a $50/night fee.
Has anyone heard of this? I don't typically travel with kids so this is new to me. 3 of the 6 adults are Gold, and while I know I don't get upgrades, etc, I would think they can at least give me a connecting room (assuming availability) Depending on the property, fees vary for a guaranteed connecting room. In other words, with this fee charged, your connecting room request will be guaranteed. However, if you do not wish to pay the fee, the request may still be placed but it will then be subjected to availability upon your arrival. Best regards, Siti Shahnas / Social Media Specialist Starwood Customer Contact Centre (AP) Pte Ltd [email protected] |
This is a textbook example of a “bad profit” where pissing off the customer just isn’t worth the extra income. Would be curious to know which hotel it is. |
Originally Posted by EuropeanPete
(Post 30298580)
This is a textbook example of a “bad profit” where pissing off the customer just isn’t worth the extra income. Would be curious to know which hotel it is. I imagine it can be tricky for a very full hotel to logistically organise the blocking of connecting rooms with the right bed types and the right check-in/check-out dates/times of the OP and previous guests in those rooms. A good hotel would just do it to make the customer happy. A bad hotel tries to charge for it, which leads me to suspect that the OP is definitely not getting connecting rooms because it will all be left to chance. |
I'm all for bashing Marriott, but my immediate thought was that it sounded very much like something they'd try on at the Sheraton Times Square.
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The property is the Westin Kierland.
I had an excellent stay there last year where they went above and beyond to help me, but was surprised by this |
Connecting rooms are inferior rooms if you don't want them (due to the ease of noise passing between rooms).
For those that want them, it keeps kids, traffic, & noise out of the hallways. You'd think they'd be happy to give them away to those that need them. Poor form on the property. |
Originally Posted by craigthemif
(Post 30298592)
Sounds very Marriott...
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Non-requested badly soundproofed connecting rooms are my worst nightmare. I always used to end up next to someone who either barked on their phone until the early hours or had the TV on late and up super loud. Seems like shameless profiteering to me.
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I experienced the same at the Westin Choseun Seoul this past summer. They agreed to "waive" the fee to open the connecting door out of courtesy given my SPG Gold status. :rolleyes:
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I'd like to charge the hotel a fee for giving me a connecting room.
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Originally Posted by emma dog
(Post 30299699)
I experienced the same at the Westin Choseun Seoul this past summer. They agreed to "waive" the fee to open the connecting door out of courtesy given my SPG Gold status. :rolleyes:
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Originally Posted by RogerD408
(Post 30299854)
Was the door key locked? Most times I just see thumb locks on both sides, so once in the rooms you could open both doors and be connected. But I agree this is a money grab since there is no cost for them to do so. What's next, a fee to open the door to the room with the soda/ice machines?
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Every time I've requested side-by-side rooms with a connecting door:
1. My request was always granted 2. I was never charged extra This was legacy Starwood. |
Originally Posted by yyznomad
(Post 30300372)
This was legacy Starwood.
With that said, if a given hotel only had a few connecting rooms and/or is in a market where there is a high demand for them, I might be able to see a specific hotel charging extra for connecting rooms. But under most situations, I doubt it would net a hotel very much in the way of extra revenue. |
Originally Posted by yyznomad
(Post 30300372)
Every time I've requested side-by-side rooms with a connecting door:
1. My request was always granted 2. I was never charged extra This was legacy Starwood. Last time I took the family to the Westin Grand Cayman I asked for connecting rooms in an email prior to arrival. They wanted $150/nt, so I told them "no thanks", but please do make a note in my reservation and hopefully you can accommodate this request at check in. At check-in time, no connecting rooms were available. Oh, and SPG Plat didn't get me any sort of upgrade either. |
Originally Posted by Okto
(Post 30300866)
Last time I took the family to the Westin Grand Cayman I asked for connecting rooms in an email prior to arrival. They wanted $150/nt, so I told them "no thanks", but please do make a note in my reservation and hopefully you can accommodate this request at check in.
At check-in time, no connecting rooms were available. Oh, and SPG Plat didn't get me any sort of upgrade either. |
Originally Posted by DJ_Iceman
(Post 30299278)
My thought was that it sounded very SPG, as I've never had problems at any Marriott getting connecting rooms guaranteed in advance without paying a fee. Sure enough, later in the thread we saw this is at a Westin.
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Originally Posted by UA-NYC
(Post 30301291)
As noted in countless threads across the board, service and recognition at legacy Starwood properties has gone in the tank for many of us post-8/18
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It’s because the SPG reception system can no longer differentiate between anyone who has stayed 25 nights or above (old SPG Gold). After 10 former SPG stays I finally found a property (ironically the Four Points Barcelona - the cheapest property i’d been at) which made the effort to check on their customers on some other list, but otherwise former SPG properties are basically clueless until the new system is brought in. |
Originally Posted by DJ_Iceman
(Post 30301526)
If this is true and not just sky-is-falling nonsense from the rabid SPG loyalists, it begs a very serious question. Why have legacy Starwood properties thrown their service and recognition in the tank since the merger went final? How is it even possible for so many properties with so many employees to systematically screw things up for the guests who, if this is to believed, lived like kings up until the very day before? And why are legacy Marriott properties doing such a better job with service and recognition, the same as they always have?
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Originally Posted by EuropeanPete
(Post 30301548)
It’s because the SPG reception system can no longer differentiate between anyone who has stayed 25 nights or above (old SPG Gold). After 10 former SPG stays I finally found a property (ironically the Four Points Barcelona - the cheapest property i’d been at) which made the effort to check on their customers on some other list, but otherwise former SPG properties are basically clueless until the new system is brought in.
Originally Posted by DJ_Iceman
(Post 30301526)
If this is true and not just sky-is-falling nonsense from the rabid SPG loyalists, it begs a very serious question. Why have legacy Starwood properties thrown their service and recognition in the tank since the merger went final? How is it even possible for so many properties with so many employees to systematically screw things up for the guests who, if this is to believed, lived like kings up until the very day before? And why are legacy Marriott properties doing such a better job with service and recognition, the same as they always have?
So ... I can sort of understand why the ABQ Airport Sheraton checks me in and tells me thanks for being a plat but all rooms on the club floor are already given out without any attempt to prioritize. Maybe that's a computer thing. But the bulk of post 8/18 complaints by legacy SPG folks are talking about other treatment at the hotel -- maybe no one is getting suites, legacy SPG properties in the pacific don't like the award rules so they create a very limited "standard" room category. Those are decisions being made at the hotel by the hotel GM. That hotel GM decides whether they use the list of plat premiers to make sure they get prioritized and whether to train staff (the nice woman at the FD in the ABQ Sheraton didn't know what Plat Premier was ... she said she heard their were some changes). In any event, these aren't Marriott decisions made at a corporate level, they are made at the hotel. But ... I guessed the connecting room fee was an SPG thing :) Just like at the GCM Westin or the Seoul Westin. But ... I can't say what a particular Marriott would or wouldn't charge. Ultimately, an engaged GM treats elites well to drive repeat business. I have a poor suite upgrade rate at SPG properties this year (3 for 23 stays) and a great suite upgrade rate at MR properties of 40 percent. (I think its good based on my travels which aren't always to major cities with lots of suite options). Neither of those have changed after 8/18 but part of that is because I've learned which MR hotels will upgrade me from experience and FT and haven't figured out which SPG properties to avoid. So perhaps instead of blaming the program, we can all share info about hotels so we know which ones to reward and which ones to avoid. |
Originally Posted by DJ_Iceman
(Post 30301526)
And why are legacy Marriott properties doing such a better job with service and recognition, the same as they always have?
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