Actually, unbelievable as it may seem to you, it appears that some people actually do disagree with your perspective.

Based on Trip Advisor reviews, the OP's comment that this is a newly opened hotel is very accurate. If my internet search is accurate, opening day was October 10th. So, the hotel has only been open 5 weeks.

As someone who worked at the Front Desk of an established hotel and as a Night Manager during the soft opening of a new hotel, I can confidently say that it takes longer than 5 weeks to get to know the quirks of a building. So, I would say that it's highly probable that the Front Desk didn't actually know they were assigning a room with a known issue.

I think it's worth noting that none of the Trip Advisor reviews for this hotel mention smoke. Granted, there are only twenty reviews. Of those reviews 16 are glowing and the remainder (Terrible to Average) appear to be related mostly to issues from opening.

The issues raised in this thread are reasons why I personally will not stay at a newly-opened hotel. It literally took us months to fix all the unfinished odds and ends in that hotel where I was Night Manager. The way we (and virtually every other newly-opened hotel) found out about all the small issues was through guest complaints.

One meeeeeelion points!

Let me clarify that the bicycle vouchers were not even for the hotel. It was for a bicycle shop half a mile away. We were also given the vouchers after the bike shop was already closed, so we would have to redeem them the next day (our check-out date). Without any knowledge of our itinerary, they could have not known whether it would have even fit into our schedule.

The lady who I spoke to never followed up with me about her discussion with the manager either. When I saw her the next day, she asked me how the rooms and that was it. Which was really unfortunate, since she was really helpful the previous day. I ended up returning the bicycle vouchers to her, as we didn't have the chance to use them. She did not bring up compensation, so neither did I.

They advertised it as a high-end, luxury hotel but I do not feel like we were treated as such. They just handled it so poorly. It was strange that the bell hop was the one who presented me with the bicycle vouchers and it definitely caught me off guard. Overall, all the staff were helpful and warm, which was the only one positive experience during my stay here. It just happens that as a whole, the hotel failed to make things right.

Having to switch rooms twice should have provided us with a convenient and easy to use form of compensation for our troubles. Not some voucher for an entirely different business. In the end, I gave up on trying to get them to make things right. I'll be contacting corporate Marriott directly. What a .... show.

Views may vary regarding what, if any, compensation is due to the OP, but - what seems very clear is - when the OP called for help with the smoky-smelling room he came back to after breakfast, staff clearly knew about the problem & the reason for it. So while this hotel is new, the hotel was already well aware of the problem with OP�s room.

@ the OP: Thank you for the review. We will be staying there next month and your information will help us make an informed request for a smoke free room. I will report back after our stay. I feel you are owed some type of compensation.

The bicycle vouchers sound strange. Could it be that the bellman was *independently* promoting the bicycle shop, maybe because it was owned by a relative? Some of these tourist activity vouchers are set up to drive business (revenue and profit) to the establishment, so you pay a lot to rent a helmit or they hope you'll return the bikes late, etc. Unless the hotel's name was on the voucher, I would assume that management didn't even know that the vouchers were being distributed on their property, by their employee, to certain hotel customers.

Two moves in rooms with smoke, the OP definitely deserves compensation. Hopefully the clothes did not end up with smoke smell. At least points for one night.

We once stayed at a Marriott hotel and I got bed bug bites. I found one bug and squished it with the pillow. Front desk had me wait, for more people to come and ask me questions, fill out form, etc. then changed us to a smaller room (saying hotel was full). Afterwards I asked for 90k points (after seeing someone had that compensation for a similar 3 night stay). Marriott HQ said 45k points. I told them if they don't at least offer the 3 nights (75k) points, I'll no longer keep quiet about the hotel name. They wouldn't budge, so I wrote on TA about the bed bugs in Renaissance Newark airport hotel. They didn't about the bed bug issue being publicized, basically saying every hotel can get bed bugs.

If you felt that you were entitled to compensation, that was your opportunity to let them know your expectations. Be direct and to the point - "Say, I have no use for the bike vouchers but since we had to move twice a bottle of wine sent up (or X amount points or dinner discount or whatever) would be appreciated". If no satisfaction, then take to corporate, FT, TA, etc to lambaste accordingly.

Anyone who travels frequently is going to find themselves switching rooms at some point. The hotel doesn't owe anything.

If this happened to me I would:

1) Speak to the manager and voice my frustration at changing rooms - and point out the problem at the hotel. If he/she gave me points, wine, or something else - great. If not - I move on.

2) Leave a review so other travelers know about the situation. Goodwill compensation or not.

They vouchers were official with the Vespera branding on them, sorry if my wording implied otherwise. These were as "official" as printed businesses could get.

That sounds like a nightmare. Luckily, I have yet to experience any major pest issues during my travels. That is insane that that they low-balled like that. My issues seem minor compared to yours, and you were only offered 45K. This doesn't bode well me, hopefully they resolve everything to my satisfaction.

Yes, I think I should have been more assertive and spoke directly with the manager. I assumed that a manager would have been notified that a guest had to switch rooms twice. But then again, who knows what the protocols are for such new hotel. Do you think the hotel was appropriate in placing a guest in a room with a known design defect? I don't see how the hotel wouldn't owe the guest anything. From my understanding, they placed a guest into a defective room hoping that they guest would not care enough to switch.

She said she was handling it, so I took her word. I'll be sure to speak with a manager directly in the future.. I'm not the confrontational type, but I suppose action is due when action is due. Their lack of appropriate action the first room switch should have indicated that this "luxury" hotel had issues with their protocol of handling guest issues.

I've emailed a lengthy complaint to corporate Marriott regarding my experience, hopefully their course of action is more appropriate than the hotel's. I can forgive them about room issues, but I cannot forgive them for how the handled the situation. They sent the bell hop to give me 3 one hour bicycle vouchers after having to relocate me to a different room twice. For a luxury hotel, that is bonkers!

First room switch is ok and doesn't deserve compensation.
Having to switch again does.

I'd say 50000 points (1 night stay in cat 6) is more than fair for op.

If I have to switch rooms during a stay, either because there's a problem with the first room or for the hotel's convenience somehow, I normally expect to get a better room (upgrade).

I think that this kind of behavior serves the same purpose as kidnapping. If the goal of Trip Advisor is to inform other guests, you've allowed the hotel to ransom your review for a sufficient number of points. You've benefited no one other than yourself by putting points in your pocket.

In a similar situation, I approached it slightly differently. I had a problem with a tour company which really ripped me off. In fact, I consider what they did to be pretty much predatory pricing and theft. I wrote them and told them that I was unhappy, but made no specific demand; and I also posted accurate, but very negative reviews on FT and Trip Advisor. Long and complicated story short, a couple of years later they offered a written apology along with an description of their complete replacement of senior management (which I verified on their website), and a full refund, in exchange for which I removed my negative posts at their request.

Reading this thread makes me think how some hotels are really classy in the ways of handling customer service issues and some are just trying to get away with their faults including mismanagement.

Recently I have 2 customer service recovery compensations - neither one ever asked by me, all given by the GMs who felt genuinely about customer's well being, even as minor as inconvenient the customer by 45 min at check out.

One Cat 8 international property refunded a night's points a couple weeks later when the GM learned about the issues which all started from non-posting of dining points and he politely said he hoped we still had a good stay... well, up till the late hours of the 2nd night everything went fine... Since he asked, I told him about the incidents happened between 10:30pm thru 1am (from 2 totally unrelated dept) that had kept us awake.
The next email I got was he apologized several times on what had happened, and decided to issue a refund of our 2nd night.

I never asked for any compensation but I felt as a Luxury Collection, it did not live up to the billing, not even to a regular hotel's standard, and the GM should be made aware of such. And that is exactly how I worded the reasons why the stay was fine up till the late night of the 2nd night.

One Cat 4 domestic limited service property where we stayed at a low cash rate, the GM took multiple attempts before finally successfully applied the Marriott giftcards (a total of 4 folios generated.) He said he would give me some extra points because of the inconvenience. Again, I never asked. No email but I saw the property issued 2x reward night's cost. That is a super generous gesture.

For the property OP stayed at, personally I would be very annoyed on being assigned to a room with KNOWN defect. Obviously there are guests stayed in the same room before, else the technician would not make such comment. Then being reassigned to another room also with the defect, together with a leaked bathroom ceiling?!
I would expect to be moved to a better room and make sure the new room does not have the smoke issue.

Then they gave bike vouchers as a way to apologize?

What happens with the GM's duty of making sure his property is operating properly? not to mention being billed as a luxury property. Being a newly open property does NOT excuse the poor treatment to guests who suffer its design defects.