Bed type not guaranteed - Is that common?
 

I reserved a King bed room at a Ritz Carlton at Laguna Niguel. They gave me a double bed room. When I called the front desk, they told me that bed type is not guaranteed. Is that a common thing with Ritz Carlton hotels? I double checked that my reservation said "King, Garden View". Instead I got a Double bed (full size bed not queen size) hotel entrance street view room. I came from Hilton and never seen this happened there where I didn't get the reserved bed type. And it is not like I did a last minute reservation. I did it weeks ahead of time and if they know they don't have my bed type, they could have told me and I would have pick another hotel for my anniversary.

Bed type is guaranteed with Gold or Platinum status. There is no compensation listed for Ritz Carlton, but other benefits which aren't available at RC are specifically identified. Strange.

https://www.marriott.com/rewards/mem...s/guarantee.mi

This is not really a bed type guarantee issue. They didn't give you the ROOM type you reserved. It looks like you reserved:


Guest room, 1 King, Garden view

And they gave you:


Guest room, 1 King or 2 Double, Limited view

That room goes for less money on the web site. At the minimum you should get the difference refunded.

The merging of the Marriott & Ritz-Carlton is not 100%. The T&Cs state:
Just like with almost all programs, they have wiggle room by saying: subject to availability at participating locations. So it all comes down to the property's decision. R-Cs do seem to be stricter with MR members vs RC members.

But I don't even see the choice of 1 King OR 2 Double, Limited view. It wasn't even on the list. And it was a reward reservation for 60,000 points. I know for sure that I selected 1 King, Garden view on the list since it was my anniversary. After the stay, the manager sent me an emails asking for my experience, and I told him. He said he would refund 30,000 points which he never did. I really don't care about the points anyway. I just wanted to know if this is what I should expected from any Ritz Carlton, so I would avoid staying at the brand in the future.

I think the front desk told me I got a "Run of the house" room and there is absolutely nothing else available even when I offer to pay for an upgraded room. They did have some of the a hospital function that night though. It is possible that the hotel is really full and we just got kicked to the curb.

This is what I see when I search for rewards reservations. Looks like King, Garden is their base redemption room, and all others are an upgrade.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/membe...89-capture.jpg

Yes and that's what I picked. Guest Room, 1 King, Garden View. I didn't see anything about picking that means "run of the house" of any type of room left. And that's pretty much what the front desk told me. Even when I talked to the manager, he said that what he saw on the computer. I picked an "any room" option and that's what I was given even though the bed type does not match. I am just wondering if this is how Ritz's system work? If you pick the lowest point cost room, you get whatever room they give you even if the bed type does not match? What about smoking non-smoking? Can they give me a smoking room because all the non-smoking ran out?

Show the manager your confirmation, it should show what you booked. I'd bet he's just telling you that to justify what they did. This is getting to be common in many service/support organizations. If they can shoo you away with their "stories" they have time to take another call. Very few want to research the problem, write it up, send it to an appropriate department, and they have to demonstrate it to someone that doesn't want to deal with it.

Did you have a smartphone with the app on it handy? That's saved me a couple of times when I check in and the hotel's computer says something different (room type, dates, or price) than what I reserved. I whip out the app and show them that I'm not just making it up. Not that you should have to do that, especially at a Ritz.

Because the stay is over, there isn't much you can do except accept the points (or argue for more). At the time you checked in you could have gone back to the front desk and talked with them (don't just call from your room). Show them your reservation and insist that they find you the guaranteed bed type even if they have to offer a complimentary upgrade. If indeed the hotel is completely out of the room type you reserved including in upgraded rooms, then you presumably could negotiate some compensation at that point.

I was recently at a Ritz Carlton and had booked a room with points with a "lake view". When I checked in the room had a city view. I went back to the desk and told them that they had not given me the guaranteed room type. They spent a long time searching rooms and talking with mangers (or someone) and eventually found an upgraded room with the guaranteed view at no additional charge.

If you don't have the printed confirmation, I would guess you might have a problem depending on what their system says you reserved. In my case they were able to look back through their system and see that someone had screwed up the reservation (I don't remember exactly how).

Once you have booked a particular room type, if you go back and look at booking new reservations or changing reservations using points, the bed type may no longer be available so you will see something such as "not guaranteed". If the room type is still available for sale with cash, you can call the hotel and see if they will guarantee the bed type using points. They may or may not.

I'd be mad as hell if that happened to me on my anniversary. You handled it a lot nicer than I would have.

We went there mainly for the restaurant since we had been there many times. And the folks there were very nice and provided top service. We definitely would not go back there to stay and would advice anyone we know not to host their weddings and events there. But we will probably go back to the restaurant from time to time.

It was a cozy stay since we had not been in a full size bed since we visited Asia. :p I don't really understand why they would have full size bed instead of Queen. It's not like we are in a metro city like New York or Tokyo.

I would reach out to ritz carlton on twitter and let them know about your experience. Ask them if that is how they plan on treating their elite members, because if so you can take your business elsewhere.

Sure it may be an empty threat, but I'm a stickler for getting what I want/reserved. I'm sure they can take care of you.

Looking at VickiSoCal's room type picture again, I just realized that Guest Room, 2 Double, Garden View is actually an upgrade from Guest Room, King, Garden View. The 2 Double is actually 60,000 points + $100. Now I am wondering if I somehow got "upgraded" to the 2 Double room! That would be hilarious if I wasn't involved. :p

Anyway, I am not going to reach out to them. I already posted a review on TripAdvisor so maybe someone else would see it and take that into their consideration when picking this hotel.

And sadly, the management's response on TA is boilerplate. They say "call us" when with just a bit of energy they could quickly determine who you were and call you. @:-)