We should all be able to agree on that. It's really the past five years or so that there's been a big shift in favor of the property owners. The shift has been industry-wide.

Agreed!

Also the quality of the hotel - the actual maintenance of the property. I used to rank Marriott as the best in terms of the quality of the room before the merger. Sure, the old CYs in the US were terrible but compared to IHG and Hilton they were actually better imo. Now it's not the case anymore, they all have good and rundown properties.

Another data point that also made me annoyed. I was checking in at Marriott Amsterdam and the rate was like 300�/night. The person next to me got an upgrade to a junior suite but not us (I was with my adult kids). I was curious and asked whether we could get one and was told no and she called her manager and the answer was no. Not exactly a nice experience when you overheard someone got an upgrade and we got exactly what we paid for.

But you dont know the status of the person who got upgraded though or that person might be a repeat guest. I mean there is a pecking order. If i was an ambassador, i'd be more upset that some LTP got upgraded and not me.

Exactly...but even if they were LTP or LTT and you're an Ambassador did that person initiate their check in first? Perhaps they got the last UG available and beat you by 5 mins, 3 mins, 1 min? Is the FDA supposed to stop checking in the other customer and say 'I'm sorry, I know we said we've upgraded you but Nacho is here now so we are going to UG them instead'. Hilarious.

Also don't know how many nights that guest was staying. There are just so many considerations.

If a suite is so important to some people why don�t those people simply reserve a suite?

read the above

actually couldn�t care less haha.

Wow!! what a novel idea, I can't believe nobody has posted to suggest that yet!!

very happy to be of service!

Yes. But obviously there are still suites available - I heard the whole phone conversation and there are definitely more suites out there. We got there around 9pm and I guess they are expecting all the guests are AMB and LTT or T will be checking in the next many hours. The hotel wasn't full in any way despite the snow chaos at Schipol.

Sure I am not particularly happy about that but I don't expect anything. To me I think this is a very poor handling of the front desk, she could easily just tell me that the suites have been reserved for the members that have higher tier than me. Once again, poor handling of the situation - If I were in that front desk position and would have offered lounge access for all 3 of us (we paid extra for 3rd person in a regular room). I don't see any reason why they have to be like that - even Crowne Plaza Copenhagen (in the land of zero customer service) offered us lounge access for not being able to upgrade us due to full occupancy - it's not an IHG written benefits but the handling makes me want to go back and we did.

Then when we got into our room, only 2 set of everything provided, plus there was a piece of chewing gum on the side of one of the beds.

Fortunately, the nice lounge lady let us all in during happy hours and breakfast.

Very true but as I said the front desk could have handled this better.

So you got something you weren't entitled to (lounge access for 3 instead of 2, breakfast for 3 instead of 2) and yet you are still complaining. Regardless if you paid extra for the 3rd person in the room that doesn't entitle them to lounge access or free breakfast so basically you stole from the hotel and then come here and brag about it unabashed while complaining they didn't give you a suite.

Someone else got something (a suite that you didn't), it happens, under a set of circumstances you believe you understand, but probably don't as pointed out by other posters. Move on and look for some more chewing gum to complain about.

Yes, she could. But why is the Bonvoy status of other guests any of your concern? She didn't have a suite that she was able to give you. She even double checked with her manager, and she still didn't have a suite that she was able to give to you. When you're in queue for an upgrade on a flight and don't get it, do you ask the gate agent why other people were upgraded while you were not?

You misunderstood what I meant. I said she could have just told me that the suites were reserved for guests with higher tier membership like OP experienced. Nothing to do with the guy who got an upgrade.

Once again the point was front desk didn't handling this properly.

Yes I might ask because it's nice to have some data point. Once again, nothing to do with other people but it's interesting to know what their policy is. This is what FT is about - to share information. But it seems that some FTers use FT like a bashing platform. I had to reassure another FTer that his experience wasn't unique (it's via PM).