BrianLo

I quite enjoyed this thread. I also suspect we are missing portions of the story (perhaps the OP being hysterical with staff), but it raises an interesting precedent.

I am not a fan with how much catering the DYKWIA ultimately receives, because it only reinforces the behaviour and punishes the more reasonable guests. Ultimately the DYKWIA type gets what they want, or don't and complain about it online, but they still will never stop the behaviour if there is no real consequence.

Yes there is a line, and some guests just aren't worth it. A valuable lesson was learned, drop the entitlement, hysterics, emotions and just be a reasonable person and you'll get treated like one.

andylogan

sounds like Wet Allure suite might just be door #14 - he was ankle deep in water after all!

GUWonder

Indeed.

That said, being assigned accommodation with an improperly operating tub and sink shouldn't happen at a supposedly luxury hotel and it should be caught by cleaning staff and resolved before assignment to a guest. I wouldn't be surprised if being on an award stay wasn't part of the story in how the OP ended up in one of two rump accommodations only to end up in the other rump room -- not necessarily because of low occupancy and reimbursement rates, but perhaps because point stay guests at luxury properties are less likely to provide as much ancillary revenue as guests not on an award stay at such property.

Hotel guests going a bit overboard is quite different than a hotel-owning "professional" going a bit overboard. For such situations, I expect the latter to behave more professionally than a guest who is disappointed enough to not restrain themselves from risking annoying hotel owner/management with a live negative TA review.

Kicking out a guest for a bad hotel review is over the top IMO and is reason enough for me to hesitate doing business with a hotel that has an owner who behaves in the way the OP indicated. If something else was going on from the OP's side, then still a smart hotel owner/manager should think about whether they want to risk getting into a deeper mess like this.

A room with a clogged drain or two and weak wi-if is more usually considered a downgrade than an upgrade for any given room type; it's alternative being a smaller room with a worse view but properly functioning bathroom isn't much of an upgrade even if an improvement in terms of bathroom functions.

I give credit to the hotel for trying to fix customer complaints but not for the room assignment issue. Being made to move during a relatively short vacation is considered rather unpleasant by plenty of guests -- more so those who take longer to pack/unpack and groom themselves.

BigBopper

It's a shame we'll never know the true story and most likely will not learn the resolution. Equally shameful that the thread title didn't mention getting some popcorn before reading

dsquared37

Perhaps the hotel's owner should take a page from the REP restaurants who clearly have fake reviews all over the place. Can you say 90%+ excellent?!?!

Putting aside the hystrionics, whiny and uptight statements of the OP (which made the OP a difficult read) there should be very VERY few reasons for a hotel to boot a guest save threatening or physical abuse to employees or illegal activities. As well it's rather petty for the owner to pull the included free airport transfer.

OP made some poor decisions but I don't think a negative review on TA was one of them. It was certainly reactionary.... And if this review was the final straw for OP being booted than the owner seems to be quite the primadonna as well.

And a note to the OP. Stop including the fact that you're gold. Nobody cares and it makes you look foolish.

ldsant

I have read this whole thing and thought - this was your 20th ANNIVERSARY and you're over the top because you can't get a shower? Why not just let the little things go and instead focus on your wife and memories of 20 years while the staff does figure out how to make things right for you?

If you want everything as great as you seem to have it at home then don't leave your home.

LovetoTravel83

I see no one talked about the check-in time. The OP got the room early at 2:30 pm, where the check in time is 3:00 pm. And the OP is still complaining?!

I talked about the OP's situation with my wife, and told her step by step on what happened. After I told her that the OP wrote a bad review on Trip Advisor, She said that the OP should be kicked out. Funny.

DCFlyer0306

This thread and story are both crazy

1. I really thought OPs post was written as a sarcastic joke until I was about 1/3 of the way through. Who gets that bent out of shape over a shower that doesn't drain and slow Wifi in the middle of a Greek Island? Especially after the hotel seemed to have made reasonable efforts to fix it?

2. Who repeatedly states that they are an SPG GOLD in a serious manner?

3. When I realized the post was serious (and read the review on Trip Advisor), I felt the OP had really gone over the top for a number of reasons
- The issues were relatively minor (though everything is subjective, and I guess you take your guests as they come / eggshell plaintiff doctrine)
- The hotel made efforts to address the issues
- The hotel provided a gift for their anniversary which he disparaged because it arrived too late (perhaps the gift had arrived earlier, while they were out)??
- If he genuinely felt that aggrieved by the hotel, he should have waited until after he left to post the review. Not for rear of retribution, but because he should have seen if the hotel could make up for it (perhaps the suite would have been so great it would have made up for the faulty drain / wifi on the first night)

4. However, the hotel's actions are also totally over the top! As others have said, unless a guest is violent / disruptive / breaking the laws, he should not be kicked off of the property. Of course, I suspect something else was going on, but the hotel seemed to be acting just as ridiculous as the OP by removing him. It is a frightening precedent that a hotel could remove a guest for stating a bad review (pro tip - don't write your room number in your review)

5. The hotel should have refunded all of the guest's points / resort fees -- I wonder if they have?

6. It is kind of crazy that the OP just up and went home after getting kicked out -- why not go to another hotel? Or another part of Greece?

7. I'm sure we'll never know exactly what happened. A bizarre tale all around

itsaboutthejourney

Really? Any background info of your situation with SPG that you might wish to share so we can better understand your point of view with them?

aceflyer2

An owner who kicks someone out for an online post. Unacceptable. SPG corporate should be notified and the situation rectified...

aceflyer2

Yes, but the property is part of the Starwood chain, and as such, kicking someone out for an online post is unacceptable.... This cannot be tolerated by Starwood, regardless of the OP's online comments.. I suspect the OP will receive substantial *wood points (or other form of compensation), for the owner's behavior ...

mahasamatman

I realize that it's un-American to take responsibility for your actions (a philosophy propagated by trial lawyers), but when exercising your rights, you must also be willing to accept the consequences. Didn't you ever hear the old saying that you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar? Diplomacy goes a long way.

aceflyer2

This would be true if it was an independent hotel, but it is part of the Starwood chain, and as such, is subject to its rules, regulations, and guidelines.. Don't believe Starwood would favor kicking a person out for an online posting...

imverge

I don't believe Starwood would either but we only have OP's side of the story.

If the OP was verbally abusive to a hotel employee would Starwood favor that?

sbrower

This could only be said by someone who is an SPG hater. I haven't seen a single comment in this thread that says "SPG was right here." I have seen several (including me) who say "the owner of this property was probably right here."

Look, I didn't say it the first time, but here is the problem I have. I have been a litigator for 33 years. About 25 years ago I was responsible for the insurance aspect of customer complaints that became an insurance claim for a major computer manufacturer in Cupertino, California (on behalf of the insurance company). One day we get a call to come to and discuss a new lawsuit. The adjuster and I get there. The company employee says "we have been trying to deal with this one for many months, but, to our surprise, the customer has now filed suit. We know we are supposed to tell you when we first get a threat of litigation, but we have been handling it internally for many months, we had no idea that the customer would file suit." The adjuster and I were unperturbed, but we asked "Well, what was the nature of the original complaint." They pull out a 35 page, typed (as in typewriter), single-space letter. The adjuster and I burst out laughing, before we ever read it. Why? Because we both know that ANYONE who would write a 35-page single-spaced letter about a $3,500 computer, was never going to be satisfied.

As I posted long ago, someone who posts a smear review on TA, the first night of the stay, telling others never to stay at the property, before finding out what would happen in the morning, isn't "normal."