flyalloverthecountry

Beware of booking at Starwood!! On Aug 18th, I traveled from Denver to Dallas and arrived at the airport at midnight. Grabbed a taxi and headed to the Aloft in Frisco. I was greeted by an inexperienced and obviously untrained front desk employee, who informed me I was going to need to be 'walked' to a different hotel. He was flustered and disorganized. He said my room had flooded. I had no transportation and he didn't know what to do. Finally his manager appeared and told me she would drive me to the new hotel. Here is where it gets weird....they drove me over 15 minutes away (in this area there are a MILLLION hotel rooms) to a dumpy hotel! A brand I would NEVER stay at. Not comparable to an Aloft at all!

I have to ask...why didn't Starwood inform be before I arrived that there was a problem? Why do they think it is OK to downgrade to a bad hotel?

I had no transportation and now I was an additional 15 minutes away from my meeting.

When I returned from my trip I called Starwood Customer Service. They said the hotel would contact me. I waited.....no call. About a month later I called customer service again, this time the hotel called me back, but only offered to pay for my cab service from the Days Inn to my meeting.

Really?

You moved me to a crappy hotel far away at 1am and that's it?? I have no faith the hotel room I paid for will actually exist when I arrive. I'm switching brands and they have lost a customer who stays an average of 50 nights a year in hotels!

lcpteck

That sounds pretty bad.

What's your status with the SPG program when you were bumped? There is a walk policy somewhere for Elites.

MSPeconomist

When the front desk agent told you that you were being sent to another hotel, did you ask for the name and location of the hotel? That would have been the time to negotiate for a better hotel in a better location.

OTOH, the part of this story that shocks me the most is a guest being taken for a ride by a hotel employee (even it it's the "manager" which I suspect means someone with an assistant manager title) in the employee's personal vehicle at midnight. There are liability issues here as well as the risk of assault by either party.

IME most alofts have a shuttle vehicle that provides local rides to guests. It would have at least seemed more professional if this had been used rather than an employee's private car, even if the private car was more convenient for the employee.

craz

OP as others have said you should have worked out the new hotel part when you were told you were going to be walked.

Ive been walked unfortunately only a few times,thats correct I wish it happened alot more, due to what I must receive for being walked. But how can the hotel inform you if they still had rooms and not everyone checked in as of yet. Sometimes they are simply hoping for a no-show or two to get them off the hook. I wouldnt want to be woken up at 1am to be told Im being walked if I was gonna be a no-show.

1 time the last room was given out when I was #3 on the line to check-in, how is any hotel suppose to know who will make the cutoff and who wont.

Since you never said if have any status with SPG or not its not possible to tell you what you were entitled to. I also 1 time had a 20 min drive to the other hotel near an airport since all the hotels that were willing to work with the one I was walked from were soldout as well. Do you know 100% for sure that all the hotels had availability and were willingto work with the aLoft

It does sound as if the aLoft did drop the ball but then again it sounds as if you did as well, sorry to say.

I think for a person w/o status you were to receive transportation to/from the new hotel, not have to pay the new hotel for the room and not have to pay the aLoft for their room either. although I believe they should have put you into another hotel that was equal to theirs, so that would rule out a full service hotel eg Marriott,Renaissance,DoubleTree etc etc but a DI Id agree isnt an equal but w/o knowing what was available and what wasnt that might have been the best at the time. Did you pay for the DI or did the aLoft charge you anything?

Dr. HFH

Notwithstanding your negative experience, to me this seems like a bit of a stretch.

Andie007

Which one?

craz

Did you read the whole post, the OP did mention the hotel finally called him back and offered to pay for his cab from the Days Inn to where their meeting was

azepine00

Of course this brings back the memories from this FT classic:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...sentation.html

RTW1

That was something that actually took some work and deserves some credit....
This not so much, a one time poster that just needed to vent.

yvr76

Of course being walked is never the guest's fault, but my answer to these situations is always the same. Regardless of your status, if you're arriving past 10pm, always call the hotel, inform them of this and have them set a room aside for you.

MSPeconomist

It doesn't always work. At two different hotels, I called and nevertheless was walked. What was especially annoying was that the hotel knew when I called that I would not get a room and didn't have the decency to tell me in advance but instead pretended that they planned to surely hold me room and have it ready for my arrival. Very annoying.

milesmuncher

^ you just made my Friday

Often1

Your leverage disappears as soon as you walk out the door with the employee. If there are a million rooms between the Aloft and the Days Inn, get on the horn with the place you want and arrange for the Aloft manager to book it.

People get walked and there is nothing to be done about it. But, executing the "walk" can be handled better.

flyalloverthecountry

Some answers to your questions....
I'm not elite at Starwood, but I am preferred.
The hotel said all hotels in the are were booked, and it was 1am - and here I am without transportation - I was at their mercy.
The shuttle driver was 'off' for the night (you have a point about the manager driving).
Aloft and Days Inn didn't charge me for the room - which is nice but doesn't cover all the crap Starwood put me thru.
Yep, I'm a one-time poster. I generally don't get riled up during travel, but this was exceptional. When you arrive at 1am, (yes, they knew my arrival time, but I didn't call to check) you expect a room to be there. They were hoping I was not going to show up.
And the continued lack of response from Starwood has me switching brands.

Doc Savage

Hope you come back to FT. Lots of nice people here with good (usually) advice.

I'm glad you actually got a room, and it sounds like you got some extra help from the manager. I agree with the advice to call ahead if you are going to be late to try to avoid being walked, though even that may not work 100% of the time.