GRUflyer

Dear FTers,


This is interesting to say the very least.

I had quite a nasty stay at a property. Complained to Costumer Service and then it was picked up by Consumer Affairs. A "senior" member was assigned to my case, given how delicate and controversial the claims were.

Firstly I got an email apologizing profusely and asking me to be slightly patient as they would like to review step by step what had happened. Great, I thought.

Well, a week later they wrote me back an email that, when printed, was 4 pages long.

So first they start saying that I would find their explanation for what happened in the following paragraphs, though they did understand that it all came down to intent or optics. - HUM?

So they came up with LAME excuses for everything. They would dodge the real issue and talk about something else. For example, when I described that a certain member of staff had been slightly homophobic in her comments, their reply was "She then even sent you an email with her favorite things to do in the city. Do you believe a person like that has any evil in her heart?"

I was shocked at how they were so cheap about it. Fine, I guess. I was never on board with the whole Marriott take over anyway, so it is not like I was expecting them to deliver World Class service.


But then things got very interesting. They then told me that they actually found out during their investigation that I "was not in line with the conduct we expact from our guests". And that I had made comments about the staff that were not acceptable. Therefore, they would suggest that it might be of our mutual interest that we go separate ways. They feel they cannot fulfill their duty as a company with me.

So I call them out on their BS. I have been a PLAT for 5 years and had never filed a complaint before, and never had any hotel complain about my behavior. There are 3 hotels - 2 in Asia and 1 in Europe that see me at least 4 times per year - never had an issue. Even that hotel itself had not reported anything - until I reported them.

So I asked for proof that I had acted in such nasty way - emails, video, pictures, anything.

Of course they never replied back. Because there is no proof - and because I did absolutely nothing.

So I asked them to present the proof, call all the hotels I have upcoming reservations, refund me everything and indeed go separate ways.

They do not answer, the hotels are not aware of any potential ban, will not refund anything until they get briefed. And I have to make a separate fully refundable reservation for everywhere I go now - because hey, I never know.


Has anyone ever experience such thing?

Just to make it very clear: the email mentioned Starwood-Marriott company as a whole, and not just that hotel.

UKTraveller4Fun

Hi,

I will be honest and say without more specific details it really is impossible to comment further in any constructive or informed way.

On the face of it you seem to have been mistreated but at the same time events can be interpreted by different sides of them in very different ways. So depending what these claims were and how 'legal department' they ended up may affect the response you would get from any corporate.

I was not / am not a huge fan of the Marriott takeover but I do feel in this case you slightly weaken your post by infering it is related to that without any evidence. All communications of the nature you describe are likely to be Starwood/Marriott now as Marriott is the owner of Starwood and unless you have actual reason / evidence to show the Marriott takeover has a bearing I would not pursue that line of comment.

If you can provide us with more details maybe people could comment more or even the Lurkers look into things.

KENNECTED

This post doesn't seem to make sense/ easy to comprehend due to missing information details. W Bogota?

You say you were "booted out of SPG"? What does that mean? Are you saying your account was closed and all points forfeited?

Keyser

that's exactly what i thought as well when i saw the thread title....it looks more like the property told the op that they should go their separate ways....

craigthemif

Unfortunately on FT and elsewhere people seem incapable of being concise and delivering actual details clearly. What might seem as additional explanation confuses things immensely.

1. OP stayed at Hotel X - we don't know which one
2. OP complained about some aspect of stay, presumably accusing one or more staff members of inappropriate behaviour - we don't know what the problem is. homophobia?
3. After investigation, hotel and/or SPG have suggested that the OP is overreacting and furthermore also acted inappropriately - we don't know whether actual details are provided and, of course, OPs never admit to any inappropriate behaviour
4. Either SPG closed account, forfeiting points (and if it were me leading to something much more than a rant on FT), or the hotel invited the OP to stay elsewhere when staying in that particular city. We have no idea - again, several times per year I think "that wasn't much... not staying here again..." so it's hardly the end of the world.

Good luck I guess... I've never been invited to leave a hotel chain behind but I suspect that my reaction would be to take my money elsewhere rather than fight to keep staying where I'm supposedly not wanted.

bigguyinpasadena

This is a continuation of another post (which is similarly vague) the OP posted (taking the discussion off-track) in the GLBT forum http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/27986474-post42.html

SkiAdcock

The property is the W Bogota.

There was a thread in the LGBT forum on how Marriott treats gays/should SPG gay members be worried. The OP of this thread sidetracked the thread a bit in the LGBT forum w/ his experiences at the W Bogota. So for more details re: what happened (or didn't), check out this page which has multiple posts by the OP:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/glbt-...arriott-2.html

Edited to add: bigguy & I were posting at the same time!

Cheers.

Often1

There is no reason that anybody on FT ought to need to perform research elsewhere on FT in order to figure out what OP is complaining about.

Taking what he received via email at face value, it has been strongly suggested by someone -- whether that is the property or SPG -- that he has been fired as a customer and that he stay elsewhere in the future. In the thread title, OP states that he got "booted" out of SPG, implying that his SPG account was somehow closed.

Until he returns with precise facts, it is impossible to determine the situation and foolish to speculate.

But, one this is certain. There are few cities in the world where SPG is the sole chain. Whatever the facts and whoever is at fault, if I were told that I was not welcome, that would be the end of it for the future.

Going forward, stay elsewhere.

Dr. HFH

GRUflyer, would you consider posting both your email to Starwood and the reply verbatim? Often in these situations, how one says things can affect the situation as much as or more than what one says. I think that this would help us greatly in understanding what's going on.

SkiAdcock

Agree w/ both.

Cheers.

bhrubin

Allow me to simply defend the honor of the W Bogota as an out and proud gay man who stayed with my best friend at the W Bogota last year in Feb 2016. My review:

http://www.flyertalk.com/hotel-revie...-b-issues-1268

I can't speak for anyone else, but my best friend and I, both gay, had a wonderful time at the W Bogota. We experienced no anti-gay issues or homophobia at all with anyone at the property.

I never trust any posts that are devoid of details. This thread is exhibit A as to why.

mahasamatman

There are three sides to every disagreement - the accuser, the accused, and the truth. Corporate has to walk that thin line to come to a resolution between the first two to get as close as possible to the third. And without any real information, this thread is an empty rant. Even if we had the OP's side, we would still have only a fraction of the information.

C17PSGR

Also, as practical matter, SPG and MR are still being run separately. While its completely unclear what the situation is, its very unlikely that anyone from Marriott has had any influence or involvement in the situation.

kklems

Not sure of the details of what really happened but the company and the hotel have a right to refuse service to any customer they want as long as the expressed reason is not related to a protected class. SPG apparently doesn't value your business so why would you continue to stay at that brand. Move to another chain and be done with it. While the OP is upset and spending time dwelling on what happened I guarantee that the people at SPG haven't given a second thought to the incident.

JumboJet

Hey they don't want as a customer anymore....Buh-Bye