SPG Not taking responsibility for their mistake. Help!
May 19, 2017, 10:16 am
#16
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The point you make about spending at resorts relative to the $80 fee is exactly why properties are moving away from all inclusive. They can make more money!
If I were the OP I would cancel and go somewhere else. I also would have made an original booking that guaranteed all inclusive if that is what I was looking for.
If I were the OP I would cancel and go somewhere else. I also would have made an original booking that guaranteed all inclusive if that is what I was looking for.
$160 per room night in supplemental hotel revenue from a couple is no joke for hotels, especially as their cost of mass food and drink procurement and production isn't so high as to make it all that unprofitable. A lot of that meal plan related revenue would be spent off-site otherwise, and that doesn't directly benefit the hotels to lose that revenue.
May 19, 2017, 10:34 am
#17
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You contradicted yourself when you said that you booked it under the premise of all-inclusive. You said that you tried to include this option after you made the booking. There's a big difference. Also, Starwood Gold is pretty meaningless in terms of leverage with the hotel.
May 19, 2017, 11:43 am
#18
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OP booked the room with points so she has until 24 hours before arrival to cancel without penalty and have the points redeposited into her account.
There are literally dozens of hotels in Los Cabos that offer all inclusive packages. Just cancel and book one of those hotels if OP wants all inclusive so badly.
There are literally dozens of hotels in Los Cabos that offer all inclusive packages. Just cancel and book one of those hotels if OP wants all inclusive so badly.
May 19, 2017, 11:59 am
#19
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OP booked the room with points so she has until 24 hours before arrival to cancel without penalty and have the points redeposited into her account.
There are literally dozens of hotels in Los Cabos that offer all inclusive packages. Just cancel and book one of those hotels if OP wants all inclusive so badly.
There are literally dozens of hotels in Los Cabos that offer all inclusive packages. Just cancel and book one of those hotels if OP wants all inclusive so badly.
May 19, 2017, 12:07 pm
#20
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Hopefully, the OP can cancel and re-book (at the same place or elsewhere) without penalty.
That has nothing to do with what I posted about this.
Your post mentions that the SPG agent was in error. When an SPG customer relies upon an SPG agent's representation in error to the detriment of that customer, then SPG should be responsible for fixing the situation for that customer -- that, or at least making sure the SPG customer can unwind from the contract upon which the customer detrimentally relied due to SPG's claim made in error. SPG has room for improvement in this regard.
That has nothing to do with what I posted about this.
Your post mentions that the SPG agent was in error. When an SPG customer relies upon an SPG agent's representation in error to the detriment of that customer, then SPG should be responsible for fixing the situation for that customer -- that, or at least making sure the SPG customer can unwind from the contract upon which the customer detrimentally relied due to SPG's claim made in error. SPG has room for improvement in this regard.
May 19, 2017, 1:02 pm
#21
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any cancellation penalty should be waived, by SPG
if 3rd party package gets points, someone might PM it to OP
if 3rd party package gets points, someone might PM it to OP
May 19, 2017, 1:15 pm
#22
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While it is cold comfort to OP, this is a public board. It appears that OP did business with the property via email rather than by phone and allowed time to pass. That was a mistake.
It was fine to send an email and wait a day or two. But, without a response, I would have called and taken care of this issue. Perhaps at the time the property still offered the add-on. At least OP would have known that it did not and been far earlier in the process.
Relying on emails is a bad way to do business in the first instance, especially if one does not receive a fairly immediate response. Perhaps asking for a confirming email, or some other written document is fine. But, leaving things hanging was asking for it and the passage of time was a sure sign that things were not going to end well.
Worse, it reads to me as though OP continued this with SPG as to the f&b credit issue. OP suggests that emails do not receive responses. They likely will not. OP needs to pick up the phone.
I too read the OP as being that the OP chose the property and wanted the add-on. But, OP knew that there were extra steps to be taken and until those were followed through, this was open to trouble.
It was fine to send an email and wait a day or two. But, without a response, I would have called and taken care of this issue. Perhaps at the time the property still offered the add-on. At least OP would have known that it did not and been far earlier in the process.
Relying on emails is a bad way to do business in the first instance, especially if one does not receive a fairly immediate response. Perhaps asking for a confirming email, or some other written document is fine. But, leaving things hanging was asking for it and the passage of time was a sure sign that things were not going to end well.
Worse, it reads to me as though OP continued this with SPG as to the f&b credit issue. OP suggests that emails do not receive responses. They likely will not. OP needs to pick up the phone.
I too read the OP as being that the OP chose the property and wanted the add-on. But, OP knew that there were extra steps to be taken and until those were followed through, this was open to trouble.
May 19, 2017, 1:35 pm
#23
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While it is cold comfort to OP, this is a public board. It appears that OP did business with the property via email rather than by phone and allowed time to pass. That was a mistake.
It was fine to send an email and wait a day or two. But, without a response, I would have called and taken care of this issue. Perhaps at the time the property still offered the add-on. At least OP would have known that it did not and been far earlier in the process.
Relying on emails is a bad way to do business in the first instance, especially if one does not receive a fairly immediate response. Perhaps asking for a confirming email, or some other written document is fine. But, leaving things hanging was asking for it and the passage of time was a sure sign that things were not going to end well.
Worse, it reads to me as though OP continued this with SPG as to the f&b credit issue. OP suggests that emails do not receive responses. They likely will not. OP needs to pick up the phone.
I too read the OP as being that the OP chose the property and wanted the add-on. But, OP knew that there were extra steps to be taken and until those were followed through, this was open to trouble.
It was fine to send an email and wait a day or two. But, without a response, I would have called and taken care of this issue. Perhaps at the time the property still offered the add-on. At least OP would have known that it did not and been far earlier in the process.
Relying on emails is a bad way to do business in the first instance, especially if one does not receive a fairly immediate response. Perhaps asking for a confirming email, or some other written document is fine. But, leaving things hanging was asking for it and the passage of time was a sure sign that things were not going to end well.
Worse, it reads to me as though OP continued this with SPG as to the f&b credit issue. OP suggests that emails do not receive responses. They likely will not. OP needs to pick up the phone.
I too read the OP as being that the OP chose the property and wanted the add-on. But, OP knew that there were extra steps to be taken and until those were followed through, this was open to trouble.
May 19, 2017, 1:43 pm
#24
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ask them to listen to their tape
lmw, if you adamant that SPG confirmed the inclusive option, why not ask a supervisor to listen to the tape? i.e. if this is truly SPG's mistake, they will take responsibility for it.
May 19, 2017, 2:49 pm
#25
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Which general trend is there away from properties having inclusive meal plans? If anything, it seems like there is more of a move into it than out of it.
$160 per room night in supplemental hotel revenue from a couple is no joke for hotels, especially as their cost of mass food and drink procurement and production isn't so high as to make it all that unprofitable. A lot of that meal plan related revenue would be spent off-site otherwise, and that doesn't directly benefit the hotels to lose that revenue.
$160 per room night in supplemental hotel revenue from a couple is no joke for hotels, especially as their cost of mass food and drink procurement and production isn't so high as to make it all that unprofitable. A lot of that meal plan related revenue would be spent off-site otherwise, and that doesn't directly benefit the hotels to lose that revenue.
May 19, 2017, 4:28 pm
#26
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May 19, 2017, 4:38 pm
#27
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I'm going to give the benefit of the doubt & assume that the OP/hubby are not the debauchery kind. They booked a hotel on points & probably thought the $160/add on for all inclusive fit their budget.
I agree they should have been more pro-active in getting it sorted, but also agree that they were given bad info by SPG agents so it's not like the OP was totally in the wrong. For those saying cancel, we have no idea what the cancellation policy is for their reservation. Also, since they were using points they need a hotel in the area that's now available on points, which may not be available. It's not as simple as cancel & go ahead & book something paid, or cancel & incur airline charges if they switch to somewhere else/eat those tickets.
Cheers.
I agree they should have been more pro-active in getting it sorted, but also agree that they were given bad info by SPG agents so it's not like the OP was totally in the wrong. For those saying cancel, we have no idea what the cancellation policy is for their reservation. Also, since they were using points they need a hotel in the area that's now available on points, which may not be available. It's not as simple as cancel & go ahead & book something paid, or cancel & incur airline charges if they switch to somewhere else/eat those tickets.
Cheers.
May 19, 2017, 5:30 pm
#28
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Perhaps it wasn't bad information when it was given.
May 19, 2017, 6:02 pm
#29
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That little fact doesn't matter much to the OP. Still, if we're assigning blame, I think it should be placed on the hotel.
May 19, 2017, 8:50 pm
#30
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I'm going to give the benefit of the doubt & assume that the OP/hubby are not the debauchery kind. They booked a hotel on points & probably thought the $160/add on for all inclusive fit their budget.
I agree they should have been more pro-active in getting it sorted, but also agree that they were given bad info by SPG agents so it's not like the OP was totally in the wrong. For those saying cancel, we have no idea what the cancellation policy is for their reservation. Also, since they were using points they need a hotel in the area that's now available on points, which may not be available. It's not as simple as cancel & go ahead & book something paid, or cancel & incur airline charges if they switch to somewhere else/eat those tickets.
Cheers.
I agree they should have been more pro-active in getting it sorted, but also agree that they were given bad info by SPG agents so it's not like the OP was totally in the wrong. For those saying cancel, we have no idea what the cancellation policy is for their reservation. Also, since they were using points they need a hotel in the area that's now available on points, which may not be available. It's not as simple as cancel & go ahead & book something paid, or cancel & incur airline charges if they switch to somewhere else/eat those tickets.
Cheers.
For the sake of brevity, I left several details out of the initial post. When attempting to contact the hotel (which we did not do at the last minute), we noticed the hotel does not have a toll free number (so pretty high rates to call them from our US cell phones)...we called Starwood and asked if there was a toll free number. They said no, that email was the best way to get ahold of the hotel. We actually still called the hotel, but after sitting on hold for 10 minutes (at $5 a minute from our non international cell plans), we opted to hang up and pursue the email route as Starwood had suggested. We then emailed the email address that both Starwood and the website for the hotel provided. No response. We called Starwood again and they said again that was the way to contact the hotel. A few more no responses and finally a bounced back email and we called Starwood again. At that point they mentioned that they did in fact have a different email address that they could use to contact the hotel. They would email them and ask them to email us. That is the point at which we finally got in contact with the hotel and they informed us that there is no all inclusive option.
Also, to be clear, I have picked up the phone plenty of times. Our dealings with Starwood have been via phone. They emailed us after I initially called and asked for their help to tell us they won't help us, and I picked up the phone after that to call them to continue the conversation.
Just cancelling at this point is not so easy. We have plane tickets, there are no other properties in Cabo we can book on points, and we have time off work and childcare arranged for our 3 small children (no small feat) so we can celebrate our 10 year anniversary.
Ultimately, we will still have a great anniversary trip I'm sure. However, as I've said, I'm finding it incredibly frustrating and out of character for Starwood to be this unwilling to accept any responsibility on the issue. It seems one of the main issues is they have a communication problem with their property...I do feel like that is partially on Starwood to communicate with their own properties and have accurate information to provide to their members.