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SPG Not taking responsibility for their mistake. Help!

SPG Not taking responsibility for their mistake. Help!

 
Old May 19, 2017, 8:55 pm
  #31  
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Originally Posted by lmw
My husband and I are SPG gold members and booked a trip using points to the Westin Los Cabos (we booked about 3 months ago).
. . .
Lots of moving parts here. At the time OP made reservations the property was not open. It did not re-open until April 1, 2017. Prior to the time OP made a reservation, as part of the Starwood spinoff of Starwood Vacation Ownership, to sweeten the pot Starwood packaged several hotel properties and transferred them to Starwood Vacation Ownership which was purchased by Interval Leisure Group (ILG) now operating the properties as Vistana Signature Experience. This property was one of those in that transfer.

ILG, through renovations, transformed the previous hotel rooms to timeshare villas. So this property is no longer your traditional hotel, in either offerings or SPG benefits, as it was in its prior life.

Not sure this history exonerates Starwood from OP's claims but it does show that the many moving parts added additional risk that changes would/could be forthcoming. That risk was compounded by OP's delay in firmly securing exactly the type of reservation he was desiring.


Originally Posted by LondonElite
. . .

On your first point, Starwood has management contracts with the hotel operator. These contracts are extremely detailed and require the operator and the employees at the hotel to follow defined brand standards. Some of these employees will indeed be on Starwood's payroll,
. . .
Starwood does not have management contracts with each hotel operator flagged with a Starwood brand. IME, Starwood employees would only be at hotel properties where Starwood is managing the property on behalf of the ownership group.
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Old May 19, 2017, 9:14 pm
  #32  
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https://www.allinclusivevacations.co...spa-los-cabos/
Originally Posted by ajeleonard
Why don't you just pay for food at the resort as you go? It will probably be around $80 anyway.

Otherwise what do you expect SPG to do? They can't reinstate a now non-existent all-
inclusive set up and it's not like you paid for something they aren't honoring.

Final option - just cancel and rebook elsewhere
Obviously this was a least until recently a service they provided.

"For a vacation with no worries, choose the optional Inclusive Plan. This plan includes: all-day dining including breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks, 24-hour in-room dining, International and domestic alcoholic beverages, juice and soft drinks at selected bars, waiter service at swim-up pool bar, pool, and beach, an in-room mini-bar with soft drinks, bottled water, and beer, use of the tennis courts, a fitness center, Free in-room WiFi, Free access to Westin Kids Club and applicable taxes & gratuities. Surcharges may apply on some dishes and room service."

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Old May 19, 2017, 9:17 pm
  #33  
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Originally Posted by SkiAdcock
If you read the OP's OP, she stated that it was $80 per person per day, not $80 for both of them.

For those saying cancel, the OP probably booked flights when they booked the hotel so canceling & trying to find another location might cost them more in airline fees, in addition to trying to find another hotel that is available w/ points.

I can understand the OP's frustration/disappointment. However, I doubt the problem has anything to do w/ the merger.

Cheers.
100% Also, $80 a day for food and drinks per person at a resort would not be enough for me. Breakfast buffet $25, lunch with a couple of drinks $40, and dinner with a couple of drinks, 40-50 dollars.
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Old May 19, 2017, 9:21 pm
  #34  
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Where is the OP? Folks give their advice and ask questions yet the one person asking for help is absent.
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Old May 19, 2017, 9:34 pm
  #35  
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Originally Posted by CNWO4LIFE
https://www.allinclusivevacations.co...spa-los-cabos/ Obviously this was a least until recently a service they provided.

"For a vacation with no worries, choose the optional Inclusive Plan. This plan includes: all-day dining including breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks, 24-hour in-room dining, International and domestic alcoholic beverages, juice and soft drinks at selected bars, waiter service at swim-up pool bar, pool, and beach, an in-room mini-bar with soft drinks, bottled water, and beer, use of the tennis courts, a fitness center, Free in-room WiFi, Free access to Westin Kids Club and applicable taxes & gratuities. Surcharges may apply on some dishes and room service."
I wonder how recent since the name of the property in the link is not the current name of the property?
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Old May 19, 2017, 10:17 pm
  #36  
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Originally Posted by Collierkr
Maybe it depends on the location but having just come from Cancun last month I can tell you that some older ones and most of the new resorts are no longer all inclusive. Perhaps, they were tired of all the debauchery that unlimited food and drink brings.
There are lots of large Yucatan resort properties in Cancun, Cozumel and Playacar that have lots of guests on some kind of meal-inclusive plans. I wouldn't be surprised if 30-70% (if not more) of the European passport-using visitors coming into CUN or nearby airports from abroad are staying at hotels/resorts on some kind of meal-inclusive plan.

Originally Posted by Often1
Perhaps it wasn't bad information when it was given.
If so, then the hotel and/or Starwood did wrong, right?
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Old May 19, 2017, 10:39 pm
  #37  
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http://www.starwoodhotels.com/westin...ropertyID=1087
Originally Posted by controller1
I wonder how recent since the name of the property in the link is not the current name of the property?

Am I missing something? I t looks like the same name to me.
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Old May 19, 2017, 11:34 pm
  #38  
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The OP posted but the post was in a queue for mod approval.

Originally Posted by CNWO4LIFE
Where is the OP? Folks give their advice and ask questions yet the one person asking for help is absent.
Originally Posted by lmw
OP here...thank you for the benefit of the doubt. You sum up our situation quite well.

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.
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Old May 19, 2017, 11:46 pm
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Originally Posted by lmw
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.
Of little help now, but consider using Skype for these types of things - cheap international calling not only helps with entities that lack a domestic/toll-free number, but also calling certain call centers of international companies to your benefit. It's annoying to have to resort to things like Skype to get problems handled efficiently/cheaply, but it's helped me immensely.

In any case, it does seem to me that SPG really dropped the ball here, but nevertheless I hope that you are able to find satisfactory alternate plans for your anniversary.
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Old May 19, 2017, 11:49 pm
  #40  
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Originally Posted by gengar
Of little help now, but consider using Skype for these types of things - cheap international calling not only helps with entities that lack a domestic/toll-free number, but also calling certain call centers of international companies to your benefit. It's annoying to have to resort to things like Skype to get problems handled efficiently/cheaply, but it's helped me immensely.

In any case, it does seem to me that SPG really dropped the ball here, but nevertheless I hope that you are able to find satisfactory alternate plans for your anniversary.
Skype would have been a great idea. Not sure why we didn't think of that, but thank you! Noted for next time.
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Old May 19, 2017, 11:56 pm
  #41  
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Originally Posted by CNWO4LIFE
100% Also, $80 a day for food and drinks per person at a resort would not be enough for me. Breakfast buffet $25, lunch with a couple of drinks $40, and dinner with a couple of drinks, 40-50 dollars.
Yep. You and I seem to vacation the same, my friend.
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Old May 20, 2017, 2:07 am
  #42  
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Originally Posted by bhrubin
The customer can unwind from the contract--by canceling. If the customer waited so long to cancel without any confirmation of booking an all-inclusive option, then the customer is the one at fault here...which is what I believe actually happened. The customer assumed too much, never confirmed a thing with the hotel, and just hoped against hope that if nothing was said that he or she would somehow magically get what they wanted. They didn't...and now are singing sour grapes. Sorry, I'm with SPG on this one.
i don't see how the customer is at fault here....as i understand it here are the chain of events as per the op:

she booked the room through spg but could not book the 'all inclusive' package with them as she had to contact the property for that....

spg however confirmed at the time of booking that this option existed....

she emailed the property & got no response....she then called the property & got no response....

she got back in touch with spg who then offered to get in touch with the property on their behalf....

after receiving the request from spg, the property finally responded & stated that the 'all inclusive' option no longer exists....

the op called spg to confirm if this was indeed true & spg confirmed that the option still existed on their system....they further confirmed that they would get in touch with the hotel to either get them that option or in the alternative offer them resort credit to make up for it....

if the op is telling the truth then i don't see how they are at fault....so your following statement could not be more incorrect:

The customer assumed too much, never confirmed a thing with the hotel, and just hoped against hope that if nothing was said that he or she would somehow magically get what they wanted. They didn't...and now are singing sour grapes.
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Old May 20, 2017, 4:43 am
  #43  
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Originally Posted by SanDiego1K
The OP posted but the post was in a queue for mod approval.
Thanks.
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Old May 20, 2017, 4:44 am
  #44  
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Originally Posted by lmw
Yep. You and I seem to vacation the same, my friend.
Exactly. And what I listed is the bare minimum. I did not include snacks or evening drinks.
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Old May 20, 2017, 10:12 am
  #45  
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Originally Posted by lmw
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.
What do you see as a satisfactory remedy? (Don't say make the property offer the deal outlined by the res agent. SPG can't dictate services and prices.)
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