CP@YOW

This preference is set on my account and appears on every reservation, however, I frequently get rooms with connecting doors. While I understand that it is not always possible to fulfill this (or any) room request, I find it astounding that the front desk staff at multiple hotels have never once even acknowledged my stated preference.

It could be handled so much better from a customer service point of view, for example:
"I noticed that you have requested a room without a connecting door. I'm so sorry, but all the remaining rooms we have available tonight do have connecting doors."

or
"I noticed that you have requested a room without a connecting door. You will find that your room has a connecting door, but we are doing our best to keep the adjoining room empty tonight so that you won't be disturbed."

or
"Because you are a platinum member, we've upgraded you to one of our suites. However, the suite has a connecting door and I noticed that you requested a room without connecting door. Would you prefer one of our standard rooms without a connecting door?

or even on the positive side:
"We've made sure to assign you a room without a connecting door as requested." (It would be nice to know that they respected the preference as opposed to it working out by chance).

Has anyone had an experience where this preference was acknowledged?

LondonElite

I suspect most people don't attach the same importance to this minor issue that you do. In any decent hotel they are two heavy double insulated doors that are as noise-insulating as a wall.

djkyyc

I also have this, what you call "minor", issue. I have found the vast majority of connecting door rooms, no matter how heavy the door, are simplier noisier. It's fairly simple that the doors allow more gaps for sound to travel through than a wall.

I find the hotels I stay at regularly (eg, Westin LAX) are very good at acknowledging this preference at check in. Hotels I do not stay in regularly never seem to acknowledge the preference. I have learned to always ask at check in if my room has a connecting door.

CPRich

I don't see that as a reason for a FDC to ignore a request. Do you believe it's up to the agent to decide whether your request is meaningful enough to fulfill, based on what others think?

DCFlyer0306

Yes, I have this preference set as well and I have never had a check-in agent acknowledge it and still frequently get rooms with connecting doors (and because no one ever acknowledges it, I have no idea if I am getting a room with a connecting door because only rooms with connecting doors are available or if I am getting one because they simply ignored my preference).

In my experience, rooms with connecting doors are absolutely louder.

I agree this is a miss from a customer service perspective - why even allow customers to specify the preference if it is never acknowledged and frequently not followed?

Land-of-Miles

The bizarre thing is that requests for adjoining rooms also often do not get connecting doors. Overall this is very poor service.

Kagehitokiri

even if you are Plat100, it depends on the brand/property..

apparently/interestingly adjoining does not mean connecting

bagold

I have same request but even though Front Desk doesn't mention it I haven't found a room with a connecting door for the last 2 years.

JackE

All good points.

Sound acts very much like water. It doesn't take much for sound to leak through.

karenkay

i have the same preference noted, for the same reason (noise). it's honored occasionally, but not often, and never mentioned at check-in...or at any other time, unless i bring it up. you're right, it would be nice if mentioned at check-in.

as it is, when i get a room without a connecting door, i assume it's luck, rather than that the hotel is honoring my preference.

LondonElite

Correct, they are different words meaning different things. Adjoining simply means that there is a common line. It could also, but doesn't strictly have to, mean that they are connecting.

slidergirl

If you are staying at a hotel, say like a St. Regis, where rooms are sold separately or paired to form multi-room suites, it may be the norm to have all the rooms have connecting doors. Just throwing that out - not saying every hotel is set that way. Just a data point.

It's another thing that the rooms coordinators should look at when manually blocking rooms prior to arrival. But, for those places that rely on on-the-fly assignment via computer, nothing is personalized - you booked a Deluxe King, the computer spits out the next available Deluxe King. The FDA may be able to shift other rooms to accommodate the preference. Lightspeed changed the way they list room attributes to make it almost impossible to see quickly - it's all mashed together.
Sometimes, we rely too much on the assumption that every employee that touches a reservation will automatically see everything about a guest. I still believe in following up myself as part of my due diligence on any of my reservations I make for myself. I don't wait until I reach the Front Desk and hope that I get a room on a high floor away from the elevator and ice machine and away from the exit doors...

Kagehitokiri

all st regis deer valley rooms are part of sold lockoff condos

unusual for st regis / upscale

my mind is failing at moment thinking of other SPG that are all condo

one is W south beach, many lockoffs, but also nonlockoff studios

so good point re type of property, whether condo/timeshare/fractional

but more importantly, select service brands are not even full service, and lowest full service brands are not high level of service

Canada101

I personally don't consider this to be a major preference for me BUT it is clearly a major preference for some/many other guests. If it wasn't, why would frequent guest programs include this preference as an option on a guest/stay profile?

One of my pet peeves is how properties just fail to consider preferences that are supposed to be part of being a frequent guest profile when allocating rooms. If these are preferences which properties are free to ignore, why do frequent guest programs (not only SPG) ask for these preferences to be included in a profile?

For example, I really don't care much about a connecting door but I do prefer higher floor rooms away from the elevator particularly in city center or convention hotels since I find lower floors and those near elevators noisier. Despite these clearly stated preferences on my profile, however, it happens far too often that these preferences are simply ignored.

I understand the challenges and tend to not bother making a big deal of these matters but agree with the OP that properties shouldn't just ignore these preferences during room assignments.

Kagehitokiri

if expecting that of the lowest select service that costs extremely little...

profiles and surveys can be (not always) purely marketing and nothing else