Dave510

How well would it go over if, at checkout at FS, I decide that I only want to pay $100 per night despite whatever price I had agreed to pay initially? Do you think I would be able to excuse myself with "The only thing guaranteed to us is death"? Perhaps I should tell them not to blame me as my budget just got tighter?

UKTraveller4Fun

​​​​​​I am happy curious at this luxury hotel you work, if you told some of your guests they must be out of their room / suite by 9am rather than an 11am checkout time you publish how they would react. Or maybe they have booked a rate including full breakfast but you then tell them they need to pay for it do you feel you would still have less issues at front desk and have as civil guests?

You are saying you get less issues as your hotel gives its guests what it advertises and guarantees and has good management. I am sure should it not as is the case in this post then things would not be as you describe and the guests who frequent luxury hotels would be much more vocal and accommodating than the Op was here, he even offered to switch to a room to help accommodate the hotels request!

wobbly wings

I am glad this is being brought up. Over the years I've had quite a few (non-conference, non-resort) properties telling me that they cannot honour a 4pm checkout for whatever reason. I know it's a "guaranteed" benefit'; some properties seem to have a different opinion, I never kick a fuss; it's not the end of the world, but it's a bit inconvenient as 4pm checkout is many times the only reason for choosing a SPG property.

UKTraveller4Fun

Exactly it is essentially a form of mis selling and trying to con people. Stand up for your 4pm checkout if you need it. Don't let hotels get away with abusing the rules!

MSPeconomist

Most FS participate in AmEx FHR (and Virtuoso, etc.) so I would expect those guests to ask about upgrades and expect to receive their published benefits including breakfast, guaranteed 4 pm late checkout, and the special property amenity. I would also expect these guests to have high standards for customer service, including the attitude of front desk workers and supervisors/managers.

MSPeconomist

IMO your only recourse is indeed to make a fuss. It shouldn't be easy for hotels to refuse to honor guaranteed published program benefits.

slidergirl

All I can say is

There is a famous saying "the only things guaranteed in life are death and taxes." Since there may be some here who no not (or won't) pay taxes, that leaves death.

Fortunately, my hotel caters to regular people, not entitled snowflakes ;-)

*wood isn't FS. FHR is a global program, not a loyalty program, and it invokes serious consequences on hotels who do not follow the program (will even pull participation if FD staff fail to mention EVERY benefit to the secret shopper, probation 1st time, removal for 6 months 2nd time). The SPG program doesn't police it's members like FHR does, and by now we should know that all your .....ing and moaning doesn't help.


Get over yourselves, please...

Dave510

You expect others to be civil, but apparently if others apply your logic the other way around, they need to "get over themselves".

Believe it or not, customers do have a right to air their grievances, and sometimes, hotels actually do care about customer feedback, especially in the hospitality industry (what a shock!).

Failing that, negative feedback will at least warn others when they are making their loyalty decision.

slidergirl

The last thing I expect on this particular forum is for people to be civil - I know better from the years I've been here.
It's the lock step "lazy, incompetent, untrained, rip off" rant over and over and over and over... If people think this way, they need to move on to somewhere else. Why stay somewhere if you think you are not going to get what you think you are entitled to over and over and over... All the negative comments here don't seem to warn people to make loyalty decisions. Many of the same posters here who complain have been on this forum for years. That is what drives me angry. As a former SPG Champion at one of my former hotels, I got to read all the feedback. The feedback can be seen as genuine, or someone phishing for freebies or someone upset they didn't get what they thought should and will start lashing out. Some management will listen to some of it, some management will use the feedback as fodder for fun at the next E-Team meeting. Ask to see your Starguest profile and see what comments have been kept on you...

Dave510

Logically speaking, if some did read the forums and decide to not bring their business to Starwood, you wouldn't see evidence of it on the Starwood forums, as presumably they wouldn't come to this forum anymore...

I feel like you've probably seen your fair share of unreasonable customers, and have become (not unreasonably) jaded at hearing the same complaints over and over again.

On the other hand, I think asking for a published benefit is not an unreasonable complaint, in the same way that if I stayed at a hotel, I'll expect my room to at least be the room I booked/paid for, and have all the amenities that are published on the website. If Starwood feels like they simply can't, for whatever reason (reasonable or not), guarantee the benefit, then they should change the published benefit to read "based on availability", like room upgrades.

Baiting-and-switching with benefits is highly unethical (and likely illegal too).

UKTraveller4Fun

​​​​​​Simple question if a hotel knows 4pm is the rules should it refuse that to someone who booked it expected it or is the hotel in the wrong.

This is not a thread about someone complaining they didn't get an upgrade but could see availability on spg.com, this is a advertised benefit that someone may reasonably use to make a decision on if to book at a certain property.

Your reasoning that FHR is more policed, let me ask you this, if a guest at your luxury hotel booked on a FHR benefit was refused do you feel they would be civil or might complain and feel agreaved?

I am afraid you seem to think as your hotel is luxury it seems that all is great and anyone staying at anything other than your level of luxury isn't entitled to things they are promised. That is a very sad state of affairs!

CLEguy

Hold on. Let's play this out. I present a dramatic play, in one act:

A guest at your luxury hotel employer checks in.

At check-in, this guest is told that what they had been promised at booking would not be provided.

The guest is fine with it.

Scene.

DRAMATIC ALTERNATE ENDING:
The guest is NOT fine with it.

The FD agent assuages any consternation by slyly noting that "only death and taxes are guaranteed."

At this point the guest, chastised, would chuckle a little bit, think of all the major injustice in the world, and give a tip of the hat, saying, "well played."

-fin.-

Hmm. Okay. I'd love to be a fly in the wall for that. But okay.

I sincerely hope this is true.

Fizzer

In all fairness I felt that the comments on here, at least on this issue, have been polite. Slidergirl I have appreciated your insight into hotel workings in the past and, while I accept the basic premise of your comments on this issue ( yes it's an inconvenience and not a problem ) I also believe that the other posters' comments about bait and switch/ obligation to honour program rules are also valid. Dismissing them so flippantly seems like the type of service I would expect in a not well run hotel TBH. Not in the luxury hotel that you now work in.
As for being on the other side of this it did in fact happen to me. Arriving tired after a long flight I tried to check into a suite we had booked at another SPG hotel, only to be told that a Platinum had a guaranteed late check out at 4pm. Was I upset? Yes, you bet. Did I make a fuss? Not really, because that's not my style and the hotel offered me another room to nap in and refresh until our room was available. That hotel was willing to take steps to mitigate my inconvenience, in a way that the Westin Wall Centre wasn't, even when it was very reasonably ( IMHO) suggested by the OP.

As it happened in that case the Platinum didn't check out on time even at 4pm and we didn't get into our suite until 6. I will admit that it soured my entire stay at the hotel ( along with fact that they tried to deny us lounge access - Plats only and I was Gold) , even though it was listed as a benefit of the suite on their own website and was one of the reasons we had paid extra for the suite in the first place.

gengar

Sure, to you, not getting a 4pm late-checkout may not be a big deal. But that's not what hospitality is about, and you work in the industry so you know that. To OP, it was a big deal - enough so that OP felt SNA was "wasted", i.e., OP would rather not have used SNA at all. That gets back to why what the property did was so egregious; OP notified property that he intended on using the 4pm check-out, yet they took OP's SNA and refused him the check-out anyway. So OP winds up doubly harmed by the property.

bigguyinpasadena

" regular people, not entitled snowflakes ;-) " and another person is added to my ignore list