JBauer

Preface: I love SPG. They always treat me well. Platinum 100.

Headline: We're flying to Fiji tonight and 5 hours before our flight, I get an email from the hotel demanding we buy 2 more rooms at a cost of nearly $4,000 US -- saying we are over room occupancy, despite them knowing the exact number of us in the rooms since October -- including our Ambassador, who never mentioned a problem. We are flying tonight to go there...Tonight.

We Booked 2 rooms with points for a 6 night stay at Sheraton Tokoriki Island, Fiji in October 2017 for a stay this week.
After booking, I emailed we were celebrating kids birthdays and sent names and ages.
1 Room: 2 adults and two kids (ages 7 and 6)
2 Room: 2 adults and three kids (ages 8, 7 and 3)

I also then sent the names and ages again, because the hotel had to arrange boat transfers. And confirmed our boat tickets again last month. So they were well aware of who was coming.

Two days ago I get this email from my ambassador (bolding mine): "spoke with our reservations manager at Sheraton Resort & Spa, Tokoriki Island, Fiji and she suggested two rooms per family since there are 9 people. We want to make sure everyone is accommodated since we are unable to provide rollaways here. Children 12 years and under sleep for free in the existing bedding of a room shared with a paying adult. Please let me know if I can help with any additional requests. You are going to have a wonderful trip."

I said: "No thanks." It may be tight but on beach vacations we are never in the room anyway.

Then I get an email that our SNA's get approved and we are upgraded to Beach Front villa. Very Nice.

Today, this morning (the day we leave), I get another email from my ambassador: "Our Reservation Manager XXX asked me to reach out to you again about your rooms. I can understand that you do not wish to buy additional rooms; however, we suggest four rooms for your group."

Again, I politely decline. I'm used to SPG hotels emailing buy-up offers. No big deal.

Then, while on our way to the airport tonight I get an email from the hotel: "As advised in the recent past via multiple emails, that you will have to book 2 additional rooms to accommodate all of you. Family by 5 guests and second family by 4 guests cannot stay in one room each as there is not enough space and beds and also safety compliance."

So, the night we are leaving it goes from we "suggest" you get more space to be comfortable, to you MUST. Add $4,000. I understand fire codes and all that, but if they had notified us earlier we could have looked at other properties. We used SPG points, so adding $4k is a lot.

Am I being unreasonable to be upset? If anything, shouldn't my ambassador have flagged this beyond suggesting we buy another room? Seems unfair to wait till we're boarding our flight.

I've responded, we're on our way and not planning to pay that price.

Any thoughts on how to approach this are appreciated. I'll see responses when we land, I suppose.

forumpersona999

That SNA clearing to a villa may be the issue. Mixed blessing. 2 x vanilla hotel rooms may well have worked for your group but the upgrade to the villa may make it difficult. The villa bedrooms may be tiny or something.

MSPeconomist

Then the hotel should offer the alternative of downgrading the OP to the room categories that were originally booked.

Kacee

I don't think so. If the occupancy was a problem requiring a mandatory purchase of two more rooms, they should have told you that long ago. IMO, if occupancy limits require extra rooms, at this point they ought to be comped, since it's obviously too late for you to make alternative plans.

Hope this works out for you.

kaizen7

Checking the hotel's own website, they have a suite category that was marked as "adult only"
Wonder if OP was upgraded (SNAed?) to that room hence the issue with the kids ?

And with the SNA, OP book 2 rooms ... then apply SNA. Did OP got 2 villas instead ? more specificly ... the category that was marked as adult only

JBauer

HollyGlen

No, it is totally NOT cool. I hope front desk sees your side of the issue and you have a great holiday!

But these Ambassadors...maybe SPG should consider introducing a new benefit for Plat 100s, e.g. if they fail to requalify the following year, a Platinum parachute year or a Plat challenge.

red star

Your AMB might be to blame here IF he/she khew about your wrongly made booking and did‘ntwarn you but the hotel certainly is not. You‘ve made a wrong booking for 2 rooms with 2 people each in it (which is btw maximum occupancy in case of an standard points booking anyway) and did not ask or tell them about your plan to exceed this maximum by far at time of booking. It is a pretty long shot to expect them to realise there will be 5 more in the same rooms just because you did ask for a birthday party arrangement or boat transfer. That might be handled by a different department or a 3th party operator but even if it is all in one hand, they certainly do not have to cross check the number of people staying as by the booking.

So lets face it, you want to sneak 5 people in without a reservation for them.
I‘m pretty familiar with that idea because of my 2 boys.
It usually works but if not, I do not start to blame SPG, the hotel, my AMB, the UN security council or somebody else.
Ask for a better solution when you are there. There has always been a way to make a deal then but expect to pay some money nonetheless.

3544quebec

The hotel seems to provide appropriate information on the Special Conditions for Family stays when I try to book a room for 2 adults and 2 children:

joakgarp

Think it's up to the guest to follow the rules of the hotel whenever it is so in this wouldn't blame either the hotel or spg. You should also have contacted the hotel first about how many you were and if that's okay, not a middleman spg ambassador.

supatight80

i thought that this was the whole point of having Ambassador level status...

Often1

The property has OP over a barrel and knows it. Arriving w. 9 people, 5 of whom are kids after a lengthy trip does not put OP in a good position and the hotel may simply shrug. Maybe it gets straightened out later, maybe not.

A word to the wise here would have been to have picked up the phone somewhere along the line. Based on the earlier emails, the "suggestions" became more strident and that suggests putting the issue to rest in a call and then confirming it with an email.

Did OP not see the written policy?

worldtraveller73

I wouldn't necessarily blame the OP on this. He has been getting inconsistent messaging from the hotel. While he could have picked up the phone, most of us that spend 100 nights on the road don't have a lot of discretionary time or time to follow up on the nuances of bookings when they are trying to balance family, work commitments and other responsibilities.

Having been to this property, and having used SNA to stay in the top level room category (which is offered in the SNA pool), they do try to differentiate between the adult and the children side of the property. They are on opposite ends of the resort. If I recall correctly, the SNA's clear into the adult side.

in my humble opinion, There should be some type of accommodation for on the part of the resort; especially for a valued guest. This is essentially a new property and is going through some teething pains, having been closed due to hurricane damage.

JBauer

my ambassador made the booking. She has since acknowledged using the words “suggestion” was wrong.

We have two rooms that accommodate 4 people each by their rules. I dont see how having a 3 year old constitutes sneaking in 5 more people.

Often1

It's not sneaking 5 people in, it's only 1.

But, since the phone agent "Amabassador" has acknowledged the issue, what does she propose to do? Alternatively, what would you have done had the property told you directly at the time of booking that you would require 1 or 2 additional rooms?