PDXbased1K

Okay everyone advice time..

I am doing a last minute UA mileage run to keep 1K status for next year. I found an awesome upgradeable fare to Dublin, Ireland and placed it on hold. I wanted to make sure that I could get a decent hotel rate before booking my airline ticket. I called Westin reservations to check the rates for the WESTIN DUBLIN, the representative told me that the "Best Available" Rate would be 269 Euros. I told her that was wayyyyyyy to high and would kill my mileage run deal so I would just go ahead and use points. The agent said she wasn't in Starwood Preferred Guest so she would go ahead and create my reservation and the transfer me to SPG to convert the reservation to a starpoint award. The agent then transferred me after explaining what we were doing so that the agent could issue the award. Everything went smoothly (including a confirmation showing the confirmation as a reward stay) until the next day when I received a call from corporate customer service telling me that the WESTIN DUBLIN was sold out and they would not honor my reservation. I was walking into a meeting and couldn't discuss it right then so told her I would call her back. I now recieved the following email:

Dear PDXbased100K,



Pursuant to our telephone conversation on October 25, 2005 regarding your reservation number XXXXXXX. The reservation manager from the Westin Dublin confirmed that it is not possible to change the booking to Starpoints. The best available rate for those dates is 269 euro per room per night.

Obviously a misunderstanding has occurred however Starwood cannot accept liability on this particular occasion.



Please be assured both Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide and Starwood Preferred Guest strive to maintain the highest quality of customer service. We apologize if your experience has not been an example of this and would like to assure you that it was the exception and not the rule.



We appreciate your patronage of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. If you have further questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me.



Best regards,



XXXXX XXXXXX
Corporate Customer Service Associate

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc

I don't understand what happened or how they could not honor my confirmation email with my award number and points deducted out of my account? I now have a non-refundable ticket to a city that is going to run me AT LEAST $250 USD for a decent hotel. I'm a college student so this trip is already a stretch for me, and I know that won't matter to SPG, but I'm just reiterating the reason I booked this whole trip to begine with. I NEVER would have considered this even a decent value had I known how much the room was going to cost. In conclusion, my award remains intactm with the points deducted from my account, and the SPG rate plan description on the reservation. I'm considering not doing anything but don't want to get to Dublin and have no reservation! Advice please...

ski

If you have a confirmation that it is with points, then points it is. They may try to do something like this, but only if you let them. This is unacceptable. I would call corporate, ask for a supervisor, open a file and get a file number, and fax a copy of your confirmation with points to starwood corporate. I would also send an email to GM of hotel with copy of your original reservation that was made with points. If they can honor this reservation for cash, then there is no reason why they should not be able to honor it with points. If they said they could not honor it at all and they were finding you an alternative hotel in advance with compensation, than that is a different story. Always keep a copy of original reservation after making it. Alternatively, you could ask for them to reimburse you for your plane ticket.

gleff

That's what I would do...

Many here know that res agents aren't supposed to create bookings and then 'transfer them' to points.

But this sounds more like a Starwood training issue than your problem. You relied on what you were told by Starwood, you made a reservation, points were deducted, etc.

And then you paid for nonrefundable airline tickets, which you wouldn't have done if you couldn't find the room.

Seems to me like Starwood needs to honor your points reservation or cover the cost of your airline ticket. (FWIW they offered to cover the cost of nonrefundable airfare for anyone who had already booked flights to Bora Bora when they refused to honor the error rate there a few years ago...)

Sure, this was likely a mistake on Starwood's part. Which is why they, not you, should eat the associated expense. "Detrimental reliance."

loquillo

If there is a room to be had with $$$ (or Euros), then there should be a room to be had with points. The Starwood desk should be able to help.

If they cannot "switch" a reservation, then they can "cancel" one and "create" another.

PDXbased1K

The problem is that the hotel is SOLD OUT, meaning there are now no rooms available to create a new award reservation. The room that I booked is a traditional queen room, so I suspect this is the correct category of room. The attitude of the SPG representative that I only breifly spoke with irked me, she was basically calling to tell me to cancel my reservation OR pay the 269 Euros per night. I was shocked she didn't even apologize once in the conversation. I am going to call customer care later and will post the outcome. They have already assigned a file number even before my contact with this customer care agent.

gleff

This is incorrect. If there is a standard room available for $$$ then there should be one available for points. The room booked may be considered a different category from an award room, hence it was available but an award room was not.

At some hotels you can pay additional points to get into another room category. Whether this is offered is at the discretion of the hotel, but it can mean that no room is available for the usual number of points but a 'better' room is available for more points....

Also incorrect. Even if the existing reservation is for a standard room, cancelling it doesn't mean that a standard room will become available.

ldsant

Please don't take this the wrong way, but if you're a college student, why do you have to stay at the Westin? There are many hostels in Dublin that run about $45 - $50 per night.

I'm not excusing what *wood did, but this would seem to be a workaround to your situation and give you your airline miles for status without costing quite a bit of $ and relieving your frustration/being upset.

Additionally, in all of my travels I have only had one time where I was unable to find a room when I arrived without reservations (Milan - it was fashion week ). I think you could probably arrive in Dublin and find something that evening. Also, if you are a college student, you could use the STA resources as well.

AJLondon

To the OP: I would take gleff's advice and call starwood corporate asap and get a casefile started. As long as you have an email from Starwood with a confirmation number that shows an SPG award reservation for this stay, there is no way they should be able to change it if the hotel gets sold out. If they made a mistake, you shouldn't be out of pocket as a result.

A polite way to respond to this "comment/advice" would be that is totally irrelevant to the issue raised by the OP IMHO. Maybe the forum mod could come and remove it..

gregorygrady

Not to get too far off topic, but I stayed at the Comfort Inn Parnell St. in April for ~$70-$80 per night (yeah, that's dollars, not Euros). Everything in Dublin is crazy expensive so I don't know how the Comfort Inn was so cheap, but it is a very moderately priced hotel in a pretty good location downtown. The hotel is not bad at all (OK, it's not the Westin, but for a MR, its not a bad deal and if I were going I'd actually prefer paying $70 there than blowing 10,000 SPG points for Westin Dublin. Just an alternative solution if your formal complaint doesn't work.

PDXbased1K

Regarding the post from IDSANT

Please don't take this the wrong way, but if you're a college student, why do you have to stay at the Westin? There are many hostels in Dublin that run about $45 - $50 per night.

I didn't realize that college students were supposed to have lower travel standards than others. I don't stay at hostels, the bottom line is that I check both hotels AND hotel before I book anything firmly and then make a final decision. If I can't stay at a nice place then I simply won't go. To the poster who reccommended the Comfort INN Parnell Square, even that hotel is running $166 USD (plus taxes) per night, and no points!

If someone has a good reccommendation for a hotel in a the city center ( I want to be able to go out and not have to use a taxi except to/from the airport., then I would love to hear it. It seems most hotels in the city center are sold out or upwards of $300 USD per night. I will call customer care and post a response by Monday.

gleff

PDXbased1K, I used to live in FAT myself. Are you a student in PDX? Do keep us updated if you contact Starwood and pursue the award night that you relied on in booking nonrefundable airfare.

ldsant

To those posters who were offended by my suggestion. . .as noted in the OPs OP, it asked for "advice." Additionally, since he/she appears to be getting frustrated with *wood and has already purchased the airline ticket to DUB I was offering a suggestion that would alleviate some frustration - allowing the OP to get the miles for the air ticket and get to DUB without spending an outrageous amount.

I apologize for making the suggestion to assist you and wish you good luck with *wood.

ldsant
*wood Moderator

PDXbased1K

UPDATE

I recieved a call from Starwood Corporate Services today, apparently a lurker on this board brought this thread to the attention of management. The CSR from Starwood apologized for the error that was "obviously" theirs and stated they would honor the booking as originally confirmed. The only change would be that I would have to be accomodated in a one bedroom suite (a complimentary upgrade from my standard booking of course)
1 KING
1 BEDROOM SUITE, HEAVENLY BED, LUXURIOUS MARBLE BATHROOM, LUXURIOUS AND SPACIOUS, LARGE WORK AREA, OPULENT DECOR W/MUTED TONES AND RICH FURNISHINGS REFLECTING A TIMELESS ELEGANCE OF TRADITIONAL IRISH CHARM

I have always had nothing but the best experiences from Starwood Corporate Services, and I am glad that in the end this experirence proved to be the same. Thank you everyone for your input and interest in my problem!

AJLondon

Excellent news! ^ Well done Starwood. ^ ^

jakemtl

That's what I call customer service! It may have been frustrating but at least Starwood was able to see past the "policy" issues and realize that this move would 1) satisfy the client, and 2) generate some good publicity on FT