Guava

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/12255079-post94.html

There was a recent thread regarding Lounge access when being upgraded to an Executive / Club level referenced above. The conclusion from that discussion is to make sure the upgraded room type is indeed a room category that always comes with Club/Executive lounge access when booked with cash or points as some hotels may be calling a room "Club", "Executive" or otherwise but the room type actually does not include lounge access, even when you book it with cash. If however, the room category is indeed associated with lounge access and other associated in-hotel benefits, such as free internet, then per SPG policy, upgraded guests must be granted those in-hotel benefits as well.

It appears this issue remains quite confusing for some SPG hotels as is the case of Le Meridien St. Julians Hotel in Malta. The hotel upgraded me to their Executive Floor room and on the check-in card, the room category that I signed is noted as EK = Executive King. In this case, there is no doubt about the defintion of that room since the hotel confirms that this is normally a room type that comes with free lounge access. Plus, guests at Executive Floor rooms and Suites get free internet access as noted on the hotel internet login page and I am using this free access to post on FT. With all that said, they insist I have to pay an extra charge of 25 Euros per day because the upgrade doesn't include lounge access, unlike if I had pay for the room using cash or points. I advised them that they cannot decouple the lounge access from the room type they upgraded me to per SPG policy. To their credit, the hotel appears to be geuniunely clueless regarding this issue and remained quite professional in their dealing with me. It's Friday night, the manager on duty whose job description is HR / Payroll, is clearly not well informed on SPG benefits and policy, so benefits of the doubts need to be given to this apperantly, a very nice property from what I can see so far. He is quite firm that they will suspend the charge pending investigation on their part so they are not waiving it, for now. In the meantime, the manager sent up a complimentary fruit plate without asking and was very resepctful, so were the hotel front desk clerks, all smile and pleasant to deal with. My only issue is he was a little too rigid and looked a bit too nervous since he was willing to waive phone charges while I contact SPG Customer Care in the U.S. via phone from my room, which likely cost a lot more than just 25 Euros but not waiving the Lounge access fee on the spot. I am not sure whether because he doesn't trust me or because he would get dinged if he does it without the proper verification first. Either way, I am not unhappy about working with this individual to get to the bottom of this though I did spend about 1.5 hour of my vacation time trying to resolve this already.

What is appaling to me however is SPG Customer Service, the call center. In one word: Atrocious. To help the hotel, I promised them that I will open a case so that this matter can be looked into and the proper education/training be given and that's also why they agreed to waive the phone charges on the spot since their front desk has no access to outside telephone line anywhere outside of Malta islands, not even the European toll free SPG number, surprisingly. Here is how SPG Customer Care handled my call.

- Direct dial to SPG # in the U.S., the 519 area code number, hence, there was no wait and talked to an agent immediately

- After standard name verificaiton, asked to be transferred to SPG Corporate Services and waited for about 5 minutes before the transfer was completed

- Female agent from SPG CS answered the phone, sounded pleasant, her name is witheld for privacy reasons and will not be published on FT. Explained the situation and explained that the hotel is not following SPG policy. She then put me on hold and called the hotel and spoke with the manager on duty for which I gave her the name of the manager in question.

- She came back in about 5 minutes and said that the hotel indeed ugpraded me to an Executive Level room and but because it was a "free upgrade", I have to pay the extra charge in order to access the lounge.

- I told her that such charge would not be consistent with SPG policy and you all know this by now based on the thread referenced above. In any case, whether you are a Platinum, Gold or nobody, Le Meridien is excluded from guaranteed lounge access as per SPG policy here:

Complimentary Access to the hotel gym and Executive and Club Level lounge at Westin and Sheraton hotels and resorts.

Therefore, clarifying this upgraded & access privilege has implications for all SPG members since there is a number of non-Sheraton / Westins with lounges for which even SPG Platinums have no compulsory access to them.

- So I asked to speak to her supervisor and she passed me to a sup. whose name is also witheld for privacy reasons and will not be published on FT. Her sup is female but come across as somewhat rude right from the top. She seemed to know all the answers without even hearing what I had to say and cut me off a couple of times.

- Withtout even hearing what I had to say, she was obstinate that the hotel was right in demanding that I pay the 25 Euro/day charge and she also raised her voice to me. Without wanting to argue any further with her, I asked her to give me my case # so that I can follow up. She again cut me off before I even finish my sentence, by putting me straight into hold music. I thought she was either gone or intentionally did that hoping that I will simply hang up. I wouldn't take the bait and I told myself, I dare her to hang up on me.

- She came back roughly 12 minutes later (I was counting) with a case number. I then further asked whether our call is recorded and she said yes. I also noted the name of her direct superior and asked if that person is available for which she said that her sup is not available. By then, she sounded a little worry - trust me, you can hear emotions across the phone, loud & clear.

- Since her manager is not available as she said, I asked her to please transfer me to our very own Starwood Lurker by giving her William's full name as a SPG employee. She then said sure and put me on hold for another 10~15 minutes.

- Finally, a man answered the phone, which I mistakenly thought was William and called out his name. Guess who? The same hotel manager on duty here in Malta. He was confused why I was suddenly transferred to him without any introduction and asked if I was expecting someone named William. The SPG CS supervisor simply dumped my call to the hotel while I was opening a case and wish to discuss it further.

- The hotel manager on duty was very confused and he asked me what SPG CS told me and etc. He doesn't have much of answer from his side either, yet. He continued to apologize for the inconvenience this has caused, I have no doubt he is sincere.

- Without a choice, I had to dial again for SPG reservation in the U.S. and asked to be transferred to SPG Corporate Service again. This time, the reservation agent trasnferred me and also helped me send an e-mail to William but the wait was longer, like 10 minutes, after which the transfer never got through as I simply got an error message and was disconnected. I believe it's an honest connection error, it happens, nonethless, it does make you wonder.

- By that time, I discovered I have internet access from my room and therefore, got online and contact William myself directly

- As usual, William immediately replied - very responsive and to the point. He found that the hotel's SPG coordinator is not in as it's Friday night here already and will put me in touch with SPG Consumer Affairs. Hopefully, SPG Consumer Affairs and the hotel's SPG coordinator will have the chance to clear this up on Monday when they return to the office.

- I feel sorry for the manager on duty who is trying to uphold the hotel policy while being professional but this is clearly not his domain as he is not the SPG coordinator and I must have scared him or something. I made sure I shaked his hand and expressed my gratitude for his help and hoped that we will get to the bottom of this and he wished me that my stay will be very pleasant even though it started on the wrong foot.

What bothers me really is the ill-informed and downright rude SPG "Corporate Services". First of all, they don't know their own policy. That's minor compared to the completely unprofessional attitude displayed by a supposed "supervsior". The call is recorded, I made a point of asking. Good, so hopefully it will be pulled and listened to for "training purposes" because she will really need it. Then, there is the dumping of the call to the hotel when I asked for William. I know one thing about Call Centers and dumping calls like that can get you fired depending on the circumstances as does intentionally hanging up on customers. My preference has always been not to trouble William and hoping that a quick call to SPG CS will resolve the matter even though I knew in the back of my mind that is unrealistic given how poorly trained these agents are, most of the time.

Anyway, I will keep you guys informed about what happens next. Look, it's only 25 Euros per day - it's not a big deal. Worse come to worse, I can also use points to pay for the lounge access. Either way, it's no big deal. But if this lounge access should indeed be included already, which I am 99% positive, then the hassle I am going through during my 7 days/6 nights vacation on this beautiful island means what? It means you guys should be worried about having to rely on SPG CS to do anything for you when you are on vacation and in no mood of arguing. Hopefully, this will clarify once for all the lounge access policy when upgraded and that some much needed training can be communicated through hotels' respective SPG coordinators - most importantly, the much needed training at the SPG call centers, which is getting so bad that it is destroying a lot of loyalty among customers, certainly not limited to just FT.

Captain Canuck

Wow - that's quite a story.

Coles notes version - when in doubt, call William - he will sort it out

I am interested to see how this story ends, as I am sure that were I in your shoes, I would follow the same process.

Good Luck

CC

Starwood Lurker

Well, I can surely try and get the ball rolling anyway.

By the way, I would advise against ever telling an associate you want to speak to me directly and expect it to happen just like that. For one, we're operating a lot of Customer Contact Centers around the world these days and unless you get someone in Austin, it is unlikely that many of them even know who I am or what I do, much less how to get in touch with me directly by phone.

The best way to reach me is by email or Private Mail here at Flyertalk. If I wanted to take phone calls or accept transferred calls from associates, I would take pains to publish the number - internally and externally.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Online Guest Feedback Coordinator
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

onebagtraveller

What do you mean they don't know who you are?

Shouldn't that be step 1 in training any new associates?! lol !!

hope this all works out for the OP.

NDDomer86

I spoke with an agent who knew who you were once. It made me smile

sbtinme

The OP's tale sounds fully truthful to me and incredibly upsetting. I'm far less bothered by the misunderstanding about lounge access than I am about the Customer Care Supervisor's handling of this call.

I've no reason to doubt GUAVA's version of the story and the fact that the call was recorded is comforting. Dealing with a delicate situation over the phone and encountering bad information doled out by curt persons is not a lot of fun.

For my part, the few times I've really needed SPG Customer Care to pull through they have -- and with flying colors. In fact, for me, it's been one of the key strengths of the SPG program: if the ball gets dropped, they'll work miracles to pick it back up and make things right. I've never had a bad experience with the Customer Care team.

To hear that one of the supervisors in that great department allows loyal guests to wait on hold for ten minutes for a case number (isn't 30 seconds plenty of time for that?) and then another long wait only to be misrouted is just unacceptable in the extreme.

Call Center Service 101 mandates that callers never be placed on hold for more than very short periods at a time and the rep should check back in with the caller as often as practical to provide updates. I surely hope that the OP's call experience will serve to coach some members of that team and that the supervisor's performance will be carefully reviewed.

BlondeBomber

As I said on the other thread, a policy that is not communicated to its staff is not corporate policy. Until this is a published policy, I certainly wouldn't rely on it to get me those benefits to which we are entitled (but not entitled)

Time for another drink and chill--sounds like Guava's attitude was great--firm but friendly and trying to resolve and improve for all rather than just to get the benefit (which is OK if he can get it too)..

BigBopper

It's too bad we can't call William directly. Then instead of screaming DYKWIA I can change it up a bit with Do You Know Who I Know!

YYZ_TVGuy

The SPG call centre is in Waterloo???

DCBob

Sorry, area code 519 is in southwestern Ontario in CANADA. Last time I checked, the U.S. had not annexed Canada.

sbtinme

ST THOMAS, ONT, to be exact.

NDDomer86

Waterloo is in Ontario by Kitchener

gorgi_flyer

spg has call centres based in singapore, canada, texas and cork. They may have a few other centres scattered in some us regions. Even though the company is based out of new york, its financial operations are based in singapore.

The CEO earned a base salary of 1 million for previous financial year which accounted for 12.5% of overall compensation package.

You would think that a company which obviously has good finance would be able to give out benefits to customers easily and not make us fight for them.

i look forward to reading the response from the op on what spg replies to him.

Guava

Let me summarize what happened in the last few days.

As you know from the first post, this issue occurred last Friday night local time while it was still daytime in North America (refraining from using the "U.S" so that some people's sensibilities are not offended ). The moronic intervention by the SPG "Corporate Services" only made the matter worse even though all I wanted was to create a case file # seeing how clueless they were, not to mention absolutely rude and incompetent. If you miss that story, please read the first post, I have not seen a more incompetent and unprofessional supervisor at SPG as that one, ever, in my 10 years with SPG. After my call to them was dumped to the hotel front desk manager on duty, who was really a back office executive doubling as front desk manager, SPG Corporate Services did nothing except she somehow contacted the hotel and basically told them they are right to charge me. Embolden, the hotel thought I made up the whole story and the manager on duty went to tell his staff to basically "shadow me" everywhere I go. For what? To remind me every single second that I need to pay them 25 Euros for using the Executive Lounge. Even when I just simply passed by the front desk, it doesn't matter. In my mind, I thought the whole thing was going to be cleared up on Monday since it was Saturday morning and I already wasted enough time on this - I am on vacation, remember? No, the hotel was convinced I was trying to get something out of nothing thanks to the moronic SPG "Corporate Services", who they repeatedly call: "SPG Headoffice".

I just kept patiently and politely told them that the matter should be cleared up on Monday. In other words, I was telling them to leave me alone, enough harassments already, though I didn't put it that way. So I went on a whole day tour of the north side of the main island and came back just past 5PM. Again, past by the front desk - same thing. That's when I knew it was the last straw. I had enough. To the credit of the front desk person, she is apparently the lead front desk rep and she is very friendly and polite and in no event was she rude or anything like that. But since she is insistent that I pay the charge (and I don't understand why they keep asking and not simply just charged my room and be over with it) and I already had a couple of e-mails in my Inbox that I know would help clarify the situation - I asked to speak with the manager on duty to rectify this situation, around 5:30PM on Saturday. Why can't this wait till Monday? There is only the SPG "Corporate Services" to thank, what a way to make the situation from bad to worse.

This time, the manager on duty is again a back office executive but a different person. This woman is in charge of their rooms and staff and is a very smart and confident young woman, totally unlike the almost-scared guy from the day before. She was already briefed and fully aware of the situation. Though professional and pleasant, she was just a little bit arrogant, fine balance between confident and arrogance...though that didn't bother me, I had to remind her that it would be wise she speaks on behalf of her own hotel only, not ALL SPG hotels in Europe. Right from the top, she was insistent that the hotel followed SPG policy correctly. I asked her if I may show her some e-mails I have got in the last 24 hours, notably that SPG Consumer Affairs would be in touch their SPG Coordinator, which they call "SPG Champion". So we printed out those e-mails from the front desk and sat down. I took 5 minutes to clearly communicate to her how I come to know re: SPG policy on this regard. She was very smart, asked some questions and quickly believed that I was telling her truth. Though she wanted me to forward her the e-mail later, which was quickly agreed. Then she went on to defend how her hotel is compliant and that if this indeed the correct SPG policy, it's unfair to hotels. I didn't want to engage in such a conversation, since I am not qualified to comment on this matter and suggested she should bring it up internally. We talked a lot about SPG related things and specifically regarding this case. The conversation was informative and relatively pleasant. I even gave her two examples from just this year how I was upgraded to Executive / Club Floor when using SPG Award Stays and the hotels gave me full access to Club Lounge. Actually, in one case, it was a Tower Room and no matter, the hotel in question never made any fuss. She seemed a little stunt that there are actually SPG hotels, sister hotels of hers, doing that and empathized with how I feel at her property and being given such a hard time, especially she was so convinced that ALL European SPG hotels do it like her hotel. So she made a decision on the spot, and offered to give me free access to the lounge for this stay.

Under normal circumstances, this case should be closed. Here is the issue: The hotel, through this manager, never conceded that they were wrong. The fact she decided to grant me access, after our 30 minute conversation required a lot of convincing on my part. Keep in mind, I have 10 years of SPG experience under my belt, I know my stuff really really well and she happened to be very knowledgeable, which helps. She sort of made it sound like this is big exception she is making. In my mind, if I accept her offer as it is, the problem is still not resolved. What I am supposed to tell you guys here at FT? That Guava was bought off by the hotel and shut up? it sort of feel like that. Most likely, the hotel will simply tell the SPG Consumer Affairs on Monday that they already granted the guest free access and SPG would be happy that the complaint is now resolved. Still, in my judgment, nothing would clear up and no education / change will happen. So weighting that concern, I had to tell her that I must decline her offer to give me free access and explicitly asked her to charge my room with the 25 Euros fee / day. Trust me, I am not trying to be a martyr. I repeated that in writing half an hour late, when I e-mailed her the promised forwarding. Her reply? They just won't charge me but she promised they will investigate this on their side.

If you think about it, I was harassed the whole day everywhere I go about the need to pay the 25 Euros fee. Now that I want to pay, they refuse to charge me even I explicitly ask them to do so?

In a nutshell, the issue was resolved 2 days ago, entirely without SPG Consumer Affairs intervention because the hotel was so sure that their Headoffice (aka. SPG Corporate Services) told them they are right. I really didn't want to deal with it on a Saturday either but then, everywhere I go, I was made to feel like a liar who wanted something out of nothing so I was forced to react and dealt with it myself on a Saturday no less, wasting enough time on this already.

Naturally, on Monday, today, there was no call or e-mail from either SPG Consumer Affairs or the SPG Champion from the hotel. I am pretty sure they consider this matter "resolved". Fine, I did whatever I can. I don't have anything else to report here. I will write a thorough review of this hotel in the existing thread re: SPG properties in Malta. And I'll deal with the moronic SPG "Corporate Services" when I return to the U.S. - that rude woman caused me more trouble instead of helping me. I have the name of her manager and planned to have a good conversation with that person which she claimed was unavailable that day (fine, I am sure I'll find that person available some day, I can be very patient), which will naturally including asking her to pull the tape from that day and listen to it.

In summary, if you run into similar problems of this nature in the near future, my best advice is really the same as what I said in the other thread referenced in the first post of this thread. Just drop it. Either change hotel, whatever, don't waste your time with SPG Corporate Services. You are going to be put through very similar and traumatic experience like I just went through and it's not good. Now I think about it, I advised the other FTer to do nothing yet I, myself, didn't follow my own advice and made the mistake of contacting the "SPG Corporate Services" knowing very well this is likely going to happen... I must be really upset that evening, so much that I lost my mind. At the end, yes, I did get "free access" to the lounge but is it really worth all the troubles I put myself through, not to mention the time wasted? If you want to know, please follow the dedicated threads on SPG Malta properties review. I am so sick and tired of this fiasco that whatever loyalty I have left with SPG, it's pretty much destroyed now. I didn't need to made feel like a liar who wanted something out of nothing, especially when I am on vacation. I already made a point of not staying with SPG when on business trips except when I am on vacation. With this experience however, I will have to think about what I am going to do with the SPG points I have left, which is still well into the 6 figures. I probably won't have an answer until my mind is clear and I had a few weeks to think this through. One thing I know for sure, this hotel reminds too much of this bad experience with SPG Corporate Services so I cancelled the 6th night stay at this property, and will be moving over to the Hilton Malta for my final night here. The first 5 nights are on a SPG 5th night off package, which is non-cancellable. Even though Hilton Malta is incredibly expensive, on average the room rate there is twice of Le Meridien St. Julians Malta, I know as a HH Diamond I would be treated well there and I already spoke with Hilton Malta directly and despite them being sold out on points for that one night, they were happy to accommodate me and quickly make an exception even without the Diamond Desk intervening, which is unreachable from Malta. It's a hassle to change hotel for just one night and yes, the cost is still prohibitive, 35,000 HH points vs. just 2,800 SPG points + 45 USD - trust me, I know the math, most FTers would think it's nuts to do what I just did, but at this point, math is not my concern anymore, I don't want to be treated like a liar who had been given a big favor / exception. Thanks but no thanks, dignity still matters. Good night from Malta.

Guava

I forgot to mention. Just want to thank our very own William again on his help in this case. I am normally a low maintenance member, rarely ever require the need of Lurker intervention. In this case, I would not have been able to convince the hotel that I was telling the truth and they could possibly be mistaken without William's help.