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Dear Spa Life Magazine,
My sister and I traveled to a spa in Phoenix, AZ in August 2014 on a sell off special. When we first arrived at the hotel and spa, it was absolutely gorgeous. The pool area and the entire property are breathtaking.
At check in, I asked what our options were for an upgrade. The front desk stated that due to occupancy there were no upgrades for us. We checked in and were definitely not happy with the location of our room as it was too far from everything – we felt isolated. We decided to check out and leave not even 30 minutes into our stay (to a previous hotel and spa we had stayed at). Letting the front desk know this, the agent stated that we might have to forfeit one night’s room and tax and have the rest of the monies given back. That was fine with us. We went to the room, grabbed our stuff, and went to front desk to give back the keys. At this point the manager on duty informed us that the revenue manager was not able to refund any of the monies due to low occupancy.
I used to work for a resort company and it just blew my mind and shocked me that first they said "due to high occupancy we have no upgrades." I did not ask for a comp upgrade – just what our options were – and then at check out we were also told "due to low occupancy we can't refund your money." So which one was it low or high occupancy?
Extremely disappointed about the way the situation was handled.
Amy, Calgary, AB
Dear Amy,
Yikes that sounds horrible. Here is a thought or two; ask to speak to the manager of the hotel and state your case to him/her. If they aren’t fully occupied, moving you shouldn’t be a problem. Document everything. You can go higher to his or her boss too.
And finally, if you did leave and were very unsatisfied, you can also plead your case to your credit card company and state you didn’t get your holiday as proposed and you can prove to them you did everything to try and fix the situation and the hotel/spa wouldn’t help. I think you would have a good case for disputing their charges. I also think there is a lesson in every problem and unfortunately we have to be proactive instead of reactive.