I haven’t yet arrived at the Sheraton Krabi for vacation and I’m already frustrated with the hotel. I booked two rooms at the Sheraton Krabi for New Year’s for 3 nights/4 days. I used a Cash and Points rate and read the terms and conditions very carefully upon booking because many other Starwood properties had notes about a mandatory on New Years’ Eve. One of the primary reasons for booking the Sheraton was that there was no mandatory dinner listed in the terms and conditions. I made the reservations on June 10th, 2012 because I know how quickly hotels book up in Thailand for NYE.
You can imagine my surprise when I got an email on November 15th 2012 from the hotel reservations manager informing me about a mandatory gala and the fee for that gala. The fee is not cheap either – it’s about $200 per person.
I emailed the hotel and expressed my feelings about the fee and informed them that I did not want to pay it since the fee was not included in the terms and conditions. I also provided them copies of the terms and conditions from the online reservations screen and a printed version from my reservations confirmation.
After emailing the hotel, I got a response from them and I was not very happy with that reply. In essence, they said “sorry, but you have to pay, we aren’t making exceptions.”
I’m not asking for an exception to be made, I’m asking them to stick to the terms and conditions of the booking. If there was to be a mandatory fee, it should have been stated in the T&Cs. I don’t think you should spring a $200/per person mandatory fee on your guests if it’s not stated somewhere on the website, in the reservations confirmation, or in the Terms & Conditions. I’ll continue to argue this with Starwood and the hotel, but now I’m in a position where there are no other hotels available in a reasonable price range and without minimum stays required.
I’ve completed 105 nights so far in 2012 and have 28 nights confirmed for the remainder of November and December 2012 – not counting the second rooms I have booked which would add another 8 nights according to the Starwood Preferred Guest T&Cs (you can earn stay credit for up to three rooms per night at the same hotel.) That would bring my total nights at Starwood in 2012 to 133 plus 8 for the extra rooms or 141 nights. I am clearly loyal to Starwood and have been for years. I’ve never had an issue like this before at a Starwood and I’m very disappointed that it’s happening now.
If I hear anything further from the hotel, or Starwood, I will let you know. What do you think? How would you handle the situation?
Update:
I received an email tonight from the Hotel Manager at the Sheraton Krabi and he confirmed that due to an error in the booking system, and since I was not notified at the time of booking, he will waive the fee. I am very happy that the hotel re-considered and has agreed to stand by the T&C as they were when booked. I can now look forward to my NYE holiday.
Send them a final email notifying them that the fee is against the T&Cs. Then dispute it with your credit card company afterwards if they still charge you after your stay.
That’s unacceptable. This is one of those things that makes me angry, even though it has nothing to do me personally. I think because of your loyalty and blogger status, you’ll be able to get it waived eventually, and hopefully without too much fighting. Starwood will come to their senses.
@Travel Summary – thanks for the support. I really don’t expect it to be waived because of my blog, I would expect it to be waived for anyone based on the T&C!
@Paul P – great idea to fight the fee with the credit card company. I may use Amex to pay because they’re super helpful with these types of issues.
I hate how hotels in Thailand do this. I actually stayed at a different hotel in Chiang Mai last year due to this NYE mandatory gala. Even after emailing them and calling them due to strict dietary restrictions that someone in my party had they still didn’t care. The Le Meridien Chiang Mai however did state it in their T&C.
Stacey, I found these from onyourside (Chris Elliot’s Site). Maybe an e-mail or two to these folks?
Primary contact
Helen Horsham-Bertels
Senior Director, Consumer Affairs—Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.
helen.horsham-bertels@starwoodhotels.com
(877) 443-4585 ext. 2643
Secondary contact
Hoyt H. Harper, II
Senior Vice President, Brand Management—The Sheraton Group
hoyt.harper@starwoodhotels.com
(914) 640-8100
That’s truly amazing. And yeah, put it on an Amex in case you have to dispute the charge. I wouldn’t bother communicating with the hotel any more. Send a note to corporate and let them sort it out; if they can’t, dispute the charge. Amex will back you based on the T&C you’ve referenced.
Of note, disputed charges can impact the merchant fees paid by businesses — it’s in their interests to work it out with you before you do that.
@DealsWeLike – Starwood should monitor this more effectively. Bad guest services!
@Mickey – thanks for those! I will forward them my emails.
Looks like it is time for an email to miguel.ko@starwoodhotels.com Good Luck…Keep Fighting!
@Nik – good to know that the disputed charges impact the business! I hope Sheraton does the right thing.
@John, thanks for the email! Lots of SPG emails address to send to!
Miguel is the President of APA…fill his inbox.
Don’t forget the Starwood Lurkers.
They notified you in advance. The most you can hope for is to cancel the reservation without any penalty. Mandatory gala dinners are quite popular in Asia.Somtimes they are even required at urban hotels, but in resort hotels they are quite common. Not much you can do about it.
@Arlington Traveler – I disagree. If there’s a mandatory $200 cost it should be disclosed up front. @Stacey relied to her detriment on the hotel’s representations — incurred costs making travel plans accordingly, lost out on the opportunity to make alternate arrangements which would have been possible months in advance.
Mandatory dinners are generally disclosed in a rate’s or hotel’s special conditions. It wasn’t here. That’s the hotel’s screwup.
Seems to me they can either waive this fee, or they can cover the extra costs that have been incurred.
Personally, if it were me I probably wouldn’t deal with this any more in advance. Because I wouldn’t want the special treatment and a worse upgrade that might follow as a result. I’d probably just skip the meal that night and push further after the stay.
I agree with Gary. Every effort should be made to get them to comply with the T&C (and to discontinue the added charges that weren’t disclosed up front). If Stacey still has to pay them, then a CC dispute is in order and highly advisable. The more people who take on this fight, the better. No hidden fees! Make disclosures up front and let the chips fall where they may, or expect lots of flak from your displeased customers.
You tried direct, private approach. I’d now use the direct public approach for the hotel, Sheraton and then Starwood. See if any of the entities are on FB and Twitter and post your question with a link back to your article. If not in T&Cs, raise h e double hockey sticks!!!
What’s the problem? If not in T&Cs, you have no responsibility to pay. If they charge anyway, dispute the charge and you will win easily. It is a PR nightmare for SPG or insisting on charging.
But I pity anyone who is staying in hotel rooms anywhere near as often as you are…
@Gary, great advice. And SPG did contact me after seeing this post, so we’ll see what happens.
@Arlington Traveler, I wouldn’t have minded a mandatory gala dinner for NYE had it been disclosed. I probably would have used all points for the stay instead of cash and points in that case though.
@bsmsnr – this is the direct, public approach and Starwood did see this on Twitter and has contacted me. Hope than can clear it up.
@Jim006 – thanks for the pity
I do love hotels, but it’s nice to be in my own bed occasionally too.
Welcome to Thailand! I have lived in Thailand for ten years. This is a very common experience. They operate on a different logic process.
Like David said ‘different logic process” – like at my favorite bar – “Noi I thought beers were 100 baht’. “No customer Jake, have to raise prices”. The Sheraton Krabi is OK, but if you have to pay, I’d much rather be at the LM Khao Lak. Maybe they have a cancellation.
Congrats on getting it straightened out. If it hadn’t I would have went after Starwoods. I would have told Starwoods that this was going to happen in advance and see what they said. Also I would have used my starwoods Amex CC and disputed it with the T&C’s as proof if a charge showed up.
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