Curious what fellow frequent travelers think about this and if it could have been handled better. In 900+ nights with Hilton it was a first for me.
When booking a room I always book a King and if I one isn't available I'll skip that property.
Recent stay I checked in the night before with digital key and got the not common but not infrequent "no rooms available for selection" and clicked through to confirm my room was "TBA" and would be assigned by the hotel. It's happened a few times before and never had an issue getting the room I booked or better.
At some point midafternoon I got at "We're giving you a new room" notification from the app, and when I arrived at the hotel I headed to the room and found two doubles. That's not what I booked: I checked my reservation confirmation just in case I screwed up.
I went down to the front desk and mentioned that the room I had been assigned to was not the type I reserved and wouldn't work for me. The FDA told me that "that's the room
you picked. We don't change rooms when you use digital check in." -- I showed him the "new room" notification and mentioned that I wasn't able to choose a room when I checked in and even if I had chosen a room the notification was proof that this wasn't it [and can't FDAs see the room assignment history anyway?].
The FDA went on to claim that there were "no kings available" and he "couldn't just change my room because
I changed my mind." I asked him to confirm that the hotel was unable to honor my reservation asked to speak to the MOD about walking my reservation to a property that could provide an acceptable room.
MOD came over and before I could even say hello, the FDA told her that I "changed [my] mind"and "didn't want the room
picked" -- despite the evidence to the contrary. I showed the MOD the notification from the app about the room change and a copy of the reservation email showing I had reserved a king. MOD worked her magic and put me in one of the kings that supposedly didn't exist.
Honestly, the FDA's condescending and accusatory tone put me over the edge probably more than it should have... had he actually tried to do anything to resolve my issue -- or even just apologized on behalf of the hotel -- I definitely wouldn't be fuming. Instead, I have hotel #3 on my "never again" list.
For the hive mind:
- Was I being entirely unreasonable, partially unreasonable, or reasonable in insisting on the booked room type? E.g. should I just be happy to have a room?
- Had the MOD not been able to find a room of the correct type on property does the fact that they have any room available save them, or would it be legitimate to expect them to walk me following brand standards for relocation (invoking 701.3.D) vs. just cancelling my reservation and booking a different property myself?
TIA