Isochronous
Established Member
- Joined
- Dec 18, 2009
- Posts
- 4,679
I've stayed at this property twice now - great location, great food (set lunch at the steak restaurant was good), good hard product. Frontline customer service staff usually pleasant too.
However, my sense is that management is very arrogant and doesn't really care about guest satisfaction. I made a booking for 6 nights in a Twin Room via Virtuoso, which included a stay 4, pay 3 offer. Thus the rates displayed on the booking were:
Night 1: $280
Night 2: $280
Night 3: $280
Night 4: zero
Night 5: $280
Night 6: $280
Since it was a Virtuoso booking it was meant to offer free changes/cancellation until 48 hours before check-in. Well in advance of arrival I asked to shorten the stay so that I would no longer stay on nights 5 and 6. What followed was an illogical, belligerent and ridiculous response from Federica Brugnara, who wrote:
This response was patent gibberish and was clearly nothing more than an egregious attempt to squeeze more money out of me without any genuine justification, bearing in mind that:
1) The alleged unavailability of Twin Rooms was irrelevant since that's what I had already booked and I wasn't proposing to stay on dates different to that which I had already booked.
2) The end of the stay 4 pay 3 offer was irrelevant as again, I wasn't proposing to stay on dates other than those I had already booked. I was merely proposing to not stay on nights 5-6. So there was no justification for her demand that I pay an extra $70 per night for a room that I had already booked.
After some prompting, my Virtuoso agent (Classictravel.com) apparently escalated the issue and we then received the following reply from the Operations Director, Amy Lu, a ridiculous 9 days later:
Once again, a nonsensical reply from Andaz Singapore management which was shockingly slow - what kind of 5 star hotel takes 9 days to reply to a customer? The reference to a cancellation fee being applicable and the portrayal of their shakedown offer being some kind of generous favour was particularly galling, especially as they had deliberately waited until after I had checked-in to send that reply, bearing in mind that the original request had been made well before the cancellation deadline.
If the hotel really were that busy, they should have been grateful for me foregoing Nights 5 & 6 so that they could resell the room to someone else at the new higher rate that was supposedly applicable. I would also mention that on check-in I asked if I could have or be upgraded into a King as per the Virtuoso benefit (bearing in mind that they supposedly only had King rooms available as per the earlier emails) and was told none were available. More lies!
Had things not been so hectic for me over the Christmas/NY period, I would have cancelled the whole booking given their disgusting behaviour and attitude. That being said I also felt in a way that staying would be a form of just desserts to block them from reselling the room to someone at a higher rate, which was clearly their real agenda. I've never encountered such brazen greed from hotel management before.
Also. some other minor complaints:
1) after check-out, the bill only credited me for 5 nights to WoH (presumably they didn't want to credit a night for the zero-rated 4th night). Thankfully a message to Hyatt on Facebook resulted in a prompt correction to my account.
2) the poolside food menu is operated via QR code, which routes orders through a Facebook platform. I ordered a burger without cheese (it prompts you to add notes to your order) but I ended up with a burger that contained cheese. They also had to send someone out to ask me how I wanted the burger cooked (a good 20mins after my placing the order) rather than being able to ask the question instantly via the electronic platform.
However, my sense is that management is very arrogant and doesn't really care about guest satisfaction. I made a booking for 6 nights in a Twin Room via Virtuoso, which included a stay 4, pay 3 offer. Thus the rates displayed on the booking were:
Night 1: $280
Night 2: $280
Night 3: $280
Night 4: zero
Night 5: $280
Night 6: $280
Since it was a Virtuoso booking it was meant to offer free changes/cancellation until 48 hours before check-in. Well in advance of arrival I asked to shorten the stay so that I would no longer stay on nights 5 and 6. What followed was an illogical, belligerent and ridiculous response from Federica Brugnara, who wrote:
This response was patent gibberish and was clearly nothing more than an egregious attempt to squeeze more money out of me without any genuine justification, bearing in mind that:
1) The alleged unavailability of Twin Rooms was irrelevant since that's what I had already booked and I wasn't proposing to stay on dates different to that which I had already booked.
2) The end of the stay 4 pay 3 offer was irrelevant as again, I wasn't proposing to stay on dates other than those I had already booked. I was merely proposing to not stay on nights 5-6. So there was no justification for her demand that I pay an extra $70 per night for a room that I had already booked.
After some prompting, my Virtuoso agent (Classictravel.com) apparently escalated the issue and we then received the following reply from the Operations Director, Amy Lu, a ridiculous 9 days later:
Once again, a nonsensical reply from Andaz Singapore management which was shockingly slow - what kind of 5 star hotel takes 9 days to reply to a customer? The reference to a cancellation fee being applicable and the portrayal of their shakedown offer being some kind of generous favour was particularly galling, especially as they had deliberately waited until after I had checked-in to send that reply, bearing in mind that the original request had been made well before the cancellation deadline.
If the hotel really were that busy, they should have been grateful for me foregoing Nights 5 & 6 so that they could resell the room to someone else at the new higher rate that was supposedly applicable. I would also mention that on check-in I asked if I could have or be upgraded into a King as per the Virtuoso benefit (bearing in mind that they supposedly only had King rooms available as per the earlier emails) and was told none were available. More lies!
Had things not been so hectic for me over the Christmas/NY period, I would have cancelled the whole booking given their disgusting behaviour and attitude. That being said I also felt in a way that staying would be a form of just desserts to block them from reselling the room to someone at a higher rate, which was clearly their real agenda. I've never encountered such brazen greed from hotel management before.
Also. some other minor complaints:
1) after check-out, the bill only credited me for 5 nights to WoH (presumably they didn't want to credit a night for the zero-rated 4th night). Thankfully a message to Hyatt on Facebook resulted in a prompt correction to my account.
2) the poolside food menu is operated via QR code, which routes orders through a Facebook platform. I ordered a burger without cheese (it prompts you to add notes to your order) but I ended up with a burger that contained cheese. They also had to send someone out to ask me how I wanted the burger cooked (a good 20mins after my placing the order) rather than being able to ask the question instantly via the electronic platform.
