blackcat20
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- Jan 7, 2011
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Quite the hullaballoo, which didn't seem to belong in any of the existing threads. Booked the Mantra Salt Beach (NSW) through Luxury Escapes, as the package had great inclusions for the same price as booking direct. Two bedroom apartment, welcome drinks, food credit, daily breakfast and bike hire. Popped a note in the booking that I wanted a lawn or park view, or anything as long as it wasn't a road view. First time we stayed here we got a room overlooking the entrance roundabout and that was what I didn't want again.
Arrived for check in, gave my name and she said "oh you have two rooms booked", I got a bit worried and replied that it was one two-bedroom apartment (because two young kids). She produced printouts for two rooms, both with different (incorrect) dates and different (incorrect) personal details. One had me as a resident from Auckland and one NSW (we're Vic). So she went and sought assistance, they said one was correct and we went from there. I specifically asked what the room overlooked, making it clear I didn't want to overlook the road, and was told we had a park view.
Well, we got to our room and it was directly overlooking the entrance roundabout
TV called reception (as he is better at talking the talk than me), and agreed that while room requests are subject to availability, I'd been flat out lied to when I asked where our room was located. We were offered keys to a second room to inspect, to see what we preferred. Traipsed the entire family to the opposite end of the hotel, to a ground floor room overlooking the path along the beach with lots of trees around it. A win!
So all the way back to reception, then back to the other room to collect our stuff, then back to reception to swap over the room keys. And the upside is a proper 2 bedroom apartment rather than a dual key setup where the kids room has a heavy fire door, and no way to keep it open. Weirdly reception was still insisting that I must have modified the booking, hence the incorrect dates (I didn't). They also seem to have muddled me up with someone else with the same last name which might have been part of the problem.
I know that third party bookings often get a raw deal with room location, but this hotel always seems to put them in the roundabout view rooms (and luxury escapes sold the room as having ocean and sunset views...). Never had an issue with LE bookings before, so I can only assume this is a hotel issue, as they really didn't seem to know what was going on. Decent recovery though and it wont stop us coming here, but will probably stick with a direct booking next time.
Arrived for check in, gave my name and she said "oh you have two rooms booked", I got a bit worried and replied that it was one two-bedroom apartment (because two young kids). She produced printouts for two rooms, both with different (incorrect) dates and different (incorrect) personal details. One had me as a resident from Auckland and one NSW (we're Vic). So she went and sought assistance, they said one was correct and we went from there. I specifically asked what the room overlooked, making it clear I didn't want to overlook the road, and was told we had a park view.
Well, we got to our room and it was directly overlooking the entrance roundabout
TV called reception (as he is better at talking the talk than me), and agreed that while room requests are subject to availability, I'd been flat out lied to when I asked where our room was located. We were offered keys to a second room to inspect, to see what we preferred. Traipsed the entire family to the opposite end of the hotel, to a ground floor room overlooking the path along the beach with lots of trees around it. A win! So all the way back to reception, then back to the other room to collect our stuff, then back to reception to swap over the room keys. And the upside is a proper 2 bedroom apartment rather than a dual key setup where the kids room has a heavy fire door, and no way to keep it open. Weirdly reception was still insisting that I must have modified the booking, hence the incorrect dates (I didn't). They also seem to have muddled me up with someone else with the same last name which might have been part of the problem.
I know that third party bookings often get a raw deal with room location, but this hotel always seems to put them in the roundabout view rooms (and luxury escapes sold the room as having ocean and sunset views...). Never had an issue with LE bookings before, so I can only assume this is a hotel issue, as they really didn't seem to know what was going on. Decent recovery though and it wont stop us coming here, but will probably stick with a direct booking next time.
