Discussion

Main Board| Accommodation Wanted| Accommodation Offered
Start a new discussion on this board

Let your next career move come to you.

A hotel chain deleted my m8’s loyalty account

My m8 was a member of a hotel chain — this week they deleted his account and took his accrued 1.4 million points.

 

The reason they gave is that he had received more compensation than he had spent with the hotel chain.

 

This suggests he was trying to Karen them, but he wasn’t. He travels a lot with work and the total spend far exceeds the compensation he’s received - which have always been in the form of hotel points.

 

He’s only had 3 complaints in the last couple of years:

 

--One pertains to a holiday in Egypt where his wife was harassed by a (handsy) member of staff

 

--One pertains to a holiday in Canada where a hotel cot collapsed while his sprog was inside

 

Both of these complaints were investigated and the hotel offered compensation (in the form of points to be credited to his account and on the basis that he wouldn’t take further action).

 

The third complaint was last month where a wood panel fell off the wall and hit his sprog in the face. This complaint was escalated to senior management and, around a week later, his account was just whacked out of nowhere.

 

Q:

 

The hotel chain’s T&Cs say that it can close accounts at its discretion, but only when it believes there’s been fraud/foul play, which there hasn’t been in this case.

 

Does he have any basis to challenge this decision legally? As it’s a loyalty account, they probably do have the authority to close his account, but can they withhold points he validly accrued through his patronage of the hotels?

 

If they can just whack his account without basis, can he reopen the prior two complaints which were only settled due to the compensation of points?

 

And the customary ROF tax:

 

No norks to describe as my m8 is a guy. I could describe his wife’s, but I will choose not to out of respect for his missus.

No idea as to legalities which presumably depend on the nuances of the Ts and Cs and jurisdiction etc but presumably threatening to sue and threatening to go to the media (or to go to the media and kick up a fuss on social media) is likely to be his best bet?

has he told the hotel chain account zappers the basis on which the points were given - might it be a mistake? 

perhaps he can say he'll ask his employer to use different hotels from now on (for all EEs)

Maybe like COVID travel vouchers and they are just trying to clear out unprofitable guests in the same way bookies clear out successful punters. 

I'd write to them telling them it's a breach of the ts and cs, and he'll post on every available review channel about it and contact media consumer affairs journos unless they reinstate (and add some more points!). 

he sounds like a pain in the arse guest and will doubtless have given you about a third of the actual facts

they probably suspected he had accumulated that many points with constant made up complaints

don't shoot the messenger...I'm only telling you what the spirits are telling me

I don't do hotel loyalty accounts so no idea if 1.4 million points is 'a lot'?

If it is worth fighting over then the approach depends on whether he is willing to fight them in public (not always really possible if he or his employer has a business relationship with them). If he is willing then start by contacting them in public over twitter and see if he gets a response and escalate as necessary to consumer affairs journos if they will take it. 

Obviously read the T&C's fully but I suspect legal action will be tricky. 

I wouldn't 'threaten' to go to social media in correspondence first btw. I would write once asking if it is a mistake/explaining disappointment at this. If no acceptable response then get on twitter. 

While it is extremely unlikely they would sue a customer for twitter remarks it is worth remembering that it is a public forum and he needs to be absolutely scrupulous that anything he posts on twitter/review sites is 100% true and not offensive. 

--One pertains to a holiday in Egypt where his wife was harassed by a (handsy) member of staff

 

WTAF

 

--One pertains to a holiday in Canada where a hotel cot collapsed while his sprog was inside

 

WTAF

 

The third complaint was last month where a wood panel fell off the wall and hit his sprog in the face. 

 

WTAF

FWIW, when my wife was injured in a fancy seaside hotel (not a chain though), when the massage table she was on in the spa collapsed due to being wrongly adjusted and she fell and hit her head (no permanent damage but a very nasty concussion that took months to fully clear up and meant I had to take her to A&E and spend the day in hospital), the hotel was desperate to apologize and make good and we got a bunch of free meals, a free holiday there the next year, and a half price holiday the following year, all without signing any kind of settlement agreement or piece of paper. 

That is how customer service should be done. 

Ego Brainiac26 Apr 24 15:22

there's a law against being offensive towards hotel companies?

 

Somewhere there will be undoubtedly! But they may well try to get reviews and even twitter threads pulled and if it's offensive it makes it much easier for them to do that. 

 

Has he tried asking for help from the likes of Head for Points or Loyalty Lobby. HFP does occasional pieces on people who’ve been mucked about like this but I think their conclusion was that in the majority of cases there was far more to it than the guest originally let on. 

Heh!

 

Thanks all. 

 

There may be more to the story (e.g. other meritless complaints that I'm not aware of), but the above 3 all happened and the hotel accepted responsibility for all 3 of them. 

 

My m8 only continued to stay with this particular chain as his employer has a corporate relationship with them and he doesn't have any other choice. 

 

And, atm, he just wants his points back so he can convert them. 

To be honest, if my kid had pulled panelling off a wall and jumped around in a cot until it broke, I probably wouldn’t be surprised if the hotel chain tried to encourage me to stay elsewhere. 

As always, find out (or guess) the email address of the CEO and then write a polite but firm complaint direct, and importantly set out what reasonable   expectation you have for a resolution.

Join the discussion

Login Register