Sheraton Hua Hin - Holiday from Hell

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MDMK
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Re: Sheraton Hua Hin - Holiday from Hell

Post by MDMK »

Have you taken this up with Starwood customer service? I would in your shoes. If it's a flexible/refundable rate you should be be able to check out for any reason. If I book a colleague into a hotel on say the Sunday because he has a job that he anticipates will last 5 days, then it turns out he finishes the job on the Wednesday, usually if you tell the hotel on the Wednesday that you'll be checking out on the Thursday, there shouldn't be any difficulty at all. We do this all the time and never had any problems. I often don't know when booking a hotel for a colleague if it will be needed 1 night or 10 nights. We guess. Sometimes we have to extend the stay (based on availability of course) but often we have to cut it short and I was always under the impression that it was 24hrs notice. If you can be bothered, take it up the food chain. I don't see how they call a rate flexible if they only allow you to cancel for something like tsunami.

**side note

just speaking with someone else here after I typed the above and they say it will all come down to T&Cs. So it could be we (my work) book a genuinely flexible rate, and you booked some kind of restricted flexible rate. Check your booking T&Cs and make sure the hotel aren't pulling the wool over your eyes. It really is a contradiction in terms to call a rate refundable or flexible when that only applies to major calamities. And yes I would be very pissed off in your shoes. If I book a flexi rate (and pay the premium for that rate) I don't want to have to explain anything to a hotel. I want the flexibility I have paid for.

And best of luck with your next booking. Personally I would steer away from "wedding season" stays in hotels that are known to be popular with the big wedding parties because what I have seen these things often have parts of the ceremony/party that spill over into the gardens/pool and beach areas.
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Re: Sheraton Hua Hin - Holiday from Hell

Post by loua_oz »

Thank you for your comment and for your time to compile and bring it in.

I have never wanted any dispute with hotels like Sheraton, neither I could ever anticipate there would be one.
But there was.
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Re: Sheraton Hua Hin - Holiday from Hell

Post by deptrai »

Their website has an "Announcements" section (go near the bottom right of their home page). Today it shows the following:
Large Outdoor Events On The Certain Dates
Please note that during the certain dates, there are large outdoor events at the resort. During the following times, guests may experience an increased noise level:

November 6-8, 2017
November 9-12, 2017
November 13-15, 2017
November 21-24, 2017
November 26-29, 2017
December 7-10, 2017
December 10-13, 2017
December 17-20, 2017
December 21-23, 2017
Please do not hesitate to contact our Reservations team at reservations.huahin@sheraton.com for further information.

I wonder if you checked this before arriving. I only ask to see if it is accurate as I have a stay booked in early January. I think I'll double book at the Marriott until I can be assured I won't be subjected to the same conditions you had to deal with.
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Re: Sheraton Hua Hin - Holiday from Hell

Post by loua_oz »

No I did not check specifically. On several occasions, hotels would have a banner telling about renovations (always done in July and August), not something buried under the links. Or at least clearly visible without searching or fine print.
You see, 3-4 days a week. That renders the venue useless to the general public unless you go to 5* to sneak between the weddings like a criminal.

Been to the Sheraton one week in 2013. had no idea it could be possible or that such a venue would allow for 1% of that, let alone to that extent. There have always been weddings, but concealed in the ball room.

May well be, they started this hidden announcement under avalanche of complaints to cover legally for refund demands.
This tells about them far worse than my post.
Last edited by loua_oz on Wed Oct 04, 2017 3:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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MDMK
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Re: Sheraton Hua Hin - Holiday from Hell

Post by MDMK »

deptrai wrote: Wed Oct 04, 2017 12:24 pm I think I'll double book at the Marriott until I can be assured I won't be subjected to the same conditions you had to deal with.
that strikes me as a very good idea!
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Re: Sheraton Hua Hin - Holiday from Hell

Post by MDMK »

I also find it quite ???? annoying/deliberately avoiding the truth??? that they only mention "guests may experience increased noise levels" ... while actually it should say "increased noise levels and restricted access to communal facilities"
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Re: Sheraton Hua Hin - Holiday from Hell

Post by loua_oz »

I said in one of my posts that the new Marriott has a flowery wedding arch in front of the pool and that I would be checking first if they have the same Koh Phangan in tuxedos parties in the common area.
Quite likely they are after a slice of that wedding pie too.
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Re: Sheraton Hua Hin - Holiday from Hell

Post by loua_oz »

MDMK wrote: Wed Oct 04, 2017 3:32 pm I also find it quite ???? annoying/deliberately avoiding the truth??? that they only mention "guests may experience increased noise levels" ... while actually it should say "increased noise levels and restricted access to communal facilities"
A team of layers must have drafted the rules and how it should work to avoid legal responsibility.

It is not quite that restricted. There is nobody checking whether you are part of the wedding or not. But you would have to have a thick hide to pretend nothing is happening and that you can mingle through or let your kids swim and enjoy as if it is as usual.

This is what I mean: only party goers, regular quests simply avoid the area of the lagoon.

Image

As seen in my previous pictures, people drinking from glass containers while in water up to their shoulders. A champagne flute dropped in the pool breaks easily and someone can step on it. It is not Pattaya beach next to the Walking street where drinking and glass are not unusual.

And loudspeakers everywhere, blaring folklore music

Image

Look at this, the most expensive rooms with direct access to the laguna.

Image

And parties 4 days a week, loudspeakers, abnormal pedestrian traffic...
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Re: Sheraton Hua Hin - Holiday from Hell

Post by MDMK »

ok my choice of words might not be the most accurate, but theirs on their website certainly aren't

they only say "guests may experience increased noise levels" while they make no attempt whatsoever to convey the fact that these wedding parties spill over into (take over) communal pool/beach/garden areas
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Re: Sheraton Hua Hin - Holiday from Hell

Post by loua_oz »

No, no, I am not trying to defend them, it is very coyly worded, as slippery as snake. I don't know who can win them in court.
More important is to what length such a respectable hotel chain goes to trick their guests. That is more appropriate attitude for insurance companies then for free choice luxury holiday establishment.
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Re: Sheraton Hua Hin - Holiday from Hell

Post by MDMK »

I'm not a social media person and don't do facebook/twitter and all that stuff, but if you do, wouldn't it be an idea to confront them with some of these pics and your complaint via social media? I created a twitter account solely for this purpose a few years back. I had a few problems with TUI (a very large European tour operator), their customer service via phone calls and emails was awful, I got no where and they basically said they couldn't help me, what I wanted wasn't possible. Posted two posts on their twitter feed about how hopeless they were. And within the hour someone on their twitter feed sent me an email address, asked me to email them, which I did, they then asked for my phone number and they called me, and within a few hours I got what I wanted, it was easily fixed. It's REALLY annoying I feel .... but I have heard more of these stories of a kind of "two tier" customer service. The awful kind is given to people who complain in conventional manners (phone/email/face to face) and a far better level of customer service is given to those who make their complaints open on social media.
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Re: Sheraton Hua Hin - Holiday from Hell

Post by loua_oz »

I am not on FB nor Twitter. Thousands of people who experienced the same, someone must have posted it there. I saw many taking pictures and videos on their mobile phones and uploading them.

At such a scale, Sheraton appears to be indifferent. My post somewhere would not be the first one, I am sure.
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Re: Sheraton Hua Hin - Holiday from Hell

Post by MLS »

OP you have my empathy... Stayed at Sheraton HH for two nights in 2011. A previous visit was fine, but this one not so, for exactly the same reason. The entire hotel was taken over by a massive 3-day Indian wedding. Swimming pools were out of bounds for normal hotel guests as squads of workers built pontoons and festooned the water with floating candles in preparation for the wedding's nightly outdoor dining extravaganzas. Only one restaurant was available for us and we all had to squeeze into a tight area for meals, with limited menu choice. Excitable, noisy wedding guests thronging everywhere, marching band, trumpeting elephants, loud music from the nightclub (closed to ordinary hotel guests) etc etc. ... We'd have been justifiably pissed-off if we were on holiday and paying to stay there, but we weren't too bothered as we were only using it as a base while we moved into our new house. Stay was free on Starwood points, we got upgraded to a beach suite, and from an anthropological point of view we quite enjoyed observing the chaos but we thought at the time that the situation was totally unacceptable for holidaymakers staying there and under different circumstances we would have complained vociferously.
By the way, we noted the Sheraton Grande in Sukhumvit also seemed to host a lot of Indian weddings, though they weren't so intrusive to ordinary guests (apart from the aroma of curry wafting though the public areas - always made me hungry, but might be off outing to some people).
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Re: Sheraton Hua Hin - Holiday from Hell

Post by MLS »

*off-putting, not off outing
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Re: Sheraton Hua Hin - Holiday from Hell

Post by loua_oz »

Inconveniences, abound.
More about customer care.
Being in charge of customer support in Japan (my installed base is two times bigger than the entire Thai tourism industry revenue, at their GDP figures) and then, at the Sheraton, I faced things like a like of low cost airline customer who had not red the fine print about weddings and their disturbance and baggage alowance.

The irony is, the Sheraton is my customer. All their IT lives on my gear, worldwide. That was yet another reason to give my custom to them, repeatedly.

They failed me now. Should they get into a trouble with IT, I would rescue them, as we always do.
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