bravoecho

There is an advertisement in the magazine that comes with the Australian Financial Review today stating that the Westin Denarau Island Resort and Spa (old Royal Denarau) will officially open tomorrow, 1st of April.

New website for the resort is www.westinfiji.com

wildblueyonder

Coming into this late, but I just noticed that the *wood site is updated with the Westin info...

(for the benefit of the web gurus... one of the pictures still says "Sheraton Denarau")

cla_bos

Just back from a 5 night stay at the Westin Fiji where I was treated to my first Platinum downgrade...

First off, the recently completed renovations are very nice, although there are still two (out of 8) wings of the hotel heavily under construction. Although they are separated from most of the hotel, so the construction isn't really very bothersome at all.

Now to the downgrade bit... I had confirmed (using points) a beachfront room for the higher nightly point rate of 11.5k/night (rather than the regular 10k/night). On check-in, I was assigned a room and given keys, but then told that before going to the room, the house manager would like to have a word with me. Expecting to be told I'd been upgraded, I happily waited for the manager to come out of the office. Unfortunately he informed me that there were no more beachfront rooms, and due to a 'unexpected construction delay' my confirmed room type was not going to be available. As a bit of background, I've been a platinum for several years, and currently run a balance of ~200,000 points. As a result, I think it's unlikely that I was bumped from my 'confirmed' room by a higher level spg member.

Needless to say, I was a bit unhappy with the manager - and in particular his excuse of the 'unexpected construction delay.' Mainly because the wings of the hotel still under construction were nowhere near being completed, I found it hard to believe that the delay was unexpected and last minute. He was not very accomodating however, and we ended up in a room that was not only not beachfront, but rather was just about as far from the beach as possible in this hotel. As a final comp from the manager, we did receive some house credit to be used on food and drink, but to be honest this did nothing for the bad taste left in my mouth by the situation - I much would have preferred the better 'confirmed' room, than any credit. Also, I'm still waiting for the points to be deducted from my account to see if I am charged the full amount for the better room or not.

Just thought I'd post a little warning to anyone hoping for an upgrade at this resort... beware the platinum downgrade.

Aside from this sour start to our vacation, the resort was quite nice, and the staff was generally quite helpful and very friendly. Just be prepared to deal with a bit of island time when it comes to food/beverage service...

C

tinkybelle

the points always come out of the account before the stay
so I would say it is more than likely u have not had any points deducted.With that in mind
I wouldnt have post here if it had been me

Kagehitokiri

How many of their 271 rooms were under construction?

Getting standard room when booked into confirmed 2nd level room, as a Plat. (so the hotel was saying no beachfront rooms(2 types) or suites(1 type) were available for either your confirmed booking or your comp upgrade)

I would be tempted to ask for my points back, probably, because as you said "sudden unexpected delay" sounds like nonsense.. and it doesn't sound like you got a very large credit.

The hotel's online inventory of 2nd level rooms must have been wrong. Or they overbooked.

You went expecting to get your confirmed room, and did not get it...

I don't know, is any of this reasoning faulty?

danam

The renovated rooms are good, I stayed in one and they were renovating the ones next to mine when I was there but wasn't disturbed with any noise.

Interestingly the renovations have given the restaurant areas a new feature. When it rains outside it also rains inside. So when you're at the breakfast buffet expect to see buckets and towels everywhere.

cla_bos

Yeah, you've got it. They were saying there were no rooms available better than the 'standard' room type - 'garden view' i think.

From my observations, it appeared that approximately 25% of the rooms were still under heavy renovation - with completion still some ways away.

I was unhappy because the 'confirmed' room type I had booked, well in advance, was not available.

C

dujvari

I've been platinum for years (over 70 separate stays last year).

After a recent point spending spree, I'm down to about 500K points. My family takes about 5 weeks of free hotel rooms each year and I give away about the same or more to family and friends annually.

Starpoints are deducted the moment you make the reservation. I've NEVER seen it done differently. Asia, Europe, USA... it hasn't mattered. The points ALWAYS come out immediately.

I agree with Tinkybelle. I too would not have posted. For some strange reason you had a normal paid reservation and they gave you the room for free.

Keep pushing them. Maybe you'll luck out and they'll take the points. ;-)

Kagehitokiri

So they did refund his points.. ?

That's what I would want in his position, considering the room nonsense.

Starwood Lurker

If it hasn't been done already, SPG would be willing to return whatever extra points were used for the upgrade award. Any other refunds would be at the discretion of the property. For that, I would call Corporate Customer Service and ask for their assistance with this room discrepancy issue. 800-328-6242.

Sincerely,


William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

[email protected]

dujvari

Refund what? Apparently they never took any points.

This seems to be a free stay for him... and he's complaining about it.

cla_bos

No... it was not a free stay for me, and I wasn't complaining about that. They did take the points, but they didn't post on my account until several days after I checked into the hotel (checked in July 5, posted to account July 9). As it turns out, they took the appropriate number of points for the room type I was given - not the type I had confirmed.

My complaint was solely regarding the downgrade I received from my confirmed room type. Who knows why the points were cleared so late, but they certainly were not taken out of my account at reservation time (which was approx 6 weeks before the stay).

C

stratofortress

OK, so here's the REAL story behind what happened. The Westin recently overhauled their computer system, and in the process, lost piles & piles of reservations. Unfortunately, the majority of their reservations don't go through the Starwood GDS, which means the hotel would have been the only ones to have the bulk of their reservations. So, when the computer change wiped out most of the reservations, they were gone forever...

Since the bulk of travellers to the Westin have vouchers, that's not a huge problem. If they go into an overbook, they send folks to one of the two Seratons.

Here's my well-educated guess as to what happened: since you booked on points, SPG had a record of your reservation, so they would have been expecting you. They likely had others show up who had suites booked at the same time, but whose reservations were lost as a result of the computer change. They then decided that, instead of bumping one of the paid rezzos, they'd bump you. I don't know that's the case, but it sounds a lot more plausible to me. Nothing ever runs on time in Fiji, and those two blocks weren't due to be finished until August anyway.

If I were you, I wouldn't rest until they gave you SIGNIFICANT compensation. After all, it's not cheap to get to Fiji, and they didn't deliver on their part of the bargain. A full refund would not be unheard of at similar hotels in Fiji.

genoval

What is the difference between these two types of accomodation: Tropical Beachfront and Dlx. Beachfront?

Christian

This hotel has recently completed renovations. Haven't been there since completion, but it 'appears' that these are 'new' descriptors they are using...
Best email the hotel (wait a week for reply, this is FIJI) and ask them to explain... (and share with F/T if you don't mind)

That said, the SPG 'complex' at Denarau is very nice, and you will enjoy your stay!