I had written about how to get room upgrades at hotels in the past. Well, I was headed to San Sebastian, Spain and there is only ONE hotel chain there, which is the SPG Hotel Maria Cristina. I was looking for 4 nights, but only saw award rooms for the first 3 nights online, so booked those. I then looked at the 4th night and got the dreaded “No award rooms available. Call SPG.” I then called SPG and they told me that even the upgraded rooms weren’t available. However, I did see a cash rate room for something like 800 EUROS. Ugh.
I then emailed the GM of the hotel nicely asking if he could open up an award room for me since I had booked 3 nights already. Sure enough, a few hours later, he opened up an award room, but couldn’t book it for me (I had to do that myself.) It never showed up online. It was an upgraded room that I had to call in to book. He did mention that since it was a different room than the other 3 nights, I might have to switch rooms. Luckily, I never had to switch rooms and stayed in the same room.
Lesson learned – if you need an award room opened, check with the GM. This should be successful since the occupancy rate is most likely really high, and the hotel should be compensated just like a cash rate customer.
Because of this article, I applied what I read. I had an upcoming stay planned in Beverly Hills and wanted to checkout the Waldorf Astoria. When I first looked, it was available for 95,000. Two days later (after I had enough points to book) it was now 232,000. I followed your advice, emailed the hotel, and they made the room available and booked it for me at the 95,000 rate.
Thanks Vinh!
I had a similar experience at the Maria Christina last year. I had booked four nights with the Citi Prestige, getting the fourth night free. I then emailed the GM to open an award night that I then booked with SPG points.
At that time, the GM wasn’t aware that award nights weren’t generally available.
With it being an upgraded room that was opened, you had to pay more than the standard rate of points to book?
Right, but it was only something like 1K more points.
Ah ok
I’ve had similar luck when I needed a night opened up at a Carlson property in Vancouver BC. Phoned the hotel, they opened it, I had to book it, and didn’t have to change rooms!
We love that hotel and nice insight. Thanks!