Hotels round the world

Hotels round the world - Le Meridien Wien

Here is a textbook example of what to do in order to never see a customer again.
I had booked that spg hotel weeks ahead of my arrival with the usual request "highest floor, no connecting door, away from elevators". In addition, my spg profile includes "no connecting door". My spg Platinum/Lifetime Gold status normally grants me upgrades or at least careful attention to my wishes.
Upon arriving, I was told that the hotel was undergoing reconstruction/refurbishment in the highest floors, but that a nice suite had been kept for me. Not knowing the place and careful with upgrades (cf. the comments on top of the hotels main page), I digged into the issue. After some discussion, I was shown two rooms: one at the seventh floor (out of eight) that was close to the elevators, with a connecting door and small bunker-like windows near the ceiling; and a suite at the second floor (in fact the lowest floor of accommodations) overlooking a square, but also right over the hotel terrace (eating/drinking place) installed on the sidewalk. Given the choice, I opted for the latter since it seemed to be less noisy, mainly since it had no connecting door.
The suite was oversized for my needs: two bedrooms, two bathrooms (one with a shower only, the other one with bathtub, shower and toilet), as well as a small separate toilet. One of the bedrooms had no door, and the bed there seemed to be more for a resting siesta than for real sleep. The bathrooms were behind glass separations and their windows had no blinds, which meant that the outside light was getting into all the rooms of the suite, even at night. Remember this was the lowest floor, below the street lighting level. As a consequence there was no way to sleep in a darkened place, even if the window curtains of the bedrooms themselves were good enough.
When coming back from the city in the early evening, the gentleman who had checked me in in the afternoon routinely asked me how I felt about the room. I was then all too happy to share how they mishandled my reservation: no advance warning of the ongoing reconstruction works (for instance on the spg booking web site); no advance warning of the impossibility to satisfy my wishes (an e-mail would have done the job); offering either a room with a connecting door near elevators or a place at the lowest floor over a busy terrace and in a room that could not be darkened.
Later that evening, when I was already undressed, with the luggage spread out and still with quite some work to do, someone phoned me offering then to look for other locations. This was definitely too late: I was busy, tired, and in no mood to repack everything, to dress up again and to move somewhere else without any guarantee it would be better, and then to reconcentrate in my work.
The gentleman concluded his call by saying that I should not worry: they would find a way to please me -- which could have only been by adding extra miles on my spg account since the room had been prepaid. But I did not hear anymore about the issue and no extra miles ever materialized. When I checked out, the pretty young girl was too busy flashing her eyelashes to ask whether everything had been ok.
In conclusion, this is typically a place spoiled by tourists, definitely not a suitable one for professional travellers.
The goodies in the room were a beer and soft drinks in the minibar, plus a bathrobe and slippers, as well as a coffee/tea pot. Ironing equipment was also available.
There was no Club Lounge facility. I took all my meals, including breakfast, outside the place.
(14 May 2018)

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