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Made a booking for the Edwardian Manchester under the new scheme rules, effectively offsetting the cash rate using my remaining points balance.
My wife unfortunately due to health reasons can’t make the date I booked, and so I wanted to move it forward a few weeks to a date that she can. Granted, I booked a non-refundable rate, so it is partly my fault to begin with, but the rest of the story is unbelievably frustrating.
Initially emailed the Manchester reservations team, and it went ignored for a week. So then I phoned the front desk, the friendly guy said it should be fine to swap, but I’d need to speak to Radisson Rewards. Spoke to a lady at Radisson Rewards who said there’s nothing they could do, but the hotel front desk could easily do it.
Spoke to the front desk again, they asked me to re-send my email. Re-sent the email, and got a positive sounding reply along the lines of “we’ll grant you a free refund, so you can re-book the new date, but you’ll have to speak to the Rewards team for this”.
Called back the rewards team, they’ve cancelled my room but not refunded my points….!
Does anyone have a different contact number/email address, perhaps a UK-based team that doesn’t direct me to their foreign call centre?
P.S. Don’t get me started on the rubbish website that signs you out every 30 seconds, ineffective IT, and (newly) useless rewards programme. Not sure how they’ve gone from one of my favourite chains in the UK to the one that I’d probably avoid the most?
I had exactly the same issue with Accor a few years ago. I’ve completely refused to stay in an Accor hotel for about 5 or 6 years since then. I’m only staying in one this year because unusual circumstances have thrust it upon me.
“I booked a non-refundable rate, so it is partly my fault”.
Delete “partly” and replace with “totally”.
My experience with Radisson before last year’s change is that it takes about 10 days to refund the points unless you immediately rebook on the phone for the new dates.
“I booked a non-refundable rate, so it is partly my fault”.
Delete “partly” and replace with “totally”.
I would have agreed with you up until their customer service has been an utterly hopeless wild goose chase of being sent from one department to another.
In the last 5 years I’ve held top status in IHG, Hilton and Radisson (through actual stays, not credit cards) and have always found IHG/Hilton to be flexible and accommodating even if the rate doesn’t necessarily allow. Particularly as this is a medical related matter.
Not to mention that before the huge downgrade to the Radisson scheme, a room booked fully with points, would have been fully flexible as a reward booking…
A few years back, I experienced the exact same problem with Accor. Since then, for approximately five or six years, I have steadfastly refused to stay in an Accor hotel. This year, I’m just staying in one place due to unexpected circumstances.
Radisson Rewards and individual hotels have never seemed to integrate well with points transactions. I once changed a booking but then received a full points refund. I emailed the hotel with full honesty (didn’t want to turn up to a cancelled booking!) who confirmed the new booking was all in place and seemed mystified by the points issue. If an error is in my favour and I’ve informed the business appropriately then I’m not chasing them repeatedly 🤣. Net result: completely free stay.
Shame stuff like that won’t happen any more now they’re a dead scheme.
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