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We stayed at the Hotel Effie Sandestin, Autograph Collection in Miramar Beach, FL this weekend. While the property is lovely, I had a bad taste in my mouth before I even arrived as the hotel tried to con me out of paying for an upgrade that should have been complimentary based on my Titanium Elite status. I booked the two-night stay using a combination of Free Night Award certificates topped off with Marriott Bonvoy® points. The hotel began texting me a day before arrival and in one of those messages began offering paid upgrades to a different room (not even a suite). Since this sales pitch was handled via text, I have the receipts.
I booked the room above as an award.
The complimentary upgrade terms and conditions for Marriott Bonvoy® read as follows:
Platinum Elite Members and above receive a complimentary upgrade to the best available room, subject to availability upon arrival, for the entire length of stay. Complimentary upgrade includes suites, rooms with desirable views, rooms on high floors, corner rooms, rooms with special amenities or rooms on Executive Floors.”
The exchange began with the following:
The hotel began fishing to see if it would get a bite.
They tried to draw me in by saying I was already upgraded two categories to this room.
They quickly replied with this offer.
This was the room being offered.
I refused to pay and shared the policy with the hotel. This room should have been mine if it was available when I arrived for no fee.
The hotel was quick with some boilerplate to defend itself. Granted, this is completely false. The hotel does not get to choose how many levels (in its own room classification) that I get upgraded to when staying there. It’s the “best available room” and not the best available room that is one category above what you booked. It’s not like I was asking for a Presidential Suite. I never requested any upgrade. We were only in the hotel to sleep and it was freezing this weekend, so the amenities were quite useless, anyway.
When we checked in, I did not request an upgrade or mention any of this to the agent that assisted us. She reminded us three times during check-in that checkout time was 11:00 AM and did not offer a late upgrade. This hotel should have offered 4:00 PM, but I did not need it or feel like arguing.
What’s even funnier is that the upgrade amount is more than the delta had I booked the room outright. There was around a $20 difference between each room type.
The upgrade offer does not surprise me. The hotel charges a daily Resort Fee of $45 plus taxes. I hate these fees, but could even see this one being okay when the weather is warm. But, the weather was in the 20s and 30s during our stay. We were not boogie boarding.
Anthony’s Take: I’ll be writing a full review of the hotel, but it’s not acceptable when hotels play games with upgrades. It’s clear that the Hotel Effie Sandestin, Autograph Collection is not honoring elite benefits both for the upgrade and late checkout. Marriott has made it clear that it really does not care, so it’s up to the members to make these issues public and steer others away from hotels that can’t offer what they have agreed upon by being part of Marriott Bonvoy®.
(Image Credits: Marriott.)
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Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
1 comment
“Autograft” hotels are among the worst in the Bonvoy family at neglecting elite benefits, adding useless fees and hard-selling the most trivial of upgrades at significant prices.