It is somewhat common for a hotel to upgrade the host’s room. Hosts are usually assigned to the worst room category because we won’t complain about them, and our room is often complimentary due to the size of the group we’re bringing. But even though they’re booked as the worst of the worst, a lot of hotels will give us the best of the best.
The reason for this is usually because they haven’t sold that room. The best rooms are the most expensive, so they are more likely to sit empty than a standard room with a much better price. And if you have a chance to show off how cool your hotel is to someone who can bring you more business, why wouldn’t you take that opportunity?
I recently had several trips to a particular resort in Mexico right after one another. I was there for about 18 total days in a two-month period and brought over 750 guests to the property in that time. During those various trips, my colleagues and I got to know and become friends with a lot of the staff, and for that reason, many of them would give us little upgrades, favors, chocolates in our rooms, etc., while we were in the resort.
On the previous trip, one of my colleagues had been upgraded to a room with a private infinity pool. It gave the whole staff a place to sit and hang out during off hours and was fantastic to have. It was on the far side of a building, tucked away from the guests, so we could relax and enjoy our hour or two a day of time away from the job duties.
Fast forward eight days–I returned to the same resort but with a much smaller group. I was hosting alone, and I only had 55 guests. As always, my room was booked as a standard room. When I arrived at the property at 1 in the morning after a 21-hour travel day, I didn’t bother asking what room type I had or where it was, I just took whatever key they gave me and went to bed.
As it turns out, the room manager personally booked me into one of the suites with a private pool.
Great!…. Right???
Well… No. Here’s why.
The private pool overlooks the main resort pool, where everyone hangs out during the trip. All of my guests will be hanging out in that pool. If I use my private pool during the day, there is a 100% chance my guests will see me. Those guests are all in standard rooms. How do you think it would look to them if they saw me in this private pool by myself with an oceanfront view? This is exactly why we always book a very basic room for the host. We WANT to be in the same category or lower than the guests so that it doesn’t look like we saved the best for ourselves.
Another issue is slightly less reasonable. This particular resort has a bathtub on every balcony. That is no exception for the suite I was put in, however, my suite and its bathtub are on the first floor and, like my pool, it overlooks the most popular hang-out spot for all of the guests. I really would rather not use the bathtub with a swimsuit on, but in order to get any use out of it at all that’s what I’d have to do. Even then, guests are bound to walk by, see me in my bathtub, and say ‘hi’ at best, or decide that it’s clearly the best time to tell me what time their return flight leaves at worst. I had really been looking forward to my balcony bathtub, but I really couldn’t use it.
This location also meant that I needed to keep the sliding glass doors closed at night. One of my favorite things about this property is that the sliding glass doors to the balcony don’t just open a little; the entire back wall of the room slides open, leaving a seamless indoor/outdoor living space. It’s the kind of dream layout you only see on HGTV, and I LOVE it! It’s often cool enough in this location to sleep with the door open so you can hear the waves. But, on the first floor, it really isn’t safe to do so. Not because I’m in Mexico; just because, no matter where I’m sleeping, I’m not going to just remove the fourth wall of my bedroom and cross my fingers no one steals shit.
And finally, as if I haven’t whined about enough ridiculous minor inconveniences, my room was also right next to the leader of the group I was hosting! The client also had an infinity pool room, and hers basically overlooked mine. What had served as a little oasis for my colleagues and myself on the last trip was now taking away every amenity and convenience I could have asked for.
Here I am in paradise with a private infinity pool that I can’t use, a bathtub with an oceanfront view that I can’t use, and a removable wall that would allow me to hear and see the ocean when I go to bed that I also can’t use. I spent the entire day on my first day trying to find a reasonable excuse to give my room to another guest. I came so close several times trying to upgrade a VIP or fix a rooming issue, but every time, my plot was thwarted by the hotel coming up with better solutions out of nowhere. By the end of check-in, I was still stuck in my useless private infinity pool room.
Sure, why not just ask for a different room? A) Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. I don’t want to seem ungrateful. Upgrades are often fantastic, and I wouldn’t want to discourage getting them in the future. B) The hotel was sold out over these dates. There were no other rooms available, even if A wasn’t an issue. C) I was at least able to use the pool the day before my guests arrived, so it wasn’t a complete loss.
But I have never been so disappointed in a private infinity pool and worked so hard to try to politely get rid of it!
