Cancelling & Refunding An Amex Hotel Collection Reservation Due To Poor Stay Quality

This weekend, I was supposed to stay at the Grand Hyatt Shanghai under an American Express Hotel Collection reservation, but since my last stay in 2018, the property turned so bad I decided to have Amex cancel and refund the reservation a few hours after check-in.

Amex Hotel Collection reservations, just like Fine Hotels & Resorts, require a prepayment if you want to use your annual US$200 Hotel Credit, so walking away from a reservation isn’t as easy and requires some effort.

Usually, I only go after such a stressful exercise if it’s absolutely worth it, but in this case, I felt that the property credit would have been completely wasted, and I really didn’t want to stay another night there, so I decided to go for it.

I have stayed at this Grand Hyatt hotel multiple times, and in fact, it was one of the best hotels in Shanghai, with an excellent Club Lounge in the past. Both have been wiped out, and the service culture and quality have been absolutely decimated ever since the pandemic. Now, sadly, the hotel is only a shadow of its former self.

Here is the booking as I originally placed it:

Minus $200 credit, this meant $110/night for the Grand Hyatt and $100 F&B credit to use at the hotel’s outlets, which was an extremely attractive deal to me. You can add your loyalty number to THC bookings with Hyatt and also earn stay credit (doesn’t go for all THC bookings with other brands so careful with that). I was upgraded to a Grand Suite as well, so pre-stay, I was very positive about what to expect.

But it quickly turned sour upon arrival. Only two employees at the front desk, a third that didn’t speak any English. The elevator to the Club Lounge on the 83rd floor for check-in requires a keycard, but no staff is around to let you go up. I went to the 85th floor, where there is a restaurant, and tried to use the floor phone to call someone up. The phone was a piece of broken plastic that didn’t work. A restaurant employee eventually called someone from the lounge up with a key card.

Talking about the lounge, this is representative of what was on offer at the Grand Club later that evening:

Absolutely inedible slob. Other items were either out entirely or looked similar. I grabbed some sparkling water and just left trying to utilize my dining credit.

Unfortunately, the hotel doesn’t have any great F&B spots anymore, and the only option given to me was the buffet restaurant, which didn’t have any seats available that evening, or the Oyster Bar on the 85th floor – the supposed “Best restaurant at the hotel”. I walked in and the first thing I heard was kids watching cartoons on a tablet, I left immediately.

At this point, I told the manager to get in touch with Amex to have them refund the reservation, and I’d just pay them for the daily member rate in cash (1080 RMB) for one night. I left the hotel and went to the adjacent IFC mall to grab something proper to eat.

After a walk, I got back three hours later only to find that the front desk manager had done absolutely nothing since I left him, at which point I called the Hyatt Concierge hotline to open a file and put the matter on record in case it went sour later.

The next morning, I talked to a senior manager at the hotel, who got the file submitted in the meantime. He agreed to have Amex refund it and told me he’d get in touch with them. 10 minutes later he called back and told me they currently have a “system error” and can’t do anything.

Of course that’s total BS – the fastest I ever got someone on the phone and dealt with reservations was 10-15 mins. I called myself, and the Amex Travel agent was really helpful; I gave her the direct line of the manager, and she called him. Another deception on his part happened when he told the Amex agent the refund would be 110 RMB, which confused her as that’s like 14 bucks.

When she told me that, I put him on speakerphone and ripped him a new one until he finally told her what was earlier agreed to – authorizing a full refund to Amex and a direct payment for the first night from me to the property.

The refund arrived within 36 hours:

I decided to book the Shangri-La Shanghai nearby for one night, which came to $195 under the FHR program, where I got a nice room, breakfast, and late checkout under the FHR benefits together with the F&B credit. This hotel has EXCELLENT food and beverage outlets, and despite being an older property, it’s still one of the best in Shanghai.

I really wish the Grand Hyatt gets it together again, finds some proper associates, and invests in the upkeep and cleanliness of public facilities. It’s a shame that this property came down to such a low level.

Conclusion

This was really a headache and probably not honestly really worth all the effort on my end, but I just didn’t want to stay at the Grand Hyatt anymore, considering the condition the hotel is in. It was really shocking and there appears to be a talent crunch for hospitality workers in China that’s even worse than pre-Covid.

Anyone with a bit of intelligence, language ability, and talent goes to other industries where a better salary is paid, which totally makes sense.

I was quite happy that American Express was understanding and agreed to process the refund without any questions or complaints. The hotel credit is finally gone now, and I don’t have to think about it anymore for the 2024 calendar year. I might book more FHR/THC rates, but as long as you don’t need to use your credit, there is no need to prepay for these reservations.