My spouse came home tonight and said that when he put his card in a machine at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas, all his points were gone. He went to the players club and was told that the points had been taken to pay for a recent two-night stay he had arranged through his host in response to an offer in his monthly mailer for two free room nights. He was told at the player's club that when the HRH went to its new players card, the practice of comping rooms was discontinued and players now had to pay with points.
This seems to be like inviting friends to your house for a party, then giving them a bill for the food they ate. Worse, there was no warning from his host when he arranged for the room. And when he went to check out on the TV, charges appeared, but he called the front desk and said he was supposed to be there on a two night comp. He was told that was correct and there would be no charges. Last night the woman at the players club said the hotel personnel were unaware of the new policy.
The host had upgraded my spouse to a suite, which seemed at the time to be a favor, but now we need to find out if he's being charged for the upgrade. We also need to know whether, if the points taken were not enough to pay for the suite, table game comps were taken or points earned in the future will be confiscated. My spouse is planning to call his host tomorrow and I'll let you know what answers he gets.
But from what we know now, the only thing worse than the substance of this policy is how poorly it was implemented. We have taken up the HRH on room offers in our mailers many times before and were never charged points. At miminum, a change of this magnitude should have been clearly disclosed when the room was booked, along with its cost.