HRH club upgrade questions

[CharleyUK]

Hi

We are staying at HRH for 4 nights in November. Booked a standard room throught Virgin. Just thought it might be nice to surprise DH and upgrade to club. Has anyone done this? Price from Virgin to upgrade is £272. Is the difference worth the extra money? DH is rearly looking forward to HRH as its the thing that pursuaded him to let me book this trip. I've checked out the websites about club but still not sure- Can anyone give me some personnal experiences of what its like and what you get.

Also do you think it might be possible to book the upgrade direct with the hotel or even when we check in?

TIA

 

[UKDEB]

I don't think Club is worth £272 extra for 4 nights. The room is the same, it's just on a floor only accessible with your room key. The food and beverage offerings were OK, but I wouldn't want to pay any more than about £10 each per night. Having said that, it is a while since we stayed Club at HRH (shortly after they opened).

I don't think you'll be able to upgrade directly with the hotel now, but you should be able to do it a check-in if they have availability.

 

[UKDEB]

Actually, now I think about it, the rooms are the same as the Deluxe, not the standard. It is nice to have the extra space. Depending on when you're going, the rack rate for Club is between $100 and $130 per night more than for a Standard Garden View. On the face of it, £272 doesn't seem to extortionate, but then I've never paid rack rates. As an Annual Passholder, I've always managed to get discounted rates at the Universal resorts.

 

[sjcaulfield]

Hi there,
We stayed at the HRH Club level and really enjoyed it. We really loved the lounge and the convenience of being able to get refreshments and snacks any time we felt like it.

However £272 extra does seem to be very expensive for 4 nights. I believe that this is a lot more than the hotel will charge you directly.

However seeing as you are booked through Virgin I don't believe that you will be able to change your room in advance with the hotel as it is Virgin that are holding the reservation and not you.

However you will be able to upgrade at check-in. In fact the seem to be quite geared up for this and sometimes they can offer very good value upgrades. Who knows, if you're really lucky they may even give you one for free if the hotel isn't very busy.

However by leaving the upgrade until check-in you will run the risk of there being no availability in club level when you get there. So I guess you need to weigh up the risk of waiting with the cost of upgrading with Virgin in advance based on how much you really want the upgrade.

I hope this help and I hope you have a wonderful time. I really love HRH
Thanks,
Stephen.

 

[scojos]

we upgraded direct with hrh and paid 60 quid for our four night stay and club was brill and worth every penny
we loved it

tracy

 

[pauldents]

Having stayed at the HRH 60+ nights since it's opening, my advice would be to keep your £272.

Next join the Loews first program at www.loewshotels.com.

Even though you are on a non-qualifying rate (Virgin Hols), hand your LoewsFirst Blue card over at check-in and enquire about suites. Sometimes they will upgrade you for $35.00 per night. That would work out to about £80.00 for a possible deluxe/king suite room.

You will then have nearly £200 left to spend on some great food instead of the Hard Rock's club offerings which IMHO aren't that great.

Hope this helps.

 

[UKDEB]

I'm a LoewsFirst Gold Card Holder and it's never helped me any.

 

[pauldents]

I'm a LoewsFirst Gold Card Holder and it's never helped me any.

I think the upgrades at the Hard Rock depend on a number of different factors like what kind of mood the check-staff are in, qualifying rate or not, occupancy rate/time of year, discounted promotion period to suites, putting pressure on the managers/rooms division directors etc.

I have been platinum since 2002. When I made our latest reservation, there were no upgrades available. After contacting the manager and drawing his attention to the amount of nights we had stayed , a Kids suite suddenly popped up.

 

[gismo1554]

I've stayed in club and a normal room and I didn't think the club level was worth the difference. The lounge, drink, food and staff were lovely but there wasn't much variety. Did however like the service in there. Still probably OK for a few nights. Any longer and it isn't any good.