When you book a 5* hotel, you expect 5* service and quality. And then when at check-in you learn you get an upgrade, you're surely in for a treat!
Sadly, not quite. When you book a room with 3 occupants, you expect 3 sets of towels (not 2) to be provided. Or that soap dispensers are filled. Or toilet seats not broken. That a sofa bed is made with a mattress protector. And that when you raise an issue with turn down service, they do act on it. Yes, on check-out there was a gesture of goodwill but only after I was berated that I should have brought it to their attention and obviously not other staff.
Yet with a 5* property, you expect the room to have been checked before it's handed to a customer. I don't come to complain and demand, I come to expect things to be right.
What really took the biscuit though: the team left a nice box of treats with a personal note. Looked nice and a great gesture; something you pack to take home and enjoy later while you think back to the time you had at the hotel. Yes, it made me think back: stale biscuits and chocolate that was past it's sell by date. Funny how the treats matched the experience...
If I have the choice between the room I booked and everything as 5* as it should be, or an upgrade to less than 5* quality, please: just the room I booked. It's not 5* if I have to tell you what 5* is.
