Regent unable to provide Reykjavik hotel and transfers

[Dolebludger]

6 minutes ago, cwn said:

Ask around on your next cruise. We have gone through three in the last 25 years since we left a local family brick and mortar. Newest one is post covid because the previous one cut some perks and became hard to get on the phone.

Exactly! We book our own hotels and airfare (though we have not flown since covid)and take the credit. We are only doing cruises that are round trip US now. We are too old for the long haul flights now. Some ports (in big cities) have really nice hotels and lots of rooms but some don’t (Alaska) I would rather pick my own and use a private car or taxi than have a bad surprise. Fortunately as long as Regent has its wonderful crew and comfortable accommodating ships we will cruise with them. 

 Right. We can’t physically stand any flights in economy now (due to arthritic and orthopedic problems), we have to book our own business air and sometimes deviate to get direct air from one of our “gateway” airports.  When we cruised Explorer Alaska last June we saw that the Regent hotel was the Anchorage Hilton. Bad ratings, and bad when we stayed there in 2002!  We did our own pre cruise, including boutique hotels, and the observation train (instead of a crowded bus) from Anchorage to Seward. But when the cruise was over in Vancouver, we were met with a line from United to even get in.  So long a line that we feared missing our flight. Finally, we had to threaten the United staff to get us to our flights on time, or there was going to be a lawsuit with their names mentioned. We got home on time. But ,I’ll tell you, I’m hesitant to cruise again — ever. Not because of the Regent onboard experience, but because of the hell getting to and from the ship.

[GOARMY]

Dolebludger: 

 

With respect, and as always, one's mileage may vary pertaining to pre and post-pandemic Regent-assigned hotels.  Both in USA, and when in Europe.  

 

Recent experiences.  Nothing wrong this January when at Ritz Carlton, San Francisco.  In-fact, 5+star stay prior to a Mariner segment.  No flaws when, on both pre and post-pandemic stays, at Beverly Wilshire, Beverly Hills, CA. Expect same when next in early 2025 prior to a Grandeur segment. 

 

Will dig through my archives as to those 2021 and 2022 Barcelona hotels. They were just fine.   

 

As of today, Rosewood is the assigned London hotel for our upcoming June Splendor segment.  Heart of London; five blocks from British Museum.  

 

Just sayin'.  

 

And, as to Anchorage--whenever there, we book Hotel Captain Cook.  

 

GOARMY!

 

Edited March 16 by GOARMY
context

[cwn]

2 hours ago, GOARMY said:

Dolebludger: 

 

With respect, and as always, one's mileage may vary pertaining to pre and post-pandemic Regent-assigned hotels.  Both in USA, and when in Europe.  

 

Recent experiences.  Nothing wrong this January when at Ritz Carlton, San Francisco.  In-fact, 5+star stay prior to a Mariner segment.  No flaws when, on both pre and post-pandemic stays, at Beverly Wilshire, Beverly Hills, CA. Expect same when next in early 2025 prior to a Grandeur segment. 

 

Will dig through my archives as to those 2021 and 2022 Barcelona hotels. They were just fine.   

 

As of today, Rosewood is the assigned London hotel for our upcoming June Splendor segment.  Heart of London; five blocks from British Museum.  

 

Just sayin'.  

 

And, as to Anchorage--whenever there, we book Hotel Captain Cook.  

 

GOARMY!

 

I know your reply is to another’s post. I do agree with you that Regent choices for hotels in a city like SF, Miami or other major cities are usually usually very nice and a free one night stay is great….but if you travel to the port several days ahead as we do, the extra cost of extra nights those Regent hotels is much more than some of the nice smaller properties that we can get ourselves and then use our pp credit to pay for more one night. The large group transfers on a big bus are not our cup of tea so that is no problem either…we just take a hotel taxi and arrive when we please. 

 

Hope you do get the Beverly Wilshire for your Splendor cruise. Regent used that Hotel for the ‘18WC. We did go early and stayed an extra night at the hotel and also the free night, But we took the 1st class air credit and did 1st class air with points then used the credit to pay for the extra night and taxis. You could get first class state side for reasonable amount of points then. Things…they have changed! 

[jjs217]

22 hours ago, Dolebludger said:

It probably will still be possible to book a suitable hotel for $300. But can transport from the airport and to the ship be arranged for $80? 

 

22 hours ago, Pcardad said:

$32 bus transfer to central location - Some hotels were walkable or Uber for a few bucks. I am not saying this is acceptable....just that it was possible.

Geez - the first thing I think of doing while booking a luxury vacation is schlepping luggage on a bus.  

[Pcardad]

4 minutes ago, jjs217 said:

 

Geez - the first thing I think of doing while booking a luxury vacation is schlepping luggage on a bus.  

A normal Regent transfer is a bus. The porter will put your luggage in. If you want real luxury, book a private car and driver. 

[jjs217]

3 minutes ago, Pcardad said:

A normal Regent transfer is a bus. The porter will put your luggage in. If you want real luxury, book a private car and driver. 

Taking the included Regent transfer by bus is a much different experience then taking a public shuttle or bus.  I've also had Regent transfers by car if we were the only couple on a flight.  When I book my own transfer, it is always by private car with driver.  I don't consider that "real luxury", just convenience and comfort.

[Dolebludger]

Honestly, I think Regent does its best to book quality hotels and transfers. But obviously, it can’t do so all the time these days, with much of the hospitality industry worldwide in bad shape. Where I fault it is in its representation that it WILL do so, when it knows by experience that it can’t always do so. Instead, it should represent that it will ATTEMPT to arrange these things, and if it can’t, credit the guest with $XXX. Otherwise, what we have now is misrepresentation and false advertising — two things that really hack me off — even if I’m not directly impacted.

[Pcardad]

7 minutes ago, Dolebludger said:

Honestly, I think Regent does its best to book quality hotels and transfers. But obviously, it can’t do so all the time these days, with much of the hospitality industry worldwide in bad shape. Where I fault it is in its representation that it WILL do so, when it knows by experience that it can’t always do so. Instead, it should represent that it will ATTEMPT to arrange these things, and if it can’t, credit the guest with $XXX. Otherwise, what we have now is misrepresentation and false advertising — two things that really hack me off — even if I’m not directly impacted.

That's pretty much what the contract says....but nobody ready the contract. 

[Pcardad]

10 minutes ago, jjs217 said:

Taking the included Regent transfer by bus is a much different experience then taking a public shuttle or bus.  I've also had Regent transfers by car if we were the only couple on a flight.  When I book my own transfer, it is always by private car with driver.  I don't consider that "real luxury", just convenience and comfort.

It depends - it can be similar or different. I've jammed out a lot nights on Regent and many more on other lines and the range of the experiences has varied wildly. I always book private cars now and always fly in a few days early because arriving last minute and being tired or grouchy is no way to start a cruise. 

[zak477]

So sad to hear more and more complaints about Regard Miami Head-office. I read the attached letter sent and the relatively new President didn’t even have the time or courtesy to sign her name!

We were on that horrific repositioning cruise to Dubai last Nov. and were treated so shabbily with port cancellations (almost all ports) but got the RSSC mantra “read your contract”. They said it was for our safety but sailed us through the Red Sea!!

Head-office did nothing and our TA was treated the same. Oh they gave us 25% FCC but only for the base cruise cost. Although we are platinum and almost at the next level, we cancelled 2 booked cruises for this year but decides one final cruise using their FCC & the $200 they hold back when you cancel for the cheapest cruise & picked Jan. 2025 Navigator cruise. With the FCC and cancellation money this 10 day trip will cost us $920. Regent is no longer luxury service minded. The new management leaders don’t seem to care.

We will never give them another penny and are trying other companies, Scenic, Seabourn and Queen Anne are now booked.

[Pcardad]

1 minute ago, zak477 said:

So sad to hear more and more complaints about Regard Miami Head-office. I read the attached letter sent and the relatively new President didn’t even have the time or courtesy to sign her name!

We were on that horrific repositioning cruise to Dubai last Nov. and were treated so shabbily with port cancellations (almost all ports) but got the RSSC mantra “read your contract”. They said it was for our safety but sailed us through the Red Sea!!

Head-office did nothing and our TA was treated the same. Oh they gave us 25% FCC but only for the base cruise cost. Although we are platinum and almost at the next level, we cancelled 2 booked cruises for this year but decides one final cruise using their FCC & the $200 they hold back when you cancel for the cheapest cruise & picked Jan. 2025 Navigator cruise. With the FCC and cancellation money this 10 day trip will cost us $920. Regent is no longer luxury service minded. The new management leaders don’t seem to care.

We will never give them another penny and are trying other companies, Scenic, Seabourn and Queen Anne are now booked.

Good luck - I have booked well over $5,000,000 in cruises for people and there is no line in existence that is without complaint. Sometimes it is just random luck if you have a negative experience - none are perfect.

[Dolebludger]

I suspect the bus from the airport to Reykjavik is more like the busses Regent contracts than municipal busses. Perhaps Picardad knows and can tell us. 
 

Also, Regent’s ads directly state that hotels and transfers are included, period. It needs to stop that, as it now knows that isn’t always possible, as a result of the Barbados and Reykjavik problems.

Edited March 16 by Dolebludger

[DaveA]

3 hours ago, Dolebludger said:

Honestly, I think Regent does its best to book quality hotels and transfers.

That is simply not true. I booked in October 2023. They could and should have secured the necessary arrangements at that time. Instead they waited until the beginning of March and discovered that suitable rooms were no longer available at a price that suited them.

[cwn]

5 minutes ago, DaveA said:

That is simply not true. I booked in October 2023. They could and should have secured the necessary arrangements at that time. Instead they waited until the beginning of March and discovered that suitable rooms were no longer available at a price that suited them.

Just wondering, how do you that that is true?

[DaveA]

4 minutes ago, cwn said:

Just wondering, how do you that that is true?

Strictly speaking, all I know is that they accepted my booking in October and that they informed me they were not going to provide the hotel and transfers at the start of March. I think it is reasonable to conclude that Regent didn’t book a room at the time they contracted to provide me with one. However, I accept that Regent may have been unable to book a room at a suitable price last October but chose not to tell me until the time my final payment was due.

[Dolebludger]

I said I thought it true due to two decades of experience with Regent. Also due to my knowledge  of the sorry state of the hospitality industry everywhere (I live in a Colorado vacation destination). Thus, I made my statement. However, Regent made a serious mistake in assuming they could get the hotel and transfers so late in the game. It definitely should have worked it all out so, in case of a failure, they could notify the guests BEFORE final payment. Regent just didn’t account for labor shortages in the hotel industry which causes some to hold back rooms because they can’t service them all — and Regent should have. So, bottom line, I think Regent did the best they could to arrange things —- but they started too late! And Regent should have known to start this job early, because of the fiasco in Barbados. I further believe that Regent owes those affected the exact amount of money expended for hotel and transfers. 
 

As a side note, I just got a Regent ad in the mail today. It includes the statement: “FREE 1-NIGHT PRE-CRUISE HOTEL PACKAGE IN CONCIERGE SUITES AND HIGHER”. (Yes, all in caps.) this statement contained no * or statement of exceptions. If it’s T&Cs provide exceptions (which I don’t know), then Regent is guilty of false and misleading advertising under Federal law. Now it is probably accidental, as Regent did a good job at this (afaik) until about six months ago. But it’s still a violation.

 

With this explanation, I hope all will know that I am not one offering Regent any defense in this, unless it reimburses all involved actual resulting expenses.

Edited March 16 by Dolebludger

[cwn]

55 minutes ago, DaveA said:

Strictly speaking, all I know is that they accepted my booking in October and that they informed me they were not going to provide the hotel and transfers at the start of March. I think it is reasonable to conclude that Regent didn’t book a room at the time they contracted to provide me with one. However, I accept that Regent may have been unable to book a room at a suitable price last October but chose not to tell me until the time my final payment was due.

Or possibly Regent did have a block of rooms held at a hotel and the hotel did not honor the contract…..maybe the hotel over booked the rooms or had another problem. As I see it, there are several possible reasons for this bad situation. Agree that Regent could/should have handled this better….but seems like all cruise lines have an innate ability to handle these situations poorly. Post Covid this disconnect between passengers and home office when things go side ways is worse than in the past.

Hope you are able to work the hotel and transfers and you have a good cruise. We always love our time on Regent ships.

Edited March 16 by cwn

[Pcardad]

15 minutes ago, cwn said:

Or possibly Regent did have a block of rooms held at a hotel and the hotel did not honor the contract…..maybe the hotel over booked the rooms or had another problem. As I see it, there are several possible reasons for this bad situation. Agree that Regent could/should have handled this better….but seems like all cruise lines have an innate ability to handle these situations poorly. Post Covid this disconnect between passengers and home office when things go side ways is worse than in the past.

Hope you are able to work the hotel and transfers and you have a good cruise. We always love our time on Regent ships.

100% accurate.

[Dolebludger]

If a hotel breached a commitment contract, Regent needs to sue them, and reimburse impacted guests at their actual cost, and recover any costs over contract from the hotel in the suit. And of most importance, Regent needs to inform impacted guests of exactly what happened. And even if Regent doesn’t want to sue a hotel for any reason, it should reimburse impacted guests for all of the costs incurred as a result of no hotel, no transfers. My calculations show that the reimbursement would be only $300 or less, over the $380 it has offered. Does regent think that compensating guests $300 more than offered (or less) to give them what they bought for over $10,000 is good business?  I’ve worked in business all my working life, before retirement. And this is the poorest business decision I’ve ever seen. Those guests impacted by this, and many others who read about this, may never book another Regent cruise. I’ve posted this before and I’ll do it again: once onboard a Regent cruise, all is great. But getting there (and getting home) can be hell.

[Dolebludger]

And, I wonder where Regent came up with $380 USD and 300 British pounds as all they would reimburse guests with no hotel, no transfers. I’ll bet that was the amount that it was offering to some party in Reykjavik to provide these services, per couple. If Regent had a contract for that amount and it was breached, I would be more sympathetic. But if that amount was insufficient to get a contract, I have no sympathy. I have no further comment unless and until I get info on Regents efforts to contract these services. But the one thing I do know is that the guests on this cruise had a contract with Regent to provide these services. Now, why are individual prices higher? Example. I go into a car dealership, look at a car, and ask how much?  I get an answer.  But then I say, I want to buy 200 of them. After the salesman cleans himself up, he will come back with a much lower price per car — on an order of 200. It is that way in any deal.that’s why we expect Regent to get a better deal on hotel and transfers, and include it in the fare of concierge and above. But if it doesn’t, we expect Regent to compensate us fully to provide ourselves with the same things. I guess I am really disappointed in Regent. After I hear a final outcome, I may want to discuss this with my friend, who happens to our local Assistant US Attorney. He knows something about false and misleading advertising.

[cwn]

2 hours ago, Dolebludger said:

And, I wonder where Regent came up with $380 USD and 300 British pounds as all they would reimburse guests with no hotel, no transfers. I’ll bet that was the amount that it was offering to some party in Reykjavik to provide these services, per couple. If Regent had a contract for that amount and it was breached, I would be more sympathetic. But if that amount was insufficient to get a contract, I have no sympathy. I have no further comment unless and until I get info on Regents efforts to contract these services. But the one thing I do know is that the guests on this cruise had a contract with Regent to provide these services. Now, why are individual prices higher? Example. I go into a car dealership, look at a car, and ask how much?  I get an answer.  But then I say, I want to buy 200 of them. After the salesman cleans himself up, he will come back with a much lower price per car — on an order of 200. It is that way in any deal.that’s why we expect Regent to get a better deal on hotel and transfers, and include it in the fare of concierge and above. But if it doesn’t, we expect Regent to compensate us fully to provide ourselves with the same things. I guess I am really disappointed in Regent. After I hear a final outcome, I may want to discuss this with my friend, who happens to our local Assistant US Attorney. He knows something about false and misleading advertising.

In the past as I recall $300 is the amount we have received credit for when we have not taken the hotel and transfers. My guess is that this is where the amount comes from. 
 

I am sure Regent makes a deal with hotels for a better price than the hotels sell their rooms to us. That is just business. Whether this a profit maker for Regent we have no way of knowing but I know we couldn’t get a room at the Beverly Wiltshire for $300 a night plus transfers and that was the credit if we took it. So in that case we took Regents deal.

 

i also know to sue a cruise line is mostly a no win situation in the US. Living near Gulf Coast ports there have been some big claims against Carnival that went no where basically  because of the contract we sign in the US when we book and pay for the cruise. The glossy ads say fine hotels, tour and ports….. the contract says we will provide this if we can. Not sure the contracts in the ‘80s and ‘90s spelled this out, in truth I don’t think I read them. But for the last 20 or so years they have spelled this out. I read the T and C now.

 

We are hearing from a very small number of people on this cruise and the other recent one and they are mostly from UK. The UK has more consumer protection laws than the US. Maybe they will have luck when all is finally done getting extra cost refunded. This group of people are just a drop in the bucket considering over 3000 passengers times the number of Regent cruises a year. But I do hope the problems of the travel industry and the supply lines improve and soon! We aren’t traveling as much. Even grocery shopping is most annoying!

[Bruce61]

11 hours ago, Dolebludger said:

10 hours ago, Dolebludger said:

If Regent had a contract for that amount and it was breached, I would be more sympathetic. But if that amount was insufficient to get a contract, I have no sympathy.

 First, absent Regent freely wanting to share this information you will never know.  

 

I agree with every poster that $380 is an insufficient credit for this port with decent hotels for those dates costing a minimum of $450 and.transportation being a minimum of $75 per couple not to mention the hassle of booking/arranging them.  But I also firmly believe something happened with their hotel “partners” as this seems to affect all cruise dates in Reykjavik in July and not just one or another,  It is highly likely that Regent was able to buy groups of hotel rooms for what they are offering.  That does not excuse poor customer service but it does provide a reasonable reason as to what happened.  

If a cruise line agrees to help solve a hotel’s vacancy problem by booking a guaranteed number of rooms a certain number of nights each month - in this case something on the magnitude of 150-200 rooms on at least three nights in a month — you would get a phenomenal rate.  I bet they could realize even less than $200 per room per night for a four-star hotel whose published rates are $450-$500.   Unfortunately for the cruise lines, when tourism resumed with a bang and then hotels realized they can make more money without the guarantees, this happened.  We may never know if it was the hotel chain breach to cancel the arrangement that was relied upon, or bad planning and assumptions the rooms would be there when they are not.  

 

Now, what does Regent do in this case?  A complete guess but it seems as thought they chose  to piss off a few clients rather than potentially crater a relationship that they will hope to rely upon for future seasons.  I had my own beef over poorly worded advertising where I never got a satisfactory answer, but I refuse to believe this controversy was a bait and switch by Regent.  It does appear to be a cavalier attitude that they can just point to their fine print and say to customers, “oh well,” take it or leave it.

 

Lastly, I was shocked to see posts above touting places like the RItz or Beverly Wilshire for overnight rooms paid for by Regent.  This is only my second Regent cruise but after the “free night” given in Anchorage at a very tired Hilton, we jumped at a credit at the time of booking rather than taking the Regent offering.

[Tucruisers]

Best wishes to those continuing to battle for a fair outcome on this, I feel a little guilty about abandoning the fight! In the end, it was relatively straightforward to book hotel and taxi transfer from the airport (booking.com) but of course we will still have to arrange and pay for the taxi transfer from the hotel to the ship. Quite apart from the fact that this cost more than £300 even with pre-paying we paid unnecessarily for the much more expensive Concierge level precisely because of the promised pre-cruise night in Reykjavik. 

Best wishes too for those on the Airport Shuttle bus. I am sure it will be fine but is not for us and I do not agree that this is an adequate replacement for the meet on arrival, door to door transfer promised by Regent.

It may be different for US customers, but my experience in the UK is that it is terribly difficult and slow to deal with Regent. In effect, our TA gets in touch with the Regent UK Office, they have to get in touch with their bosses in the US Office and every iteration takes a week with the date for final payment fast approaching.

Volcanoes permitting, I hope we all make it on board. Let's get the cruise director to put on a cocktail party named "Cancelled pre-cruise cross people". I am sure it will be packed!

[Dolebludger]

While I have said about all I have to say, I do have a question. I understand Regent did this itinerary last summer. What hotel and transfers did it offer concierge guests then?

[cwn]

5 hours ago, Bruce61 said:

 First,……..

Lastly, I was shocked to see posts above touting places like the RItz or Beverly Wilshire for overnight rooms paid for by Regent.  This is only my second Regent cruise but after the “free night” given in Anchorage at a very tired Hilton, we jumped at a credit at the time of booking rather than taking the Regent offering.

I feel you have unrealistic expectations of what Regent can realistic provide in hotels at ports around the world. They are providing the customer with a connivence of one stop travel shopping. However to expect Regent to be able to provide a hotel like the Beverly Wiltshire in Beverly Hills in Anchorage Alaska is unrealistic. Regent tires to use the best available in the port city. At least that has been our experience. We usually don’t use the hotel because we are combining the cruise with a longer land trip and need more than one night in the port precruise . If the hotel is really something really special we may use Regents hotel otherwise the extra nights are too costly even booking them ourself.