Our Unexpected Stay At Mystique Santorini #Bonvoyed

Great review!

@Lucky, did you request the Ultimate Reservation Guarantee? I guess it technically doesn't apply since the Vedema wasn't "open and operational," but they should've given you something.

While the Mystique's rooms/property looks nice, €1200 is ridiculous. IMHO, I wouldn't consider it a fair trade (or a trade-up) for the last minute change, especially given the location switcharoo.

While it's certainly an upgrade over Vedema, could you still be entitled for any sort of refund or compensation (points, etc.) for the inconvenience?
Mystique has an insane amount of stairs, and very uneven stairs, even by Santorini standards. If your mom had real knee issues, this could have been a major inconvenience. Glad it worked out!

I'm staying at the Vedema in the middle of September for the first time. Love the location near the vineyards and all of the small tavernas you can walk to from the hotel. They have a wine cave on property. Hope they don't close for the season early. Not interested in staying in Oia. We go to Santorini every 2 years and have always stayed within walking distance of Fira. This time we want to be in a smaller village and walk to the wineries.

The article title gives the impression that Mystique Santorini #Bonvoyed you which is not the case and Mystique did give you a great experience.

Is it possible to please update the title so that #Bonvoyed is not incorrectly associated with Mystique?

#JustaMystiqueFan

Not sure what is worse Greece+Bonvoy or the new color scheme that still makes reading various parts of the posts very challenging.

Sounds like you had a good experience. Nice review and photos. I agree with @Alicia, I would take out #Bonvoyed in the title as they really gave you an upgrade from the Vedema to the Mystic. I think it was the closed Vedema not Marriott who messed up the communication and booking options.

One question, what Titaniam Elite benefits did you get. Obviously no room upgrade as 2 bedroom was paid for at booking. Was the Elite benefit just the fig bar snack?

Agree with others that adding #Bonvoyed to the title makes it seem like Mystique did you dirty, when that's not true.

Side note - I love how the name "Bonvoy" totally backfired on Marriott as it now represents any time Marriott does wrong by the customer. "You've been Bonvoyed!"

True there should have been more advanced notice. That being said you rushed off to a country during a major pandemic and need to roll with the punches if you are going to do something like that. They upgraded you to a suite which is well over the cost of what you paid. Seems like they did what they could to make it right. Greece is probably regretting letting people in now that covid cases are once again surging there and they are being forced to implement restrictions again.

I called my Anchorage airport hotel 2 weeks before arrival to make some requests all I got was a recording saying that the hotel is closed and that I should contact the holiday inn if I booked directly and third party reservations need to contact who they booked with. Not wanting to deal with that fu$&ery I decided to cancel and book another hotel 20 miles north of Anchorage. Crazy I could have arrived in Anchorage and arrived at my hotel to find out they were closed and I should go to the holiday inn. No thank you.

Had a similar situation happen in Istanbul around the same time. Had booked a Marriott property on points fall of last year for late May visit. The day before my arrival I got an email from some concierge at the hotel that it was closed due to Covid and I would have to find somewhere else to stay.

Half furious, half panicked, I called Marriott and got them to book me at the JW for practically no additional cost to me.

Covid has made nearly everyone’s job harder, so I can obviously understand some bumps in the road. However Marriott not sending any kind of communication to guests considering the entire property was closed is just bush league.

You can't imagine why a hotel would comp you a dinner?

Let me see, well known travel blogger, at the time probably SPG member with an ambassador asssigned, a hotel interested in some favourable coverage.

Maybe I can't imagine a reason either? 😉

Vedema hasn't been open in a long time. The exact same happened to us in September 2020....no email, no call, a day or two before arrival an email to ask about transportation. Staff at Mystique had been beyond amazing, loved our stay. Just an odd start to our visit to Santorini as well....

I mean, this is fairly standard practise where hotels are seasonal, particularly when part of a chain with nearby alternatives. They open bookings for the maximum amount of planned openings, and then, assuming the desired peak capacity hasn't been reached, the nicest hotel opens first. This way, the people who paid the most will not be inconvenienced or downgraded. Additionally, the people who paid less might have the slight inconvenience of different hotel, but they get the upgrade which usually makes it worthwhile.

All’s well that ends well. Same thing happened to us on honeymoon. We were rebooked with no notice from a 25 room hotel into a house on the cliff before there was airbnb due to orthodox Easter 25 years ago; desk clerk of hotel answered locked door and said hotel decided to close for the holiday and walked us to the house and brought us breakfast in the morning. I think this is more a Santorini thing than a Bonvoy thing.

I thought NYGuy24's comments about having to "roll with the punches" to some degree during the early months of Greece's re-opening was fair, or at least a valid point of consideration. However, you seem to be implying that he has no right to comment here simply because he may be from the state of New York, for which you have a low opinion. That, most certainly, is not fair.

Looks great, but for what was paid, I would be personally slightly disappointed. It just looked a tad tired, although the area looks of course, fantastic. Food looks good too...the Greeks are great at relaxed eating.

Santorini: overrated, overpriced, overdone.
As the saying goes:
Nobody goes there anymore, It's too crowded.

Very few places in the world I love as much as the Mediterranean. The breakfast in Greece if fantastic and perhaps only second to that served in Israel.

Since the hotel was closed you were entitled to compensation per Marriott terms. Did you invoke this? Hundreds of guests could be missing out on guaranteed compensation under Marriott terms.