This is my first time posting, so I apologize in advance if I violate any posting guidelines. MONYC had the Mandarin Executive King Suites and the Babymoon package for $166USD/night (typically listed at $2870 USD/night)on their corporate web site this past week. According to the hotel close to 200 reservations were made, and now they will not honor the reservations. I personally called the hotel before booking the rooms and I was told they would honor the reservation. Apparently, I was the first person to book the package at that rate, and I told my mother who also booked it. In any case they sent emails to everyone who booked the rate stating they will not honor the reservations b/c there was a input error. Does anyone have any suggestons for a course of actions?

Welcome to FT....

So the deal is gone now?

Sorry, the it looks like the deal is gone.

Welcome to FT....

So the deal is gone now?

I think there's a few ways this could have gone... not post it on Flyertalk/Fatwallet/Slickdeals, and just a few people take advantage of it, so the hotel/agency takes a hit on it, eats the loss and moves on. Or they could feel there is not enough pressure from so few people that they'll bulldoze them over and just say, "so what?" knowing that there's not enough critical mass to generate too much publicity.

Or post it on above mentioned sites, overwhelming them and having them just have an outright cancellation, claiming too many of these were booked; then face the compounded ire of FT'ers (i.e. Alitalia), and then make a deal.

It's a tough question as to whether to make finds such as yours public, since you would have a much larger chorus of people pitching a fit over it.

As to actually answering your question, good luck... I don't think they'll be compelled to do anything; but since you called and have them confirm, you may be able to raise that issue... hopefully you have it documented in an email.

BTW, you should actually post RATE GONE in your title, lest you are trying to sucker some of us into this deal :D

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Unfortunately, travel providers, and particularly hotels, are taking the position that they can unilaterally cancel their contract with you at will. It does not matter how long you have had that contract, they can cancel it while you are in the taxi on the way from the airport to the hotel. Even if you prepaid for your room months ago, they can cancel it and charge you much more, or not rent you a room at all.

If you, on the other hand, make a mistake and book a room for 6/7/2006 instead of 7/6/2006, and don't show up on June 7, then you have a firm contract and are charge a penalty for your mistake. Your mistake is, of course much easier to make, as in half of the world July 6 is written 6/7 and in the other half it is written 7/6.

The print press and TV are not interested in writing about this problem. They get most of their money from advertising, and hotels advertise. We don't.

Unfortunately, the best course of action is to check in, complete your stay, have them charge your credit card some huge honkin' amount, and then fight it out in court. They are counting on you not being willing to do that.

mods, can you change the thread title to stop people from getting heart attacks :rolleyes: I already imagined at least 3 trips to NYC this year.

Unfortunately, travel providers, and particularly hotels, are taking the position that they can unilaterally cancel their contract with you at will. It does not matter how long you have had that contract, they can cancel it while you are in the taxi on the way from the airport to the hotel. Even if you prepaid for your room months ago, they can cancel it and charge you much more, or not rent you a room at all.

If you, on the other hand, make a mistake and book a room for 6/7/2006 instead of 7/6/2006, and don't show up on June 7, then you have a firm contract and are charge a penalty for your mistake. Your mistake is, of course much easier to make, as in half of the world July 6 is written 6/7 and in the other half it is written 7/6.

The print press and TV are not interested in writing about this problem. They get most of their money from advertising, and hotels advertise. We don't.

Unfortunately, the best course of action is to check in, complete your stay, have them charge your credit card some huge honkin' amount, and then fight it out in court. They are counting on you not being willing to do that.

Contract? :confused: What contract? Hotel reservations are not governed by nearly the amount of laws as airline tickets, so are not subject to the same rules. When you buy an airline ticket, you are subject to the legalities of the contract of carriage, but nothing like that exists for hotel reservations, much as we all would wish there to be.

I'm not a lawyer, barrister nor solicitor, just a lowly TA who has a slight grasp on how many things works in the industry.

Sorry, the it looks like the deal is gone.


so why all of a sudden you found FT to post your question after such a long time?

Maybe if no one would have called - then it would have been honored.

Contract? :confused: What contract? Hotel reservations are not governed by nearly the amount of laws as airline tickets, so are not subject to the same rules. When you buy an airline ticket, you are subject to the legalities of the contract of carriage, but nothing like that exists for hotel reservations, much as we all would wish there to be.

I'm not a lawyer, barrister nor solicitor, just a lowly TA who has a slight grasp on how many things works in the industry.
If there is no contract, what is the legal basis for charging a no-show penalty? Shouldn't you be able to tell your credit card company that there is no contract, therefore no basis for any charge?

If there is no contract, what is the legal basis for charging a no-show penalty? Shouldn't you be able to tell your credit card company that there is no contract, therefore no basis for any charge?

Hilton says:

The Site may contain technical inaccuracies or typographical errors or omissions. Hilton is not responsible for any typographical, photographic, technical or pricing (including without limitation mistaken hotel rates) errors listed on our Site. Hilton reserves the right to make changes, corrections and/or improvements to the Site, and to the products and programs described in such information, at any time without notice.

We reserve the right to cancel or modify reservations where it appears that a customer has engaged in fraudulent or inappropriate activity or under other circumstances where it appears that the reservations contain or resulted from a mistake or error.

<snip>

If you do not agree to each and all of these terms and conditions please do not use the Site and leave the Site immediately.

And my legal opinion was close as HH calls it an agreement, rather than a contract. Read the whole advisory:

http://www.hilton.com/en/hi/info/site_usage.jhtml;jsessionid=A4ZTWTT4WUHMSCSGBIX222 QKIYFCXUUC

Interesting find, tcook052. Has this language been added recently? Are you aware of other hotel terms & conditions that include a similar clause?

Hilton says:

The Site may contain technical inaccuracies or typographical errors or omissions. Hilton is not responsible for any typographical, photographic, technical or pricing (including without limitation mistaken hotel rates) errors listed on our Site. Hilton reserves the right to make changes, corrections and/or improvements to the Site, and to the products and programs described in such information, at any time without notice.

We reserve the right to cancel or modify reservations where it appears that a customer has engaged in fraudulent or inappropriate activity or under other circumstances where it appears that the reservations contain or resulted from a mistake or error.

<snip>

If you do not agree to each and all of these terms and conditions please do not use the Site and leave the Site immediately.

And my legal opinion was close as HH calls it an agreement, rather than a contract. Read the whole advisory:

http://www.hilton.com/en/hi/info/site_usage.jhtml;jsessionid=A4ZTWTT4WUHMSCSGBIX222 QKIYFCXUUC

FWIW or not worth, such terms may not be enforceable in all jurisdictions or may not be worth Hilton's time/money fighting for on a case-by-case basis.

so why all of a sudden you found FT to post your question after such a long time?

Which is why this forum should be limited like CC :(. Lots of trolls here...

Which is why this forum should be limited like CC :(. Lots of trolls here...
Great idea - I'm in support of limiting access to the MR forum to established FT'ers as well. Perhaps we should get a campaign going to effect this change? (PS - I'm sure this has been discussed over and over in the past, but it would be nice to see this change actually happen!)

...knowing that there's not enough critical mass to generate too much publicity...


:D critical mass :D the only time i saw that we put a lot of pressure was on the alitalia deal. remember the huge travelocity 3 $ deal where almost nobody put pressure on travelocity! :o

Great idea - I'm in support of limiting access to the MR forum to established FT'ers as well. Perhaps we should get a campaign going to effect this change? (PS - I'm sure this has been discussed over and over in the past, but it would be nice to see this change actually happen!)

Some of the best deals I've gotten in on the MileageRun forum were made possible by relative "newbies" and low-count posters. I'd really have missed out on some great deals if they were not able to post there.

MONYC has decided to honor the rate, but for their Central Park View Room, not the suitestandard room (typically $975/night). This took quite a bit of haggling with the Director of PR, Director of Reservations, Director of Revenue Management, Hotel Manager and lastly their corporate legal staff. Fortunately several of the lawyers within my company also booked rooms, and they fought pretty hard for this concession. We found out that this pricing error left them exposed to a $420K loss if they honored the reservations. Still not a bad deal!!

MONYC has decided to honor the rate, but for their Central Park View Room, not the suitestandard room (typically $975/night).

I love happy endings. ^

MONYC has decided to honor the rate, but for their Central Park View Room, not the suitestandard room (typically $975/night). This took quite a bit of haggling with the Director of PR, Director of Reservations, Director of Revenue Management, Hotel Manager and lastly their corporate legal staff. Fortunately several of the lawyers within my company also booked rooms, and they fought pretty hard for this concession. We found out that this pricing error left them exposed to a $420K loss if they honored the reservations. Still not a bad deal!!

Your first sentence confused me for a sec...you mean MONYC decided to honor the rate by giving you the Central Park View Room:

https://mandarinoriental.com/hotelsite/reservations/roomGroupsDescMO.asp?pHotelId=532&pRoomGrp=630&pLangId=1&rateList=4839,8440,4841,4843,4842,

which's usually $975/night instead of one of the $2000+ suites?...yeah still an awesome deal...did they honor all 200 bookings or just those of you with legal recourse. That's still a 160K loss right there.

On an unrelated note regarding the suggestion a few posts ago (didn't want to reply b/c it's a bit OT :) )... I recall lemex not to mention rosj started posting with a grand post count of 0...not to mention rosj started with a bang (as in, the Alitalia deal)...so yeah post count limitations in MR may be bad :)