Best Western Rewards - Free Night Voucher - Fail

I just called the number listed on the free night voucher (summer promotion) to redeem a room.

The hotel I wanted shows availability for all rooms for 2 adults, if paying the regular rack rate. It also shows award availability for 1 adult if using 36,000 points. (Zermatt Switzerland in September)

However, they did not have any availability for 2 adults using the free night voucher. There is another BW in the same location but same situation, only available if paying the rack rate, not available with this voucher.

The agent said something about the hotel only setting aside 4% of their available rooms for free night reservations. Doesn't matter if the hotel is still half empty when you call to reserve, not available using points for vouchers.

I'm Diamond for what it's worth (little to nothing)

Summer Promotion 2012 Free Night Voucher
Terms and Conditions of use:
- No voucher extensions, substitutions or replacements available.
- Voucher expires January 31, 2013. The expiration date cannot be extended. Advance reservations are required. Please contact the Best Western Reservations team at 800-567-4009, to make a reservation using this voucher.
- Valid for single or double occupancy.
- This voucher entitles the bearer to free accommodation for one night. User will be responsible for any separate charges incurred, such as food and beverage, additional occupancy charges, movie rental etc.
- Redemption is subject to hotel availability.
- The user will NOT be charged for room taxes. Other tax liabilities, if any, are the responsibility of the user.
- This voucher cannot be exchanged for points, Best Western Travel Cards® or gift cards.
- This voucher is not exchangeable for cash in part or in whole, and no change will be given.
- This voucher is transferable to other persons.
- This voucher can be used at any Best Western branded hotel worldwide, subject to hotel availability.
- This voucher cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer.

This is the last straw with all these silly loyalty games BW plays. After I use up my remaining points and vouchers, I won't be staying with BW for future business or personal travel.

Update: Called the Diamond line and was told the vouchers are only available to use for rooms that are available using points. So if nothing is available on the Best Western website when searching by points, the voucher cannot be used.

What a silly game! A room is available for one person but not for two if you want to use the voucher! Indeed silly dumb games from BW :td:

Update: Called the Diamond line and was told the vouchers are only available to use for rooms that are available using points. So if nothing is available on the Best Western website when searching by points, the voucher cannot be used.

Seems reasonable to me. No other loyalty program, not even HHonors now, permits redemption of standard rates at sell-out conditions.

Seems reasonable to me. No other loyalty program, not even HHonors now, permits redemption of standard rates at sell-out conditions.

The point is, they cap the use of points and free night vouchers at an absurdly low inventory. The agent specifically told me less than 5% of inventory is set aside for free night dedemptions. No where near sell-out conditions in this case. But I get your point.

I've had terrible experiences with best western after I status matched and gave them a try (about 5 stays)... They are slimy, liars and scammers. They don't notify you of policies and screw you over after you find out. I lost about $100 due to their stupidity, and they did not remedy it after I made a clear point about how it was 100% their fault for lying to me.

Will never stay at any of their hotels again(Thought accommodations were still nice though lol).

The point is, they cap the use of points and free night vouchers at an absurdly low inventory. The agent specifically told me less than 5% of inventory is set aside for free night dedemptions. No where near sell-out conditions in this case. But I get your point.

This is certainly a wrong information which was given to you. It is more like the minimal requirement. That does in no way mean that only 5 % of the room inventory goes as an award redemption. Each hotel can freely specify how many rooms they want to sell as awards.

I had recently the situation that the hotel still had rooms to sell but did not have award rooms. On the day or arrival I called the hotel and asked them if they really.really really believe they could sell that very expensive room on that day against cash. They finally agreed to open-up one room for points. I could then call BW Rewards and make a booking with a free night voucher.

It's not only Best Western playing some games. It's even more often the hotels who don't want to give rooms against points.

OK, call me stupid. But what is to prevent you from using your free night voucher to book the room that is available for one adult, and then just showing up with 2 people ? As long as you can get a room with the necessary sleeping arrangements.

I am sure that happens from time to time .

OK, call me stupid. But what is to prevent you from using your free night voucher to book the room that is available for one adult, and then just showing up with 2 people ? As long as you can get a room with the necessary sleeping arrangements.

I am sure that happens from time to time .
How about I just call you inexperienced about rooms in Europe, OK? :)

This is Europe. In particular, small town Europe (Zermatt, Swizerland, a carless resort town at the foot of the Matterhorn). If you reserve a room for one person, it's very likely to be a tiny room with a narrow bed just big enough for one person, and the rest of the room just big enough for your luggage. Definitely not big enough (nor legal for) two people.

I've been in Zermatt before. THere are no business hotels there, nor anything close. It's chalet-type B&Bs mostly. Remember, "all Best Westerns are indpendently owned and operated". That's why Best Western has the only chain hotels in this town, because it's the only chain that will take an indie hotel built any way it wants to be built and give it chain status, as long as it meets other standards.

(But I've run into tiny rooms not able to fit two people in major "luxury" hotels even, like IC, in the middle of big cities in Europe. So while it may be harder to avoid in small towns than big cities, you can find it anywhere in Europe, especially when there are no recently-built suburban hotel optoins.)

Update: Called the Diamond line and was told the vouchers are only available to use for rooms that are available using points. So if nothing is available on the Best Western website when searching by points, the voucher cannot be used.
That's been talked about here many times on FlyerTalk before. Basically, once you know that, it makes it simple to search for free nigh availability online.

There is no such thing as actually booking with a free night voucher at Best Western. What they actually do (when you call) is book the hotel on points, but then put a note in the remarks saying it's instead going to be paid with a free night voucher.

(Ie, the reservation system itself doesn't know about free night vouchers. All info about vouchers only goes into comment fields.)

How about I just call you inexperienced about rooms in Europe, OK? :)

Sdsearch, you are too kind ! And yes you are correct, I have very little experience with hotels in Europe. Particularly on the continent.

Most of my travels to Europe involve staying with family / friends or in hostels. I can probably count on one hand the number of nights that I have slept in hotels in continental Europe. So the size of the room was not something that I had considered in my post.

How about I just call you inexperienced about rooms in Europe, OK? :)

This is Europe. In particular, small town Europe (Zermatt, Swizerland, a carless resort town at the foot of the Matterhorn). If you reserve a room for one person, it's very likely to be a tiny room with a narrow bed just big enough for one person, and the rest of the room just big enough for your luggage. Definitely not big enough (nor legal for) two people.

I've been in Zermatt before. THere are no business hotels there, nor anything close. It's chalet-type B&Bs mostly. Remember, "all Best Westerns are indpendently owned and operated". That's why Best Western has the only chain hotels in this town, because it's the only chain that will take an indie hotel built any way it wants to be built and give it chain status, as long as it meets other standards.

(But I've run into tiny rooms not able to fit two people in major "luxury" hotels even, like IC, in the middle of big cities in Europe. So while it may be harder to avoid in small towns than big cities, you can find it anywhere in Europe, especially when there are no recently-built suburban hotel optoins.)



BW do not run the only two chain hotels in Zermatt,. There is also a Sunstar (http://www.sunstar.ch/) hotel.

There are also some good hotels in Zermatt, e.g. the Bellerive, the Omnia and the Tschugge.

BW do not run the only two chain hotels in Zermatt,. There is also a Sunstar (http://www.sunstar.ch/) hotel.
Sorry, "chain" wasn't the word I should have used. I meant the only points program chain hotels (ie, the only hotels affiliated with chains where you can earn points to use elsewhere or redeem points earned elsewhere).

Rummaging around the Sunstar site, I can see no evidence of them having a points program.

There are lots of good places to stay in Zermatt if you want to simply pay money. (And it doesn't necessarily have to be high amounts of money if you research carefully and don't need anything fancy.) But there are mighty few places to stay in Zermatt if you want to use points earned elsewhere.