Sydfly
May 17, 04, 6:05 pm
...well, maybe you should. I was just looking for a hotel in Sydney for 05/22/04 on spg.com and the W Sydney came up as "no availability". Usually, my search ends right there. However, I just received an email from Starwood with the "Limited time offer for $79 for properties around the world". To my biggest surprise the W Sydney had rooms available for the 22nd.
It then turned out that if I had looked for rates on www.whotels.com rather than spg.com the W hotel would have gotten my business for the night. Well, now they missed out due to their own system.
Has anyone experienced that before? Do the hotels keep some rooms for exclusive booking through the branded websites rather than spg? If so, I would find this very annoying and also quite a bad idea as I'm sure many wouldn't bother to recheck each hotel on www.sheraton.com or www.westin.com if they see it's booked out for their dates on spg.com.
It then turned out that if I had looked for rates on www.whotels.com rather than spg.com the W hotel would have gotten my business for the night. Well, now they missed out due to their own system.
Has anyone experienced that before? Do the hotels keep some rooms for exclusive booking through the branded websites rather than spg? If so, I would find this very annoying and also quite a bad idea as I'm sure many wouldn't bother to recheck each hotel on www.sheraton.com or www.westin.com if they see it's booked out for their dates on spg.com.