italdesign

Booked on Dec 4 for 1 night (Feb 2015) at Courtyard Miami Beach for $40 on booking.com. Just got email that they canceled it "in accordance with our terms and conditions for obvious incorrectly loaded rates."

Looking at their T&C, there is a clause that says "Obvious errors and mistakes (including misprints) are not binding." Good for them.

Now, I was on the fence anyway as to whether I could make it, so it's not the biggest loss. But I am wondering, for future reference, if I could have done something differently.

It was refundable and not prepaid, though I did provide CC info. Is it advisable to prepay whenever possible?

Any chance of getting this kind of decision reversed?

MSPeconomist

To begin, is $40 really an unreasonable rate at this hotel for the date in question? One certainly sees $40 hotel rooms offered at chain properties, especially through third party sites that might not carry elite benefits, points, etc.

luv2fly4free

I would suggest posing these questions to the fine folks over at EHD since they are likely among the most familiar with these scenarios.

TheBOSman

Not booked through Booking.com, they are notorious for being consumer unfriendly and canceling rates they perceive as "obvious errors" (since of course they define that, though I doubt had you paid $4000 that they would cancel it as an obvious error).

beckoa

Wirelessly posted (beckoa's BB: Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9810; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.11+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.1.0.694 Mobile Safari/534.11+)

For Marriott properties, guess we need to BRG the rates to get them honored.

An added bonus is the rate is reduced by an additional 25% and we keep full benefits.

italdesign

Good idea. Book it thru the OTA, then book another one from the chain directly, then submit BRG. Though these sales/mistakes are likely gone by the time the BRG agent checks.

italdesign

The price is ~$350 the night before and after (yeah, for a 3 star hotel. Miami Beach is expensive). Nice saving for sure if honored.

JumboJet

At least they cancelled in advance and not when you showed up with your sunscreen and shorts.

frank_10b

I have heard of hotel mgn confessing to posting low teaser rates on booking.com to fill rooms and then when the rooms fill on their preferred sites (i.e. lower commission or own sites) they invoke T&C conditions to cancel the Booking.com reservations.
booking.com lets mgn do whatever they want towards this ends. its very mgn friendly.
the hotel biz is largely unregulated. the airlines is becoming more like the hotel industry but there are still some consumer regulations esp in the EU. for FF programs its a lawless lottery with no due process.

Adam1222

I don't know what basis any of the conspiracy theorists are talking about what management did, but it is not unusual for obvious mistake rates to be cancelled. This has happened with OTAS and with properties themselves, including Starwood. The key is for it to be done promptly. As for legal recourse, you have none. A $310 discount is not a "low price", it's a mistake.

frank_10b

Make a mistake like this on a residential lease and the "guest" is yours for a whole year or more in some states/nations/countries, no matter when the mistake is discovered and no matter what the T&C you try to impose on the guest. Issues like this are out of your hands. Litigate it and you may end up owing 3x damages! Or you can just try and offer them a buy out or pay off to get rid of them. Sure costs are higher in hotel industry but so are the guest relations regulations and contracts. And as Blackrock has found with Hilton, scr--wi--g the guest, loyalty program is much easier and much more profitable in hospitality industry than in residential REITs with no one looking over your shoulder.

TheBOSman

However, it is quite usual for Booking.com to cancel anything it considers a mistake.

Deltahater

T&C are only valid until you go to court. The hotel or the OTA can put:

"a pre-paid reservation is cancellable by us if we find a guest who is willing to pay a higher rate than you" into their T&C if they wanted to.

They will stick to their T&Cs until you take them to court and judge determines what is fair and just.

don't take legal advice from novices on this board though.

Adam1222

Delta hater, I agree that no one should take legal advice from this board. In fact, as a non-novice, I should explicitly state that any post i have made on this website does not constitute legal advice.

I would offer the practical advice that specific performance would not be available as a remedy, so even if you did win in court, your damages would equal the contractual price and what you ended up paying for equivalent replacement goods. So if you don't actually go on the trip, you obviously have no damages.


On the merits, Deltahater is somewhat correct. Terms and conditions can be deemed unenforceable, but there must be a reason to do so. The most likely reason would be unconscionability, but that is quite a high bar given the state of case law, and given the facts here. The clause Deltahater made up is obviously quite different.

But again, this does not constitute legal advice, but only general information about the state of the law.

If the OP is interested in the rants of people who think a failure to honor a mistake rate or fare is a blatant injustice that requires clogging the judicial system, just search "mistake rate" and "lawsuit " on flyertalk. You'll find a couple hundred posts.