theLuxuryTravelExpert

Thanks all for the comments. I did not expect to be ‘grilled’ :-).

IMHO, a hotel or airline should always honour an erroneous rate, especially when a reasonable time to contact the client has passed (in this case, almost 2 months, which remains an unacceptable time-frame to me). This website and the internet is full of similar cases (both in the hotel and airline industry) and there was much more sympathy for the travellers in those cases :-). And most of the time, those rates were honoured.

Having said that, I am not a complainer whatsoever (and definitely not a bandit as suggested by one of you) . I am a very frequent traveller (Aadvantage Platinum Executive, Miles & More frequent flyer, + 100 hotel stays a year, SPG platinum, and I stay in lots of Four Seasons and Aman resorts to name a few). I have had my share of travel problems the past 10 years. But I always experienced the best customer service possible when problems occurred, and the hotels always had the ‘customer in mind’ when troubles occurred (which is clearly not the case here, although the hotel made the mistake in the first place).

Anyway, this was a first for me, and since Hyatt will not change it view point, I will pay the rate (as the major purpose of my trip was to ‘try out’ the new hotel, in addition to explore the city of course which I know quite well) and I will write a trip report about once I am back. So, end of discussion.

Have a good day!

jibi

Repeat after me, "I am not a victim."

A mistake rate was posted before they had a full staff to even monitor bookings. They are still not open as of today, so why would you think they would reach out to you regarding your reservation of an obvious mistake rate? In fact, a better question is, why didn't you reach out to them? So they provide you 30,000 points, which carries a retail price tag of $720, and you think that they did not provide a level of customer service that had the "customer in mind"? Wow!

There are some obvious mistake rates posted on FT (never seen a $0 claim for a $950-1,150/night suite) and sometimes the hotel will honor those rates or make arrangements to make some sort of accommodations. Of course, in most situations, the people booking the rate have enough innate concern to reach out to the hotel prior to making travel arrangements, etc. And of course, if the rate is not honored, I rarely hear any belly-aching about customer service, etc. And of course, if they were given $720 worth of points for $0 personal investment, which is a pretty damn great return, I'm pretty sure that no one in a similar situation would complain at all.

The sense of entitlement is not warranted, but you know what they say about people who can afford almost anything...

MSPeconomist

Anyone who thinks of himself/herself as theLuxuryTravelExpert would know that $0 is a mistake rate and would not expect a PH suite in NYC for anything near that rate. The hotel should have notified you sooner that they will not be honoring this rate, but you knew that--it's not a rate that anyone, let alone a Luxury Travel Expert, would think is just a very good deal or special sale rate. You might have been able to negotiate something better than the Hyatt Daily Rate or a better rate on a regular room rather than the suite, but the hotel gave you lots of points instead.

Of course, if you want to cancel, it shouldn't be past the deadline yet for a non prepaid rate at a city property. However, if you do so, I don't think you're entitled to keep all 30,000 points.

I'm sure HGP would be pleased to help you book a cheaper room at some other NYC Hyatt if this is what you want to do.

MikeFromTokyo

This entire thread is one of the most ridiculous I have ever seen. The OP clearly was trying to scam the hotel into honoring a rate he knew fully well to be a mistake.

wharvey

While they could have reached out to you earlier, the results would have been the same.

The fact that you "chose" to not share your initial good luck on here says something as well. As someone else said, there is more leverage if several people have the same deal.

Again, you knew this was not a proper rate but said nothing to "confirm". I actually think the 30,000 points is more than they should have given you.

Hyatt, like most online business has a disclaimer that they are not responsible for mistakes on their online portals.

Jaimito Cartero

As someone who has booked a lot of special hotel deals, one thing in common for all honored hotels is that it had to cost something.

Even the IHG property in Venice was .01 Euro for the first night, and the second night was free. No free lunch, there.

Most might me missing a digit, or where a suite, let's say a Presidential Suite, was offered for the same price as a standard room. Not free, but usually a decent enough deal.

I'm not sure if it's an option, but can you use a suite upgrade, or cash and points for you stay? Seems like if you could, then you'd certainly save quite a few dollars. $300+15K per night would still save you $300-$400 per night, if able to use a Suite upgrade.

I'd certainly try to negotiate this with them.