andymo99

I try not to use provocative thread titles here at FT, but I’m not sure how else to describe what I have just experienced.

On March 16 2011, I set up a series of reservations at the Four Points by Sheraton New Orleans Airport to use for the Final Four in 2012. I booked 3 rooms for 4 nights each (done on 4 separate reservations, so that I could later cancel an individual night if needed). The rate was $79 + taxes = $89.07 all-in.

I was excited, because a few weeks later, my friends and I would be off to Final Four 2011 in Houston. For that, I reserved rooms at the Sheraton Houston Brookhollow Hotel, for $89 + taxes. (I also had some C&P reservations there which I would cancel.)

Anyhow, before Final Four 2011 even arrived, we were set with our accommodations for 2012! I was to be the hero among my friends two years in a row!

On April 1 2011, I reserved additional rooms for New Orleans 2012. This time, I booked 4 rooms per night for 3 of the same nights (again, separate reservations for each of the 3 nights).

When I made this second set of reservations 16 days after the first set, the rate was unchanged: still $79 + taxes.

Every reservation included the following notes:

Fast forward now almost exactly 6 months, to today, October 2, 2011.

I returned to my home in Seattle today after a week on the road (including an SPG night in FL, natch). Among my mail was the following letter from the Four Points by Sheraton New Orleans Airport, postmarked on September 23, 2011 in Matairie, LA:

Note: With the exception of the “X” names and contact info, and my explanation of the handwritten name, all of the above is verbatim, including typo, missing commas, etc.

So many issues here, including:

• She mailed me a letter on September 23, demanding a payment by September 30. Based on my travel, all I know is that the letter arrived sometime between September 28 and October 1. It was postmarked one week before my “due date” and sent across the country. That is unreasonable.
• The property chose to send a letter in the post, rather than an e-mail. They have my e-mail address. They should have sent an e-mail instead of or in addition to the letter.
• She claims that the $79.00 rate was a “brief error in the system.” Really? Because my series of reservations indicates that it was available for at least 16 days. (In truth, I know it was somewhat longer because I saw it available before my first reservation and after my last reservation.)
• The property took 6.5 months from the time of my first reservation to inform me of their “brief error.”
• It was not unreasonable for me to consider the rate fair. As noted above, I stayed at a Houston property for $89 during the Final Four in Houston. Why would it be unreasonable to get a similar rate for the Final Four in New Orleans, especially considering the property in question is pretty inconvenient to the action.
• The property’s comments directly contradict my reservation which reads “Cancel by 6:00 PM Hotel time 1 day(s) prior to avoid 1 Night penalty”
• The property’s comments directly contradict my reservation which reads “For reservations guaranteed with a form of payment at time of booking, rooms are held until hotel check-out time the day following arrival.”

As of today, all but 1 of the 7 reservations has indeed been canceled. I have a detailed accounting of each reservation including confirmation and cancellation numbers. (Not sure why one of the 7 is intact --- we’ll see if that lasts.)

Note that all New Orleans hotels, with the exception of this property and the Sheraton Metairie - New Orleans Hotel, are sold out for these nights. This hotel is indeed charging $175.

I strongly believe that this property has no choice but to honor all of my reservations. Am I off base here? Can a hotel just decide, 6 months after reservation and 6 months before arrival, that they can sell inventory at a higher price and say “just kidding” to a confirmed guest? How am I supposed to prevent this in the future? If I get a good rate in the future, should I contact the hotel upon confirmation to ask something along the lines of “Are you guys sure that you are ok with this rate? You might be able to do better during this particular time period.”

I suppose my first step will be to contact the Director of Revenue directly. If she will not honor the terms of our agreement, I will contact Starwood Customer Service.

It isn’t like this is an obvious error $1 fare or something. Has anyone run into a similar situation? How was it resolved?

To exacerbate the problem, I am now fretting about a slew of reservations I have made in London for the 2012 Olympics. I redeemed Cash & Points for many room nights at the Sheraton Heathrow Hotel. I subsequently secured my air arrangements and spent a lot of money on Games tickets. We’ve also invited others to join us, who have acted similarly. So is the Sheraton Heathrow Hotel going to pull a similar stunt between now and the Olympics!

I am flat out at work the next few days and it will be a few days before I can properly (and calmly) address this matter with the hotel and/or Starwood. I have confidence that it will be resolved to my satisfaction, because the alternative seems so unreasonable. Am I in for a surprise?

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Originally edited to provide resolution (milepost 27); later retracted (milepost 30) when I realized I had been naive

Peatisback

To help speed things along, and avoid losing out on availability, I would contact CCS to begin with, and go for a top-down approach. Based on the actions of the property's revenue manager, I can't see a solution coming easily if you only interact with that person.

Jesperss

Have you tried calling the hotel yet?

I'm sure that will get everything worked out.

LovetoTravel83

I would go ahead and contact Customer Service, they will deal on whatever the issue is and I'm sure everything will be resolved.

In my point of view, they should not change the booking to a pre-paid rate unless they will refund the deposit back if you want to cancel one of the bookings.

andymo99

To the comments above, I sent a very brief email this evening to the Director of Revenue Management (who issued the letter) outlining the situation, including all of my confirmation/cancellation #s.

I also noted that "If I don't have a satisfactory resolution from you by Tuesday evening (6pm hotel time), I will raise this matter with Starwood Corporate Customer Care to be addressed."

Will advise what I hear back. I did encourage this Director to have a look at this thread as I didn't have the energy to recount my whole position in the email.

andymo99

Why should they even get to change it to prepaid, and collect my money now, when the reservation wasn't set up that way?

OverThereTooMuch

One of your issues is that they gave you an unreasonable deadline for responding.

Why is it ok for you to do that?

LovetoTravel83

I totally agree with you. I just was saying that if I was in your position, that would be ok for me, only if I could cancel my booking later and refund the deposit.

jphripjah

The request for prepayment was clearly just a gambit to give them an excuse to cancel the reservation. My guess is that Sheraton corporate will not be amused by some knuckleheaded bean counter pulling a stunt like this to try to raise an extra few hundred bucks.

bocastephen

I wouldn't even bother dealing with the hotel - this issue has two possible resolution routes:

1) Begin with Starwood Corporate and let them handle it

2) If 1) does not result in a fix (which would surprise me), then I would take the property to small claims court (which is quite cheap to do) - you have printed copies of the confirmations and they would be forced to prove the $79 rate was a result of a clerical error - and since I'm sure that rate is available on surrounding dates outside of the event, they would be skating on thin ice

LIH Prem

I agree, just let CCS deal with them. Their letter and updated terms and deposit demand are a joke. They can't get away with that.

-David

JFKSFOLAX_friend

To echo the previous comments, immediately contact Starwood Customer Service (and cc William, if you'd like).

The hotel doesn't have a leg to stand on, in my opinion. This is a joke.

Cyan

I can't imagine that the property's actions on this will stand after Starwood gets involved. To let it stand would make everyone very nervous about the stability of any upcoming reservations.

masonuc

What I find most troubling -- if it is indeed, a lie -- is the claim that the $79 reservation was an error. If it truly was some sort of software error, I think the hotel has a legitimate point although the resolution of payment due now is quite odd.

If the hotel is indeed lying and the "error" was them simply not realising in time to "update" the prices -- then I find the email offensive (in that they lied) and feel strongly that they have acted unethically here.

How can a reservation be one way? You (usually) can't cancel last minute without being charged. So they can't cancel the reservation either.

Totoro

Lurker once posted that Starwood charges the property when CCS opens a case. If the letter came from Director of Revenue, I don't see that you would have anyone higher up the ladder at the property to appeal to (with possible exception of general manager, but presumably DOR would not do this withou the GM's knowledge). I concur with the above opinions to directly contact CCS.

Good luck to you. This incident really shows a property running amok over acceptable standards!