I typically am a SPG guy, but wound up taking a trip to Belize City for 2 weeks and I stayed near my customers office at the BW Biltmore. Since I had never stayed at a BW before, I signed up for a rewards account and then booked my hotel on their site. Now a few weeks later I was updating my Points.com page and added BW and it said I had zero points. So I logged in and requested the points. They emailed me today and stated:
We apologize for any misunderstanding, but the stay in Belize City is a non-qualifying rate and no credit can be awarded. To be assured future credit on a qualifying rate, you can book your reservation directly through
www.bestwestern.com or by calling our reservation center at 1-800-528-1234. A complete list of non-qualified rates can be viewed by following the link below:
http://www.bestwestern.com/rewards/benefits/terms.asp
I then replied, I did book it directly on your site, and I attached the reservation confirmation from them to that mail. They then responded that basically I was SOL.
We apologize for any inconvenience, however the hotel will not be issuing credit for this stay. We can be reached by telephone at the number at 800-237-8483 if you have any further questions in regards to this stay.
I replied back angrily and basically said screw you, you have terrible customer service and you aren't living up to your own terms and conditions. Then I ranted about complaining to BBB & sending a letter to the CEO & BoD. Finally I told them to go ahead and delete my account because I would never stay at one of their properties again.
They responded back with
Thank you for taking the time to contact the Best Western Rewards
Department. We will be glad to assist you with this.
We apologize for any misunderstanding. To be assured future credit on a
qualifying rate, you can
book your reservation directly through
www.bestwestern.com or by calling our reservation center at
1-800-528-1234. A complete list of non-qualified rates can be viewed by
following the link:
http://www.bestwestern.com/rewards/benefits/terms.asp. As a one time
courtesy we have posted
500 points into your account.
Third email that keeps saying book directly on our website to ensure you get points which is what I did. Anyway rant over, I just want this out there so they get all the bad press I can give them. Plus that stay was for a week and I spent well over $1500 so that 500 "courtesy" points just pissed me off more.