A recent stay at El Tovar at the Grand Canyon has really led me to question the value Chase Ultimate rewards is offering and is a cautionary tale if you are using this service, you need to check on the Hotel prices directly. We booked a room for $667 a night, expecting a premium experience. The room we were given was a corner basement room, with a view of a drainpipe and a tariff on the door of $421. I spoke to the hotel and they told me that the price on the door was correct and that we were in the correct room. Furthermore, they had been paid by the travel company the correct price of $421 a night. Subsequently, on checking out, I was able to obtain a copy of the payment invoice that showed $421 X 2 nights had been paid in my name by a Chinese travel company in Hunan China. My understanding from the hotel manager, given this is a hotel in a National Park, is that the rooms are sold at a fixed rate on a first come, first served basis. They do not use a variable demand based pricing model.
I have subsequently spent many hours on the phone with Ultimate rewards explaining that we feel that we were misled and asking for a refund of the balance. They replied;

'We do apologize for the confusion if the hotel disclosed our negotiated rate to you. As a travel agency, we are dealing and buying bulk rooms directly from the hotel and that negotiated rate is what we are disclosing to our website. Upon checking, you agreed to the rate that you booked this reservation online last May 2.
I pointed out that their response was contradictory and untrue given that they offered a room on the website at a 60% premium to the price that the hotel was paid. They followed up by saying ;
Pricing and availability is determined by the hotel. Chase Travel can only reserve a room that the hotel states is available at the price the hotel sets. We do not price match. Our Travel Partners have reached out to the hotel. The hotel has denied a refund request for the difference stating the billing was correct for the reservation that was booked and agreed to.'

Chase did offer 25,000 points and insisted the matter is closed. What bothers me is that Chase, or the company managing travel on their behalf, appears to be acting as a reseller of 3rd party bookings while representing to the public that they are offering directly negotiated room prices. At the same time they make claims on their website that by using Chase points you get 50% more value. This is at best misleading and potentially will lead to serious reputational damage to Chase. If they want to be the Stubhub of travel, they should make that clear.
What is most upsetting is the responses to my complaint makes no sense and are clearly untrue. At times I felt like I was speaking to a machine that did not have a response programmed for the complaint I was making. In this case, they insist on claiming that the hotel was paid the rate we were charged and even worse, they kept asking the hotel for a refund? The invoice, showing the payment to the hotel was shared with Chase and their agents multiple times. Bizarrely nobody seems to know or wants to acknowledge what a Chinese travel agent is doing in the middle of this transaction? Is this a function of how the cxLoyalty portal operates?
It has made me very cautious about using Chase Ultimate rewards going forward.