Originally Posted by
Bradhattan
Aadvantagehotels.com listed a KING Room as having a balcony/terrace in the room amenities description. Having stayed at La Concha before in a KING room that had a balcony (and had a sub-$300/per night rate, although a few years ago), I thought it was a reasonable rate - not error rate. I thought the low-ish price was due to arriving on Sunday of Memorial Weekend (2 days from now) and staying through Thursday. I booked because I like the hotel and what I thought was the same room type as previous. BTW I booked this hotel 5 days ago, so not some long ago reservation.
Knowing that renovations had taken place, I went to the official hotel website for information about restaurants at the hotel. I noticed some cosmetic changes to the rooms on the official website, so I randomly looked at hotel room categories as well. That is when I discovered that the first category room, on the official hotel website, that has a balcony/terrace was a PREMIUM KING with Balcony, and was listed for a higher rate than what I booked and paid for.
Honoring the error would be Aadvantagehotels putting me in a room with the listed amenities (namely balcony) for the same rate I paid regardless of what it costs them internally. When I have screwed up in the past with a customer, I honor my word, even when painful (not to say that there isn't room for compromise).
I am still hoping for a positive outcome as I have since spoken with someone at Aadvantagehotels and at least she indicated that an escalation team is currently reviewing the situation. Come on Customer Service, you are not dead yet and I know some there is empowered to make this right!
since its a 3rd party booking and not the hotel itself, your results are going to be kind of limited, I'd expect.
if the escalation team doesn't get far with the hotel itself to give a room that in reality SEEMS to be different than the room type you paid for, they best you'll get is an offer to refund what was likely nonrefundable, or is too close to your check in to qualify for a refund even if originally refundable.
But who knows? Aadvantagehotels didn't just sit down and type up some embellishments to a room listing. They got their data from the hotel somehow, so maybe there's a single room that really exists, which you managed to book rather cheaply, that has the king and balcony in your room type, and that data was passed on to Aadvantagehotels booking site. "
no such room category that I booked has balcony" but maybe ONE does, and you got it.
I've noticed that Aadvantagehotels seems to offer WAYYYYYY more specific room types and categories to book than when booking with the Marriott/Hyatt/Hilton website. Sometimes it seems like there are 40-50 combinations available from Aadvantagehotels, but only 8-10 direct booking with the hotel. It might be that. Definitely let us know when you check in. You may be getting worried about something that is no big deal in real life. Have a good trip.