Originally Posted by ohmark
To be honest, I didn't even attempt to read from beginning to end all of the 610 posts that make up that thread.
But the final one (as of this writing, number 610, is revealing-
Originally Posted by Amicus
Just completed a three night stay last weekend.
Our room was quite pleasant, and the beds are super-comfortable.
Staff was friendly, and the butlers were just terrific. It was a little awkward at first, didn't want to ring the call button if we needed something, but by the third day of our stay, the spouse was getting a little too accustomed to the whole idea!
We were surprised to get the champagne on arrival, but didn't receive, nor did we demand, any of the little "extras" that supposedly came with
the 35 GBP rate, as we were quite happy to have the room at that rate, given the luxury of the hotel and its central location. would recommend asking for a room on the first or second floors, as our room on the third floor had just a small window, and also a rather odd arrangement . . . a few stairs up from the entry hall of our room into the bedroom /sitting area.
So, they apparently honored it, at least for the above poster.
Starwood and Marriott may well take different views on this, I don't know.
If the hotel was corporate-owned as opposed to being a franchisee, I suppose that could be a factor in how they handled it.
The fact that the St. Regis is in Britain; the Marriott in question is domestic may play into it as well - who knows.
"Winning" by not accepting what's a confirmed rate (even though it's obviously a ridiculous one) probably would cost more in good will than what would be gained by not honoring it.
The customer could claim something along the lines that that rate enabled him to take a trip that otherwise would be unaffordable.
Or, they could claim they assumed it was some kind of promotion (actually I've seen hotels roll back prices drastically when they're celebrating some sort of "anniversary" along the lines of granting whatever their prices were on their opening day to anyone who was born on it, married on it etc. etc.i
It's the kind of thing that could very likely hit the press and result in embarrassment and bad publicity for the "big" company's behavior toward the "common-man" customer.
If I were the hotel's I'd gulp and accept that a mistake was made (by the company - not the customer) and use it as a lesson that not properly proofing an offer before it's "published" or "offered" can be a costly mistake.