Changing Terms of a guaranteed reservation at will and without notice:
Below is the reservation detail from when I booked online, about one month before the scheduled stay.
Reservation Details
Confirmation Number: XXXXXXXXXXX
Your hotel: Courtyard Indianapolis Downtown
Check-in: XXXXXXXXXXXXXX(15:00)
Check-out: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (12:00)
Room type: Room with King Bed, King
Number of rooms: 1
Guests per room: 1
Guest name: XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Reservation confirmed: Monday, XXXXXXXXX, 2007 XXXXXXXXXXXX
Guarantee method: Credit card guarantee, Visa
Special request(s): •I.D. Required, Request Noted
Summary of Room Charges Cost per night per room (USD)
XXXXXXXXXX, 2008 - XXXXXXXXX, 2008 ( 1 night ) XXX. king Room (1 King Bed)
Estimated government taxes and fees XXXXXX
Total for stay for (all rooms) XXXXX
Complimentary on-site parking
Below is the reminder notification I received a few days before the stay. Notice bold type in both details. These are from the same reservation. However the one below indicated the reservation was confirmed on December 29, 2007, a number of weeks after I originally received the online confirmation about my original booking.
Reservation Details
Confirmation Number: XXXXXXXXXX
Your hotel: Courtyard Indianapolis Downtown
Check-in: XXXXXXXXXXX, 2008 (15:00)
Check-out: XXXXXXXXXXX, 2008 (12:00)
Room type: Room with King Bed, King
Number of rooms: 1
Guests per room: 1
Guest name: XXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXX
Reservation confirmed: Saturday, December 29, 2007 Guarantee method: Credit card guarantee, Visa
Special request(s): •I.D. Required, Request Noted
Summary of Room Charges Cost per night per room (USD)
Thursday, XXXXXX- Friday, XXXXXXX. 2008 ( 1 night ) XXXXX
king Room (1 King Bed)
Estimated government taxes and fees XXXXX
Total for stay for (all rooms) XXXXXX
On-site parking, fee: 10 USD daily
You may modify or
cancel your reservation
I exercised the very last underlined option. I realize $10.00 for overnight parking isn't going to break me. But I resent a change to an existing reservation, that ups the total amount paid, with no advance warning. I rarely look at the reminder e-mails because I save the original reservation confirmation. When I caught wind of this I contacted the hotel and was told by a CSR that they were the only downtown hotel that wasn't charging for parking. I asked about notifying those whose reservations were affected in advance. They didn't have an answer other than it goes into effect January 1, 2008. There are plenty of Marriott properties which have complimentary parking within a short ten minutes of downtown.