sxc

I call aspire and they get the quote from Carlson. Then when it comes to making the actual booking, aspire creates a conference call with Carlson in order to get my credit card details. The booking confirmation I receive comes on Carlson letterhead.

estnet

Thanks, but I guess I don't understand why the added step is a benefit???

sxc

This is the way it works in HK. I don't have a choice re this process, it's the one I follow with every booking. I would love to deal directly with Carlson or for Aspire to be able to do everything but unfortunately they haven't set it up that way.

355F1

Yep. Just had this happen.

Tried to rent a villa in Koh Samui, Thailand, for January that is fully bookable on all of the OTAS.

Concierge called them and they told me I wouldn't get the 4th night free.

Had to choose another hotel as I'm paying $500/night and want my 4th night free!

voodoogirl

Has anyone tried this for Shades of Green?

7Lowe

I just realized that something is screwy with my latest attempt to use this feature. They booked a 5-night stay for me in December and their confirmation shows:

Total for the Stay: $2,358.71 USD
4th Night Credit (including taxes): $445.70 USD
Total for the Stay with 4th Night Credit Applied: $1,913.00 USD

Shortly after that confirmation I received one directly from the hotel. At the time I just glanced at the dates to make sure it was correct and didn't really think much else of it.

But, then a few weeks ago I noticed the hotel charged my Citi Prestige $1,196. I didn't expect that so I went back and checked the Concierge confirmation and it mentions that I can't make changes after November 18, but doesn't mention anything about a deposit.

Then I looked at the hotel confirmation and it mentions a deposit of $1,572.00 would be charged October 14, but changes could still be made without penalty until November 18 (so at least the dates match up).

Aside from the hotel mentioning the deposit, their prices are all completely different. They show a lower price overall with the total stay only being $1889.41 which is much lower than the concierge quoted. That's not even counting the 4th night free, but it's already lower than the concierge quote after the 4th night refund.

Edit: The hotel confirmation didn't have a total and I miscalculated it. It actually matches fairly closely to the concierge so I guess there's no issue aside from the weird deposit thing which isn't really that big a deal (as long as it doesn't interfere with the 4th-night credit since there will be 2 smaller charges 2 months apart).

lotrbfme

This is up to the hotel. There is a property where I stay all the time that they charge 1 night deposit on booking even when I can cancel at 4pm 1 day prior.

EricUSC

If I need to cancel a 4th night free booking at a Marriott property, can I just log into my Marriott account to cancel? Anyone here have experience with doing this? An agent told me that I should call if I need to cancel, but I just wanted to check here since I'd rather not waste unnecessary time on the phone.

jeepie

Yes. Easy.

lbbzman

I'd HUACA. I successfully booked the Sheraton Vistana Villages Resort Villas, I-Drive/Orlando, using a AAA resort credit offer (still cheaper than BAR), and received reimbursement for the 4th night.

Cheers,
LBBZman

angelboi2001

My experience with Citi 4th night combined with spg BRG.

1) called Citi and made a refundable 4 night booking with spg hotel. received a citi case number AND my spg reservation number on the phone.
2) logged into my spg account and updated the reservation to my personal email
3) submitted brg
4) brg approved
here is where it went weird, my citi 4th night confirmation email never came. I sat on this for about 20 days.
5) call citi and explained to them that 1) i never received the citi confirmation email 2) I submitted and was approved a brg. Gave the new rate to the citi concierge. she said she couldn't find my original reservation in their system and would email me back after investigation.
6) received an email back after few hours saying b/c I submitted a brg they no longer can see or control the rate as the general spg reservation specialist wasn't able to confirm them the rate. therefore, i can no longer receive the 4th night benefit.
7) i replied back with my SPG BRG email including the claim reference number and brg email address.
8) 2 days later, my 4th night confirmation was approved and email arrived.

Overall, I am quiet impressed with this. I am not sure why I didn't get the original confirmation email back from citi a day after i made the reservation, maybe it was due to that fact that I updated the email address (but I had to in order to submit the brg). Once it's a BRG reservation, normal spg reservation specialist have no more access to the reservation (this is the same if you need to cancel a brg reservation, you need to email brg). So you need to let Citi know the claim reference number as well as spg brg email address.

ywgckp

Hi

I booked a hotel through the concierge yesterday for the first time. 24 hours has gone by and I don't have a confirmation email yet. Is this typical?

Thanks - I scanned through most of this thread and didn't see an answer to this, but my apologies if this has been answered before.

nekbet

Yeah - they get the confirm quickly but don't always forward it on. That's why it is key to get the confirmation # on the phone and goto the hotel chain site and check it, if you want to.. If not, just wait for it....

ywgckp

Thanks - will keep waiting... I have a confirmation number but it's not recognized by the hotel website. The stay isn't for a few weeks so I'll give it some time.

scubadu

Would it be fair to say this benefit is quite difficult to utilize on short notice? My wife and I have some spontaneous travel in Asia over the next couple weeks and this benefit could come in quite handy, but waiting "weeks" for confirmation obviously would work.

Have folks had success booking something that is days or say a week in advance?

Regards