craz

the Hotel is the ES Parsippany,NJ I have a res for this Sun night reg SMOKING rate was $99 MVP was $79 No more smoking rooms avaialble dont know if its due to everyone booking it with MVP or not

Rate details has all these sentences that allows them to CX if they so chose to, so something tells me its gonna get Extremely Nasty @ check-in if they try to deny me the Rate I booked it for since theres not 1 word about needing a MVP card or being a member of any Club.

My feeling is its a Bait & Switch routine otherwise why word the Rate Details the way they did

zachary

I almost stayed at this hotel during the 4th Quarter of 2011. Almost, because I noticed that they were on the list of excluded hotels from the Q4 promotion. I promptly cancelled when I noticed it.

Of course, I was booked at the MVP rate. Good luck, Craz. Let us know.

Ritz

I've stayed at this location before. But, after staying about a half-hour south of there at the East Brunswick Hilton, I regretted ever staying in Parsippany. Not very friendly folks vs very nice folks at the Hilton.

JDiver

jn in ca, thank you for some great perspective in your post.

I do not think millions of folks are using the MVP rate, but it is there for folks to use - not like a corporate nonpub rate someone might use (e.g. someone not working for IBM using an IBM corporate rate - that is fraudulent).

craz, I think someone at the FD screwed up badly.

KathyWdrf

I don't think that the MVP rate is, in general, a "Bait & Switch routine."

I've used MVP numerous times over the years, at various brands (Hilton, Hampton, etc.), and NEVER had a problem.

I think that your unfortunate experience is the exception to the rule.

cblaisd

+1 ...

craz

I agree and even tonight had no problems when checking in on a $69 rate to $55 MVP

I meant at that ES, after all she was willing to give me room for below the reg rate just 2x what I had the MVP for. I guess most people wouldnt know what to do or where to stay so they go along and take whatever they were offered as a counter offer, I know the area very well and knew that a Hampton was $10 less and just as close to where I needed to be Mon morn.

mnredfox

Which property?

BobH

Have you looked at posts 232 and 252 in this thread?

Bob H

craz

went last night to the ES Parsippany,NJ as I did last week. walked in and handed over my CC and Diamond card. The girl looks up my res and asks me for my MVP card.I informed her there is no such creature, she insists there is and begins like she did last week with "I can offer you..." ( a much higher rate was gonna be mentioned). So I raised my voice a bit and said you Fooled me once you arent gonna do it again, and proceeded to take my res out of my bag along with a printout of the "Rate details' placed them on the counter and said , I take it you know how to read English, so please show me where does it say I need to present a MVP card which doesnt exist. She didnt like what she was faced with and I started to let her know I was annoyed and my voice was statring to get louder but far from screaming or yelling.

She then said you need to speak to the mgr, and she darts behind a door and it seems simply tells him to handle this. He came out and started speaking to her not realizing she stayed behind and didnt follow him out.

I simply expalined that I was being asked for something that doesnt exist and showed him the Rate Details printout and mentioned how I didnt like the Buy Up Offer when I followed everything as per the Hotels Details. He said well I hear you and for 1 reason or another our computer has a Pop-Up that tells us to ask for the MVP card (since I didnt see the computer I dont know if in fact that is what happened or not). But he said I will honor everything you have, he then asks if I still wanted a smoking room and I answered it doesnt matter to me just as long as the rate is what is printed on my confirmation (a non-smoking room was 2x the rate and I didnt want any surprises when I saw the bill in the morning).

And so I was given a smoking room that was at the far end of the floor and facing the Hway, the place was far from soldout and very few rooms that I passed had a DND sign on them at any time while I was there, but I didnt see the need to take it any further

It was nice having a hot tub thats open to Midnight and was above 92 degress (it was set on 102) with its jets working. Lately either the water isnt hot or if it is the jets arent working or at 3 Hotels in the past couple of weeks they simply had it O/O/O

zachary

For now, I'm guessing there is no such pop-up, at least system-wide. I think we'd have more reports of problems here. In any event, I have an MVP stay on Saturday (at a hotel that no longer seems to offer the MVP rate at all) and I'll report any problem.

craz

Stayed Sat night at a different Hotel (HGI) also on MVP, not 1 problem or question. So I still believe that this ES is simply doinga Bait & Switch allowing people to book the MVP and when they arrive and ask them for the MVP card and cant produce it then offer them a much higher rate

Now last Sun when I didnt fully grasp it all and wasnt sure if in fact there was a MVP card that ES offered me a $143 rate (mine was $79) yet that rate was the MVP rate for a non-smoking room. When I said how much is the smoking room she said the same price, yet Online it was $99 w/o any discount for the smoking room, but I knew of a $71 Hampton so I went there

You shouldnt have any problems unless when the Hotel you booked at offered MVP had certain mandatory things if you clicked the 'Rate Detail' description, as others have posted certain places indicacted who was able to use the MVP rate. since its no longer offered (I assume on any date) I would have a back-up ready if I was you, dont book it unless you can CX before its CX time limit is reached. I did my homework even for last night in case I hit a brick wall and had 2 other places in mind

jn in ca

craz, thanks a bunch for keeping us up-to-date.

Well, we're all guessing, because none of us saw the FD's screen. However, let me re-quote from what HH sends (or at least sent, when the MVP program was new, may be out of date now) to the franchisees:
"You should ask to see the guests� HHonors card (or valid photo ID if they just have their HHonors number) upon check in. You should set a local message on the MVP SRP reminding your guest service representatives to ask for the information above."

So we know that the on-screen message is NOT system-wide, but is configured by each facility. I guess the likeliest possibility is that someone set up this ES to have a pop-up that read "MVP must check card" instead of "MVP rate; must check HHonors card," and no one there has been on-the-ball enough to catch this until craz showed up with a print-out.

A general observation: we've all had co-workers, some great, others not. This is why some people get a temp job at a hotel, and years later are the regional VP, whereas other people get a temp job at a hotel, and years later are still working temp jobs. This ES seems to be full of the second type.

We've all heard companies claim their employees "go the extra mile." These didn't but some do. I was at a Fairfield Inn a few weeks ago. The room was terrible: it was above the equipment room, the a/c wasn't cold, the mini-refrigerator rattled like a broken down tractor, etc. When I finally went to the front desk to complain, I didn't get any pushback like craz. The FDC immediately apologized, pulled out a list of available rooms to switch to, asking me what floor I'd like to be on and what side I'd like to be on, and asked me if I'd like to "hang out" in the new room for a couple of hours to be sure. That is an on-the-ball employee. She will not be working the night shift the rest of her career. When I mentioned this to the MOD at check out, she immediately went over to the computer to find out who had been so helpful.

mnredfox

Sorry missed that.

zachary

Thanks, jn in ca. I only wish that we had a link to that language that we could use at a hotel that gave us trouble.