Stocktc1

Anyone get rates lower than published by walking in to hotels the night of? Maybe hotels far from highways (where people usually stop in without a reservation)?

Thank you

arlflyer

This doesn't really strike me as the greatest idea right now; a lot of hotels are doing things like letting rooms lie unused for 24 hours between guests, only using certain rooms, etc. So having people pop up without a reservation (it's 2020; most guests will make a reservation of some sort) is probably more likely to annoy management (though they probably won't turn down your money these days) than anything else. Plus, I'm pretty sure that doing under-the-table rates would cause a property to run the risk of having its franchise license pulled.

hhdl

I can tell you that not too many years ago, when I was a night auditor at a Hampton (it's a great job for a somewhat mature college student, especially in the era of free WiFi), I had a fair amount of latitude to discount to get heads in beds (even got the occasional extra bit of cash from the GM if that deep-discount late walk-in happened to push us over 90% occupancy and there were HHonors guests: that pushed our reimbursement from Hilton from $15 per room to something much closer to RevPAR... the extra money from Hilton was often double or more than the discount rate). However, the dominant consideration was housekeeping staffing: if there weren't many checkouts expected for the next day, there was less latitude.

So in these times of reduced occupancy, if the property's management is anything like mine were, I doubt the bored-to-tears night auditors of today have much latitude to reduce rates for late walkins. Note that if one wants to play this game, it's the auditor (not the evening FD crew) you want to try (so on typical scheduling, this means "after 11pm" and probably after 11:30 or midnight; if you're coming in after the audit has run (effectively flipping the hotel calendar to the next day) and it's a zero-night day-use stay, you may well have better chances), and calling for the rate will probably not get you a quote (a call to check rates could well be the clowns at Fairfield or Courtyard).

Hilton in my experience doesn't care about this, at least not at the independently owned/managed franchises: they already have wide latitude to locally negotiate rates etc. I'd be virtually certain that at a Hampton/Homewood/HGI with an auditor who knows the ropes will be open to this.

writerguyfl

In my experience, none of the hotels in which I worked allowed anyone who wasn't connected to the Sales Department (Sales Manager, Reservations Manager, Revenue Manager) or a member of executive level management (General Manager, Assistant GM, Director of Operations, Director of Sales) to negotiate rates. If a Front Desk staff member or Night Auditor entered into pricing negotiations or offered discounts without authorization, it resulted in major disciplinary action.

Walk-ins got whatever rates where available on the computer. Those rates were identical to what the website and/or chain "800" number was selling because we were required to have rate parity with the chain. Offering lower rates could result in a negative mark in the hotel's annual review. Too many negatives does risk the franchise license, as arlflyer notes. (Honestly, it takes a LOT for that to happen, however.)

Personally, I think the likelihood of finding walk-in deals to be pretty slim. First, it is a violation of the franchise agreement. Second and much more importantly, if a traveler takes the time to stop and come into the hotel to inquire about a room, they're usually pretty price-insensitive. When practically everyone has the internet in their pocket, the physical act of entering the hotel tells the hotel the person probably wants to stay there. Why would they offer a discount to that type of customer?

hugolover

Violation of the franchise agreement? Hmm... so Hilton should fine it’s own corporate managed hotels...!

Corporate is a toothless tiger and never before have owners had so much power.

hotelboy

It is not a violation of the franchise agreements. It would be up to each hotels local policy.

writerguyfl

Yes, rate parity is a part of every franchise agreement. And please don't put words into my mouth. I never said fines would happen.

The reason hotel companies started the various "best rate guarantee" programs is not because they care much about where individual travelers book. Those programs were created to lower the costs of ensuring rate parity at their franchise hotels. Instead of paying their own employees to actively monitor booking websites to verify pricing at thousands of properties, they have their customers do that work.

I guarantee that every legitimate claim is viewed as a negative in the annual review of the hotel. But as I noted, it takes a lot of negatives to push any hotel into the danger zone for losing the franchise.

hotelboy

Rate parity is only subject to rates available to the general public (I.e. non qualified rates) and published on the brand.com website. A walk in rate is qualified by the guest having to walk into the hotel and thus not subject to any parity or BRG claim.

storewanderer

Per Hilton's Best Rate Guarantee (BRG) terms, a "lower qualified rate" must be found on "a booking channel that is not one of the official Hilton booking channels."

The hotel front desk would be "official Hilton booking channel: directly at a Hilton hotel."

Therefore if the front desk gave you a lower rate than Hilton.com it would not be qualified for a BRG claim.

If property management allows, front desk can negotiate rates. This varies by hotel, some have strict rules that the front desk cannot touch rates. Sometimes the walk up rate is higher than the rate if someone was to immediately book through the Hilton website and walk through the doors 5 minutes later to claim the room. This is very variable by property.

With that said in some rest stops, McDonalds, etc. there are "travel discount coupon books." These books are typically filled with "coupons" for walk up at various hotel brands (the Wyndham dumps are prominently featured in these books, America's Best Value Inn is another common one you see) and I don't think I've ever seen a Hilton brand in one of those coupon books. I have seem some Holiday Inn Express locations and if you use a coupon there it will say the rate does not qualify for IHG points.

hhdl

I definitely have, usually right before I'd explain to someone that a coupon for the (changing the location) Hampton in Greenfield, IN won't get you a lower rate at the Hampton in not-Greenfield, IN.

writerguyfl

Rate parity requires hotels to offer the exact same rates when booking directly with the hotel or with the chain. End of story.

No one has to believe me. I don't really care.

hotelboy

Only on non qualifying rates.

The Road Goes On Forever

Not trying to resurrect a thread but I need to bring up a brief point or two. Relating more to what the OP's original question was, yes, it is very possible in 2020 to enter a hotel at a later hour and potentially get a price that you can't get through an official channel. Here's a real world example. Best available rate at hotel A is $149. AAA or AARP takes 10% off that. If traveler X goes online or calls the 800# they get quoted those rates. But let's say that hotel A has an internally negotiated rate that they offer to employees at a local area hospital for $89 a night. That rate was set up between the hotel and the hospital's HR department for stays during the pandemic. There is no rate code associated with this in OnQ and this information is only on a memo taped to the front desk in a corner. You're just overriding whatever rate code you want to $89. If traveler X comes in and I decide to "help him out" by giving him that rate, I can. Are you supposed to be asking for an ID? Probably, but in principal only a hospital employee would know about this rate and no one is checking if you don't and any business is better than no business at all right now. If that person wouldn't have come in and asked two Sundays ago, they never could have saved the $60 a night.

Within reason, as another poster said, if management allows it (they will never condone it-but they do by proxy by not stopping it) or especially if there is currently a lack of management then this will absolutely go on especially if there is some form of incentive for the desk agent involved. It also goes without saying that right now a lot of places are really hurting. The idea that rate integrity is at the forefront of anyone's mind right now is laughable.