hindukid

Our wedding is at Hilton Los Cabos. Our group rate is 205 plus tax plus service charge for 252 total. Lowest rate at hilton.com is 270 total.

aavacations.com is offering the room for 187 inclusive of all taxes and fees. This is the hotel only. No package.

I'd like to save my guest some money and it seems silly to me that the group rate is higher then the lowest available rate. Any idea how I should attack this if at all.

boggs

Are you using the E-Events Tool?

I'd call the hotel and ask - most probably they'll do it. I am not sure what the group bookings policy is.

underpressure

second this advise....

Didi

No, no, no, you will not get the BRG applied because:
a) a group rate is, per definition, not for the public. It is only for a group.
b) Hilton does never honor the BRG cases. There are other threads about this problem.

MileageAddict

I'm in the middle of a disagreement with Mr. Frost right now. I found a rate of $124.67 at the Hilton Bristol on the Hilton website.

Priceline has the same exact room/dates for $115. Mr. Frost denied my claim citing Priceline is an opaque booking engine whereas you do not know where you are staying until you purchase a room.

I explained how regular reservations where you request a specific property can be made through PL as well. We'll see where it goes...

MileageAddict

The guy at Hilton played it by the book. Because Priceline is listed in their policies as an "opaque" website, he could not see the forest for the trees when I explained that Priceline also offers the ability to make traditional hotel reservations. Also in his response explanation, he mentioned Expedia as a viable reservation source.

Well, this worked out well for me as Expedia ended up having an even better rate. I canceled the reservation I had, rebooked with Hilton for the room rate that matched Expedia and resubmitted a claim.

Unlike Starwood, Hilton sure does make you jump through hoops to get the guarantee.

To be continued....

Josanna

So, I booked the Beijing Doubletree in January for 4,500 Chinese Yuan per night for my stay in August - next week. It's about $650 or so US dollars per night at that rate plus tax. I'm staying 9 nights. We're going the Olympics. This hotel hadn't been built yet, so lucky me got to book at this hotel. The other Hilton was completely booked by the Olympic Committee as are ALL of the 3+ star hotels in the city. I was happy to find the Hilton. After all was said and done, I paid over $7,000 for this stay back in January, for my stay next week - in August.

I booked before the hotel was even online with reservations. I emailed and faxed the hotel all the info they needed. They responded within a day and were really responsive.

Fast forward a few months. The hotel reservations are finally up on line. Now rooms are 4,000 yuan for the same room and are available online. I contact the hotel and ask for that rate "Best Rate Guarantee" - the rest of the world is getting that same rate! They don't ever contact me back. I call the Diamond Desk, they put in some customer service request to address and fix the rate. No one calls me back, the rate gets fixed to 4,000 yuan. Mission a success! But a few weeks later, after I haven't heard back from them, the rate gets changed back to 4,500 yuan per night.

A few weeks ago, I call Diamond Desk again. In prep for getting my Visa from the China Consulate, I ask them to change the # of ppl from 1 to 2 in case China wants to see my hotel reservation when I go to get my visa. When the Diamond Desk makes the change, WA-LA, the rate goes back down to 4,000 yuan per night AGAIN. I get to customer service and they put in a request again about the issue and getting me a refund for what I have already paid - an extra 500 yuan plus taxes per night. We're talking something like $70 USD without taxes, etc. Times that by 9 and we're talking a significant amount of money I can use to eat while I am in China in the hotel's restaurant!

So, big surprise, no one calls me back. I hear the hotel would contact me via email due to the time difference, but no luck. Sensing the pattern? Quick to take your $7000 USD, but VERY SLOW to even discuss an issue where the Best Rate Guarantee would get me a cheaper rate. It's not like I'm asking for anything beyond the going rate for the room as it is offered online to the rest of the world.

Today, the rate has been once again changed back to 4,500 yuan. No one, not the Diamond Desk, not customer service, not the hotel, have responded to any of my requests for Hilton to address the issue. I have put in yet ANOTHER customer service request to address the issue. The customer service rep confirmed the hotel keeps changing the rate back.

I'm going to China in less than two weeks. I first stay in another Hilton for 6 nights, then off to the Beijing Doubletree. I can't wait for the customer service to come - I hope this hasn't been a preview of what it will be like.

Does anyone have any recommendation on how I can resolve this? Obviously calling the Diamond Desk isn't working. I've seen contacts posted here before for issues that aren't being addressed in a typical manner, but I've honestly never had any issue with Hilton ever. Anything has been resolved fast and with no issue. First time for everything.



Thanks in advance.
Josanna

pauleeepaul

I am sorry but all bets are off in PEK for the next 3-4 weeks- it is like the Superbowl weekend for almost a month- a once in a lifetime opportunity for the hospitality industry and they will leave no stone unturned.

I suspect you will get nowhere with the property and continuing to work the DD is your best (albeit slim) chance.

No one likes to overpay but this sounds a little like buyer's remorse- you agreed to the price months ago- now enjoy the Olympics and China!

iahphx

We'll I'm sorry you prepaid. I'd get on the phone with the hotel manager and see what you can do. The best thing would be to cancel, but I doubt they'll let you.

I wish you had been following the "China" message board where I repeatedly "warned" folks months ago not to overpay for the Beijing Olympics . Hotel prices ALWAYS come down at the last minute (I've been to several). For example, it's pretty easy now to find a decent 3-star hotel (like some new HIX Express) for under $150, or use hotel points there.

FWIW, I've been annoyed at that new Doubletree because I was thinking of trying to use points there. They refused to make award rooms available, even though rooms were readily available. I ultimately chose to stay elsewhere.

squeakr

[email protected]

Don't know i they will respond immediately but they should be able to help.

AMA

Have U.S. Hilton phone reps notate the lower rate in your reservation record, then when checking in at the hotel, attempt to get the lower rate.

If unsuccessful, upon return, contact Hilton again, see if they can help. Also, dispute the difference with your credit card company.

tom911

USA Swimming had a package rate with this property for $8,800 for 11 nights during the swimming events. That didn't include any event tickets, though it did include a hospitality lounge and Speedo gift pack/welcoming party. They were marketing this as recently as Olympic Trials the first week of July. Looks like that works out to about $800 a night, which is even higher than your rate.

Josanna

Thanks for all your help. I'm not going to cancel, because I can't get into another Hilton at this point. Yeah, not buyers remorse, I only want the rate I've been told several times I'd get since it has changed to that rate over and over. I'm going to see what I can do when I get there. Diamond Desk and customer service is worthless to me at this point. I'm staying at Hiltons 16 nights straight between this stay and another China Hilton the week before, so maybe that will influence them to help me. And unfortunately for me, I wasn't going to wait until a month before to book. My 9 month old is coming with us and there is no way in hell I was going to chance not getting room at a Hilton and have to stay at some shady no name hotel. Oh well, that's the price I have to pay I guess.

Thanks to all the nice FT's with good advice.

hfly

iahphy is right on and paulee is absolutely wrong. There is tonnes of availability in Beijing over the next few weeks and other than a tight initial two days, everything is wide open in all but about 10 hotels which are blocked booked already (although rooms are available if you know the right people). There are a bunch of reasons for this, but I know of trip consolidators that are dumping $400 romms for $150 right now in 4-5 star properties. Regarding three star properties many of thes erooms were long ago bought out by Chinese speculators and they have few buyers ($40-50 a night if you grab a lot of nights) as a matter of fact Holiday Inn's were going for under $150 last week. Much of this is not documented in online sights but is the truth (the Chinese do not want the bad publicity and are trying to convince the hotels not to dump inventory - despite the fact that BOCOG dumped 50,000 rioom nights back on hotels two months ago).

3Cforme

The OP seems to lack a fundamental understanding of the Hilton BRG. It doesn't promise 'There never will be a lower rate'. It says Hilton will match any indentical room rate within 24 hours of Hilton booking.

Why people think a non-changeable prepaid rate sets a rate ceiling, rather than establishing a mutually binding contract, is a mystery.

http://www.hiltonworldwide.com/en/ww...overview.jhtml