Palal

Instead of being honored, I would much rather get some sort of $off cpn from booking.com Anyone have any ideas on how to proceed?

MrHalliday

The cancellable and non-cancellable conditions read:

Prepayment:
The total price of the reservation will be charged on the day of booking and is non-refundable

Prepayment:
No deposit will be charged. You have now confirmed and guaranteed your booking by credit card. All payments are to be made at the hotel during your stay, unless otherwise stated in the hotel policies or in the room conditions. Please note that your credit card may be pre-authorised prior to your arrival.

I am not doing anything except wait.
There are no pendings on my credit card.
If on/after Friday $1200 is charged instead of $70,
this may be a tiny bit of work, disputing with credit card company.

izzik

I am not interested in "fighting" what is a losing battle, as most of these are.

On the other hand, I also received the rate change email today.
I called Booking.com CS and the agent wasn't really aware of this whole debacle (no surprise). She did mention that there was a note on my reservation to "forward all requests to the Singapore office", which she did. She also said that the hotel is the one who would charge the cancellation penalty. Why this could not be canceled w/o penalty over the phone immediately is beyond me. Let's just hope their Singapore office has come up with a solution that can be implemented immediately.

If there are any charges, I am going to call Amex and have them reject. Amex is much better at dealing with these situations, esp when it's only $50 involved.. and it looks like bait and switch on paper.

alexanderrr

I can only repeat that 10 USD is not completely clear "mistake rate',especially for this part of the world (so 7 euros for Ritz in Paris would be another story).
If this hotel would be available at PointBreaks it would cost 5K PCR points. Last year HI Maldives was on PB, so it is totally reasonable suggestion. I have just completed PC promotion and the cost of getting 5K PCR points was very close to 10USD (and that is not considering the fact I earned it through real hotel stays, not mattress runs). And on PB you could often get suite, so again very plausible case.

MrHalliday

So...are you going to sue ??

mario33

So you would also expect USD10 room in Singapore since its in the heart of SE Asia

And no, I have never stayed in a USD10 room anywhere in SE Asia

MrHalliday

Why repeat it ?
The issue of mistake or not...
....could be relevant in some legal proceeding,
but likely not in convincing hotel to honor.

One avenue to pursue now is to bypass
the Singapore agent sending the e-mails,
identify a higher-up in the decision chain.
Write polite but firm correspondence
requesting they honor the confirmed rate.

Perhaps someone at IHG HQ,
but I will start here:

General Manager
Stephane Varoquier
[email protected]

volkswankin

I don't see why Booking.com should not be on the hook for this. They obviously made the mistake. I think I will email them and see if they are willing to offer some kind of compensation for this mistake. Remember all the times that Expedia put out a questionable hotel rate and honored it? How is this any different?

aldemar

One or two years ago lastminutetravel offered a lot of 10$-nights even at 5*-hotels in cities around the world.
We grabbed some of them in Manhattan.

izzik

However, you are posting this to a message board thread which clearly acknowledges the fact that it was a mistake... and that everyone who posts here was more or less aware of that. Will you still be able to claim that it was a plausible non-mistake rate?

MrHalliday

Wait a minute,
the booking.com e-mail says the hotel
asked them to send the ultimatums !

alexanderrr

Ok, I need to understand the situation better - who is actually going to "pay for the party" in this case - booking.com or HI Baruna? I would certainly prefer the latter, as I hope that in this case my PC Plat can slightly increase my chances. But overall, my point is that for cases like that our chances are directly related to the number of complaints and possible negative publicity. Remember when CP near Venice was available for 1 euro (again, much clear cut case of "mistake rate")? It was honored, and I believe partly due to the fact that it a)lasted longer b) got some media attention.
Most of my bookings are prepaid, so I am really worried about the phrase from their email
that they will simply "adjust it" to 171 USD (again not stating even whether it includes any taxes, breakfast, etc) if I would not respond in less then 10 days.

stockmanjr

That's insane that they would even mention charging a cancellation penalty on their mistake! While I agree they don't have to honor this they should do a bit more than the email they sent us.
Cheers
Howie

MrHalliday

Based on past scenarios,
everything should be crystal clear in 3 to 5 weeks.

Yes, get those enquiring e-mails going !
...if anybody knows of a higher up at IHG HQ,
please post contact info here.

exc3ll

I booked 2 rooms in Jan. I guess we just have to wait it out!