Well Ok, but in the scenario outlined in the OP (unless I'm missing it) there is (was) no indication that anyone contacted them or tried to rescind the reservation.

Also,

So, I took it that the reservation was made, was confirmed and there were no further communications (other than that email one gets from Marriott several days before the check-in date with the weather forecast, the reiteration of the reservation, hotel features and other miscellaneous data).

So, under that scenario I can't, for the life of me, see how a hotel could deny the guest at the featured/book/confirmed rate or deny them any of what was confirmed under the as to what perks they were to receive (as advertised and confirmed).

And if the error was made by another party (who was reached via the hotel chain's website) I'd have to think that the hotel does have responsibility unless it's specifically disclaimed that they're not responsible for any ommissions by the subcontractor (like is commonly noted in those ads for complete vacations - air and hotel, commonly advertised by the airlines).

That is exactly what the Lanesborough/Starwood did. Only the folks who made their reservation on the third party site ended up with what they originally reserved at the original price (actually they were charged the higher price by the property, with the third paty site reimbursing the difference). Anybody who made the reservation via Starwood ended up with a significantly downgraded package for a shorter stay, or they had the reservation cancelled. For repeated discussions of the legal niceties of the situation by lawyers and others, you can wade through that thread. No need to go through it again here, except to say that the situation presented significant legal complications/ramifications.

Wow...just finished reading all of that thread
 

That thread is extremely interesting reading. I propose a movie...full of drama and suspense!

I'm not sure that this was a clear as it could have been in the past few posts:

1. OP from that forum stumbled across a to good to be true rate.
2. He posts it to FT. (Rate is available on any website)
3. Others figure out the variables and books stays (3+Nights/2 Persons/No Prefs)
4. Time passes.
5. Hotel calls (threatening sounding) guests. Reservations will not be honored.
6. All those with reservations begin calling Starwood/Media/Lawyers/Etc.
7. Orbits calls a customer with a reservation and indicates that his reservation will be honored as confirmed. ($39GRP/Night Free Airport Transfer/Breakfast/Champaign) They will have to pay additional fees, but will be reimburst.
8. Hotel revisits offer: New offer: $39GRP/Night for 3 nights only. If you have more than one reservation, all will be cancelled except one for only three nights. The rate would include no breakfast, airport transfer, or champaign.

Starwood really took a black eye, but not living up to there mistake in my opinion. I do not advocate taking advantage of a obvious mistake, but Orbits showed a lot by protecting its customers .

I really don't think this relates to this discussion, as the starwood rate was CLEARLY a mistake (35 vs 350 not 49 vs 99).

Please follow-up as to whether the rate was honored. Thanks.

reservation should be honored
 

According to an email I recently received from Marriott Internet Customer Service, the hotel must honor the reservation even if the rate rules have dates that contradict the reservation.

Dear (my name),

Thank you for contacting Marriott. We appreciate the opportunity to provide you with information.

If you can reserve a room at this rate and it goes through at the given package rate, then the reservation has to be honored no matter what the expiration date is on the rate rules.

If we can be of further assistance, we invite you to reply to this email.

Thank you for choosing Marriott.

Regards,
(name of rep)
Marriott Internet Customer Care

My trip is in November but I'll post then if they give me a hard time.

I would print out the e-mail and take it with you, just in case.

Oh, and welcome to FT.

I've done this lots of times and never had a problem. Just bring along a printout of your e-mail confirmation just in case. It's good practice to do this anyway.

That did not work in my case. I still have not had a resolution emailed or called into me a week and a half after one was promised. :mad:

Well of course not. Your situation is very different. If I remember correctly, your case is about an obviously erroneous rate. Very different from being dinged for not reading fine print.

To the point of the original post (which I know is very, very old now!), I get the sense that hotels open up their weekend rates and/or holiday rates on other low-occupancy dates quite often. For example, I've booked "weekend rates" for entire 5-6 day stays around either Thanksgiving or Christmas. (Family is in Minnesota - clearly a very off-peak time to be in a hotel there! :)) The rate rules don't get altered by the hotel staff - they just make the rates available for more dates.

I do frequent business trips to Seattle - the same thing happens there in the wintertime. The Renaissance Seattle cloned one of their "Holiday promotions" and made it available for entire low-occupancy weeks at a time. (They altered the title of the rate by they never changed the underlying rate rules.) I booked it often last year...it was lower than our corporate rate and included extra freebies like parking and breakfast. It was available to the public and honored by the front desk every time.

The whole topic of alleged "error" rates is a different discussion entirely.

Also, Marriott does embed important rules in the online fine print that the front desk most certainly will enforce. For example, many hotels have $0 rates under LPR where you need to turn in some sort of certificate. The site will accept your booking, but without the certificate you won't get the room.

I did not book an incentive stay with a certificate with a zero rate. The rate I booked had a price and the rate code stated that it was a promo.

I'm hoping that someone here can give me some advice:-

In October I was looking around for a 1 or 2 night stay somewhere in the UK for Easter weekend. I had already come across a link for MR Member Offers and had then found that I could book Saturday 7 April 2007 at the Leeds Marriott for £46.66 including breakfast. By using the 'Alternative Date' search, I saw that I could book pretty much any single night about 1 month either side of this date for the same rate, which was supposed to be a '3-for-2' promotion.

I booked for 1 night (Sat 7 April) and received confirmation. Last week I had an email from the Inventory Manager at the property saying they had been looking at future reservations and that mine was invalid. I could extend the stay to 3 nights at the promo rate or change the one night to the full weekend rate of £78. I replied to the effect that the system had allowed me to book the rate, I'd had confirmation and that was that. Today I've received an email from the Director of Revenue still insisting that my reservation will not be honoured as it stands.

My confirmation states the rate rules as:-

Any suggestions? Should I stand my ground?

I did post last week as a separate thread and got 1 reply but I thought I might get more help here.

Thanks all for any help you may be able to give.

Funny how this thread gets brought back up today, as I just received a word back from my complaint. The property refuses to reinburse me for the rate difference of $129.99 and honour any future reservations at the rate booked. My complaint was not that the rate was not honored, it was that the clerk never mentioned anything about a rate difference of $129.99 when I checked-in. I am still fighting this one.

When I check in (just did so at 3 different Marriott's, in US and Canada), I have to initial the room rate and sign the check-in slip. I'm assuming Avalanche271 had to do the same thing, and would have noted the discrepency. Did I miss something?

Anyway, there once was a Residence Inn in Manhattan ;) :D

Seriously, while not precisely on-topic, when researching category creep, I discovered that the e-mails Marriott sends out for confirming award reservations do not include the category of the hotel at the time of reservation. Since we all know that hotels can "creep", requiring a higher or lower award cert, and most of us smart Marriott members don't fund reservations until certain of them, this would seem to leave some observable "wiggle room" for Marriott. Who can prove when the hotel "crept"? The only reason I knew was I was making rolling reservations and actually saw the creep and made a scan of the rate rules (text posted here on FT) showing their own internal statement of when it did creep. That verbage is now (some 8 months later) gone, but numerous reservations are sure to still be impacted by it.

Hmm....

Pat

Last time I booked an award stay online the miles were deducted immediately, allowing me to confirm that the correct deduction was made. YMMV.

I have also had problems when I tried to fund later and the MR desk failed to notify the hotel of the electronic certificate in a timely manner....