I just read an e-mail that made me sick. As many of you know Hilton recently had a glitch in their reservations system that allowed people to book an unlimited number of rooms at certain properties for $0/night. Now we're not talking about some crazy reduced rate, but $0/night!!

Hilton recently made, what I think is pretty darn generous, an offer to those holding these reservations - "Everyone will be offered the first night for free, and then the remainder of the nights will be charged at 50% off the best available rate"

That's not bad, right? However some of our fellow members have decided to try to put the hammer to Hilton to honor this $0 rate. One guy even has 300 rooms reserved at one freaking hotel and is upset that they won't honor the glitch. This is not a $29 fare to Paris (which was also crazy) or some great internet price that someone found. If you get a rate of $0/night you know darn well that's it's a pure error.

It reminds me of my newspaper advertising days when something weird would happen and a product on sale for $100 is printed as $00 - so idiots demand that the store give it to them for $00 because it was printed.

Don't get me wrong, I have problems with all of the crap that major hotels and airlines put me through to get decent rates & fares. Just like most people on this board I've been burned on a $2400 fare that they're offering some recreational traveler for $179. But exploiting obvious errors is not the way to even the playing field - it's just dishonest.

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Ken in Sacramento

I feel the same way!

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Viele Gr��e

Oliver

Why are you bringing this to FT?? This has nothing to do with FT...and you know what I'm getting at...should be addressed elsewhere...agree or disagree with the e-mail...it's a totally DIFFERENT forum and I think the moderators should lock this one up.

I beg to disagree -- in fact, it has everything to do with FT since there have been a great many threads here about $0 hotel nights, the UA fare to Paris, etc...

There have also been discussions of the legal/ethical issues involved in expecting the companies to honor such pricing errors.

Since such fares are frequently posted here, it seems fair game for a discussion of this type.

fwiw, I agree with the first 2 posters here on the issue presented.

I dunno, I think this has to do with FT. It's about travel and hotels and ethics and those fares that get advertised on here from time to time.

I don't see at all how it has anything to do with miles, though.

If the title was amended to say $0 rates and demands to honor or award massive amounts of points in exchange for giving up the reservation, then you would have your connection to the Milesbuzz.... the OP simply left out that part of the demand equation. Thus, IMHO, the thread is appropriate for the forum, same as the other ethics threads concerning the collection of miles/points found in the buzz.

This particular email and action also rubbed me the wrong way, having 300 nights booked at $0 to me is a bit of a stretch (although I am not sure exactly why 300 is wrong but 2,3,or 6 probably wouldnt bother me so much).

Anyone think the $0 rate is a different case than the $29 paris fare? I would have no problem compelling UA to honor that fare or any other, as the airlines can't have it both ways, once you say ticket to the computer system, if you want to change a ticket, $100 fee, and forget about refunding any cheap (and legitimate fares) so why should UA be able to say no, changed my mind? But I find it a little different with a $0 hotel room, hell I might even say a $0 airline fare would be valid, scratch that, I would say it is valid. Maybe it is because the airlines treat everyone like sh*t whereas the hotels don't act quite so despicably (generally speaking of course), in my adopted homeland, they actually usually treat you incredibly well.

People making trips (just because of the rate, or otherwise) and staying a few nights, well, ok, just like some people did/planned to (I don't know how mexico turned out I stopped paying attention) go to Mexico just because of the $0 rate, that seems ok, but I wouldn't expect the hotel to house me for 300 days/nights for free.

Is it different if you planned to go for the free night versus if you just made the res. for the free night to get compensation? discuss... (because I am still thinking about this whole idea).

cheers.

I also agree with the first posters. I must admit that hiltons offer seems very fair. I feel that it is appropriate because we do talk about ethics of deals, airlines and travel in general. Additionally I rarely have time to check all flyer talk areas.

I think that it applys to miles in that anyone who wants this deal honored is also going to think they should get miles for the stay. They will just ask for the miles per stay not hilton points since there is no dollar balance.

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Robert

From a legal point of view, I think that a $0 hotel room (or airfare) and a $29 airfare are different animals.

In the $0 scenario, nothing has been exchanged, so in the eyes of the law, a contract may not exist.

In the $29 scenario, money has changed hands and a contract has been entered into. The provider is thus obligated to honour that contract.

If, somehow, you managed to book 300 $29 fares to France (take *all* your friends) then I feel the airline is obligated to honour all 300 tickets. They have made the conscious decision to move to an automated model -- with all the risks that this entails. If they're letting the computer make contractual obligations, they must abide by those obligations.

Just my $0.02. Your mileage may vary.

Well, I booked a stay for my parents on Hilton.com at the rate of $20/night for a resort in SC.
The hotel was not willing to honour the rate, and Adam Burke / [email protected] did not manage to find a resolution regarding this as of now. I am quite disappointed on that issue - the hotel only offered their full rack rate for the entire stay. Meanwhile, due to this, my parents had to miss out on their vacation in SC.

I think the holder of 300 nights is abusing the "system". Unless one is actually able to use the reserved rooms there need be no compensation.

The situation with a $20 rate for one reservation is quite different. That rate should be Hhonored.

I'm not quoting to disagree but to say I too think another thread may have been better but, then again, I'm glad its here or I may never had read it.

I know just the tiniest bit about disclosure law, enough to be dangerous. Anyway, I believe it works that Hilton didn't have to give squat if they didn't want to. I was an obvious mistake to any average-thinking person.

With his not readily accepting Hilton's generous offer, I'm afraid the 300-night guy has only served to announce to the world his greed and low character. (Actually, if Hilton wanted to look innocent and willing, against the bad, someone-no-one-wants-to-be tourist, then this was great marketing!)

Uh, that was half off the most inexpensive rate, not rack rate?

Does it matter if it is airlines or hotels?

If you buy a $29 UA ticket to France and the airline says we goofed,and we are willing to fly you to France for free but we will charge you 1/2 of the lowest "real" fare to get back.---Would you be happy with this?

Everyone knows that a $29, even a $100 return trip to France is a mistake. I see no differnce between booking this and the $0 hotel rates. 300 rooms may sound excessive but who knows, maybe this person is having a wedding or other family party.


If Hilton wanted to be smart about this they would honor the rate. I doubt this person is going to be able to stay all 300 nights that he/she has booked.


[This message has been edited by Tango (edited 08-31-2001).]

I think they should honor a reservation made in good faith (say a single room for a couple of nights,) but the guy who booked the 300 rooms took those rooms as "hostages" in order to leverage free goodies.

I think Hilton should adopt the credo of the former Soviet Union:

We do not negotiate with hostage-takers.

Why? Because it only encourages more people to take hostages.

I also firmly disagree that this issue shouldn't be discussed here on FT.

When Hilton (or any travel provider) accept a reservation, they make a committment. Period. End of story. No ifs, ands, or buts. If a confirmed reservation is not ALWAYS honored by a travel provider, then no one is safe. Ever.

Where is the line to be drawn?

Hotels HAVE in the past offered zero dollar/night rates as part of special promotions, or to attract attention. Should the burden be on the consumer to double and triple check it?

Yes, in this case, the 300 nights person is CLEARLY absuing the system, and I feel that he should be ashamed of himself. His intent was presumably to hold Hilton hostage over this. However, he didn't force Hilton to load a $0/night rate into the system. He requested it, and got a confirmation number. Doing so make him a bad person, but he is a bad person with a committment from Hilton for free rooms.

I see no problem (ethical or otherwise) in trying to get the business to commit to what they advertised. If it was their own glitch, then it becomes their problem. If it was a third party glitch, then they should pass the costs along to the third party that made the glitch. Either way the consumer should get what was advertised. As for the 300 rooms, thats a tough one, from Hilton's perspective, I wouldn't do it, just because the guy is being a total a#$(*&e

$29 airfare to CDG; again same as the hotel rooms.. they should honor it and I would try to get it at the advertised price

Finally YES, this should be discussed here

IMHO