Terry Capps finds a $28 a night room rate at a Westin hotel in Orlando. Turns out the hotel made a mistake, and that the real price is $289 a night. What now? Should the resort honor the original price or can it change the rate and force Capps to pay?
Q: I recently found a $28 per night rate at the Westin Imagine in Orlando. I was amazed. I booked the room, and several days later I called the hotel to ensure that it was a legitimate rate. They confirmed this, so I booked nonrefundable airfare, and have been happily anticipating my getaway weekend ever since.
That is, until this past Monday morning, when I received an e-mail from the hotel's director of revenue management saying that the rate was caused by a "keystroke error" during data entry. The actual rate was $289. The Westin offered a rate of $99 per night as an apology, but refused to honor the original rate.
I contacted Westin at the corporate level, and the hotel offered to waive its mandatory valet parking charge of $18 per night, but insisted it couldn't honor the $28 rate. Then the manager of the hotel responded, offering to throw in an extra 5,000 loyalty points.
I'm writing because I don't think I'm getting fair treatment by this Westin hotel. If there is anything you can do to help, I would be extremely appreciative. -- Terry Capps, San Diego
A: If you book a rate that you know is an error, then you shouldn't expect the hotel to honor the price. But $28 per night wasn't an obvious "fat finger" rate, and the fact that Westin confirmed it certainly didn't help.
If the hotel had offered rooms at $0, then this would be a different story. Actually, it wouldn't be a story at all. If a business mistakenly prices something at a rate no reasonable customer believes is valid, it shouldn't be required to honor that price. But you can find hotel rooms at $28 a night.
I admit, it's not a popular opinion. You don't have to look hard to find one of those vintage online forums where people feel that a travel company must honor every rate, no matter how ridiculously low. Nor do you have to search long to find a travel columnist who supports this misguided view.
They have a right to their opinion, but I won't advocate for them. People who try to force travel companies to accept unreasonable or erroneous prices are stealing -- no two ways about it.
You pushed the Westin to do the right thing. But did you push too hard? Your first contact resulted in a $190 per night rate reduction. Not bad. Subsequent requests prompted the hotel to remove its "mandatory valet parking charge" and a few extra frequent-stayer points. (I could write a whole column about mandatory valet parking charges, but I'll restrain myself.)
Is that enough?
That seems pretty generous to me, but I thought I would give the hotel one more chance to review your case. I asked the general manager to consider your request, and although he wouldn't lower your room rate, he agreed to pay for your airfare to Orlando.
I think that's a more than equitable resolution.
Christopher Elliott is the ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine and the host of "What You Get For The Money: Vacations" on the Fine Living Network. E-mail him at celliott@ngs.org.
(c) 2009 Christopher Elliott. Distributed by Tribune Media Services, Inc.
