Online Hotel Reservation

[fasteddieisahorndog]

So I decided to fly down to the Longhorns/Florida Atlantic game on the 20th of November. I figured it would be easy to get good tickets and a reasonable hotel rate in the city.

Yesterday I started browsing downtown hotel websites for rates. I came across the Starwood hotel site and found rooms at the Sheraton ranging from $199 to $299. I decided to check the government rate as I am a Fed employee and low and behold, nothing but suites ranging from $ 899 to $1200. Figured it was a web site error.

Anyway, as I browsed down on the rate page, I notice a Suite rate of $3.40...yes three dollars and 40 cents. I went ahead and reserved the suite and it came back confirmed with a confirmation number.

This morning, I checked my Starwood Prefeerred Guest profile and the reservation is there with the $3.40 rate. I think its a web error. Does anyone know of the legalites of an issue like this? I'm not the type of person that will even attempt to take advantage of an obvious error in the system, but it's intriguing to me. Should I call them and let them know or should I just go with the flow?

 

[Longhorny630]

It's their mistake, they have to pay for it. Just make sure it isn't a Janitor's Suite room or something

 

[JohnnyM]

My guess is there is fine print allowing them to correct a pricing error.

 

[fasteddieisahorndog]

Actually, the agreement spells out the amenities of the suite and it's sweet.

Like 1300 sq ft separate bedroom, 1 1/2 baths. I've read all the fine print and basically I'm covered but I'm sure they can find something to challange.

 

[JohnnyM]

this is right from the starwood site:

"Starwood and any other providers of products or services related to this Site may cancel or modify reservations where it appears that a User has engaged in fraudulent or inappropriate activity or under other circumstances where it appears that the reservations contain or resulted from a mistake or error."

if it is a gross error like it seems to be they may still honor it, but they don't have to and i doubt they will. good luck though!

 

[fasteddieisahorndog]

Yep. I'll wait and I'll contact the hotel about a week before the trip and bring it to their attention. It seeems to me that an audit would have caught this by now and the least they can do is apologize.

 

[fasteddieisahorndog]

I sent an email to confirm my reservation and told them to verify the rate. They responded that there was a computer error in the reservation. They offered a nice room for $106. I was satisfied.

 

[JohnnyM]

Thanks for the update, I had forgotten about this. Glad you got a good room at a fair price and they didn't try to just jerk you around.