What if your hotel jacks up the price of your room after you’ve received a written confirmation? If it’s a too-good-to-be-true rate, like a fat-finger fare, you’re outta luck. But how about if it’s a legit booking?
That’s the situation faced by Deborah Adams, who had reserved a room at the Hilton Atlanta. She thought she’d be paying $150 a night. Hilton thought otherwise. Here’s what it wrote to her after she’d made her booking and prepaid for the first night.
The Hilton Atlanta is delighted to be your hotel of choice during the 2008 DragonCon Conference. We look forward to this annual gathering each year, and know that you will enjoy your stay with us.
Your room rate was inadvertently confirmed at the 2007 show rate of $150 per night plus tax. The rate should have been confirmed at the 2008 rate of $168 per night plus tax as advertised on the DragonCon website.
Please visit www.dragoncon.org and view “Hotel Rates” for verification of the 2008 rates. We will change the room rate on your reservation to reflect the correct rate of $168 per night plus tax.
We regret any inconvenience this may cause. If you should have any questions, please contact your event organizer at DragonCon.
Again, we look forward to having you with us this year!
Hilton Atlanta Management
What to do? I recommended that Adams write a brief, polite letter to the Hilton, disputing the change. So she did. Here’s what she said:
I do not accept your request for a rate increased based upon the following:
1. This reservation was booked in 2008 on the Hilton Web site. If an incorrect rate was listed that is an internal situation and your customers should not be asked for more money because of it.
2. Your hotel has already charged my credit card for the first night stay at $150 per night. I fail to see how that doesn’t constitute your hotel’s acceptance of my reservation at the rate listed on your Web site for the room requested on your Web site.
3. If the ‘Dragon Con’ Web site lists your rooms at $168 per night and that is your basis for increasing my costs, then shouldn’t I be able to search another other Web site and, if a room at your hotel is found at a lower rate, then shouldn’t you be lowering my rate?
4. I am staying at your hotel for 5 nights. Is this how you treat customers in this economy?
In short, please make sure my reservation is for $150 per night in your reservation system. Please respond.
Adams’ reasoning was sound. Hilton had no business raising her room rate after it had sent her a written confirmation. Her letter was polite but firm.
Here’s Hilton’s response:
We are aware that the website shows $168 but you are correct and we will honor your $150 rate. We are working on all the issues with the rate. I assure you we will be correcting your issue and we hope to have that done by the end of next week.
We apologize for any confusion. We look forward to seeing you in August!
Hilton did the right thing. And as it turns out, a quick note was all it took to get this straightened out.
But the question remains: Why did Hilton think it could raise Adams’ rate by $18 in the first place? Convention or not, this kind of rate revision doesn’t seem right.
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Exactly how does the Hilton expect that someone enjoys their visit, knowing that the Hilton just increased their own price?
And really, are they aware of the fact that their website increased the price, while they already charged Debbie for a lower price?
Exactly what confusion is the Hilton apologizing for? The confusion *they* created by increasing the price, and then dropping it?
The only comment I have on Deb’s letter is that ‘this economy’ has nothing to do with how the Hilton should treat their customers. If the economy was good, they still can’t randomly increase prices.
It seems the Hilton customer department has been taken over by the infamous Paris H.
Mistakes happen, but this was not a big difference. It is difficult to understand why Hilton would have wanted to increase the rate rather than just absorb the difference. They are likely to gain a lot of other business from a convention, such as meals etc. – and they had all of this bad karma happen over less than $100.
They could have sent her a letter explaining the issue and then state that they would be honouring the lower rate (which in fact they did).
I am going to take this as a “second mistake” by Hilton rather than a bad reflection upon the chain as a whole or that hotel in particular. I am glad they fixed it for Deb, that is what they should have done all along.
>> But the question remains: Why did Hilton think it could raise Adams’ rate by $18 in the first place? <<
Answer: Because they can.
Next question: Why were Hilton so quick to change their minds?
Answer: Because they can.
Ms. Adams handled this like a real pro. Her example could be a model for other victims of this scam.
Seem like the Hilton didn’t expect the customer to have so firm a grasp of contract law. It was cheaper to honor the initial rate than send someone from legal to handle this before a judge.
Well done, Ms. Adams. I’ll be taking a copy of your response with me when i sign into the hilton at Logan this summer. Just in case my memory is on vacation and this is not just an isolated event.
The Altanta Hilton is fundamentally a dump. It is unsafe for a single female traveler. My wife was robbed by someone that entered the room with a keycard while she slept in a room during the afternoon. Her money, billfold, and credentials were stolen. The hotel would not look at their logs to see how the room door was opened. She was in a panic about how to get past airport security to return home without any ID. She was given a copy of a copy of a copied letter allegedly signed by the Atlanta police and she used it to clear airport security. Obviously this type of incident was so common that the airport knew what to expect.
I’m coming in late on this one, but here’s what I see. The customer booked the room directly through the hotel’s website. So just because the 2008 DragonCon Conference event was taking place, why does it assume she was part of it?? It could have been mere coincidence that she had business in town the same week and picked a hotel close to the office.
And to make it worse, they already recieved and accepted the first night payment at the $150 rate. The hotel pretty much bound themselves to that rate by taking her money.