Question: 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
Answer: 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.
(Photo: Chris Campbell/Flickr Creative Commons)
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{ 44 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m firmly in the camp that an obvious error should NOT be honored. There is no business, moral, or ethical reason to do so, “What about customer service.” They yell. No business needs such bottom feeding opportunistic customers who willingly profit from such errors.
The only question is whether $28 is a believable rate for a Westin hotel located near Disneyland. I submit that it is not. I have no doubt that’s why the OP felt the need to confirm it. Had the rate been $150, the OP would never have bothered confirming the rate.
Instead, the OP decided to milk the situation and booked non-refundable tickets. Tough luck.
And incidentally, a fat fingered fare cannot be legally enforced.
This is getting ridiculous – the hotel is paying the airfare too! I wonder if it is costing the hotel more to not honor the $28 rate mistake than to try to appease this guest.
Sounds like Chris did an excellent job on this one.
It would seem that if the Westin was willing to pay Terry’s airfare from San Diego to Orlando that this was even more compensation than lowering the nightly rate from $99 to $28…According to the original post, this was for a “weekend” trip…not a week’s stay..The typical really low airfare from San Diego to Orlando is typically over $200-250 roundtrip..Wonder why they preferred to reimburse that rather than lowering the rate to $28/night. Just as a matter of principle? (they never offer anything under $99?)
wait, wait, wait a minute…… They wouldn’t drop the hotel rate another $71 to the listed rate….But they’ll PICK UP THE AIRFARE??? Chris you are a magician!
What! I’ve rec’d some great travel deals, i.e. $489 RT airfare and 7 nights in a great hotel in London (from KC) after 9/11 – but, really this is crazy! Clearly the Westin made a mistake and then exacerbated it by confirming a too-good-to-be-true rate, but their initial offer of $99 a night and ‘free’ valet parking and 5,000 points was reasonable. But to pay the airfare? That’s something that comes out of their pockets/profits, which ultimately someone else down the road ends up paying for. Just my opinion…
Anyone can make a mistake – and it is not reasonable to expect that Westin would have a $28 per night rate.
I think the issue is that he called them, they confirmed it (they should not have done so) and then, based upon them confirming it, he booked the airfare.
Westin had an opportunity to recover from their error, and missed the boat on it.
Normally, I would side with the hotel in this sort of thing, but in this case, maybe not.
Chris Elliott, why did you get involved in this case? It seems very unlike you to push for a compensation that is far beyond reasonable.
Since he realized it was a fantastic rate, called to confirm and received confirmation the hotel should honor it.
Count me among the dropped-jaw majority here. HUH???
First of all, didn’t the OP state that they’d ALREADY purchased their tickets – non-refundable? So what airfare is the hotel paying for? What about their non-refundable tickets?
Second of all, even if the OP hadn’t already bought their flights, why WOULD the hotel pick up their airfare? As others have noted, the difference in the room rate ($28 vs $99) wouldn’t pay for a cross-country flight. So why wouldn’t they just drop the rate? Or does the hotel have access to free flights that they could hand to the Capps at no cost to themselves?
As for the overarching question of what’s right and what’s wrong in this scenario, I fall squarely on the side of “the OP is stealing”. CLEARLY she knew that it was too good to be true…although I have to agree that she had a reasonable right to ask for some price accommodation, because the hotel did make a mistake. But I think the hotel’s offer was spot-on – $99 a night, and waive the valet fee. Pushing for more, when she knew full well that the $28 rate was an error, was just being greedy and opportunistic.
Kudos to the Westin for making a reasonable offer to make up for their mistake. And shame on Ms Capps for her greedy, unethical demands for more.
But on top of all that, I’d sure like to understand the airfare thing. Christopher, can you elaborate and clarify please?
Carver,They do call Disney World The Magical Kingdom. I am happy he did get some magic. If you were him please tell me what you would have done
Hotel ownership judges the Hotel on Revenue Per Available Room. Not discounting the room rate and the tab for the guys flight charged off to A&G.. Makes sense.
I’m on the fence on whether the $28 a night is reasonable rate for a Westin hotel and not an obvious fat finger rate. $28 is what I would expect to see for a room rate for a Knights Inn or a Motel 6, even on Hotwire the lowest I’ve ever gotten for the hotel class a Westin is $69 a night.
HOWEVER…after he booked he did call the hotel to confirm it was a legit fare and they assured him that it was. He even gave them a few days to catch the error if the account is correct. So perhaps they should have honored the rate.
I do, however, find hard to believe that the airfare + $190 a night reduction costs to hotel less than honoring the rate! Must have been a deal on airfare!
In the last year, 28.00 HAS been a reasonable hotel rate for MANY nice hotels.. I do not live in Orlando or visit there often so I could not tell you the going hotel rate, but I can tell you the going rate for strip hotels in Las Vegas have been $20-50 dollars for the past year. Why would I expect anything different for other US cities? If I booked 28.00 dollars for a hotel (AND WENT ABOVE AND BEYOND TO CALL AND CONFIRM) I would sue for them to honor it. Once it is called to confirm, that is no longer a fat finger issue. ..though I don’t agree with the fat finger take backs. In my line of profession I don’t get the option of saying “oops I accidentally gave you 50 mg of morphine instead of 5mg…Your doctor’s was over zealous and wrote a zero behind the 5″ That would be a +million dollar mistake for myself and my employer. It is my job to check that order, and so should have the person who typed in 28, not 289. I feel other companies should serve the same fate for silly typos. At least it is only money for them…not a life. Believe me when you know you will be accountable you will be more careful. I’m currently typing this in a four -star hotel Hilton in LA and I’m paying 50.00/night. I’m also being charged a mandatory 18.00/day parking fee, and 13.00/day internet fee. It is still a good deal, but they were able to suck me in with the low initial rate. This mock bait and switch rate is all over the country and hotels are having to compete. The great deals are out there. Not everyone is willing to pay walk-up rates.
$28 rate at the Westin? Give me a break. He was quite fortunate to get what he did, a $99 rate AND a free plane ticket thrown in? That Manager went above and beyond what he should have done.
This is really trying to take advantage of an honest mistake.
Be a gentleman and call it a day.
Could it be that a few of you ,especially with children could be just a wee bit upset that he received a great deal. He did check to see if the offer was legit. He even gave them an opportunity to withdraw the offer. No way is he greedy. You people who fault him are sour grapes.
For everyone saying Chris shouldn’t have been involved, I disagree.
Here are the facts as I read:
1) Right now the travel industry is REELING from the recession and deals are not something that are “NEW” at this point. Was 28 Dollars a good price? Definitely. Too good? Maybe. Who knows if they were running some HUGE PROMO to get people to stay. I’ve seen hotels offer cut throat rates before as they figure they’ll get you on other things.
2) Yet, like most people said here, 28 dollars is a REAL LOW price. Unbelievable, no. A deal shocker, Yes. I, like that lady, would have done the same. Booked and confirmed it. What more could she have done? She saw a GREAT deal and took advantage. Not only did she take advantage of it, SHE ASKED them afterwards:
Are you sure this is the correct price? They said yes.
So here we are. She BOOKED the price at the promised rate. She was told this is the rate you will receive AFTER asking.
I think she should have gotten a 28 dollar a night rate. Now did Westin make it up to her? Wow, they sure did! My guess, they have some deals with the airline or some extra corporate tickets they needed to unload. Still, this woman walked away VERY VERY well compensated. She practically is receiving a FREE vacation.
So how do we call this story? A win win. Westin showed good merit, went well above and beyond. The lady walks away happy.
Honestly, it didn’t really take Chris’s involvement here. He just added some sweetener to the pot.
@barbie45
If I were the OP I would have said, $28 for a Westin, an obvious error, and moved on with my day.
@CC
I beg to differ on all counts. I challenge anyone to find a $28 publicly availble rate on a 4 star hotel in a major US City, including Vegas. Sure, in the blistering August heat the off-strip hotel fall to next to nothing, but you won’t find Caesar’s or the Venetian or any of the other major hotels which such Motel 6 pricing.
I’d be curious to know if the hilton rate that you received is a publicly available rate. Having lived in LA for 13 years, I suspect that you are in one of the outlying areas that advertises as Los Angeles but really isn’t.
More importantly, you are holding people to a standard of perfection. Mistakes happen. You should only be compensated for someone else’s mistake if 1) you reasonably relied upon it and 2)to your detriment.
In this case, the OPs reliance wasn’t reasonable. No one books a four star hotel for $28.00
In any event, for a lot of legal mumbo jumbo, you wouldn’t have a law suit under any circumstances.
The more I think about it the more I realize that the OP can’t possibly be innocent. Consider it was booked on the web
Scenario 1
Its booked directly on the Westin’s site. That strongly suggests to me that the OP is familiar with this brand. Westins do not sell for $28/night
Scenario 2
Its booked on a mega site. The cheapest 4 star hotel I could find was $118, with most averaging around $250. Yet somehow this one hotel sells for $28. No one could possibly believe that.
This isn’t exactly a popular legal concept either, but look this up:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unilateral_mistake#Unilateral_mistake
Then again, some people don’t like the law and lawyers either.
Sure, some stores allow people to purchase a tangible product at the advertised or listed price if it’s especially the wrong one. Analogies can only apply so much to help understand a view, but not everyone’s forced to do the same for everything else in every other field unless required by some applicable law maybe.
I’m also with the camp that the hotel at least tried to make up for what happened. If you want to force them to do more than what they’re willing to do, good luck and be ready to deal with the results.
I would argue that once the hotel confirmed the price over the phone it ceased being a “fat-finger” fare and became the legitimate published rate. How far is the CUSTOMER expected to go to make sure that the BUSINESS is doing things properly on their end? Apparently everyone disagreeing with this thinks at least 3 sources (since 2 wasn’t enough). As others have stated, in the current downturn unbelievable rates have become somewhat normal – a good faith effort was made to confirm that the rates were legit, and actions were taken based on that confirmation. On the flip side, Westin’s final response was also over the top – I think they could have simply given the customer the original deal and been fine. I’d say the above and beyond is their effort to make amends for the mistake and hopefully retain him as a customer, and given the lengths that they’ve gone to I know that I would give them a second chance. Anymore it seems like fewer and fewer companies care about keeping their existing customers, and it’s nice to see one that does.
I figure that if the hotel confirmed the rate then they really only have two options. Honor the confirmed rate or inform the guest that they no longer have a reservation. Calling to confirm the rate is a totally valid maneuver from a customer standpoint, but for the hotel it is basically meaningless. The person he spoke with does not get to set rates nor is he/she involved in rate planning. So, if there was an error that created a $28 rate in the system, the desk clerk would indeed see on his/her computer that there is a $28 rate. They have no real way of answering questions about “should it be there” only questions about “is it there.” The clerk should have told the guest she would call back and then checked with the manager. I can’t imagine the employee thought that a $28 rate made any sense.
A few months ago, I booked a room at a Marriott Hotel in Quincy, MA for $50 per night through Marriott’s web site. Quincy is about 7 miles from downtown Boston, one of the most expensive hotel cities in the US. Certainly, if a $50 room at a top hotel is possible in the Boston area, it is also possible that a room in a Westin in the Orlando area could be had of $28.
Jim,that was a fantastic price-equivalant to that Orlando price. Ilived in Quincy for about a year.By car it is a straight trip into the city -maybe 20 minutes tops. Also Trains which run about every ten minutes. In fact with the great public transist system in Boston you really do not need a car. Also you avoided having to use the tunnel or bridge to get into Boston.Hope you had a chance to see the Presdident John Adams house, and the Kennedy Library.
@Jim J
The Marriott Quincy is a three star hotel, hardly a top designation, and as you stated, is 7 miles from Boston. Its no great surprise that hotels in surrounding areas are much cheaper than in the city proper. I have no doubt that if you looked at other comparable hotels in the vicinity, you would see comparable rates. If you get that rate in downtown Boston then I’d be impressed.
@Jake
Business owners care about customer satisfaction. But at the same time no one needs customers who circle like vultures waiting to pick at your carcass for every little mistake that doesn’t hurt anyone.
Please do write a column on mandatory valet fees!
I think a good way to sum this up is as follows: The customer got a great deal. The hotel amply compensated him (ABOVE AND BEYOND). I think it boiled down to Westin knowing they screwed up. An employee MAY NOT set the price, but it is his or her job to check things out in the case of error. If you walk to a car lot and see the price of 1799 on a brand new car and you go to the salesperson and say, I want it. It’s his job to say hmmm, I need to talk to my manager on that one. I think it should be 17,999 instead. Any reasonable person who is employed by a company should know when blatant mistakes are made. He or she serves as a representatives, and by confirming the rate, they made the 28 dollar a night a contract. Now the individual relies on the confirmation to further plan his or her trip (Terry?).
Justin
@JimJ
$50 is not unreasonable for that Marriott. The Marriott in Quincy is nowhere near anything, and frankly, I’m suprised they don’t pay people to stay there. Quincy may be 7 miles from Boston, but it is hundreds of miles from anyone’s consideration when staying in Boston on business.
The St Louis Cardinals had to stay there in 2004 during the World Series because it was the only hotel in the Boston area that had the large block of rooms the Cardinals needed. Suffice to say, they weren’t thrilled with their experience, and the St Louis paper even wrote an article about how bad the hotel was, illustrated below.
http://mungowitzend.blogspot.com/2004/10/cards-busch-stadium-red-sox-bush.html
No mercy on fat finger errors. Ever.
When you make a deal, it’s a deal. Customers are held to their part of the deal all the time. “Sorry, that’s in the fine print. You should have read it”. Why exempt companies? They wrote the quote. Makes no sense and is unfair
The Westin did make up to the customer though. Kudos for that. Unfortunately, they did not admit their mistake, formally by honoring their price. That is shameful.
The customer admits it seemed too good to be true…*that’s why they called the hotel to confirm the rate.* If I see an ad in the paper for a laptop at Best Buy that should retail for $2000, on sale for $200 – I’m going think gee, this could be a mistake. But if I then go down to the store to make the purchase and the store confirms with me that the price is indeed valid, it’s not cool for them to be able to go back after I’ve purchased it and try to charge my card for more money. The moment the hotel confirmed the $28 rate, they become liable to honor it.
“The moment the hotel confirmed the $28 rate, they become liable to honor it.”
Agree 100%. Had the customer simply relied on the website without re-confirming whether it was a fat fingered fare, it would be open for debate. Had the hotel immediately revoked the fare when the customer called, it would be understandable. But as the above poster stated–the hotel had the perfect opportunity to correct the error and missed the boat. If the employee who confirmed the fare didn’t think $28/night was too good to be true, why should the customer argue?
I, too, find the hotel’s resolution puzzling and perhaps overly generous. I think most of us would have backed off once the rate was reduced to $99/night. As for the airfare, I interpreted it as the hotel issued reimbursement for the cost of the non-refundable airfare, which the customer would have been out if she/he had decided to cancel the reservation. It’s possible, though unlikely, the customer found a good fare from CA – Orlando which would make the hotel still come out ahead.
For the various armchair attorneys, the fact that the hotel confirmed the rate does not make it a binding agreement or contract. Absolutely not. Absent a local rule to the contrary, its not binding until check-in, or possibly after the deadline for cancelling.
If you wanted to try to get the hotel on the hook, you’d need to contact someone with authority, e.g. a manager or supervisor. A random employee isn’t empowered to bind the hotel.
@Topher
You Best Buy anaology is good, but misses slightly. If you call and confirm the price you can’t walk into Best Buy and demand the $200 computer. Now, once you’ve actually purchased the computer and taken possession of it, then you would be correct, they cannot unilaterally undue a completed contract.
Carver, Quincy is a very convenient location. It appears Jim was satisfied withe the amenities provide. There are many hotels etc. outside Boston proper. Even within the city depending on where youlive there are areareas such as East Boston including Logan which means you must use the toll unnel – Ted Williams- which can be a nuisance. Several neighborhoods within the city are less than desirable because of safety issues. Quincy has the Orange line which gives quick and direct access to Boston proper. Quincy is about a 2 hour or less drive to the Cape. When Iworked in Boston proper I had free parking. Unless you have free parking it is exorbitant to find parking. Boston is the 8th worst city to drive in. Ican testify to that. During weekends I would use public transportation to go into Boston foor pleasure. So if the hotel met his needs great.
For the people pulling out contract law — the rules change when a company actively says something incorrect that influences the behavior of a person to their detriment. There was no issue here until the hotel confirmed the price. No matter how ridiculous the price may seem, the hotel stated they were honoring. This caused the flyer to take an action to her detriment — book a non-refundable ticket. Had this ticket been booked without confirmation… that would be a different issue, and fall within the unilateral contract scheme.
The OP admits to being amazed by the rate and apparently got someone at the Westin to confirm it. In the absence of a name or other corroborating evidence, it becomes her word against that of some, probebly, low level employee without authority. If push came to shove the OP would not have a leg to stand on, as $28 for the Westin in Orlando is clearly not reasonable. I think the hotel’s original offer was reasonable, especially with the waiving of the parking fee. In other word, the OP, in my opinion is being a bit greedy here.
As an added note the Fenway is no where near Boston proper. For a team to stay in Quincy is yuk. It is a real hassle to get from Quincy to the Fenway. No wonder the team was upset. Joel he was negotiating. When you purchase a house or an automobile people do not negotiate. Many financial consultants even recommend trying to negotiate for medical work, home appliances. For instance if you noticed a few sctatches or other imperfections on furniture or appliances. That is not being greedy. it is negotiation. In some countries it is an honorable way of purchases. I mean this is not really worth a philisophical debate. It could have gone another way. This is the real world.
oops I meant try to negotiate.
If I book a $28 rate, and call the hotel to confirm it’s legit, then I expect to get a room for $28. Period. Forget waived parking fees and the offered $99 rate and the offer to comp airfare. Just do what you agreed to do.
I wonder what would happen if I mistakenly booked a non-refundable room rate, then called the hotel and said my finger slipped and I selected the wrong rate? Hey Westin, honest mistake, you’re just a greedy hotel if you don’t allow me to cancel and get my money back.
I know exactly what would happen – “you agreed to the rate” and “there’s nothing I can do”.
This is not a win-win situation. The hotel had to be pressed for everything they offered. Greedy and short-sighted management. I’ll never stay at Westin Imagine Orlando if this is how they resolve problems.
Given that the hotel discovered the error in advance of the guest’s arrival and notified him/her and also made a very reasonable substitute offer, I am shocked (and don’t understand) why Westin agreed to pay the airfare! They must be very afraid of bad PR. I am thinking they did not honor the lower room rate instead so as not to open the door to honoring ALL the mistken rates. In the long run, depending how many there were, the loss might have been the great of the two remdies.
I am curious as to the number of people who responded to the ad and what there results were. I have the same opinion you do.They were overly generous for just that reason.
First, some math: Assume for a moment that the OP’s “getaway weekend” involved at least three and possibly more nights (Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights would be a likely scenario, with possibly Monday night added if it was a holiday weekend). The “normal” price for the room was supposedly $289, but the Westin offered a compromise rate of $99. That means $190 x 3 nights = $570 the hotel “gave up” in revenue for that room. As another poster noted, the room rate average is one metric that hotel management reviews to see whether a property is giving away rooms too cheaply. Hotel management has wide discretion on what to charge for a room, but if they are always cutting deals to the lowest possible price, it hurts the company, so management likes to see higher “average” numbers.
On the other hand, hotel managers also have a budget for “fixing things” for customers, and they may not be judged as strictly (sometimes) on the revenue from ancillary fees. So crediting off the fees to keep the room rate higher, and even paying for a ticket (which could have been as low as $200) might still be better than cutting to the lower room charge.
@Barbie: The point isn’t that Quincy isn’t a nice place, or isn’t convenient, or full of wonderful things to do. The point is that (a) the hotel in question isn’t a 4-star hotel, it’s a 3-star, and even at that, the rating is apparently questionable, and (b) 7 miles, even if only 20 minutes travel time, is a huge distance for, say, a business traveler at a convention, or one who is calling on downtown Boston clients. A leisure traveler might find Quincy perfectly adequate for a visit; someone who needs to be able to leave his hotel and be at a convention or law office or whatever within a few minutes will not. He may have a large amount of material he must bring with him to the convention, there might be an accident on the way in from Quincy blocking traffic, there are a hundred reasons why seasoned business travelers prefer to stay downtown, and pay a premium to do so. And that premium location (and the extra star in the rating) is worth a lot of money. If even a 3-star hotel in a suburb of Boston which is a 20-minute drive from downtown can get $50/night, why on earth would you defend as reasonable a $28 rate at a higher-ranked property practically in the lap of Universal Studios Orlando?
Kevin in terms of clarifiying technical issues your post was the best I have ever seen on this blog. They were written in language a layperson could comprehend. Please continue to post.
Kevin, the answer to your question is simple, the unfastened traveler is a haggler.
Many states have laws that say if something is “tagged” at an incorrect amount the business must honor that amount. I know this applies to retail stores but I’m not sure about other services. He should have checked with the Florida Department of Consumer Services to see if there was recourse. (http://www.800helpfla.com/travel_text.html) It seems to me, Elliott, that you are just guessing about this one.