These days, making a “simple” hotel reservation can be as complicated as booking an intricate air itinerary. With computers and multiple booking channels, suppliers can and do change rates and availability at any time. This means that many travelers learn to check and double check to see if they are getting the best possible deal.
Accordingly, most travel agents have learned not to promise the absolute lowest price. Yes, agents often have discounted hotel rates, but good agents know that extra value — an upgrade, a better view, a free meal, etc. — can be worth more than a few dollars in any case.
Also, with a certain amount of advance notice, agents may know suppliers with room blocks at hotels that otherwise show sold out. (Although, most “block space” is returned to hotels about a month before the date.) For last-minute bookings, if an agent has a good relationship with a hotel, it may mean rules can be bent and rooms may become available when a property is full.
It can be a nice symbiotic relationship. I’ll be honest, if a property makes an effort for me to make clients happy, of course I’ll go out of my way to recommend them. But, as agents also know, all it takes is one hotel reservationist to undo all that good will and the trust a client may have in their travel arranger. It happened this week.
A client was referred to me for a last minute Fourth of July trip. He wanted five nights at a top hotel in Hawaii, one I work with regularly, often through one of their top tour operators. The problem? The first night was sold out. So, I went through to the hotel directly; not only to the hotel sales representative, but to the sales manager who oversees all the company’s Hawaii properties.
At first, they had nothing available. Then they offered a suite for the first night, but at more than the client wanted to pay. He asked me to keep trying, even though that suite sold out. We faced these choices: take another larger suite, at a rate over $3,000 a day; change hotels; stay one less day; or book four nights and keep hoping for a cancellation for the first night.
In this case, the sales manager even talked to the person in charge of inventory at the property. He was told not only was there no space, but that an opening was extremely unlikely.
Meanwhile, I kept calling the hotel, asking if there was anything at all they could do, at any rate for the first night. Finally, they agreed to waitlist it and promised to call me. Then, since we needed to ticket the flights, I told the client, we have to decide. He asked for a little more time.
About 30 minutes later he emailed back, saying that he had called the hotel, got a reservation “no problem,” so would I just book his flights. To say I was livid was an understatement. I called the hotel, and sure enough, someone said he had a reservation. So I immediately called the sales manager to inquire, as civilly as I could, “What is going on?”
Short version, while I don’t know exactly what was said, an enterprising reservation agent had noticed that there was a long-stay rate in their computer. If someone was willing to book a stay of over a week, the system would magically find a room, albeit at a very high rate. She managed to book it and override the system to shorten the stay down to five nights. Then, even though the hotel had a 21-day cancellation period — so the whole stay should have been non-cancellable — my client claimed she (mistakenly) advised him he could shorten his stay from 5 to 2 days and book the last three nights at a lower rate.
For what it’s worth, any reader considering trying to book a fictitious longer stay in order to get a room should be aware that when hotels have minimum-stay rules, a traveler may be liable to pay for all nights, even if leaving early. (This has happened to people I know.)
When I explained the situation, the sales manager was also upset, and offered to do what she could. She turned the booking over to us, and in a series of calls we got the reservation shortened, and they agreed to honor the “mistake” for the three cheaper nights. This all came at a savings of over $500 to the client (although the last phone call alone took over 50 minutes).
From the property’s point of view, they did get the booking, although presumably they will be doing some internal room juggling, and they are getting less revenue than they wanted. They also have a guest who has learned that, in the future, it’s always worth calling and negotiating, which cannot be the best use of their paid reservationists’ time. (My conservative estimate of the time spent by hotel staff on the phone today over this was three hours and over a dozen phone calls.)
In some ways, is all well that ends well? Maybe. While this was one of the most frustrating cases I can remember, this kind of thing, while rare, does happen on occasion.
Generally, as mentioned, an agent or tour operator with clout or connections (or sometimes a regular guest) will get the best results. But if one out of ten or even one out of 100 times someone gets a hotel to give them a different answer, well, guess which time they will remember?
So then it means every “no” is likely to result in follow-up calls, which generally is a waste of everyone’s time. But like Gatsby’s green light, the possibility is out there.
So we, at times, beat our heads into the wall.
Janice Hough is a California-based travel agent a travel blogger and a part-time comedy writer. A frequent flier herself, she’s been doing battle with airlines, hotels, and other travel companies for over three decades. Besides writing for Travelers United, Janice has a humor blog at Leftcoastsportsbabe.com (Warning, the political and sports humor therein does not represent the views of anyone but herself.)
