I booked a hotel in Orlando (Hilton Orlando, new hotel, opening next month I think) for a convention.
I booked the hotel through hilton.co.uk and got a really good rate that
came up in the normal list (not using any special codes or anything).
The rate was called "Tamro Special Rate". As it was so much cheaper
than the other rates I checked all the terms and conditions and details
and didn't see anything anywhere that would suggest you have to adhere
to certain conditions to book this rate (no membership or anything
required). So I booked this rate and got a confirmation email.
Now I got a bit suspicous about this special rate and phoned up Hilton
reservations and asked if you needed anything special to get this rate.
The girl on the phone (based in the US) couldn't even see that rate
with the normal rates until she digged a bit deeper. She found the rate
but then said it is only available to "Tamro Team Members" and that ID
is required on check in. I argued the point that when booking there was
no mention of this anywhere. She asked her supervisors what would
happen on check in and was told that ID would be required and if not
available that we'd have to pay the rack rate.
She then doubled checked the way I did my reservation and confirmed
that there is no mention of any requirements. She also said that rate
shouldn't even be on their website. She advised to print everything out
with the details of my booking, but wasn't sure what would happen. She
said it would be taking a chance.
Am I right in thinking that as the terms and conditions nor the details
or anything ever mentioned any requirements to get this rate, that they
should honour the rate I booked? If there are requirements to getting
that rate and they aren't advertised anywhere. How would one know when
booking that that rate is not applicable to them? ?
We once had a booking for a room at a Ritz-Carlton hotel where a
mistake was made on the website (missing out a zero, making the hotel
$48/night rather than $480). They honoured that reservation, no issues. But obviously that didn't require any special ID.
