Do They Have to Honor This?

[snowy76]

If you're booking online and a hotel offers you a suite for a very low rate per night because of a typo or computer glitch... do they have to stick to their price? We've booked and printed out a confirmation.

 

[mbanks21]

They should for customer service sake but Im sure theres a clause in the fine print that says theyre not responsible for typos or computer errors.

 

[Lewisc]

They don't have to honor the price. Internet sites like fatwallet result in large number of "customers" trying to take advantage of the mistake. More reservations then the hotel is willing to accept.

A hotel is more likely to honor the rate if very few people booked it. How did you find out about the glitch? How much of a discount?

 

[YoHoYoHofromWI]

If you already paid the hotel, then I would think that yes they need to honor it. Payment signifies there's a contract which they are bound to uphold.

Generally hotels don't (can't?) charge you until you take occupancy, so if you haven't yet paid I don't know that they need to honor anything.

 

[keishashadow]

If you're booking online and a hotel offers you a suite for a very low rate per night because of a typo or computer glitch... do they have to stick to their price? We've booked and printed out a confirmation.

disney doesn'tleast they didn't in the infamous BWI incident a few years back

despite prepayment of room only thru WDTCo, they called back those that reserved and indicated that the reservation price was incorrect and sent an invoice stating the correct balancereally can't blame them.

btw, their reservation confirmation does include a waiver for mistakes...did u read the one u have from whoever u booked thru?

 

[snowy76]

Well, I stumbled on this rate by accident as I was looking at different rooms for a tentative trip date. So I grabbed it, thinking it's always possible to cancel if they say they won't honor it.

Let's just say they left the first of the three digits off the price. I think it's an over 90% discount. Not a Disney resort.

When we printed the confirmation I couldn't find any waiver for mistakes... which is why I came here to ask folks who are in the know!

This was also the hotel's direct booking site, not Expedia or anything like that.

 

[aka-mad4themouse]

Why not call the hotel and find out from them? If they tell you 'no' then at least you will know before you travel all the way there. Or they may thank you for bringing it to their attention but honor it for you.

I've had this happen twice when booking online. Both times, I called the customer service line on the websites. Both times, the price from the web was honored.

Good luck, OP! I hope that you get to keep that killer rate you found!

 

[keishashadow]

If no legalese, u may have a leg to stand on...as long as u don't post the details here & start a run on the dates

seriously, i do believe most large hotel chains have auditors who review reservations, if not the actual hotel management of where you booked. You might even be told upon arrival that they oversold the room and be refunded the rate you paid & offered complimentary lodgings at another hotel. This happened to me when booking a Westin @ great hotwire rate, turned out even better, we got room @ Fairmont!

 

[bumbershoot]

Printout aside, I would look on the site itself for their legal wording telling you that if there's an actual error they don't have to honor it.

 

[auralia]

probability is if it isn't just canceled on you they will just give you their lowest level of room when you check in. We have on a few times had hotel websites claim certain things about a room or hotel and when we finally got there it was not true and we got much less than we were promised.

 

[ssawka]

If no legalese, u may have a leg to stand on...as long as u don't post the details here & start a run on the dates

seriously, i do believe most large hotel chains have auditors who review reservations, if not the actual hotel management of where you booked. You might even be told upon arrival that they oversold the room and be refunded the rate you paid & offered complimentary lodgings at another hotel. This happened to me when booking a Westin @ great hotwire rate, turned out even better, we got room @ Fairmont!

Be careful of the "complimentary lodgings at another hotel". We had a nicer hotel try to do that to us once, but the "other" motel was a Motel 6, not even close to comparable.

 

[Lewisc]

They don't need "legalese" to get out of an obvious pricing error. I suggest the OP do a google search. Most of these "glitches" wind up being posted on sites like fatwallet. Once that happens the number of resulting reservations all but guarantees reservations will be cancelled.

If the OP is one of the few customers who made a reservation prior to the glitch being corrected there is chance the hotel will honor it.

 

[Green Tea]

I would just look at the reservation online on the hotel's website. If it is there, I wouldn't worry a bit about it. The clerk checking you in isn't going to notice or care.

 

[keishashadow]

Be careful of the "complimentary lodgings at another hotel". We had a nicer hotel try to do that to us once, but the "other" motel was a Motel 6, not even close to comparable.

they did try to offer a sheraton, I insisted upon 'like' or better

 

[pyrxtc]

it does happen and it does get honored sometimes. 5 yrs ago, I booked a hotel at 99 cents night because someone left off the last two 0's online on all of their rooms. A lot of people here id it and they let us keep the booking. I just used 1 night and two rooms for that price but a lot of people booked a full vacation there.

 

[Free4Life11]

Most of the major chains likely have a provision that they do not have to honor pricing errors. Don't EVER post a pricing error on a website! They spread like wildfire and it's a sure fire way to ensure it does NOT get honored.

Same thing happened a few years ago on THIS site regarding a Disney TV at Sears or something likely that.....loose lips sink ships!

My best advice is to show up at the hotel and "play dumb." Don't mention the rate at all.

One time I

 

[Free4Life11]

Here is an example form the Hilton website. (Look near the bottom where is says Terms of Use or something like that)

The Site may contain technical inaccuracies or typographical errors or omissions. Hilton is not responsible for any typographical, photographic, technical or pricing (including without limitation mistaken hotel rates) errors listed on our Site. Hilton reserves the right to make changes, corrections and/or improvements to the Site, and to the products and programs described in such information, at any time without notice.

We reserve the right to cancel or modify reservations where it appears that a customer 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.