If you've followed my Ramblings, videos, speeches, and writings, you know that I pick on hotels a lot. Why?
BECAUSE THEY DESERVE IT!!
I just got off the phone with the Embassy Suites in Palm Beach Gardens, FL. My golf stud daughter, Kelly, is one of the invitees playing in this year's Future Collegian World Tour National Championship May 29-31. This is a great honor for Kelly and she's worked hard to be in that field.
When we first got the invitation, I immediately booked a room at the Embassy Suites for us to fly in on May 27, the day before the practice round. What I didn't realize at the time was that Kelly will be just finishing the Washington State High School golf championship on May 26. That would mean she would miss the entire week of school. Considering finals are the following week, we decided she should at least go to school on May 27. Then she and I can take a red-eye that night arriving the morning of May 28 in time for the practice round.
When I originally booked our room, I received a rate of $134 per night for five nights. With taxes our total would be $747.05.
Like I said, I just called the hotel to change our arrival to the next day, May 28, staying for FOUR nights. I'm thinking I will save the cost of that one night hotel.
But, of course, I am wrong. Cutting out that first night now gives me the NEW rate of $169 per night for four nights. With taxes my new total would now be $753.74. It would now cost me MORE for four nights than it originally did for five nights.
Does this make sense to you?
What did I do? I kept the original reservation and instructed that we would be arriving late…REALLY, REALLY late. If I'm paying the money anyway, then Embassy Suites doesn't get to make another night's room rate, which they would have undoubtedly done. And not only do they not get to make that extra money, but they get yet another black eye on the customer experience.
And you know what? I don't think they care.
Anybody out there have connections with Embassy Suites and/or Hilton? Please share this story with them.
Hi Steve,
I am sorry you had a bad experience with Embassy Suites!
Let me share my experience with the St. Charles MO Embassy Suites last fall.
On the spur of the moment I called to see if they had a wheelchair accessible room for the next couple of days as my schedule opened up and I would be able to attend the TNNA trade show if they did. They said they had a room and I booked it. When I arrived, late in the evening after flying all day, I learned that the facility was overbooked and they did not, in fact, have a wheelchair accessible room available. As I am a fairly capable T-12 paraplegic I asked if there were any regular rooms available. The manager said that there was one, but she didn’t think it would work for me. I asked if we could look it over and see. We went to the room and I told the manager that it would work just fine if we removed the bathroom door. They did and I had a great stay and really enjoyed the trade show.
I dealt with what could have been a miserable situation with a positive attitude and was gracious to the folks who were trying to correct an error that was not their personal mistake and the situation was resolved happily. I look forward to the next time I get to visit the outstanding staff at Embassy Suites, St Charles MO.
In the same way as round trip flights are usually cheaper than one-way flights, the closer to stay date you book a hotel room the more likely it is that price goes up.
It’s very good yield management from the hotel, and it is an industry-practice.
One of 2 things could have happened…
1) You could have booked a long term stay rate, which is discounted because of your length of stay.
2) The hotel could have pushed its rates up because of occupancy levels (supply & demand).
I don’t really have any sympathy for you – the hotel is the one that sets the rates based on supply & demand. If you’re giving them 5 nights, you’re likely giving them shoulder night revenue, which may be important to them – by giving them 4 nights, they may not be able to spread that revenue out, so they don’t see the need to discount.
It’s economics….
Hi Steve,
Man– that sucks with Embassy Suites! You know, they do have a Facebook page are are quite responsive. Have you taken the discussion public there? I’ll bet that will work.
Dennis