Madeleine
Well-known member
- Joined
- Sep 29, 2011
- Messages
- 7,990
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OK, value...I am going away for Christmas. (Yippee!) I searched for a place to stay and used Google's hotel finder. Found a hotel rate of $87/night which I KNOW is cheap for the area. Heck, I paid more than that 20 years ago to stay across the street from where I'm going!
Called the hotel to see if they would honor the internet rate and, you know, save themselves 15+% commission. 12 minutes on the phone with an assortment of live and voice prompt 'associates' before someone could honor the rate. And then, out of the blue, I get the room for $78. I didn't ask for that. I certainly took it. And I do know that the room is definitely 'worth' twice that.
So, value-wise I'm happy. Spending 12 minutes on the phone playing 'will she hang up before we do' is not my idea of customer service. (Yes, I could have booked online in 3 minutes. Yes, I could have hung up and called the Hampton right next door. At that point it was a game!)
But, you know it's in the back of my head (and on the back of the door) that this room can go as high as $300 (West Point football game being an example). Worth $300? IF I had to be at that game, maybe. As Joe Citizen? Probably not. It's like the room in Vegas that I had for less than $80 that my mom was being told was $250 3 days after we left. Convention.
Supposedly they serve a cooked-to-order breakfast (incl) and have a pool, spa and exercise room and WiFi is incl, too. (The B&B's in the area are over $200/night and I wasn't planning to pay as I usually sleep on the couch at my bro's.)
Called the hotel to see if they would honor the internet rate and, you know, save themselves 15+% commission. 12 minutes on the phone with an assortment of live and voice prompt 'associates' before someone could honor the rate. And then, out of the blue, I get the room for $78. I didn't ask for that. I certainly took it. And I do know that the room is definitely 'worth' twice that.
So, value-wise I'm happy. Spending 12 minutes on the phone playing 'will she hang up before we do' is not my idea of customer service. (Yes, I could have booked online in 3 minutes. Yes, I could have hung up and called the Hampton right next door. At that point it was a game!)
But, you know it's in the back of my head (and on the back of the door) that this room can go as high as $300 (West Point football game being an example). Worth $300? IF I had to be at that game, maybe. As Joe Citizen? Probably not. It's like the room in Vegas that I had for less than $80 that my mom was being told was $250 3 days after we left. Convention.
Supposedly they serve a cooked-to-order breakfast (incl) and have a pool, spa and exercise room and WiFi is incl, too. (The B&B's in the area are over $200/night and I wasn't planning to pay as I usually sleep on the couch at my bro's.)