But the really interesting thing that happened was with the hotel and Claudia's conference we were going to. She had signed up for her conference with me as a guest in her room. What she didn't notice was that the cost she signed up for was for a half room. So when she called to confirm a late arrival the hotel said, "your roommate is already here". My what she said? Seems she had been assigned another person to room with. So after a few calls that got us nowhere to straighten things out we decided to just wait until we got to the hotel to figure things out.
We got to the hotel. The conference coordinator said there wasn't anything he could do. The hotel said if we wanted a different room it would be $199 a night. Keep in mind Claudia's already paid $384 for the 2 day conference. We kept asking the smiling hotel clerk if there was anything else he could do to help us out cost wise. Nope, absolutely nothing he could do.
Then Claudia happened to think about our AAA membership. So she asked him what about a AAA discount. "Oh, you have AAA? Then I can give you the room for $159."
It seems there are a bunch of discounts they have, AAA just being one of them. But he wasn't going to tell us about them. We had to ask. What an asshole. Or I should say what an asshole corporate policy to have.
We decided to stay one night instead of two. Claudia could get credit for attending the conference and we could save $159 by not staying a second night.
The next day, Friday... Claudia has attended the morning classes and we are going to get on the road back by noon. I have the car packed and I'm waiting for Claudia to get her training material put away when the conference coordinator comes up to us. He tells us that someone had to leave the conference and we could have the single room if we wanted to stay.
So for no additional cost we get to stay. Claudia gets to finish her conference and I get to watch the Cardinals lock up the pennant on Friday night. And as it turns out the $159 extra we paid the night before was what we should have paid anyway for me to be at the two day conference. So we broke even.
We left on Saturday. We ran into a little rain, not much traffic and a lot fewer trucks. We got home in 8 hours and 45 minutes.
Posts
5 comments:
Figuring out the best price you can get at a hotel is a lot like figuring out what your airline ticket is going to cost you. I usually ask about the Big Three discounts whenever I book: AAA, AARP, and Military. AAA usually works out to be the best.
Hotel clerks can be like that.
For a good read on the "hospitality industry," you might try "Heads on Beds." I forgot the author.
I'm glad your trip turned out well.
Mike - AAA and AARP are usually the best choices. As for airlines. The military is never less. It is only less than the full price. So if you had flown and full coach was 100 then you get the military discount of 10% less. If you buy a super saver and non refundable it will always be less than the military discount. Got that? Nope? That is exactly why they do it this way.
GO CARDINALS!!! Can they take those bearded rat bastards? I'm praying they can and do in 4 games!
Have a safe return, Mike!
And good luck to the Cardinals!
Its funny how sometimes things that seem all wrong can work themselves out....
Post a Comment