First (last?) time using Tesco points for hotel stay

IM

I auto-convert all our Tesco Clubcard points to Avios, but recently my wife discovered a forgotten card that had vouchers about to expire.

We decided to use these for a post-Christmas sanity-recovery weekend away, and I converted the vouchers for a Macdonald hotel stay.

I'm a reasonably experienced user of miles/points, and I know that you always get stung with a high price, compared to a normal booking - but the scale of the hit we're taking has surprised me.

The rate I got for a two-night stay (next weekend) was £346, which will be off-set by £255 in Clubcard vouchers.

I've just looked on the Macdonald hotels website, to see the 'real' rate, and am being offered £128, which includes a £10 bar/restaurant credit - so effectively we're looking at £118.

So I'm going to have to shell out £91, when I could have booked for another £27 and saved myself £255 in vouchers....

In the words of the bard, Homer Simpson.... Doh!

holidaysforme

Any chance you can cancel and book direct?. Seems a real waste of your vouchers!
We have a hotel booked in Barcelona with vouchers for next year. The difference in the 'real' rate and the tesco rate we paid was around £40, that's b&b for three nights in a 4 star hotel., so we made a decent saving.
The last time we used vouchers for a hotel stay was in novatel in london. Got quite a decent price for a tesco rate. I always check to see how inflated the tesco price is before i decide whether to book or not.;)
However, i find the hotel chains seem to differ hugely, depending on if you pay with tesco vouchers or not.

We've just booked an overnight stay for gatwick airport with hilton. Would not have wasted my vouchers using them here, as the saving was minimal, so we booked direct.

Hope you can get something sorted out. If not, enjoy your stay and chalk it up to experience.:)

IM

holidaysforme wrote: »

Any chance you can cancel and book direct?. Seems a real waste of your vouchers!

What's the situation with cancelling and re-crediting Tesco vouchers? Given that I had to convert the Clubcard points to (paper) Macdonald vouchers, then make the booking over the phone, then send the vouchers in so that they can be added as a credit to my booking, I'm assuming it would be onerous at best.

I've just emailed them anyway, for their 'observations' on the 200% rate discrepancy - and requesting, if they can't close the gap (or at least offer a sweetener of some sort) to cancel and re-credit my points.

Will see what happens....

IM

OK...

Had an email exchange and then phone conversation with a very helpful lady at Macdonald hotels...

My sums were slightly out (I hadn't realised that I'd paid extra for an upgrade) but the net is that I would have been paying £426 DB&B (£255 vouchers, £171 cash) whereas the same room is currently available at £212.

I guess this is an extreme example of a mis-match between the rack rate and the best rate - it is the post-Christmas low season - but not really one I can afford to take the hit of.

She has cancelled my booking (and I've re-booked at the lower rate through the web-site) and will return my vouchers.

They remain as hotel vouchers, rather than going right the way back to being unconverted Tesco vouchers, but I can use them for any of the Tesco hotel partners - albeit I've got to book (though not necessarily use them) another break by May.

holidaysforme

That's a good result. I guess it would have taken the pleasure out of the weekend somewhat knowing you'd been stung using your vouchers:o
At least you will have another hotel break to look forward to booking.:)