Accor Hotels Best Price Guarantee - big problems, help needed!

TBeckett100

yes but in a good day i can make several hundred with just a couple of hours work with my clients, i can see his point. of course that would go out of the window for an easy jet hotel double diff guarantee to save hundreds

TBeckett100

dmg24 wrote: »

Or you can use three hours to save yourself a few hundred ...

many others would agree, this website does save you money but i wasnt looking for 14 holidays last year

PBA

budgetflyer wrote: »

I can just imagine your boss telling Martin Lewis that. The man has turned "saving a fiver" into a multi million £ business.

True, but it's we save a fiver, Martin makes the millions.

wombler

budgetflyer wrote: »

By package rate, I suspect they mean a "prepaid + no refund" rate which on Last Minute is much less than the "unrestricted"pay on checkout rates also avail on Last Minute + Accor.
If that is what you are comparing, then it really isn't like for like

Unfortunately it is the prepaid & no refund rate on Accor as well - otherwise i could just cancel it and rebook on lastminute, no problem! I think what Accor are trying to use is that because the two prepay rates are called different things (hotdeals / package rate) that the offer doesn't apply, but that makes no sense. The terms are identical. I say I think that's what they're trying to use, because their emails don't make much sense and despite my requests they have been unwilling / unable to point to which term of the conditions my claim does not meet.

wombler

TBeckett100 wrote: »

amazes me. my boss taught me something when he found me trying to save £5 on airport parking - wasting hours looking. you can either save yourself a fiver or use 3 hours and make yourself a few hundred. point taken.

I wonder what you're doing on this site at all if that's your attitude TBeckett - why not just join the masses who pay the first price they see and stay with their rubbish bank accounts and cards etc and allow companies to rake it in as a result? I've personally saved hundreds from tips on this site and just using my own ingenuity, and mostly it takes very little time. I'm also pretty good at differentiating between deals which are worthwhile and those which take ages just to save pennies.

In this case, as someone else has pointed out, the Accor website says the process is meant to be "simple" and the initial claim probably took me about 3 minutes during my lunch hour. It's only because they won't honour it that it's taken the time and I'm doing this much more for principle than the cash - i think if you've got a guarantee you need to honour it or give a decent reason why not. If Accor know they can just fob everyone off then they'll keep doing it.

dmg24

wombler,

TBeckett100 wasn't having a go, just demonstrating a point that sometimes the site takes things too far (not in your case).

I would email Accor, and if no joy ask for a (UK if possible) address to write to.

(PBA - I'm glad I'm not the only one that realises that!) x

Tozer

"Package rate" in this context means that they have 'sold' a bunch of rooms to tour operators and retailers such as lastminute. They sell them at a discount to their rack rates.

If it helps, the Hilton price guarantee is exactly the same (but probably the terms are clearer). They say that they guarantee to be the cheapest on the Web. What they do not say is that there ARE cheaper rooms on the web but that they will not guarantee to beat them if they are presold to another retailer. Its a con in my view.

TBeckett100

apologies. i ahve been guilty of over " moneysaving". but to save 10% of £350 = £35.00 would only deserve 30 mins of time spent on it Wasting hours on the phone,m writing letters etc and you are paying yourself £2 an hour.

Incapuppy

TBeckett100 wrote: »

apologies. i ahve been guilty of over " moneysaving". but to save 10% of £350 = £35.00 would only deserve 30 mins of time spent on it

To you maybe, but not to everyone. I would quite happily spend a few hours trying to save £35.00.

wombler

TBeckett100 wrote: »

apologies. i ahve been guilty of over " moneysaving". but to save 10% of £350 = £35.00 would only deserve 30 mins of time spent on it Wasting hours on the phone,m writing letters etc and you are paying yourself £2 an hour.

No problem TBeckett and I do see your point - some savings just aren't worth the time and effort required. The problem is that my original plan was to spend 5 minutes to save £24 and now I'm £120 out of pocket because accor won't even match the lastminute.com price (£240) though they claimed that rate was also available on their website for a lower price (it wasn't and isn't). Nor will they refund my booking (a no-cancellation deal) so that I can just go and book with lastminute! So i'm over £140 out from where I wanted to be, which is definitely worth chasing.

It's still more about the principle though - I read the terms and conditions very carefully before I booked and i feel they're being dishonest at the very least. It wouldn't surprise me if Accor never pay out on this guarantee, in which case someone needs to pull them up on it.