If all of this reads like a bureaucratic nightmare, then that s probably because it is. Even Franz K

Thomas addict celebrity cruise tried to invoke Best Western s guarantee when he booked a room at one of its Las Vegas properties through addict celebrity cruise its website recently. The guarantee seems like an attractive offer: If you find a better price on another addict celebrity cruise website for the exact same reservation and notify it using its claim form the same day, Best Western will lower its price plus a $100 gift card.
I filled out Best Western s claim form and they rejected it because they said they could not get the competitors website to work, he says. So I sent them links to five more competitors with the same price $30 less than I paid.
Sound familiar? It should. Last week, I covered Kevin McDonald s troubles with Delta Air Lines Best Fare Guarantee . In that case, Delta did the right thing after I helped McDonald find an executive contact at the airline, to whom he sent a polite appeal.
Below are links to five different websites where I can book this hotel for $39 to $49, taxes included. Please verify these and let me know if you will be honoring the best rate guarantee, writes Thomas.
If I understand you correctly after me showing you five different booking engines that all show a rate almost half of the rate on your website you are now going to deny the best rate guarantee claim because one of the websites use the international date format of date/month/year rather than the US format month/date/year, Thomas responds.
If all of this reads like a bureaucratic nightmare, then that s probably because it is. Even Franz Kafka couldn t imagine a maddening exchange like this, and to make matters worse, the Best Western representatives sign their email with a cheerful tagline, We are here to help.
I just got a call from Best Western, he said. They said they discovered a couple of letters at then end of the website that created confusion and caused them to deny my Best Rate Guarantee, so they are honoring the guarantee by sending me the gift card.
Throughout the call they made it sound like they were following up on my emails, but when the guy said he had been working on it all day I knew he had received your inquiry, so I asked him to confirm that he was responding to your inquiry, not just following up on my correspondence with them, which he admitted, he said. The point is, it is obvious from the many email exchanges that there was nothing on Earth I could do to get them to honor their best rate guarantee. Once you got involved someone at the top made sure that a manager spent a whole day rolling heads.
I wish that hadn t been necessary. I ve always felt that best rate guarantees are one of the travel industry s scammiest promotions, just a step above travel clubs and those free vacation offers you get in the mail. Sure, the companies offering them will always be able to point you to a few folks who made a successful claim, but for every one person who got that $100 gift card, there are a hundred who didn t.
Exactly how prolific is the unreasonable denial.  Of course we hear of anecdotal information of people being denied.  But is that normative?  When things go right people rarely contact elliott.org or similiar forums.  I would like to konw what percentage of otherwise legitimate claims are denied for obviously frivolous reasons.
It s like the car rental experience.  Sure, we read about the bad experiences people have, but the overwhelming majority of car rentals go without a hitch or no one would ever rent a car. My first car rental was about 2 weeks after I got my driver s license.  I was a young stupid inexperienced 16 year old. In all those years since then I have never been assessed car rental damages.
My other objection addict celebrity cruise is that there are much better ways of resolving this issue if indeed it is the epidemic that its been suggested.   Simply bring it under the consumer addict celebrity cruise protection/fraud laws and add some civil penalties.  In some states those laws have teeth.  Civil fines and penalties do wonders to ensure compliance.  For example, here in California, an NSF check remaining unpaid for 30 days can be assessed a civil penalty of $1500 by the court regardless of the amount of the check.
However, the vast majority of best rate guarantees are shams because its nearly impossible to invoke. As I have said in previous posts, I book once I find a fare price, and stop checking addict celebrity cruise rates. Perhaps I am just a consumer without sense, but it gives me much greater peace of mind
I voted "no."  I don't think they should be banned, however I think they should be followed by the companies offering them.  I also think if a hotel offers it, and doesn't follow it, there should be some type of punitive damages.  Though I have no clue how that could ever be enforced, so it will probably never happen.
I think this case is horrific, the OP clearly found a lower rate, and the hotel still denied it.  I understand Delta and the different fare classes since they are based on published fares, but this was not the same.  I am glad it worked out in the end, but it should not have been that much trouble.
I am also shocked at the repeated, "The claim has been denied."  It reminds me of when I signed up for a Sears's credit card when buying an oven in 2005.  The first bill came 2 days after the due date.  I paid the bill the same day, and kept the envelope with the postmark on the due date just in case.  I called as well and was told that this happens all the time with first bills and they know about it and I wouldn't get a late fee and not to worry. Three week later I got another bill with a late fee and interest.  I called and asked them to waive them as the bill was mailed addict celebrity cruise to me on the due date, and it would not have been possible to pay on time.   The agent said it was my responsibility to pay the bill on time, even if they didn't mail it on time.  I asked again that they waive it, and the phone rep asked me if I would like to appeal the late fee.  I told him I did and he instantly responded, "Appeal Denied."  On my third call, I finally got someone who not only told me they could see in their computer that it was mailed on the due date, but they also said that was ridiculous and waived the fees.
Best Buy tried the same thing with me in 2000. I bought a washer/dryer on their credit card to get a discount. addict celebrity cruise I paid the bill in full with two weeks to spare. They claimed they never got payment. I had to get a copy of the cancelled check and prove it to them. Bunch of crooked scam artists!
I am persuaded that if any member of congress or any of their associates read these blogs then we can expect this one to trigger an investigation with an eye to passing legislation that punishes companies that don t honor such guarantees or at least do not unreasonably reject claims for honoring such guarantees.  It is apparent that this is a significant source of consumer frustration and perhaps even outright fraud that needs a firm statutory hand to control and administer it.  I can also envision a staff of a score or two employees to monitor such offers and administer complaints.  It probably won t take more than $11 12 million a year to enforce addict celebrity cruise such laws and regulations.
Best Buy s credit cards (even the in store ones) are actually handled by a bank. When I had my credit card with them the bank was HSBC, I think they now use Chase for new customers. Regardless, it wasn t Best Buy who didn t process your payment correctly, it was the bank, and they are the ones you should avoid doing business with if you are going to stop patronizing addict celebrity cruise someone because addict celebrity cruise of the payment problem.
What makes me suspicious addict celebrity cruise in this case is the $100 gift card reward.   There s no way a modest chain like Best Western can turn a profit giving out too many of those (effectively paying its customers to spend the night with them.)
The creators of this guarantee program had to believe that opportunities for legitimate claims would be virtually non-existent and that they could immediately fix any rare exceptions.  If their assumptions proved to be mistaken, then they would have a great temptation to systematically reject claims on dubious grounds.  [I agree that this isn't a reason to ban guarantees.  It just makes me extra-skeptical of guarantees that promise a big reward for successful claims.]
Agree don t ban them but certainly don t count on them.  When making a purchasing decision, completely ignore them. Then, if for some reason you need to invoke the best rate guarantee, you have something on which to fall back (which is better than nothing, but not much.)
A person making a reservation at Best Western, and making a promise to pay for a room, has entered into a contract with Best Western, which incorporates the best rate guarantee. Best Western becomes addict celebrity cruise obligated to perform on that guarantee. If it does not perform, then the other side to the contract the hotel guest has a right to seek enforcement of the contract, i.e., to sue the hotel.Most jurisdictions have quick and inexpensive fora for doing so through their small claims courts.
This is same remedy that exists for virtually every contract for which a consumer might be a party. To suggest that a best rate guarantee program addict celebrity cruise should be banned, when an adequate legal remedy exists, is tantamount to suggesting that all consumer contracts should be banned.
Personally, I don t find either option (ban companies from offering the guarantees, or choose to ignore them and allow companies to market misleading guarantees) to be satisfying. I think companies should be allowed addict celebrity cruise to offer them but should have to stand by them.
Clearly, this was a case where Best Western tried to renege on their offer. addict celebrity cruise Shame on them. Unlike the confusion over the myriad fare classes on a Delta ticket, a room rate is much easier to compare: there are really only two basic rate classes (cancellable vs. prepaid and non-refundable).
3. Virtually no one will use almost the entire gift card value without spending their own money. From BW s standpoint, ideally someone will book several addict celebrity cruise nights and the $100 gift card will act as a