Hyatt Place Charlottesville Mistake Rate Drama
Last May a few people including myself were able to snag rooms at the Hyatt Place Charlottesville for around $5 per night. For example I have a 5 night reservation with a total cost of $33.09 including tax. It was a great deal that didn’t last long, but it hasn’t been all smooth sailing.
Hyatt did acknowledge this was an error last May, but then went on to say they would honor the bookings. Then last August many people including myself noticed that the cancellation policy changed. Yes, the rate isn’t huge, but changing terms on any booking isn’t cool. At that time Hyatt confirmed for me that the change was a mistake and the original terms were in place.
Forced Hotel Change?
Now, some 10 months after the reservations were booked, confirmed and confirmed again last August, Hyatt and the hotel are saying they are oversold and want to “walk” some people to a Fairfield Inn down the street. Here is what a friend (who is also a Globalist member) received in an email:
Unfortunately, due to the system error, we do not have adequate room availability to accommodate your reservation at this property. As such, we have made an alternative reservation for you at the Fairfield Inn & Suites Charlottesville North (577 Branchlands Blvd,Charlottesville, VA 22901), located two miles from Hyatt Place Charlottesville. Upon arrival at Fairfield Inn & Suites Charlottesville North on your reservation arrival date, you may use your existing Hyatt Place Charlottesville confirmation number to check-in. While Hyatt will cover room and tax for this stay, the hotel will still ask for a form of payment from you to cover incidental charges.
My Experience
I have yet to speak with Hyatt about this since I am out of the country, but I have received an email saying that they need to speak with me. I responded that if their email was about moving me to a Fairfield Inn then I wasn’t interested. In my case I confirmed my reservation in May and then again last August when the cancellation policy seemingly changed. I’m sure a lot of Globalists booked this, but they should have figured it out long ago.
So what happened? My guess is they figured they could offload us to a cheaper hotel (average rates and reviews at the Fairfield are noticeably lower) and make up some of the revenue by selling their rooms at a higher price than they paid. Arbitrage essentially. That is just a guess, but they have known for 10 months how many rooms they sold so this doesn’t make sense to me otherwise.
Compensation?
This is a hard one given the rate and situation, but I simply asked not to be moved. If I am moved then I expect to be put in a nicer hotel, not one that by all accounts isn’t up to par with the excellent service people receive at the Hyatt Place. Some people love asking for compensation, but I far prefer to just have everything go as it should.
Conclusion
This is a terrible move by the hotel and Hyatt for allowing it. They made the decision to honor and confirm these bookings and have known since last May what their inventory situation was. For them to change and backtrack now some two months out is not acceptable to me as a Globalist or even simply as a Hyatt customer.
Again, this is not gotcha on them. They confirmed these bookings and decided to honor them. The time for these changes was last year not now. What do you think? Is it okay for a hotel to do this because it was a mistake or does that not change things? Be respectful of others and share your thoughts in the comments.
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My Hyatt account displays my two night stay as non-qualifying. Anyone else experience that?
Following
Just got an email for hyatt system. My reservation was cancelled without any further notification.
If Hyatt wants to re-accommodate anyone, they need to offer compensation in addition to the reaccommodation.
Offering a measly 8,000 points and insisting that someone cancel in order to receive them is pitiful. They are a shameful bunch.
Was offered 8k Hyatt points and free cancellation of my reservation after I expressed my displeasure of being moved to Fairfield.
Will Hyatt still give us the qualifying nights? Do we have to check in, in order to receive the qualifying nights?
I stopped reading when the writer referred to himself as “myself.” Grammatical abortion. Unacceptable for someone who makes a buck or two from writing.
The error has been fixed, but it seems to have had one positive effect. You won’t be reading the site anymore! We don’t like condescending people here Bill so feel free to skip over our content. You’ll miss a lot of good stuff, but this site and our general positive outlook towards life aren’t a good fit.
Shawn
Hyatt Beaver creek somewhat honored my mistake rate $50 / night , negotiated $100 night and threw in free breakfast . I value my Hyatt membership ever since
That is definitely a deal at $100!
Just got my email for June.
Hyatt boxed themselves by confirming the reservations many months ago. They could have simply chalked it up to a mistake back then, but instead they intentionally chose to honor the reservation and inform customers that they would do so. They are now legally obligated to honor that promise upon which their customers are relying.
Frankly, what they are doing now smells like fraud, at least in the legal sense.
More emails coming. Just got mine for June 2019 reservation.
So are we okay if we didn’t get an email saying we will be walked?
Come on man, give Hyatt a break. Say you accidentally left your phone at a restaurant, would it be OK for the server to keep it because, well, you left it behind when you could just have easily taken it with you? All I’m saying is you win some, you lose some. Karma and all that.
And where is the karma for the hotels and airlines who screw over customers on a daily basis as a matter of policy?
Mistakes rates are the karma we get for the unfair devaluations, being bonvoyed, raped by outrageous special event rates etc.
Once they agreed to honor the reservation at that rate it should be treated like any other. The rate is irrelevant. I also never said I was making a big deal, but only asking to not be walked.
They made it a win-win situation. You got your hotel room at a cheap price (I also got 2 nights still intact for TU, WED) and they have alot of Internet attention to their property. Those online references and links help them rank higher in search ratings.
shawn, I have this rate booked in June. I’m debating if I should go out there at all. I could go visit Monticello.
I have 2 nights.. gap.. 3 nights. I really want the 5 nights of stay credit. I don’t give a crap about staying there unless I bought tiki torches and plan to join a white nationalist rally
I have some friends who are going to be there which is the main reason I was going to make the trip. Plus the stay credit of course.
@Shawn, will those who get walked to the Fairfield Inn be able to earn Marriott Bonvoy points? I made reservations for early June and would definitely prefer to remain at Hyatt Place. But I’ve got much higher status with Marriott.
That is going to depend, but I was once walked from a Hyatt Place to a Courtyard in El Paso and did earn Marriott Rewards points.
Have you tried to make another reservation for those same dates to confirm if they are indeed sold out?
according to trip advisor the Fairfield Inn is the 3rd best hotel in C-ville. Hyatt is 5th. Congrats! Gaming and winning!! This is why I love to read travel blogs.
Fairfield North. I believe I linked to it in the article. Worse location and worse reviews.
I’m in the middle of an interesting situation. I’m Globalist and recently had a mix up between a high end resort and corporate. Hyatt Guest Care Support quickly offered me an apology and without me asking emailed me a case number and told me they’d “work with the hotel on my next stay to upgrade me for up to 7 nights based on availability”. The offer was good for 1 year. I just had to reserve then call corporate with my case number. This is my first year as Globalist so I figured this meant I had a suite upgrade award.
I just made a reservation at another high end resort during high season, and called Guest Care Support. G.C.S. explains how they work with resorts and everyone is a team player to take care of the customer. It took 2 days and got back to me via email that the resort won’t be able to honor any upgrade at this time but only if available on check in, despite all room types currently offered for sale.
This resort upgraded me to a suite earlier this year on night 2 of a 4 night stay. It’s the advanced certainty of an upgrade on my future stay that I desire. Anything “at check in” isn’t really doing me any favors in my view.
I think the corporate rep promised more than they could deliver.
The corporate rep who emailed me the “regrettable news” was the same one who sent me the upgrade offer weeks ago. So I sent her that email asking why it can’t be honored this time and haven’t heard back!?
I’m going to push to get an actual suite upgrade certificate. Do I feel bad about being pushy? No way. I have 12 stays and 25 nights so far this year and on more than half the stays have had to take action after checkout to get full points credited. Also on several stays I had to point out that suites were available for sale on the app when the front desk initially told me they’re sold out. Sad!
If they said they’d honor it, then they should or don’t say so in the 1st place!
I booked 7 nights and was also walked. Just spoke to the hotel GM today who offered 50,000 points as compensation. Sounds reasonable? Can I get the points and then cancel my reservation?
I’ve stayed in the Fairfield Inn C-ville a number of times. Nice hotel! insane value at the price you may end up paying. Go to Monticello and Ash Lawn (Monroes’s house just down the road). Have fun!!
Just remember. It’s $5/night. If you don’t value the alternative at $5/night, cancel it. If the protocol at this hotel is to always walk the cheapest rate first, I don’t see how this is malicious intent. I don’t think they would be walking people just for the fun of it if they didn’t need the rooms.
Asar… you couldn’t be more wrong. This hobby is not for you.
I think Hyatt is handling this poorly. We all make mistakes and we own up to them. If I book the wrong hotel by mistake and the rate is non-refundable, Hyatt will NOT understand and help you out.
You can’t change policy after the booking. You can’t just walk a guest in this situation, especially to a lower quality hotel. I suspect most Globalists booked this to retain status.
I did not book this rate nor do I have Hyatt status.
Shame on you Hyatt. Is this the beginning of guests being Bonhyatted???
I have been in this hobby for 12 years. Earned and burned millions of miles and points.
I have also worked in the hospitality industry to see what pangs the staff put up with. The hotel management is typically different from the marketing brand e.g. Hyatt.
This was obviously a revenue management blunder. They were incredibly nice to honor it. Given how popular this deal was, they probably lost millions in revenue. The same blunder probably overbooked the hotel. They are still honoring it, but there is no physical way for them to accommodate you at the hotel.
When the guests are walked, distance is criterion #1 and obviously, they look for something in a similar price range. They are following all protocol.
They probably lost millions in potential revenue. Hyatt is a billion-dollar business, Hyatt Place Charlottesville is not. Unless you really hate small businesses, please let it pass.
I’m only asking not to be moved. That is the resolution I always wanted. Other than that, businesses are businesses and should be held accountable. They made the decision to honor this almost a year ago. This isn’t about their revenue or anything else. It’s about being accountable to the customer. They decided to honor it and at that point it became just like any other booking. It’s no different than if I was paying $150 a night.
But I see your point and definitely welcome your views. Thanks for sharing!
Curious about your calculation of “millions” of lost revenue. The foregone revenue calculation would be number of room nights (X) multiplied by (normal ADR (Y) minus $5). Y appears to be around $200, and that may be generous. So to reach $1 million of lost revenue that would be over 5,000 room nights at this 137 room property, or 37 sold out nights of all $5 rooms. Each multiple of a $1 million would be multiple of 37 sold out nights. Do you think they sold that many rooms at the mistake rate?
You booked a rate that you knew was a mistake. Some poor bloke got fired for it. Now, please don’t eat up another job by pursuing this further. At $5/night, even a Motel 6 is fair.
Our hobby blinds us, but there are actual people who work hard to make our experiences smooth. People who can make mistakes and we should thank them for their effort and let it pass.
Note: I have no affiliation to Hyatt or this hotel.
Well Said