A Vegas Mistake
Innocently enough last December I came across a mistake rate for the Venetian here in my hometown of Las Vegas. Knowing that it was fully cancelable, I decided to book it. After all a Strip View upgraded suite at the Venetian is an amazing deal for $43 all in.
While I didn’t forget about this reservation like with my New Year’s debacle in Chicago, for some reason I thought it was for late summer. Well thanks to Google stalking my emails and Trip It doing the same, two days ago I received pop-ups on my phone reminding me of a reservation for tonight 3/18. Uh oh.
By the time I found out, the reservation was past its cancel date, plus it would have been painful to cancel such an amazing rate. The only problem is that I just stayed on the Strip a few nights ago at the Aria for my birthday.
Since I am a total hotel nerd and have been wanting to stay at the Venetian forever, I ultimately decided to come check-in. My friend was able to get my wife and I tickets for the Blue Man Group and it should be a great night. (They actually moved me to an equivalent room in the newer Palazzo.)
Lesson(s) Learned
The New Year’s situation and this one have taught me a lesson. I need to be more proactive about mistake rates. Yes the booking is archived in Trip It, but I rarely go into the app. Thus I have decided to change the way I do things from now on.
Since I am very active on my phone, I will now manually add in Google Calendar entries. A simple solution no doubt, but one I should have done a long time ago. Instead of two day warning, I figure I will put in a warning at 30 days out with several closer increments as well.
I also see this situation as sort of a blessing. Being able to stay at these two “five star” resorts within a couple of days should give me a unique perspective. I can already tell you that the staff here seems to be much friendlier than their Aria and even Bellagio counterparts.
Conclusion
Since I try to make every mistake a learning experience for both myself and you the reader, I thought I would open it up for your suggestions. How do you keep track of both your normal travel reservations and the crazy mistake rates/fares you book? Let me know in the comments.
Arrivederci from the Palazzo!
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TripIt Pro automatically updates my iCal calendar — my problem is the opposite of yours — that the app won’t let me delete reservations I have canceled!
Avid reader of you blog. Just wondering where did you find the this mistake rate.
I believe it was posted in the Flyertalk Hotel deals thread. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hotel-deals-607/
Google already does this automatically for you if you have gmail and an android phone. I use google cards for flights/hotels all the time – you don’t have to do anything if your reservations come to your gmail account.
Google’s task list, ease of use and options pale in comparison to a paid-for app like Calengoo though.
Don’t get me wrong though ,I use gmail as my primary email address so I’m not trying to criticize Google.
You are right and it worked for me in this situation. The only problem is the Google card only popped up two days beforehand. So I didn’t forget my reservation, but I would have rather had more frequent reminders farther out.
Google did its job, I just need a different solution since I am booking speculative plans from time to time.
Look into calengoo. It’s a fully integrated calendar with more options and details than google. I sync my google calendar and my tasks across all phones/pc’s, including with my wife and her own calengoo account and personal tasks etc. It’s one of those how did I live without it apps.
Shawn,
I use the import calendar function from Kayak’s My Trips and they auto:populate my Google calendar.
Let me know what you think of the Palazzo. I love Wynncore and have heard Palazzo is comparable.
I book very few mistake fares so I have to say this hasn’t happened to me yet 🙂
Longer dated calendar alerts are a great idea. I tend to use a week, but a month probably makes more sense to start with. Have fun at the Palazzo!