Update (and by update I mean rant) On That Lodging Card I Was Telling You About
First and Foremost there is more art coming, (hopefully next post) Just not today. For today we have a rant.
So it figures as soon as I commit to recommending it on my blog, things go a little sideways. “It” being that lodging Card (which in this post shall remain nameless and be hereafter referred to as the CARD)
A few weeks back we got an email from CARD saying (paraphrasing here) “Hey we renegotiated new lower rates. blah blah blah.” I’m thinking “Sweet!” and then thought nothing else about it.
So when checking out of the hotel the other day, they refused to give us a receipt because of the new CARD policy.
I’m like “what the . . .”
What’s that saying . . . Don’t pee on my leg and tell me it’s raining.”
So I called the number on the card and the CARD lady is all “Of course they can give you a print out, (in a way that suggested the hotel staff are just a little slow and should be dealt with like children.) just let me talk to her.”
Feeling smugly victorious I hand my cell over to the very nice hotel woman (I’m not being snarky here, she really was.) They talk and she begins to make a copy while saying “Oh, but we got an email saying. . . ” .
I loose interest at this point and my mind wanders, since clearly I am getting what I wanted. I don’t feel the need to listen in on all the superfluous details. It is enough for me to know that I was right and she was wrong. Phone gets hung up and I get handed a receipt.
I go from smug to annoyed as soon as I look at my hard won receipt. Not only does it not have my name on it, all the pertinent information (like the amount) has be blacked out. Hotel lady looks at me going “Sorry.” I realize I have just been played.
Mike is getting tired of all this and barks at me to just check the website when we get home. (No brownie points for him on that one.) But I let it go. Since I am tenacious he often gets annoyed at me about making a fuss. Unless it saves us money and then he’s all “Awesome!”
What’s the deal?
When home, I look through the CARD website to see if I can figure this out. They have a non-disclosure policy which is so top secret that they can’t really talk about it with their members because that would be violating it. (I’m getting the distinct feeling they are telling the hotel people that us members are a little slow and must be dealt with like small children.)
Seriously? Does this scream hidden fees or what?
So here’s the skinny according to a phone call with the CARD. They renegotiated rates and so (those sad, left-in-the-dark) hotels don’t know the rate they are charging (um . . . wha?) and therefore may well be giving us faulty information.
You can still check the CARD website to see the rate before taxes and then CARD adds their fees on top. But the hotel is forbidden to give out any rate information to us.
This is purely speculation on my part.
Perhaps had I not been getting real receipts from hotels for years (and somehow they managed to know what to charge me then) this new policy wouldn’t bother me so much. It’s not the money. Because the rate was still good. (not nearly as good . . . but good) But it smacks of deviousness. I feel like perhaps I can no longer trust them when they have to be so secretive.
Bottom line, we were charged more than the last time we stayed at that hotel a few months back. Since we stay at the same hotels in every city, I plan on watching things closely and seeing just how many ” new lower rates” we have in the hotels we stay at. And I’ll keep you posted because maybe . . . just maybe I’m all wrong on this.
Oh that bites. Thanks for the tip. I would be going out of my mind if I didn’t know the size of a charge going on my debit card.
Indeed!