Blocks of Rooms - Very Frustrated

Re: Blocks of Rooms - Very Frustrated

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  Steph0871

  

  March 2011 edited December 2011

  Were you rude to the girl at Sheraton?  That seems weird that they would completely cancel your RFP, unless you were extremely rude to her.

  
  

  We booked at Radisson, and they told us the same thing. Our rate was $99 (really good), but online it showed like $89.  But the difference was the cancelation policy on the rooms.  If our guests booked online at the lower rate, they couldn't cancel (or had to cancel further in advance. I dont' remember.)

  
  

  Keep in mind these hotels have to protect themselves, too.  At some point they just can't go any lower on price.

  
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  KateJ10

  

  March 2011 edited December 2011

  We had problems with one of our hotels. FI was in charge of setting it up. He would call twice a day, left a couple messages, etc and we would never hear back. Finally I emailed the person in sales and asked to get the contract. I gave her a day (I didn't tell her this) to get it to us. She was a few hours away from me calling the manager and asking why I had to beg them to give our business to them.
  
  So enough about my situation- that is really weird they wouldn't renegotiate- ours dropped 10$ and I know other people here had negotiated with their hotels. So weird. If I were you I would call the hotel manager again, explain the situation and what happened, and ask why they are being so difficult/how do they ever get business this way, and explain what happened the last time they transferred you back to the sales person. Obviously not the most dipolomatic way to handle it, but that's what I was going to do for mine!! haha
  
  How much higher is the Country Inn going to be? Are you going to have a lot of people that need to stay there?
  
  You could always look for a motel 6 or similar budget hotel that is close by for those that really hate spending money on hotels. Obviously there would be no shuttle but that is the trade-off.
  

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  mysticatgal member

  

  March 2011 edited December 2011

  I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one with the block causing problems.  I did have FH read all of our emails back and forth before I would send anything because I didn't want it to sound the least bit mean, just trying to get a deal for guests.  We had problems before with Sheraton as far as trying to get information on the block because we also didn't have people call us back.  I'm going to take a day and try corporate.  I know they have to protect themselves but I also know that they have other ways to protect themselves. 
  
  I guess Sheraton isn't the right block, Country Inn is cheaper but the shuttles are $25 each way.  I am trying to do hotelplanner.com because they are specific to get group rates and are trying many hotels.  If not maybe we will put money down toward the shuttles to try to get the shuttle costs cheaper.  Thanks for letting me vent a bit! 

  

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  wittyschaffy member

  

  March 2011 edited December 2011

  I'm sorry to hear you're having trouble.  My sister ran into a similar thing with the Hilton Garden Inn downtown St. Paul when she got married. The reasoning they gave was that the block room price was higher because they could still cancel up to 48 hours ahead.  The online booking was an immediate sale - no cancelling.  They wouldn't negotiate it.  They ended up cancelling the block and telling people to book online!
  
  
  

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  genevieve27 member

  

  March 2011 edited December 2011

  If you can, try to get the Sheraton to work with you. I've stayed there and it is by far the nicest hotel in that area in terms of amenities and cleanliness.

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  L&N5588 member

  

  April 2011 edited December 2011

   I had a HORRIBLE experience with the Sheraton in woodbury.  I had worked with them for 8 months, set up everything for the shuttle which was to come to my reception when we called them at about 11 pm to return to the hotel. 

  Flash forward to my wedding night, my husban calls and is informed that no one will be coming to pick us up.  So we had to find rides for all of our intoxicated guests to get back to the hotel.  THEN they blamed me saying that they told us they wouldn't be shuttling us (they say it happend 2 days before, like I would have let that slide when I had indicated to 250 guests that there would be a shuttle if they wanted to stay at the hotel) AND I was told it wasn't a breach of contract because of the line that states "depending on the needs of the sheraton".  I was told they needed to not schedule someone that night. 

   Basically they screwed up, wouldn't refund me, didn't give me ANY reimbursement, and basically told me to bug off.  They wouldn't give me the contact information for a higher up.  Then told me that even though the Sheraton has hotels around the world, they don't care if they loose my business because they are a franchise and it doesn't affect them. 

   So, my advice- look elsewhere.  Or, know you can't relay on them even with a contract. 

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