I think it was the Starwood Hotels Better Tomorrows promotion launched early last month that got me thinking about a west coast drive.  Now, back from Vancouver, Canada and my two week business holiday, I reread my post from October 13 about the Starwood Hotels 50% off the 2^nd Night Sale, “Better Tomorrows”.

As often happens when I start research on a topic the real story surfaces from the data I find. 

Analysis of Better Tomorrows Promotion – One Month Later

The real story concerns the real value of a hotel room rates sale with restrictive nonrefundable conditions for the consumer.  The concept of Starwood’s 50% off 2^nd night sale, which I like to call a 25% off sale since the total discount is 25% off the regular rate on a two-night stay, is designed to make the consumer feel the deal is so good for the hotel reservation that there will be no better time to book the hotel stay at a lower rate.  The great rate is offset by restrictive nonrefundable, no changes or cancellation rules for the special offer.

I searched and published hotel rates on October 13, 2008 in this Loyalty Traveler blog  for three hotels for a stay on this coming weekend Friday-Saturday, November 21-23 using the “Better Tomorrows” sale rate:

·         Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre British Columbia, Canada;

·         W Hotel San Francisco, and

·         Westin Portland, Oregon

My finding today is all three hotels have lower total rates if booked today through regular internet searches than what I would have paid for two nights using the Better Tomorrows sale rate last month.

The Better Tomorrows rates based on a nonrefundable, no cancellation or changes special offer rate if booked last month would have cost significantly more (16% higher) when looking at the same three hotels for the same dates if booked today for this weekend and a Friday arrival. 

Undoubtedly there were some good bargains with the Better Tomorrows sale. The savings turned out not to be there for the small sample of hotels I checked and could have booked a month ago for this weekend.  An extra 16% is too much a premium to be paid in a nonrefundable reservation in a hotel market that is dropping as fast as the housing market in some locations.

Just another Loyalty Traveler reason to avoid nonrefundable, nonchangeable, no cancellation rates.

Another Starwood Hotels’ website Rate Search Anomaly 

In my searches the past week I have frequently seen rate changes when searching for a hotel by city. The initial search shows a rate higher than shown when you select a specific hotel.

Notice the Planet Hollywood room rate of $88:

Search for Starwood Hotels Las Vegas Shows Planet Hollywood is $88

Frequently these city rate searches show lower rates when selecting the Book Now button.

Planet Hollywood rate drops to $59 after selecting Book Now

The hotel rate shift is not a Las Vegas anomaly as I have seen this same occurrence today for hotels in San Francisco and Vancouver, Canada.

November 17 is the last day for the Better Tomorrows offer (see related Loyalty Traveler links from October 13 Better Tomorrows post and November 17 Analysis of Better Tomorrows - One Month Later), but this promotion is being followed by the Sheraton and Four Points College Football Fans Invited 50% off 2^nd night sale.  The hotel selection for the College Football sale is reduced to these two Sheraton brands and reservations are being accepted through March 31, 2009.  The sale seems to have little to do with College Football as San Francisco isn’t really much of a college football game city location and most of the reservations timeframe is well after college football season.

Promotion: College Football Fans 50% off 2^nd Night at participating Sheraton and Four Points by Sheraton hotels in USA.

·         Special Rate Code = ZBT

·         Booking Deadline: None stated

·         Reservations Period: now through March 31, 2009 and requires a Thursday through Saturday night arrival.

This promotion has lots of technical glitches on my computer when I have searched for sale rates over the past couple of days.   On Saturday, Nov 15, the website kept flashing and reloading every couple of seconds and the unstable visual imagery was annoying.  Fortunately, that glitch stopped when I checked the website on Sunday.

The real issue is the advertisement for 50% off the second night for participating Sheraton Hotels.

I looked up California and the Carlsbad Sheraton Resort and Spa listed as a San Diego hotel in the California City choices.

Carlsbad Sheraton is a participating hotel in Football Fans Invited Promotion

The Carlsbad Sheraton says “valid for arrival any Thursday –Saturday.  When I click on the “Book Now” link I am redirected to the standard “Save 20% on a two-night stay” promotional page for “Z2R” resort multiple night stay discounts that has been an ongoing promotion throughout 2008.

This webpage is not correct link for Football Fans Invited promotion

Mathematically, 20% off a two night stay is equivalent to a 40% discount on the second night, whereas, the Football Fans Invited promotion states a 50% discount for the second night applies.

What’s up Starwood?

My 50% off rate should give me a total room rate of $199 for the first night and $99.50 for the second night for a total of $299.50.  The 20% off rate gives me a two night stay rate of $318.40.

Starwood is overcharging $18.90 for this two night stay compared to the advertised promotional rate of 50% off the second night.

The links for the California hotel options are messed up.  Some hotels show no discount page and go directly to the regular booking page for Sheraton (Sheraton Petaluma), some hotels feed into the 20% off a two-night stay (Sheraton Carlsbad, San Francisco Sheraton Fisherman’s Wharf), and some hotels feed into the “Better Tomorrows” promotion booking page and work (Sheraton La Jolla, Sheraton Pasadena) and some hotels feed into a “ZBT” booking page that responds with the message  “We are sorry, but that promotion code is not available for the dates selected.”,  regardless of the dates I try.

The promotion works for some hotels in California and worked for hotels in three other states I searched and found the second night at 50% off, however, the working links feed into the “Better Tomorrows” rate page which is the 50% off the second night promotion for all Starwood brands ending today, November 17. 

Whether these links will work tomorrow remains to be seen.