Got fed up waiting on valuetrips. Got brilliant deal!

[emerald6273]

Like quite a few people on this forum was waiting on valuetrips to release their 2019 dates for my March 2019 cruise and found an alternative for brilliant price courtesy of the Hilton price match policy.

 

Managed to get Hilton to do their price match guarantee after seeing cheaper rate on Expedia for Hilton Marina. Simply phoned Hilton who obviously checked out rate I was seeing on Expedia. Hilton not only price matched but deducted another 25% off the Expedia rate making a grand total of £389 ($505) for 4 nights in March for room only.  I'm really happy with that especially as we had transatlantic air fare.

[Mr. Boston]

That’s great!  Nice that Hilton gave you the extra discount as well. I hope you have a nice stay there, I’ve always been curious about that property. 

 

While I’ve never used Valuetrips I have heard of them over the years and the common theme seems to be un or non responsiveness. I can’t plan a trip with that uncertainty, I want to know that I have an actual reservation the day that I make it, I don’t want to have to put more thought and effort into it than necessary.  It is a vacation after all!

[Host CJSKIDS]

That's wonderful that they did that for you over the phone, Hilton usually requires you to email in in order to get it.

 

Enjoy your visit!

[BlueHerons]

That is really cheap for March!  Awesome deal!

[IndyCapt]

That's a great deal for the Hilton Marina!. Last week we had a not so good experience with our first time using Valuetrips in Ft Lauderdale. I made a reservation with them for the Hyatt Place months ago and eventually got a confirmation back for our reservation. It was for one night post cruise. While waiting to disembark from the ship, I called to ask about early check-in. They asked for my name and said "oh we're overbooked and you're one of the bookings that we moved to our Plantation Hyatt Place 20 minutes west of Ft Lauderdale. You should've been notified by Value Trips by now." That obviously hadn't happened and I told them the reservation in Plantation didn't work for our plans. After speaking with the ass't GM, he said sorry can't do anything for you. I quickly called the Embassy Suites on 17th Ave and got a room there for the night. Surprising they had rooms available. Were even able to check in early about 10:30am We were able to get the charge for Hyatt Place refunded to our cc, but had I not called to ask about early check-in we would have taken a cab to Hyatt , unloaded all our luggage and found out there was no room for us. About 1pm that afternoon, we got an email from Value Trips telling us the hotel was overbooked! Luckily it all worked out but it could have been a real mess had we gone straight to the Hyatt. I doubt we'll try Valuetrips again after that experience...

[Paulinda]

Thanks IndyCapt for your experience.  I booked the Hyatt Place thru booking dot com and will probably just keep that reservation for our March pre-cruise stay.  I've been kind of leery about this vt site anyways.   

[dibbitz]

Good Morning, Just adding our experience to the others about Value Trips.  We had a reservation with the Hyatt Place, Fort Lauderdale for a pre cruise, one night a couple weeks ago. Like others, we made this and had a confirmed reservation over 6 months ago.  We chose this hotel, not just for the price, but because our travel companions were staying there.  We also wanted the location so we could find places to eat and to pick up some last minute items we could not travel with.  Well, the night before we were to arrive, I received an email stating they had overbooked and we were being moved to the Plantation location.  The only thing about the Plantation location that is even similar to the Ft. Lauderdale location is that they are both Hyatt properties.  It is located in the middle of a big business park, no stores, no groceries, and only one restaurant, which was more a night club thing and very expensive...we were told a meal would be $50 dollars. Talking to the staff at the FT L location produced nothing other than they agreed that they would have shuttle take us to the new location.  I eventually did get them to agree to give me the free breakfast that I would have had in the original location and that they would agree to the same price for the room.

After waiting and making several phone calls to meet up with the shuttle and being taken to the new location, we finally arrived at about 9 at night....we once again had to "discuss" with the young man at the desk...politely, of course, that we were changed through no fault of our own and that the breakfast was to be free. We were told as well, that the shuttle the next day to the cruise port was free, but then they backed out of that. We later found out that there were 17 parties moved to the Plantation location and that this particular hotel does this a lot. I am not sure how one overbooks 17 rooms at the last minute. All were done through other booking sites and not through the Hyatt site itself, which would have been a much higher rate. BTW, our friends booked with Hyatt using points, and did not get moved. 

All worked out but it was not the experience we had agreed to. Fortunately, we had packed snacks and that is what we ate for "dinner", the room was spotlessly clean, large and beautiful,  two doubles instead of the one king we reserved, we did have breakfast, it was okay but nothing exceptional. They refused to give us a late checkout as we asked, since the ship was not boarding until almost 2. We ended up standing outside the front entrance, with our luggage for the two hours until the shuttle came. I do not fault the Plantation location, but I do fault the Ft. L location as it was their" mistake". If you do not want to agree to discounted rates, then don't. Personally, I would have preferred that they move us to another hotel in the same area rather than one that is ten miles away. At least I would have had similar amenities..... our transport fees to the port were twice what we would have paid sharing a taxi or uber from the closer location. They would not back out of the shuttle fee of ten pp. Not an earth shattering amount but a fee just the same. And the shuttle driver was excellent and very accommodating, so it worked out as well. 

We finally persuaded them to comp our room fee, but only after some debate. Others were not as lucky.  Still it was way more hectic than it should have been.....please take this as food for thought.....

[JohninDC]

Thanks for the feedback.  Hope the rest of your cruise went smoothly.

[funNsun4me]

On 11/11/2018 at 12:33 PM, harv2015 said:

Like quite a few people on this forum was waiting on valuetrips to release their 2019 dates for my March 2019 cruise and found an alternative for brilliant price courtesy of the Hilton price match policy.

 

Managed to get Hilton to do their price match guarantee after seeing cheaper rate on Expedia for Hilton Marina. Simply phoned Hilton who obviously checked out rate I was seeing on Expedia. Hilton not only price matched but deducted another 25% off the Expedia rate making a grand total of £389 ($505) for 4 nights in March for room only.  I'm really happy with that especially as we had transatlantic air fare.

Thank you so much for this post.  I too got tired of waiting and followed your lead and booked with ES instead.  Well finally today I see ValueTrips posted rates and they are much higher than what I got so, thank you again.  I am also seeing a lot of threads that are warning about 3rd party booking so again glad I booked direct

[emerald6273]

Definitely agree with you. Glad we've booked Hilton Marina direct which we've managed to get  for a lower price than the valuetrips Hyatt Place deal. 

[slidergirl]

Calling Hilton (or any property) and asking them to match a price you saw elsewhere is perfectly acceptable.  Many times, a hotel will match the price, based on availability.  They'd rather have your lower income than none at all.  If I remember, this is little different then the BRG challenge that CJSKIDS mentioned.  You have to have booked directly with Hilton first, then find an "eligible" rate elsewhere.  It's a technique used by lots of road warriors, not usually the casual tourist.   Even though my current hotel does not belong to a huge corporate chain, we get people calling and saying "we see you have a room for $500 on your website, but Cheapohotel.com has it for $499 - if we book directly with you, will you give us the Cheapohotel rate?"  Depending on how vacant we are, we will match.  Best of all worlds - Cheapohotel rate, dealing the hotel directly, not a third party middleman, and you'll get all the benefits of people who booked through us directly.