Hotel rates on night of wedding

OSI · 21-07-2014 8:08pm #1

Back in February we paid a deposit on a hotel to host our reception for June next year. At the time we booked, they had no room rates available that far in advance, but the prices for a similar time this year were around €80-90 per night B&B so we felt that was reasonable enough.

Recently we met with the weddings organiser for the hotel to run over some details and she mentioned that wedding party members should ring the hotel to book their rooms and mention they were with the party to avail of a discounted rate that would not be available online, which we felt was a nice touch. I again checked the room rates, and they were showing €76.50 for a non-refundable upfront rate, or €85 paid on the day. A family member rang on Friday and booked a room and mentioned they were with the party and were given a rate of €110. Thinking was very high I checked the site again and the prices were still 76.50 and 85. Thinking there was an error on the hotels part in applying the discount, I emailed them to day to find out why the family member was charged the wrong rate, only to be told that the rates on the website were pre book only. When I questioned this as the €85 clearly said it wasn't it, the rooms at the €85 magically became sold out, and rooms were showing a rate of €109, and offered no explanation as to why the €110 was charged when there were still supposedly the discounted rooms available.

Is this a common practice among wedding hotels? I feel somewhat enraged that having guaranteed the hotel thousands in reception costs and drinks on the day, they are now looking to gouge more money out of our wedding party.

GalwayGirl26 · 21-07-2014 8:58pm

That is scandalous! Get on to your co-ordinator straight away and ask for an explainaton.

pooch90 · 21-07-2014 9:03pm

Absolutely disgraceful. Throw your toys out of the pram in a major way!!!

sham58107 · 21-07-2014 9:18pm

Yes used to be very common during "Celtic Tiger" and now Rip Off Ireland seems to be alive again.Happened to me a few times so just booked off website or once got bus organised, a lot cheaper.

21-07-2014 9:56pm

Those prices seem to be taken from the website.

Could it be the result which some companies use where they use the cookies stored on your computer against you to raise the prices...

Have you tried it in incognito mode (chrome) or in safe browsing (IE)..

Might be worth a try..

Rackstar · 21-07-2014 10:21pm

Happens all the time. Going to my 6th wedding of the year in August. Not one of them was cheaper quoting the wedding party package.

cookiecakes · 21-07-2014 10:22pm

That's pretty shocking. Have you looked up the available rates on any other websites? When we got our quoted rate, we sent out the code to family who were travelling but we also kept an eye on other websites and then shot out an email when there were super cheap rates. I think most people booked through hotels.com or booking.com as it was much cheaper.

PLL · 21-07-2014 10:29pm

They were changed on the website after you voiced concern, sneaky!, great woman getting the print screens. As others have said, get mad! Beautiful hotel

21-07-2014 10:50pm

Kindly remind the wedding coordinator of the promises made about the discount and that you expect a €90 b&b rate as was advertised.
At the same time tell him/her that you will be doing a lot of online reviews on the booking websites and social media about your experience wiith the hotel.
It's not the Celtic tiger anymore, hotels like this rely on wedding bookings and bad reviews will quickly make couples look elsewhere.

Wabbit Ears · 22-07-2014 8:33pm

Always get everything in writing. If you talk on the phone and agree a price, send an e-mail with what you discussed and ask them to acknowledge or at a minimum request a read receipt.

In this case Id be simply stating that they either honour the agreement or you're changing venue and will be requiring all deposits back in full.

Duvetdays · 22-07-2014 11:11pm

I hate it when hotels do this. They're getting enough money as it is from hosting the wedding it's pure greed putting prices up like that. We were lucky our hotel kept prices the same €89 per room but another wedding I was at in a hotel in a small village in kildare that really gets most of its business from weddings charged €165 for the room when I stayed there. It was shocking its a 3star hotel ffs!

Milly33 · 23-07-2014 9:36am

That's very mean of them, would defo take it up with them.. It is such a bummer to hear that rooms are pricey when you are trying to stay for a wedding, but upping them like this is just rude...

Hope you have some success with them

Milly33 · 23-07-2014 9:39am

Yeah well that's is a positive just make sure they stick to it now, maybe let the guests know what the price should be for the venue

quadrifoglio verde · 23-07-2014 11:02am

cookiecakes wrote: »

That's pretty shocking. Have you looked up the available rates on any other websites? When we got our quoted rate, we sent out the code to family who were travelling but we also kept an eye on other websites and then shot out an email when there were super cheap rates. I think most people booked through hotels.com or booking.com as it was much cheaper.

That's something I never understood about hotels, the price on the likes of booking.com are lower than their own website. Surely the price on their website should be the lowest price available because at least if you sell a room at 60 a night from your website, that 60 goes to you, whereas if you sell at 60 on booking.com, you're not seeing the full 60.

Bobsammy · 23-07-2014 11:26am

When we were having our wedding the hotel were doing the rooms for €80 per night. A few of our guests booked on booking.com for €68. To be fair to the hotel once we pointed it out they did match the rate but it was a little embarrassing when we had asked our guests to book directly with the hotel to see that they could get it cheaper elsewhere. The hotel told us that booking.com shouldn't have been selling the rooms at that price but I don't know how true that is.

Shedite27 · 24-07-2014 10:51am

In public hotesl, "wedding rates" are rarely less than what you find on trivago.

Inspector Coptoor · 24-07-2014 7:40pm

It's nuts how much it costs to put your head on a pillow for the night of a wedding.

Particularly when check ins are now commonly 3 or 4 pm and check out is midday.

The most we paid for a double room was €180 in Westport.
The most decent price was in Tipp - €108.
Kinsale was decent at €120.

Ours will be €140 a night which is quite expensive but it's New Years Eve I guess

biddywiddy · 24-07-2014 10:39pm

Inspector Coptoor wrote: »

Ours will be €140 a night which is quite expensive but it's New Years Eve I guess

Ours is NYE too. The hotel are giving us a wedding rate of 110, which we're pretty pleased with.

Milly33 · 26-07-2014 3:17pm

Jes I just got a call back from a hotel there. We are going to a wedding and while they have self catering they will only let it for a week min wont do anything for guest they want €112 per person for the rooms!! And that's the wedding rate mad so it is.. Also it took nearly a week and a half to get this information from them Inchydoney Hotel

Andiewoo · 27-07-2014 1:16am

pooch90 wrote: »

Absolutely disgraceful. Throw your toys out of the pram in a major way!!!

+1

Thomas D · 30-07-2014 11:08pm

Milly33 wrote: »

Jes I just got a call back from a hotel there. We are going to a wedding and while they have self catering they will only let it for a week min wont do anything for guest they want €112 per person for the rooms!! And that's the wedding rate mad so it is.. Also it took nearly a week and a half to get this information from them Inchydoney Hotel

Incheydoney is one of the dearest 4 stars in the country for good reason. It's a shame but you pay for the quality.

D3PO · 31-07-2014 11:08am

quadrifoglio verde wrote: »

That's something I never understood about hotels, the price on the likes of booking.com are lower than their own website. Surely the price on their website should be the lowest price available because at least if you sell a room at 60 a night from your website, that 60 goes to you, whereas if you sell at 60 on booking.com, you're not seeing the full 60.

thats not how it works.

booking.com buy x number of rooms from the hotel at a discounted rate and then sell them on keeping the difference as profit.

if they dont sell them the hotel still gets the money despite the room being empty.

if they didnt use these sites and dont sell the room they get nothing. In this case they still get money even with an empty room. Theyd be mad not to use these sites.

quadrifoglio verde · 31-07-2014 1:18pm

D3PO wrote: »

thats not how it works.

booking.com buy x number of rooms from the hotel at a discounted rate and then sell them on keeping the difference as profit.

if they dont sell them the hotel still gets the money despite the room being empty.

if they didnt use these sites and dont sell the room they get nothing. In this case they still get money even with an empty room. Theyd be mad not to use these sites.

Ah right fair enough, i wrongly thought it was just a booking service:o
Cheers for the clarity

Milly33 · 31-07-2014 2:00pm

Thomas D wrote: »

Incheydoney is one of the dearest 4 stars in the country for good reason. It's a shame but you pay for the quality.

mmm im not too sure about this. We went down at the weekend as we wanted to suss the rooms and see the layout one of the family is doing the flowers. the reception there was one poor chap left there with phones ringing like mad..We waited and waited and then went to suss things out ourselves. Went upstairs and caught a waiter who was loverly now to show us around. Then we went to see the rooms, loverly chap again but he had to run back 3 times to get the key to work. I cant say the rooms were wow we recently stayed in Blarney Golf and the rooms were twice the size of them and just as nice, the only difference was a nespresso machine in Inch.. The service in the Dune bar is shocking.. Waiters galore but took 25 mins to get three coffees, wrong change and all that goes.

scrumqueen · 31-07-2014 3:43pm

OSI wrote: »

Finally got to speak to our co-ordinator and she assured us that she wasn't in the habit of scamming her customers, so would offer us the cheaper rate for rooms on the night of the wedding. Not a bad result, but I would have preferred not having to call them out on it to get the right result.

Make sure you get that in writing, either send back your contract and have them amend the copy or get it in an email. Any orally agreed arrangements make sure they're all adhered to in your contract!

Frynge · 02-08-2014 12:03pm

D3PO wrote: »

thats not how it works.

booking.com buy x number of rooms from the hotel at a discounted rate and then sell them on keeping the difference as profit.

if they dont sell them the hotel still gets the money despite the room being empty.

if they didnt use these sites and dont sell the room they get nothing. In this case they still get money even with an empty room. Theyd be mad not to use these sites.

That is so far from the truth but i reckon someone working in a hotel told you that.

Booking.com works by providing a platform from which a hotel can sell rooms. They charge 15% commission on all sales they provide for a customer. Rooms are often available cheapest by speaking to someone in reception and telling them you can get the room at x and will they match it.
If booking.com doesnt sell a room, the room will not be paid for.
Some hotel websites offer room booking but at a higher rate and this is because a third party has built the booking part of their website and charges a commission for their customers to use it.
Front desk in any hotel will have the ability to change prices online in a matter of minutes.

Also if people see deals on groupon and the likes they should contact the hotel directly as they sometimes charge as high as 35% commision and the hotel will probably honour the advertised package.

We offer a set number of rooms at a discounted rate to the bride and groom which are blocked off at the signing of the contract and these rooms are allocated with the bride and grooms approval and only by their wedding coordinater. At which point we sell the remaining rooms on a supply and demand basis. I.e. if it is a local wedding where we would not expect to be full the prices would be a bit cheaper to encourage people to stay but if people are from quite a distance away our prices will be more expensive.

The price of hotel rooms is very much based on demand and they will adapt to the demand. Hence anyone who wanted a nice cheap weekend away in dublin last weekend was able to get it as hotels across the city went from full to empty because of garth.

Most of that applies to individual hotels and small groupes. The likes of radisson and hilton the front desk staff have a lot less leeway when it comes to rate when booking in advance.

Hotel rates on night of wedding

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