Holiday Inn website
I have an AE friend who when asked how did she discover something or how did she find a special photo replies “Google is your friend” and I pretty much have agreed with her. In fact, I’ve felt pretty silly not using my own resources to discover the same thing. However, I recently had an encounter with Google that has me re-evaluating the friend part.
I made reservations for two rooms at a Holiday Inn in Salem, Missouri for a recent float trip. Yes, I know that it is customary to go camping on a float trip but frankly, a Holiday Inn is as close to camping as I ever want to get. Anyway, I Googled “Holiday Inn Salem Missouri” and up popped the website www.hiexpress.com with a tool-free reservation number. I made the reservations and checked into the hotel the next day.
As I normally do at most every hotel I ever check into (which is a lot!), I pulled out my AAA card, AARP card and all of my hotel membership cards and asked the desk clerk what I needed to belong to in order to get the cheapest rate. Although she was very nice, she informed me that since I went through Google, she was not allowed to give me the $8 per room AAA discount. She said that Google was like a travel agency and that they could not change it.
The reservation had no penalty if I had cancelled it before 6:00 but it was 6:05 so I was stuck.
Hmmmm… that was $16.00 that my AAA card would have saved me. She said that if I had called them directly, they would have given me the $16 discount as well.
I thought the website was Holiday Inn’s. I never dreamed that it was Google’s. Take a look for yourself – www.hiexpress.com I won’t make that mistake again.
Some friend.
CVG
August 15, 2009 at 6:26 am |
Ummmm, Carol? Even friends need to be watched closely. Some of them show up at your retirement party with Barbie cereal and other embarrassing gifts. Ya never know…..