"Discount" Critical Word

[Cheshire Figment]

A friend of mine who works at the CRO/DTC call center told me that they are not allowed to offer any reduced prices on rooms unless you specifically ask for discounted prices or use the word discount in your request.

For example, if you say you are an AAA member, a Florida Resident, and an Annual Passholder and ask for "the best rate you can give me", the answer will be the rack rate. If you give the same qualifications and ask for available discounts, the agent is then allowed to give you the various discounted rates.

In other words, you MUST specifically ask for a "discount", using that word, before you can be offered any special rate. We know it is silly, but that are the rules they must work under and obey.

 

[ksoehrlein]

And here I thought the magic word was "please"!

Thanks for posting this -- and pass my thanks along to your friend for sharing that information!

 

[Muushka]

"Bumping" this great tip! Thank you

 

[mudnuri]

I think your friend that works in cro is mistaken.... Every time I call, I ask "can you check a rate for me?"...she comes back with rack rate...then I say "can you check for a AAA rate" and it's always a discounted rate.

Even when I did the BBY rate in April, all I said was "can you check for a BBY rate"...

Never once did I mention discount, or anything of the sort.

Brandy

 

[dj2]

thanks for the tip!

we all know that no matter what big company you call, sometimes some agents will answer you one way and you could call right back and get a different answer.

could be that the cm who gave a lower rate w/o the word "discount" was not clear on the new rules or was ignoring them.

but...some cm's will follow the rules as intended, so it's very good to know the magic word!

thanks for sharing.

dj

 

[totalia]

Heh. Yep. Hotels are slimey kinda. They dont want to give discounted rooms because it means lost revnue. It's sneaky and underhanded but it makes money.

 

[dpratt68]

What is this rate-BBY?????

 

[disneyjunkie]

Originally posted by mudnuri
I think your friend that works in cro is mistaken.... Every time I call, I ask "can you check a rate for me?"...she comes back with rack rate...then I say "can you check for a AAA rate" and it's always a discounted rate.

Even when I did the BBY rate in April, all I said was "can you check for a BBY rate"...

Never once did I mention discount, or anything of the sort.

Brandy

You had a rate or code to give them.

If you just call and ask for the lowest rate, they will quote you the lowest rack rate. For instance they'll give you the standard room rate for your dates. They will not tell you about any codes that are available during your trip unless you ask for the specific code.

Dpratt68, BBY was a code that was offered during the spring. I think that was the one I used for our Easter trip. I'm hoping for another great code for our Christmas trip.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

Just stating being an AAA member will not get a special rate. Asking for an AAA rate means you are asking for that particular rate. I know the difference is semantics, but the people who work there have specific instructions and they can be monitored without their knowledge by a supervisor.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

Asking for a specific rate (such as saying: "Is an Annual Passholder rate available") is basically the same as asking for a discount.

However, you still must ask for a rate, just stating you are an Annual Passholder will not get you the rate quote.