Here's a fun game to play...
1. Go to Yahoo! Travel.
2. Do a hotel search for locations within 6 miles of zip code 95118 on the night of Friday May 1.
3. See if Dolce Hayes Mansion comes up at a "Good Buy" price of $59.
4. If it does, go through the time it takes to select that, then put in your contact info and credit card number to book this "advance payment required" rate.
5. See if you get an error saying that "this rate is not available anymore, would you like to book at a different (higher) rate?"
6. Call the Yahoo! Travel 800 #.
7. Get a "Customer Service" representative who doesn't really hear you saying anything about the trouble online and does a standard search for you.
8. See if they offer you the same $59 "Good Buy" rate and then take your contact info and credit card information.
9. See if they then tell you that rate is not available anymore and ask if you would like to book at a different (higher) rate.
10. Ask to speak to a supervisor.
11. Have that supervisor not really hear you saying anything about the trouble online or on the phone and then do a standard search for you.
12. See if they offer you the $59 "Good Buy" rate at Dolce Hayes Mansion and (just for fun) take the time to give them your contact info and credit card number.
13. Laugh when they then tell you it's not available anymore and ask if you would like to book at a different (higher) rate.
14. Laugh again as their response to you telling them you'll never use Yahoo! Travel again is to ask "if there's anything else they can do for you?"
Sure... there can (but, shouldn't) be a lag time between a rate available online and on the phone. That said, this experience I had trying to book Dolce Hayes Mansion through Yahoo! Travel was a week ago... and the $59 "Good Buy" rate still appears online.
Moral of the story: Dolce Hayes Mansion either puts out intentionally misleading prices or simply doesn't know what the experience of their potential customers is (either being not good) and... Yahoo! Travel, well, I think the above speaks pretty well for itself.
Hilariously good times.
