Convoluted pricing this trip

We’re having a really weird price/room situation this trip.

Condensed version: airfare already set, week we needed at Dolphin missing middle night for all 3 rooms 7 nights (ext fam trip) we needed, due to overlapping conventions.

Told to wait til closer to trip (waited almost 5 mos), that could get missing night. Which did become available.

Reservations told me had to charge more than double the rate, b/c now we’re booking last minute(what?) It was their last minute not ours.

So very nice front desk manager overrode high price, but still crazy high, b/c high volume that night she said.

Also, split res was higher price than usual, I was told b/c missing middle night (not my fault, but told computer had to charge as if 3 nights ea reservation, with missing night in middle).

In the meantime, I’m seeing on some other Starwood websites, that some if not all of those nights would be lesser price, if we were booking like now. What?

Question: I believe I’ve seen in Unofficial Guide that if you see lower rate somewhere, even after you’ve booked, that you can call Starwood or front desk, or someone, and renegotiate.

Not sure if I should be rocking the boat at this time. It’s 9 of us this trip, and I’m getting tired with all the craziness this crazy booking has caused this trip. I won’t even go into all of it, but trust me, you don’t want to know.

Am I going to make more trouble by trying to knock down the price, maybe best bet is to circumvent the hotel, call Starwood central, I’ve done this b4.

Hate to get the nice front desk manager into possible trouble tho, since she overrode the crazy missing night price.

Wondering if some of you guys would have a more knowledgeable take on this. Is this a job for Len, HELP!?? Haha.

I don’t have any experience, but I would call and see if they can negotiate the price. There is no harm in asking - they aren’t going to take away your reservation. I only see an upside in calling to see!

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I’m not sure if I’m quite following, but if you are seeing a reasonable rate for your week online or can get it straight from Starwood, I wouldn’t hesitate. That’s generally one positive thing about hotel reservations (in general) that you can cancel and rebook without any penalties up to pretty close before. Book the new week first and then go back and just cancel your 3 separate bookings.

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Thank you for the replies. I guess I just didn’t want to get the front desk manager in trouble, since she already overrode the price res manager said she must charge me.

I’m going to do some more research re the online present price, since my computer removed the site I was saving where the lower price popped up (new computer, doing some updates, so stuff got erased).

Starwood headquarters was helpful to me with price, lowering it a bit for me last trip, maybe I’ll try negotiating from that location of the company. I recall they liked that we are very loyal Starwood (also now Marriott) customers for many years.

I’m hesitant to possibly ruffle feathers at the front desk dept. These are the folks who have in past given us some upgrades, removed some resort charges (we usually get 2-3 rooms at a time). I don’t want some big black spot to be put on our reservations from now on, saying “these people are pains in the neck” haha.

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