Comments

1. It’s dead

2. Gary! Thank you so much, my wife and I have always wanted to stay there, we are PHX residents. I pounced on this like no other.

3. It appears they’ve resolved their coding issue …

4. Dead now

5. Missed it too. Shucks!

6. I got it! thanks, as I am a PHX resident

7. I booked it and got all the way to completing reservation and then good message that “System is Unavailable”. Please try later. I tried later and found out all room at $30 are gone and now the rate is $559 lowest. I will keep trying to see if it opens up again.

8. Thanks Gary, booked 1 night

9. The lowest rate is not really $559. If you do more than one day, for example 27th through 31st of December, daily rate becomes $117. Rather good, all things considered.

10. So now that platinum get free breakfast would that apply here too?

11. @gomike yes of course if you select breakfast as your checkin amenity

12. Just a quibble, but don’t honor the “resort fee” scam by publicizing a base price at a place that has this despicable custom. So-called “resort fees” are just a way of lying about prices to make it look like they’re lower than they are, and none of us should play along. The resort fee is $29, so your headline should say $59. That’s still an amazing price, but telling the truth about the rate.

13. I was describing what people would see when they search but then wanted people to be aware of and not confused by the scam

14. Ha, showing $1919/night for me now.

15. To update everyone, Starwood’s reaction to the situation is the following cordial email:

    “I am contacting you today in regards to your December 2013 reservations for The Phoenician.

    Unfortunately, due to a systems error on March 27, the resort temporarily listed the incorrect and very low accommodation rate of $30 per night. While the Terms & Conditions on our website indicate the right to cancel if a reservation resulted from a mistake or error, we value your business and would like to extend an exclusive, discounted rate of $130 per night, as well as double SPG points for this stay. Currently, the correct, available rate for December 2013 is more than $400, providing you with a savings in excess of $300 per night.

    We hope you will accept our redress regarding this matter. However, as this was indeed an exceptional circumstance, we are also giving you the opportunity to cancel your reservation(s) without penalty. We hope to hear from you soon so we may discuss and either finalize your accommodations, or cancel the reservations. To connect with a member of our Customer Service team please email us at Executive.Guest.Service@StarwoodHotels.com.

    If we do not hear from you by April, 12th, 2013 we will assume you no longer want to keep your reservations and we will cancel them on your behalf.

    We apologize for any inconvenience caused by our technical difficulties, and remain committed to providing you with our signature AAA Five Diamond guest service and experience. All Starwood Preferred Guest benefits will be fully honored. We look forward to having you with us!”

    While $130 is a good rate (and I doubt this includes the $29 resort fee) compared to $500 a night, a five night stay at this hotel with their offer would cost $800. Or 48,000 Starwood points. It’s actually a close call for whether one should use Starwood points of cash at that point. Given that, it seems the $130 offer isn’t really much of a deal.

16. @The Miles Professor – maybe it’s not worth making a special trip for a $130 rate, but I don’t think it’s that close a call, I’d never use points instead of $130++ for the Phoenician and it is a very good deal for it. I don’t buy your argument that it “isn’t really much of a deal.” It’s a screaming deal. But not as good as before (don’t anchor to that) and maybe not worth the trip if you don’t especially value PHX at that time of year.

17. still a screaming deal. However, not necessarily that screaming to most likely need to pay for affair for a 3 nt weekend stay.

18. Let’s put aside for a minute how I value Starwood points, but take the valuation of esteemed blogger Lucky at One Mile at a Time. He recently posted his SPG valuation at 2.2 cents each. This is probably not an underestimate.

    This would value 48,000 SPG points at $1056. Actually, with the taxes and resort fees, 5 nights at $130 base is $850 total. This gives less than a 20% discount on what the hotel regularly costs to us at $1056. For someone who values SPG points 20% lower (and some of us do), SPG points become the better option. The confusion stems from the fact that the hotel itself costs $500 a night all-in, which should not be the benchmark for how we value the deal. The benchmark is the market value of 9,600 points a night.

    I stand by my stance that, using Lucky’s SPG point valuation, it isn’t really much of a deal at 20% off. This is different from saying there is no deal at all. Just not much.

19. @The Miles Professor – I did the same mental math you do (although you also need to factor points earned on the paid rates). If you value SPG points at 20% less than Lucky does, I believe we have an arbitrage opportunity. 😉

    $130++ is still a screaming deal for the Phoenician in December, though as I say I don’t value it worth a separate trip (since it’s not $130++ … add in airfare and my time relative to its next best opportunity). I like the Phoenician but don’t love it, and I don’t really like Phoenix weather in December, there are other places I’d rather be.

20. I’m with The Miles Professor on this one. Points earned on the paid stay aside, plenty of people (maybe not you Gary) value SPG points at around 1.75c. I personally value SPG points at roughly 2c so no I would not use points, and I would pay the cash rate. But it’s not too far from a tossup that I definitely would not call this a “screaming deal.”

    Having said that, it’s a “good deal,” and SPG was smart in doing exactly what they needed to get off the hook without having to deal with PR issues.