At the conclusion of the conference, I made my way to the front desk to check out of the hotel. The clerk asked me whether I wanted a physical copy of the receipt or if an e-mail would be sufficient. I normally prefer the hard copy in order to file my expense report. I am glad that I did.
I immediately noticed that I had been charged the standard rate. I asked the clerk why I did not get the conference rate. She explained that I had not made the reservation through the hotel system and tried to imply that I had made the reservation too late to make the cutoff. I replied that I am required to use our American Express agent. I thought that I had called separately to request the conference rate (but I was not sure because even if I had, I had no physical record of it with me). At that point, I realized that the clerk I was talking to was not going to make any changes.
I decided to ask who might have the power to correct this situation. I knew that they had the original record of my reservation (which had been completed well in advance of the cutoff date). The clerk finally decided to contact the person responsible for convention events. The clerk excused herself and disappeared into a back room. It felt oddly like buying a car. After a few minutes (which always seem much longer when there is a growing line of others waiting behind you), she informed me that I was lucky to get the approval because I had made my reservation early enough. I did my best not to roll my eyes but I am not sure whether or not I succeeded.
In the end, it was worth the aggravation. The conference rate ended up taking nearly $300 off the bill!
I'm just glad I didn't opt for the e-mail. I imagine I would have been far less likely to prevail if we were doing this over the phone.
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