Anchor In Distinctive Waterfront Lodging

Additional Notes

Complaint: I found a coupon on ***************** advertising a walk-in rate for the Anchor In of $99 plus tax. The coupon is good on same day walk-ins only and is valid through 8/31/10. Use of the coupon is subject to room availability. I called the Anchor In today (2 days prior to my anticipated use of the coupon) to inquire as to how many rooms they currently had available for Thursday, 8/19. I wanted to gauge whether my odds for walking in on Thursday and being able to get a room on Thursday were good. I was not attempting to make a reservation for Thursday, but was only inquiring how many rooms were still available. I was told as of the time of my phone call that there were 4 rooms still available. When I told the manager that my intent was to use the coupon if they had rooms available on Thursday, the manager told me that the coupon was not valid. I directed the manager to the roomsaver.com website and he saw the exact coupon that I was looking at. The manager then proceeded to say that there must be some mistake, because the coupon was only supposed to be valid through the Spring. I kindly pointed out that despite an alleged mistake, the coupon was still blatantly advertised on the website and should be honored, obviously subject to availability of rooms on the day in question. The manager again said that it wasn't a valid coupon. I then asked point blank "If I come to your establishment on Thursday and you have a room available, will you or will you not honor this coupon"? The manager said very clearly, "No, I will not." I told the manager that he was engaging in false and deceptive advertising and that I would report him to the ****** ******** ******.

Desired Settlement: The company has a responsibility to honor the coupon made available to the public and not engage in false advertising.

Business Response: Dear Boston ****** ******** ****** The Anchor in has never and will never engage in false and deceptive advertising. We strongly dispute the complaint. The person filing this complaint has omitted significant details that I attempted to explain to her which she dismissed and chose to ignore. When I did try to explain to her she pronounced that she was a lawyer and that she knows the definition of false advertising. She said she was only interested in if we had rooms open on Thursday the 19th of August and if we had rooms open would I honor the coupon. The coupon was accessed here> ________________________________________________________________________________ ************************************************************************** ** ******** ** ******** **** ** ***** ** **** ***** ******************************************************************************** *************************************************************************************************** ******************************************************************************** for another property. I attempted to explain to her that as stated on the coupon > ________________________________________________________________________________ “COUPON VALID ON A WALK-IN BASIS ONLY. COUPON BASED ON AVAILABILITY FOR ROOMS AT THIS RATE. NOT VALID WITH OTHER DISCOUNTS, DURING HOLIDAYS OR AREA SPECIAL EVENTS. NOT VALID FOR ADVANCED RESERVATIONS UNLESS OTHERWISE SPECIFIED BY HOTEL. CONTACT HOTEL FOR DETAILS.” ________________________________________________________________________________ PLEASE NOTE THE OBVIOUS RESTRICTIONS THIS CONSUMER WANTS TO IGNORE. ________________________________________________________________________________ She was calling on Tuesday asking if the rate would be honored on Thursday. I explained that the coupon was not valid for advance reservations. I explained that the rate published was not authorized and should have only been for the Spring. I told her I was going to have the unauthorized coupon removed (the unauthorized coupon has been removed) but in spite of the fact it was unauthorized, I told her I would honor the rate however, unfortunately none of the 4 remaining guest rooms left were designed to be for this rate. The guest rooms remaining had not been used in prior coupons. She said “I am not interested in that and if you have a room open, you need to honor the coupon for $99”. The 4 remaining guest rooms were upper tier guest rooms and started at $279. I made several different types of approaches in an attempt to get the caller to listen and make her understand the restriction. She would only repeatedly say “if I come to your establishment on Thursday and you have a room available, will you or will you not honor this coupon”? The caller was clearly using her occupational skills and bully tactics despite the restrictions on the coupon to obtain a room for $99. Once I told her I would not honor the $99 rate on Thursday she said “fine I’m going to file a complaint with the ****** ******** ******” and hung up. We are a small third generation family business and have built a respectable reputation over 55 years. We will continue to build on that reputation every day. We take extreme pride in our high level of customer satisfaction.

BBB's Final Determination: After reviewing the position of all parties, BBB determined that the business made a reasonable offer to resolve the complaint. However the consumer did not accept the offer.