1 Tweet = $55

Tweeting has its rewards.  It's not just a way to let all your followers know what you are having for breakfast.

Couple of weeks ago, our family of 4 went on a weekend trip to Philadelphia to see some historical sites and visit the Franklin Institute.  As the mom, I'm the vacation-planner and the reservation-maker.  And, as a mom with a full-time job outside of the house, I don't always have time to search high and low for the best deals.  I saw that the Hyatt at Penn's Landing has a pool and it's pretty close to all the attractions that we are interested in visiting, I called the reservation number listed on the website and booked 2 nights for 2 adults and 2 kids.  All went well.  The agent was nice and accommodating.

Two days before the trip, I went back onto the Hyatt at Penn's Landing website just to familiarize myself with directions and the facility.  That's when I saw the package deals.  If I pay $10 more for each night, we get free parking ($30/night), free in room movies (~$15/night), passes to the ice-skating rink near the hotel, and Gold card to Dave & Busters near the hotel.  So, I picked up the phone, call the reservation number again.  I ask them can I add the extra $10 a night so I can have the package deal.  "No, you paid for the non-refundable rate.  Sorry."  Crap.

So, I took to the twittersphere.

I'm not a twitter big shot.  I have about 170 followers at that time and I think I only know about 20 of them.   But, I tweeted

I didn't get any reply.  I figured I will have to try to convince the front desk when I check in to let me upgrade to the package.

So, Friday afternoon, we drove from NYC to Philly after I got off from work.  I walked into to the hotel lobby at about 7pm.  Went up to the front desk clerk and said "check-in under reservation for Tan".  She kindly said, "oh Ms. Tan, we WERE able to upgrade you to the Family Winter Escape package.  You will just need to okay the additional $20 charge to your credit card."

Yes!  Success!  

Lessons learned:
1 - Check for deal more closely
2 - Never hurts to call to ask for the deal - worst they can do is say no.
3 - Use social media to voice your wishes - they can ignore it which is fine since I accepted the fact that I didn't do #1.  But, for their own reputation, it doesn't cost them anything to have a happy customer and let the twittersphere know that they treat their customers right.

So for the extra $20 for the 2 nights, we saved $75 (2 nights of parking and 1 free in-room movie, Life of Pi).  Our kids are too young to go ice-skating or Dave&Busters.   That's $55 for one single tweet.  Not bad.