Hawaii - Maui hotel promos falling short?

While on the lookout for Maui, Hawaii, deals, I found promotions for third-night-free stays.

These promos may be attractive if you don’t have more time on the islands to take advantage of the more ubiquitous fifth- and six-night-free offers out there. You can find the third-night-free offers on a few airline booking sites, including United Vacations and U.S. Airways Vacations.

But are these deals, when purchasing a hotel without an airline ticket or car rental, as good as they sound? I tested one out for the Sheraton Maui, and after investigating, I’m still wondering where the “deal” in the package slipped through.

Deal: From April 20 through Dec. 19, 2008, stay free your third night at this popular Sheraton hotel; most of summer is excluded from this offer, though exact blackout dates vary depending on the provider. The package includes free daily breakfast buffet for two, as well as guaranteed room upgrade (e.g., a partial-ocean-view is upgraded to an oceanfront upon check-in). The package can be booked anytime up until Dec. 17, 2008.

Testing: Through U.S. Airways’ booking site, I searched for a stay April 29 through May 2, and for a partial-ocean-view room (which would be upgraded to ocean-view room upon check-in), I came up with a $1,129 total (including taxes but excluding a $20.83/night resort fee) for two people.

Now, trying the same thing via Sheraton’s website, I got an ocean-view for $836 (including tax). This rate also does not include the resort fee, nor do the benefits include free buffet breakfast ($25/person per meal if purchased at the resort).

Conclusion: If I book via a third-party provider, am I paying nearly $300 more for “free” all-you-can-eat hotcakes and links? For these particular dates that I’ve chosen and these room types, yes, it seems so.

Contact: Sheraton Maui, (866) 500-8313

Have you had a different experience booking a third-night-free deal?

— Susan Derby, Special to the Los Angeles Times

[Photo: Sheraton-Maui.com]

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This entry was posted on Monday, March 3, 2008 at 9:00 am by Susan Derby and is filed under Hawaii, Islands & Beaches, Maui, Weekend Getaways. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.