We’re increasingly seeing travel brands get creative when it comes to generating revenue during these tough times. In particular, we've seen hotel brands sell discounted gift cards for future stays, and we've now seen these promotions from Belmond, Marriott, Small Luxury Hotels of the World, and more. We can now add another hotel group to…
Continue reading: Anantara Selling Gift Cards With 30% Bonus
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
"Electronic gift cards can only be used once, towards a single transaction"
Does it mean if I bought $1k in GC and my bill was $950, I lose the rest $50?
Typical conditions when dealing with businesses in Thailand. Lots of fine print that often makes no sense with limiting conditions. Once they have your money, you'll never get it back. That said, Anantara has some beautiful properties, especially Hua Hin.
Selling gift cards that expire is not even legal in Canada... and unless it’s used in the currency paid with, you end up losing a big chunk to hotel crappy conversion rates.
Hard pass.
Seems like there’s a federal law in the US that prohibits gift cards from expiring within 5 years too. This is some illegal crap.
Not just Thailand but an Asian thing. Stupid requirements that make them useless, better to just book using discounted sites.
Commons ones are: (and I didn't even need to read this t&c to know at least half of below is in their t&c)
1 year or less expiry
No refund or change for unused balance
Cannot be used with other promo or discount (often you can get it cheaper with discount)
Blackout dates
Limited inventory (1 room per day using giftcard)
Non transferable
Hard to redeem (i.e. need to call some number as the only way to redeem)
Must book 30+ days in advance
Can't be used on tax or incidentals or spa or activities.
@David
I don't think US or Canada governs these giftcards, especially they don't even have any presence here.
Do they not have to follow US laws if they're marketing and selling to Americans?
Terrible loophole if they don't.
I can't even purchase when I want to, seems like there's an issue with Siampay? I can't pay for it, anyone else having this problem?
Why would they??
You're buying from an Asian company on a website hosted who knows where.
Should they apply the rules of every single buyers country?
If I (German) buy something from an American company, on their American site you sure don't expect me to insist on German law?
At what point do you think they’re marketing and selling to Americans vs to just everyone on the planet.
This notion (ego) is why people hates us, even Canadians.
This is why white supremacy or racism won't go away, at least for generations to come.
Amazon.com twisted US taxation for decades from a tiny online bookstore to become too big to fail, and IRS still can't collect tax from them, nor the decades of "use tax" that Amazon.com customers fail to report either.
When a US company like Amazon.com can get away so easily, don't expect a foreign company with no US presence to adhere to anything.
Now if you don't like the t&c, just don't buy it. And if you really want consumer protection, I believe this chain should be under Thailand laws. So go study up.