Back when Westgate first took over LVH, we approached the new owners with regard to existing reservations and were assured that all would be honored (see QoD 7/8/14). To our knowledge, there has been no welching on this promise; the "small print" you reference, however, falls outside of that scenario and sounds like pretty standard terms as far as any last-minute change to an existing hotel-room reservation, anywhere, is concerned.
We spoke with Westgate’s PR representative, Tana Shivers, and she extracted this explanation from the hotel. First, if you change the dates of your stay, the price quoted at time of booking may not apply to the new dates. "Originally arriving on Wednesday August 13 for two nights at a rate of $59 per night, the guest is changing the stay dates to August 17 for two nights where the rate is $79 not $59," Westgate wrote, with somewhat clotted syntax. "Therefore, the guest will pay a different rate."
Secondly, if you are canceling and don’t wish to be liable to a penalty, you must do it at least 48 hours before your intended time of arrival. If you don’t, you will be charged for one night’s stay, plus tax -- again, that's pretty typical small print for any room reservation. "To avoid a penalty," says Westgate, "arrival-date changes need to be made with more than 48 hours advance notice, or the date change might be treated like a cancellation."
So, to clarify Westgate’s muddled verbiage, date changes render you liable to "revised rates" and untimely cancellations will cause you "reservation-change penalties". Should you have a prior-booked room at what was still LVH, as long as you don't attempt to adjust that booking in any way your reservation should still be intact and at whatever same nightly rate you initially booked it, regardless of whatever the prevailing rate may be for that night/accommodation now.
