So we booked a room at the Boardwalk a long time ago and were offered a rate for 195 a nite. Now I see they are offering rooms for 150 a nite. Is it possible to get the lower rate or am I stuck paying 195?

Depends how you booked and what the restrictions were. Some discount hotel sites, or even booking with the hotel themselves have strong restrictions on cancelling (like the airlines, which charge you $100 if you cancel an advance purchase ticket).

If you booked online, but not directly with the hotel, see what the restrictions were. If you can cancel the reservation or not.

If you booked directly with the hotel, often hotels will reduce your price, or cancel your first reservation and give you a new one at the lower price since prices have dropped. (Some do it because they are nice, others because there are laws in place).

But NOT on reservations booked under heavy restriction. And because of demand for Spring Break rooms in places like PCB, you might have been making some kind of guarenteed reservation .. guarenteed that you would show up or they could charge you for a day (or more).

Read your reservations stuff closely and make some phone calls. If you can rebook and save, go for it. If not (because you booked a restricted rate), don't sweat it. Just have fun. You are at the beach!

Hope this helps.

Boy I am I pissed off! They won't let me change the rate. So really there is no point booking early. I have friends who got the $125 rate.

It's just going to be frustrating showing up at the same hotel at the same time with some of my other friends and they will pay $500 less to stay at the same place. Man I am so pissed! We may just cancel and stay somewhere else (our other friends included), we are really unimpressed with how that works.

Whats the point of booking early? Places I've stayed in the past usually rise in price as you get closer to spring break. Not this POS place.

Your're right tedinvegas I should just forget it and have fun on the beach but how can you when you were just robbed for $500 ($750.00 Canadian)?

We will definately be coming down again next year but I can guarantee you that we won't be staying at the boardwalk regardless of how much fun it is this year.

What's up canukparty? Here is the best thing to do -- if you cant get the lower rate just call and completely cancel your reservation -- and then rebook if there are more rooms available for $125. -- You'll have to pay a cancellation fee of either 50 or 200 -- but youll end up saving much more $$ then that.

I just figured I'd mention this for any last minute people who want to go to SB. This is what i did and i saved a ton of $$. Flights directly to PCB run a lot of money even if you book early -- so my friends and i booked a cheap flight to Tallahassee (you can still get tickets for a little over 200) and then we took a 2 hour greyhound bus into panama city. A little bit of a pain in the a#$ , but well worth it considering we saved over $300 each. Hope this is helpful and have fun at PCB!!!

we're flying into tallahassee this year....renting a van there and driving the 2 hours. we're saving tons 'o cash!

I know how you feel canukparty. I booked early, like in October because we knew where we wanted to stay and everything and that we were going to PCB, but now they have lowered the price by $80 per person so we were screwed just as bad. I also went through studentcity.com also though which was a huge mistake. I don't even think I can cancel because we would lose all the money that we have already paid. I wrote studentcity.com an e-mail asking about booking early and paying more also, to which I have yet to hear and that was about 4 or 5 days ago. What's done is done I guess, but I'm still going to have fun, but I will not be booking early anymore.

Friend got jacked too. She called and rebooked, best option is to try and plea you weren't informed about the $50 fee. Worked for her, roll the dice---try your luck!

If you call the hotel directly, like me, I found out through the manager of reservations that you can change a reservation...aka. adjust a rate...as long as it is not within 10 days of arrival. I got 160 rate dropped to 125 a nite.

Brian