Has this happened to anyone? - DPChallenge Forums

Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

06/18/2011 10:46:50 PM · #1

Hotel reservations cancelled but not by you ?

We are on our way traveling through Florida. Our first stop was a room at a national hotel chain. Check in time is 4pm. We arrived at 7pm. Manager says "my wife" called at 7:41am the morning of check in and cancelled. Says has two sick kids throwing up. We did not make that call !

He called the person that was on duty who took the call. She remembered because she said my wife's name is spelled different than other names that "sound" the same. She asked if he could verify city and state of our residence. They verified and cancelled the room.

We were lucky and got another room about 12 miles away.....with a few freebies.

I can only think of one person that MAY have done this but no way to verify.

Can any of you tell me if you have had this happen? A few people told me that the hotel just gave up our room because someone offered to pay more and selected us at random...to "lose our room". I find this hard to believe. What about you?

**just to be clear...the caller was male...saying it was me...using my wife's name b/c it was the name on the reservation.

EDIT: Person calling claimed to be me...not my wife. However, the reservation was under my wife's funny spelled name.

Message edited by author 2011-06-18 23:33:10.

Kelli

Canon EOS-D60

06/18/2011 10:59:01 PM · #2

It happens all the time at the Jersey shore. Any resort/vacation type town really. If you're late they're thinking "no show" and if someone comes in wanting a room, they're going to rent it out. Of course they're not going to tell you the truth.

Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM

06/18/2011 11:12:05 PM · #3

Originally posted by Kelli:

Cory

Canon EOS-1D Mark IV

06/18/2011 11:21:57 PM · #4

Originally posted by kenskid:

Ok...so check in is 4pm. We get there about 6:30pm. Manager says it was cancelled by my wife at 7:41am. Manager calls girl that was on duty. She remembers because of my wife's funny name. Says male caller (claiming to be me) said has two sick kids (we have two kids with us) and needs to cancel. This conversation (between mgr and girl that was on duty) took place right in front of me.

Now if this is just the hotel wanting to give my room away, it is one of the most elaborately planned shams I've ever seen. Why 7:41am (in computer)? Why mention my wife's strangely spelled name? Why two kids sick? Its unreal !

Originally posted by Kelli:
It happens all the time at the Jersey shore. Any resort/vacation type town really. If you're late they're thinking "no show" and if someone comes in wanting a room, they're going to rent it out. Of course they're not going to tell you the truth.

If it looks like sh*t and smells like sh*t, chances are that it's sh*t.... You already know the answer here - the question is what are you going to do about it?

Yo_Spiff

Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III

Olympus 12-100mm f/4.0 M.Zuiko ED IS PRO

06/18/2011 11:52:37 PM · #5

You could write to The Consumerist. It is a consumer advocacy blog run by Consumer Reports. They frequently post consumers experiences that have been sent in, and the commenters on the articles often have some good advice.

One piece of advice that will likely be given is the Executive Email Carpet Bomb. An approach that seems to frequently work.

DCNUTTER

Canon EOS-7D

Canon EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

06/18/2011 11:59:05 PM · #6

Originally posted by kenskid:

The other information not withstanding. Why...when you were three hours past check-in. Didn't one of you call the hotel to let them know that you were running behind, but still intended to keep the reservation? I mean three hours is plenty of time for the staff to think you're a no show and give them reason to possibly rent the room to someone else who showed up. Calling them to verify your reservation and let them know you were on the way would more than likely have prevented this under normal circumstances. I don't think they would have used any excuse about someone calling to cancel had you called ahead of time. If they were lying I'm not sure they would have chosen an AM time period to say someone called. Since you were late they simply could have said that you were late with no confirmation to hold so they rented it out to someone else. Am I missing something here in reading your post?

Dave

Nikon AF Nikkor 85mm f/1.8D

06/19/2011 12:42:25 AM · #7

Originally posted by DCNUTTER:

Originally posted by kenskid:
Hotel reservations cancelled but not by you ?

We are on our way traveling through Florida. Our first stop was a room at a national hotel chain. Check in time is 4pm. We arrived at 7pm. Manager says "my wife" called at 7:41am the morning of check in and cancelled. Says has two sick kids throwing up. We did not make that call !

He called the person that was on duty who took the call. She remembered because she said my wife's name is spelled different than other names that "sound" the same. She asked if he could verify city and state of our residence. They verified and cancelled the room.

We were lucky and got another room about 12 miles away.....with a few freebies.

I can only think of one person that MAY have done this but no way to verify.

Can any of you tell me if you have had this happen? A few people told me that the hotel just gave up our room because someone offered to pay more and selected us at random...to "lose our room". I find this hard to believe. What about you?

**just to be clear...the caller was male...saying it was me...using my wife's name b/c it was the name on the reservation.

EDIT: Person calling claimed to be me...not my wife. However, the reservation was under my wife's funny spelled name.

The other information not withstanding. Why...when you were three hours past check-in. Didn't one of you call the hotel to let them know that you were running behind, but still intended to keep the reservation? I mean three hours is plenty of time for the staff to think you're a no show and give them reason to possibly rent the room to someone else who showed up. Calling them to verify your reservation and let them know you were on the way would more than likely have prevented this under normal circumstances. I don't think they would have used any excuse about someone calling to cancel had you called ahead of time. If they were lying I'm not sure they would have chosen an AM time period to say someone called. Since you were late they simply could have said that you were late with no confirmation to hold so they rented it out to someone else. Am I missing something here in reading your post?

Dave

SEG

Nikon D7100

06/19/2011 12:57:31 AM · #8

Originally posted by kenskid:

Hotel reservations cancelled but not by you ?

We are on our way traveling through Florida. Our first stop was a room at a national hotel chain. Check in time is 4pm. We arrived at 7pm. Manager says "my wife" called at 7:41am the morning of check in and cancelled. Says has two sick kids throwing up. We did not make that call !

He called the person that was on duty who took the call. She remembered because she said my wife's name is spelled different than other names that "sound" the same. She asked if he could verify city and state of our residence. They verified and cancelled the room.

We were lucky and got another room about 12 miles away.....with a few freebies.

I can only think of one person that MAY have done this but no way to verify.

Can any of you tell me if you have had this happen? A few people told me that the hotel just gave up our room because someone offered to pay more and selected us at random...to "lose our room". I find this hard to believe. What about you?

**just to be clear...the caller was male...saying it was me...using my wife's name b/c it was the name on the reservation.

EDIT: Person calling claimed to be me...not my wife. However, the reservation was under my wife's funny spelled name.

Sounds like your answer is in your initial post. I've checked into hotel 6-7 hours late before. As you said there is fine print that protects the hotel. Also, every hotel I've ever stayed at gets your cc number and has it on file for you to even reserve the room. Show up are not your getting charged. Seems elaborate. My money is on someone is effing with you.

Canon EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

06/19/2011 01:02:18 AM · #9

Me too SEG ! There is a way to check this out. However, the method will 100% incriminate them if they did it from this "device" but just because that doesn't pan out, it still does not rule them out because they may have used a different "device" to do the cancel.

Originally posted by SEG:

Originally posted by kenskid:
Hotel reservations cancelled but not by you ?

We are on our way traveling through Florida. Our first stop was a room at a national hotel chain. Check in time is 4pm. We arrived at 7pm. Manager says "my wife" called at 7:41am the morning of check in and cancelled. Says has two sick kids throwing up. We did not make that call !

He called the person that was on duty who took the call. She remembered because she said my wife's name is spelled different than other names that "sound" the same. She asked if he could verify city and state of our residence. They verified and cancelled the room.

We were lucky and got another room about 12 miles away.....with a few freebies.

I can only think of one person that MAY have done this but no way to verify.

Can any of you tell me if you have had this happen? A few people told me that the hotel just gave up our room because someone offered to pay more and selected us at random...to "lose our room". I find this hard to believe. What about you?

**just to be clear...the caller was male...saying it was me...using my wife's name b/c it was the name on the reservation.

EDIT: Person calling claimed to be me...not my wife. However, the reservation was under my wife's funny spelled name.

Sounds like your answer is in your initial post. I've checked into hotel 6-7 hours late before. As you said there is fine print that protects the hotel. Also, every hotel I've ever stayed at gets your cc number and has it on file for you to even reserve the room. Show up are not your getting charged. Seems elaborate. My money is on someone is effing with you.

DCNUTTER

Canon EOS-7D

06/19/2011 01:32:45 AM · #10

Originally posted by kenskid:

My wife felt the same..about the calling thing....however.... Upon making the online res, I clicked the agreement about the "rules".

We had up to 48 hours before check in time to cancel. If we cancelled after that, we would have to pay a fee ...something like $75 or so. We received an email at the 48 hour mark saying that the cancel time had passed....reminding us of the fee if we cancelled now.

The agreement also says that if we do not show up by CHECK OUT TIME on the day AFTER our reservation, we would be charged the whole amount for that nights stay. Lots of "cancellation" rules that I agree are necessary.

I have never made it to a room at check-in time. At times I have even arrived 4 to 6 hours late....and never have had a problem.

Like I said..I just can't believe they gave my room away because I was 2.5 to 3 hours late for check-in time and then made up this elaborate story after the fact. In fact there was a line of about 8 guests signing in at the same time I was....3 hours late....all giving their names and getting their reservations looked up with no problem.
Was I just the "unlucky" one that day? Was I the one that got their name picked out of the hat?

Originally posted by DCNUTTER:

Originally posted by kenskid:
Hotel reservations cancelled but not by you ?

We are on our way traveling through Florida. Our first stop was a room at a national hotel chain. Check in time is 4pm. We arrived at 7pm. Manager says "my wife" called at 7:41am the morning of check in and cancelled. Says has two sick kids throwing up. We did not make that call !

He called the person that was on duty who took the call. She remembered because she said my wife's name is spelled different than other names that "sound" the same. She asked if he could verify city and state of our residence. They verified and cancelled the room.

We were lucky and got another room about 12 miles away.....with a few freebies.

I can only think of one person that MAY have done this but no way to verify.

Can any of you tell me if you have had this happen? A few people told me that the hotel just gave up our room because someone offered to pay more and selected us at random...to "lose our room". I find this hard to believe. What about you?

**just to be clear...the caller was male...saying it was me...using my wife's name b/c it was the name on the reservation.

EDIT: Person calling claimed to be me...not my wife. However, the reservation was under my wife's funny spelled name.

The other information not withstanding. Why...when you were three hours past check-in. Didn't one of you call the hotel to let them know that you were running behind, but still intended to keep the reservation? I mean three hours is plenty of time for the staff to think you're a no show and give them reason to possibly rent the room to someone else who showed up. Calling them to verify your reservation and let them know you were on the way would more than likely have prevented this under normal circumstances. I don't think they would have used any excuse about someone calling to cancel had you called ahead of time. If they were lying I'm not sure they would have chosen an AM time period to say someone called. Since you were late they simply could have said that you were late with no confirmation to hold so they rented it out to someone else. Am I missing something here in reading your post?

Dave

I'm just giving your food for thought. Regarding those other customers who arrived at the same time...late. You have no way of knowing if THEY had the forethought to call ahead and say I'm running late. Perhaps they did, and that's why they had no problems.

I can appreciate what you're saying, but when your traveling..especially with two kids you have to be ever vigilant and continually cover all your bases. The hotel is a business, and even though it implies they will hold your room and only charge you at check out time for the no-show they are probably used to people calling when running late. Therefore they stood too make even more money for a double booking of the same room. With no heads up call they could have taken that as a high probability that you aren't going to show, and will end up charging you anyway. Money in their pocket. Now someone else wants the room. They pay and stay. The hotel just got double the nightly rate for one room. They play the odds. Chances are great in their experience..since it's their line of work that when a customer doesn't call to say they are running late, and a few hours go by...then maybe the percentage of no shows is high. So why not rent the room and keep other customers happy. Might not be right, and it seems like a crap shoot on the part of the hotel, but again...they deal with this every day and apparently it works out well for them otherwise they would change their practice.

The agreement says that they will charge you the next day after check out time if you don't show, but it doesn't say that they won't try and rent the room to someone else if they can. That's their way out...again a way to make double the money. They also probably gamble that others might not show so even if you do there will be a room available. Doesn't make it right, but it's how it's done.

Really, next time call...and then call again to leave no doubt that you will needing the room. Have the clerk put a notation in the computer so any shift changes will see it. Cover your bases.

Not saying there wasn't some fishy excuse going on, but I feel you could have done more to prevent it from happening. You can never assume that others are looking out for your best interest when money is on the line for them...greedy or not. Being proactive in these cases will save you a lot of stress.

Dave

idealodds

Nikon D80

Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D

06/19/2011 02:20:28 AM · #11

The girl that took the 7am call would not be there at 7pm unless she was a manager, and even then it is highly unlikely.

NathanWert

Canon EOS-90D

Sigma 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 DC OS HSM

06/19/2011 08:43:38 AM · #12

I've worked in a national hotel chain and I've never had this happen to me while working....however, our reservation policy was that the 4pm check-in time was the EARLIEST you were allowed to check-in (not really, but we said it so that we had time to clean rooms between guests).

As for showing up late...we just asked that you call if you were going to arrive after 11pm so that we knew you were still coming and not just a no show (we charged your card for the stay if you just didn't show up).

I'm thinking someone was screwing with you in a malicious way.

06/19/2011 10:28:39 AM · #13

....I had the manager CALL her at home.

Originally posted by idealodds:

The girl that took the 7am call would not be there at 7pm unless she was a manager, and even then it is highly unlikely.

Canon RF 24-70mm f/2.8 L IS

06/19/2011 10:34:59 AM · #14

Thanks for writing...you have good info b/c you worked in the industry. I have been to hundreds of hotels and have not ONCE checked in exactly at check in time. Sometimes I was 6 hours late !

Just to let on a bit...there is a PERSON that my family is having a bit if a falling out with. They may have found the hotel indirectly from other family members. This is the only reason I am willing to say the hotel did not do this on purpose. I know that if this person were not in our lives....I likely would have went crazy in that lobby !

Originally posted by NathanWert:

kirbic

Canon EOS R5

06/19/2011 11:00:44 AM · #15

FWIW, I have traveled quite a bit for business, and as NathanWert posted, the 4PM time is just the earliest time you can arrive and get into your room (but of course they will often make exceptions). It's not atypical for me to fly in the afternoon, arrive in my destination city late evening, and it may be 11PM or even midnight before I get to my hotel. Only once did a hotel give away my room, and I pretty much knew it was a case of "having a higher bidder."
This case doesn't smell like that. Too elaborate.

Ja-9

Nikon D750

Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II

06/19/2011 11:02:00 AM · #16

I almost always will call a hotel when in route to verify my arrival and reservation...things have been buggered up before and it gives me time to fix it...

SaraR

Sony Alpha a7R III

Sony FE 24-70mm f/2.8 GM

06/19/2011 12:31:23 PM · #17

Originally posted by idealodds:

The girl that took the 7am call would not be there at 7pm unless she was a manager, and even then it is highly unlikely.

Split shifts? - common in the UK hotel trade.

idealodds

Nikon D80

Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D

06/19/2011 01:37:54 PM · #18

Originally posted by SaraR:

Originally posted by idealodds:
The girl that took the 7am call would not be there at 7pm unless she was a manager, and even then it is highly unlikely.

Split shifts? - common in the UK hotel trade.

Worked front desk in a few high occupancy rate hotels and managed one. Never saw that here. *shrug*
My original idea is moot anyway, as he says it was via phone. I thought maybe the girl was there and just "said" she took the cancellation.

Message edited by author 2011-06-19 13:38:37.

Revecca

Nikon D5000

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR

06/19/2011 03:00:58 PM · #19

I say that's some CRAP and I would definitely complain to their management if not their corporate office. I'd say it could be a mistake on their behalf because of cancelling a wrong reservation, but since she said she recognized the spelling of the last name, I find that odd.
Did you at least get your money back?

I've never worked at a hotel, but I work at a State Park's office here in Florida, and we handle a lot of reservations. Our check-in time is 4PM, but we would NEVER cancel a reservation if someone doesn't show up by that time. In fact, I would sure as hell hope that they don't all show up at that time to check in as it is inconvenient! If by closing time (again, this is unlike a hotel since they're open 24hrs for checking in), someone hasn't shown up, or called us, I personally call the number on the reservation to get a hold of the person in order to arrange after hours check-in. If it's a no-show, we don't do it until the next day, even if we do have someone wanting that room/campsite. We don't take advantage of people. As an added sidenote, if someone cancels on the day of (and pays for the first night's stay) AND someone also takes that site/room after them, then we make extra money but that doesn't happen often.

Like I said though, I work at a state park and we do business way different than a big chain hotel.

I'm sorry to hear you had such a bad experience with this hotel!

Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

06/19/2011 04:16:40 PM · #20

Thanks....

And like I said...this has never happened to me before. In fact, a few times in the last 15 years I had to cancel too close to check in and actually lost $50. This time it was also within the time frame to lose $50. However, they reversed the charge when I arrived raising hell.

I can't put to much on this public site, but there is a strong chance that the culprit is someone I know. When I find out, I'll post !

Originally posted by kirbic:

CJinCA

Canon EOS-7D

06/19/2011 04:16:47 PM · #21

Something somewhat similar happened to us a few weeks ago, and we had secured the room with a credit card and told them we would be late getting in. We arrived at 7:30pm and they had given our room to someone else - no explanation as to why, just "so sorry we don't have that room available". Fortunately they did have a handicapped room available so we didn't have to find a different place but we were traveling with 2 dogs and since it's not that easy finding a room that will allow dogs, I was a little miffed that our original room was given to someone else. The room wasn't the cleanest either. We had stayed at that same motel previously when traveling cross country, but never again there or at any other of that chains motels. :-(

Message edited by author 2011-06-19 16:18:46.

jomari

Nikon D7000

Nikon AF-S DX 18-105 f/3.5-5.6 ED VR

06/19/2011 08:06:22 PM · #22

I go with the idea that someone has pulled a nasty stunt on you.
The hotel desk scenario you describe sounds authentic. High occupancy hotels must have lots of guests arrive late for all sorts of reasons - delayed flights, traffic congestion, something to go to before checking in, etc. It might not be possible to call ahead in some circumstances and if the booking has been confirmed recently you wouldn't think it necessary. As pointed out check in times are not meant as a mandatory arrival time, but simply the time from which you are welcome. And as the hotel already has itself covered for no shows then it would be extremely dishonest and unprofessional to re-let the room.
I wish you luck in your investigations.

SEG

Nikon D7100

Nikon AF Nikkor 85mm f/1.8D

06/19/2011 08:13:14 PM · #23

Originally posted by kenskid:

I can't put to much on this public site, but there is a strong chance that the culprit is someone I know. When I find out, I'll post !

Family member?

Someone on DPC?

hahn23 did you do this?

Message edited by author 2011-06-19 20:14:31.