When is a confirmed hotel reservation not confirmed? (part 2)Does the hotel need a deposit or a payment in advance? The actual terms are different with different hotels, but in the high season to ensure a room in many hotels you have to pay in advance. The rationale behind this is because hotels do not want a situation where they take a booking and then the customer doesn’t show up, and meanwhile they have refused other bookings. Understandable, when there is a demand for rooms during busy spells. However, some hotels blindly follow this approach as I demonstrated to an operator with a ‘test’ call requesting for 3 rooms on a bed and B’fast basis, for two nights: and was asked to pay an advance by the front desk staff of his hotel. The hotel was averaging 38% occupancy at that time with over 120 empty beds each night. The same ‘test’ call made to a competitor hotel resulted in me been informed that my booking was confirmed subject to a 6.00 pm release proviso. No prizes for guessing where my six room nights went.
I’ve pre-paid for my room; can a hotel refuse to give me a room?
If you have prepaid for your room it is guaranteed and the hotel must provide you the room you paid for, even if you show up late. If the hotel does not have a room for you then it has breached your contract and must provide you with a reasonable substitute.
Some hotels will upgrade you to a Suite, should the type of room you booked be unavailable. Count yourself lucky but be wary that they do not get you to pay the difference between the price of the room and the suite. The hotel cannot charge you any additional amount for no fault of yours. Should you create a noisy scene in the lobby, the hotel might suddenly discover that they have a room available. My advice is to first inspect the room that magically appeared. It can be a room that was deemed ‘out-of-order’ (faulty air-conditioning for instance), hastily semi-repaired to please and keep you temporarily quiet. You might end up with a sleepless night!
If there are no rooms, then the hotel may end up by sending you to another nearby hotel, even if it is more expensive, and pay for the transportation-including the phone call charges to let people know you’ve switched hotels. Some hotels may have rooms available for the rest of your stay and may wish to bring you back the next day. Hereto, the cost of transportation is met by the hotel. Should you return to a hotel after being ‘bumped’ to another hotel on the first night, expect the hotel to make a tangible ‘We do care’ gesture such as the offer of a free meal or spa treatment for the discomfort and inconvenience encountered. Getting ‘bumped’ or being ‘walked’ to another hotel is by no means accidental. It is an outcome from a miscalculated business decision by the hotel. If you merely receive a flood of meaningless apologies and nothing else – my advice; take your business elsewhere in future.
I wanted a specific room: do I have a right to a particular room?
Typically, you do not have a right to a specific room unless you specified that room when making your reservation (for example the Penthouse suite).Accordingly, if you do really want a particular room, then you need to make that extremely clear when you are booking your room. Be sure to obtain written confirmation from the hotel that you booked that particular room. If, after then, the hotel fails to provide you with the specific room, then it has likely broken its contract with you. Sometimes, a guest might request for a room that has a special view or a larger balcony due to its location. Some guests are reluctant to stay in any floor that is above the 3rd floor of a high-rise hotel block due to fear of fire. A seasoned traveller may seek a room close to the fire exit stairs. In such instances, prudent hotels will only confirm these requests as’ subject to availability’, especially during high occupancy periods. It is however, the responsibility of the hotel to make note of these special requests as a priority and to ensure that it is made available as far as possible, particularly if it is from a regular guest.
This room is not what I expected, is there anything I can do about it?
The hotel room you end up with may not look like the beautiful room that was pictured on their website or in their brochure. The website or Brochure promised ‘Luxury hotel with modern air conditioned rooms, private bathrooms and Wi Fi “; in reality, ‘the hotel...’ had weak Wi Fi, poor and noisy air conditioning and the bathroom although private was unhygienic and the sanitary facilities were not operational’. While a certain amount of exaggeration is the norm in advertising, intentionally deceiving customers is considered fraud. If the room you are given is substantially below what you expected based upon an advertisement, then speak to the Manager immediately. This also applies if the room has not been cleaned properly, or if the room is extremely noisy. You should request a better room, a discount or, if nothing else is satisfactory, then a refund – i.e. if you have paid an advance. Should the hotel agree to make a refund, make sure that you have it in writing before you leave the hotel .You may be able to sue the hotel for the hassle of relocating, but this may not be feasible or even worth the expense in practice. However, with today’s technology, it can hurt the hotel, when bad experiences together with incriminating photos are posted on the internet – such as on TripAdvisor and other travel advisory sites including Facebook, etc.
To be continued |
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