When is a confirmed hotel reservation not confirmed? (part 3)Sarah Gaines wanted a refund for her short-lived hotel stay at the Windsor Hotel in Manhattan. She claimed the property was infested with bedbugs. The two rooms that she was allocated by the hotel, when the family checked in, had bug infestations. There were no other rooms available as the hotel was running a full occupancy and the Gaines family crammed into the one with fewer bugs for the night, some sleeping on the floor. They cut short the planned two-night stay and left the Windsor hotel the next morning as soon as they found a new hotel. Gaines says she contacted the hotel after she checked out and asked for a refund. It refused, citing its refund policy. The site through which she booked the hotel, Hotels.com, refused to refund the $750 she paid, even though she checked out after staying in her room for just a few hours. Appeals to her credit card company proved unsuccessful when they received an answer from American Express that the charges have been reapplied as neither Hotels.com nor Expedia guaranteed the condition of the hotel‘; to sum up, Sarah Gaines was charged US$750 for staying six hours in a room infested with bugs. Here are a few more specifics about Gaines‘case: Shortly after making her reservation through Hotels.com she looked up the property online. She found multiple complaints about bedbugs at the hotel. - We immediately called and were assured the problem had been dealt with it, she says. ―They even told us if we happened to find any problems upon arrival, they would be happy to move us to a completely different floor, as they were sure to have other vacant rooms‘.
As the story unfolded we now know that didn‘t happen. I am however, puzzled by a few things. It‘s not immediately clear why Gaines didn‘t investigate the property before making her reservation. Or why she didn‘t make more of an effort to switch hotels prior to her stay- or why she didn‘t ask for the hotel to help her once it became clear she was staying in an undesirable room. Once you‘ve left the property, getting a refund is really difficult. From a hotel‘s perspective, you‘ve abandoned a room that they probably won‘t be able to resell. In this case I would not buy the hotel‘s argument! When the only two rooms are bug infested, daring to even sell them is wrongful; the two rooms, along with who knows how many more in that hotel, need to be thoroughly treated‘, and to do just that, the hotel would have to place the rooms ‘out-of-order‘and refrain from selling them until such time they are given a clean bill of health! Likewise, the hotel‘s ‘no refund‘policy surely cannot apply when the hotel presents a health risk! One cannot be entirely happy with Hotels.com‘s response either. Saying that the site isn‘t responsible for the condition of its rooms is absurd. After all, its tagline promises it will find you the perfect place - and a room infested with insects is not the perfect place!
Be aware of your rights
While on Holiday, a bad hotel room or negative impression can really spoil the experience. So, before you check-in, it‘s important to be aware of your rights as a paying customer. Most often than not, hotels tell their guests what not to do or dictate the rules and regulations the hotel guests is expected to follow. These are stated either in the Guest Registration card or in the Guest Services Directory found in the room, or in both. Seldom is the guest told of his or her rights! Whilst the answers to your questions may vary depending on the circumstances, given below are some of the most common hotel questions and their answers:
Check In and Out
A hotel has a check in time of 3.00 pm but its check out time is Noon. What does that mean?
Check-in when used in a hotel means that you are allowed to start using the room / take possession of the room at 3.00pm. In other words, you can bring your luggage to the room and start occupying it. Check-out would mean that you have to vacate the use of the room by noon. That is, everything (luggage, things that belong to you, etc.) has to be out of the hotel room because the hotel staff needs to service the room to prepare for the next occupant to use. I.e. check-in. The industry standard check-in and check-out time - 11 a.m. or noon and 3 p.m. or 4 p.m., respectively, continues to be one of the business travelers‘ or holiday-makers' biggest pet peeves. Guests can come in or leave at all times of the day. It can be very annoying for business travelers when they come in the morning and have to go to a meeting and want to put their stuff down, to be told ‘check-in time is 3 p.m.’ Likewise, an arriving holiday-maker wants to quickly get to the room, unpack, get into his or hers bathing suit and jump into the pool.
Should you arrive before the prescribed check-in time, the hotel is not obliged to send you to your room immediately, unless ofcourse there are vacant rooms available at the time of your arrival. However, once you have arrived at or after the hotel‘s check in time, then the hotel must provide your room/s immediately. If, for some reason there is a delay, you have every right to expect some form of compensation from the hotel – such as a complimentary fruit basket or a bottle of wine or even a free meal. Way back in 1996, the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills put its guest stays and accounts on a 24-hour basis. Guests just signed in and out when it was convenient. There was no request that they pay for the night before if they arrived around breakfast time. And there was no charge for holding a guest's room until late afternoon or early evening. At an average room rate of $350, the Peninsula could well afford to be flexible. This sparked fears that the sacred noon check-in and checkout times at hotels - or variations, may become a casualty of global business travel. However, this has not, and may not, come to pass - as thankfully, the vast majority of hotels do not command the premium room rates charged by the Peninsula.
To be continued
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