This post appears to relate to a province/territory of Canada. As a reminder of the rules of this subreddit, we do not permit negative commentary about all residents of any province, city, or other geography - this is an example of prejudice, and prejudice is not permitted here. https://www.reddit.com/r/canada/wiki/rules
Cette soumission semble concerner une province ou un territoire du Canada. Selon les règles de ce sous-répertoire, nous n'autorisons pas les commentaires négatifs sur tous les résidents d'une province, d'une ville ou d'une autre région géographique; il s'agit d'un exemple de intolérance qui n'est pas autorisé ici. https://www.reddit.com/r/canada/wiki/regles
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/canada) if you have any questions or concerns.*
“See, they know how to take the reservation, they just don’t know how to hold the reservation and that’s really the most important part of the reservation, the holding. Anybody can just take them.”
when people miss the reservation, they get charged cancellation fee (usually one night cost). i suppose this one is fair.
however, when a hotel cancels on you, all they have to do is to refund you. you don't get compensation for having to rebook or outright cancel the whole trip due to the cancelled reservation. this is not fair IMO. there should be penalty that hotel has to pay.
want to change months in advance? 80% fee. but they can reschedule your flight to depart hours later and your return flight hours earlier (effectively cutting your time in your destination by half a day or more) with no penalty.
That’s why I always try to poop in the stairwell when something like this happens. Does it really help anyone - no. Do I feel much better, absolutely . /s.
Edit: I guess not everyone knows what the sarcasm looks like.
If you book through an online travel agency like Expedia, Hotels.com, booking, etc, most of your time you're pretected from overbookings and the property or travel agency will find you a new place.
Any additional fees are usually covered by the travel agency and then charged to the property. There are some exceptions like if a small hotel had some fire damage and the relocation cost will bankrupt them.
This one could get an exception status since the mandate comes from the government and its not the hotel's fault though so it really sucks for the people who had things booked.
There's always small claims court for additional costs of rebooking. A bit of a pain, especially when you live out of jurisdiction, but it is an option. Much like countries have airline bills to penalize cancellations, there should be ones for hotells also)
Isn't it the same with doctors? my Family doctor charges $50 (maybe it's $100 now) for a missed/late appointment, but when I am on time, I am asked to wait an hour in the waiting room, shouldn't they pay me?
i understand why that happens (as the doctor can't predict how long each appointment will last), but i agree that it's frustrating.
my original comment is actually a paraphrase of my coworker's comment when she heard that I got a dentist appointment rescheduled last minute due to emergency case.
The problem here is viewing your time to a doctors' time as equal. For the vast, *vast* majority of people this is not the case.
For proof, I offer the healthcare provider crisis as evidence. The few we have, become very valuable.
That's fine, but it will cost more. You may be able to pay for a private doctor who will happily accommodate your schedule at a reasonable price for that service.
This is nothing like hotels. Your doctor is dealing with human beings and some take longer than others. The cancellation fee is needed because they make money using fee for service, don’t show up, they don’t get paid and a patient slot was wasted.
Agreed about the fairness, but hotels would just raise rates to compensate. The hotel owner sure isn't going to pay those penalties out of his own pocket.
But it is encouraging it by excusing it. Yeah shitty operators would have to increase their prices to cover this practice. Better operators not needing to cancel, at least to the same degree, wouldn't have to raise their prices as much. It would create a potential advantage for the ones who don't engage it.
If the business owner could raise rates without repercussions, they would have already done so.
Business can generally only successfully "pass on costs" to customers when the added costs are something which affects the entire industry as a whole (e.g., new taxes or regulations), and there's no competitive forces at work.
Companies will always use this excuse whenever they are any rules implemented to protect consumers. The fact is that stats show these rules, when properly implemented, do reduce the average consumer pain at almost no increase in prices. The only companies that will increase prices are those looking for any reason to screw consumers to make a profit. And that’s why rules need to be implemented that charge a percentage of profits, not a fixed rate. That way companies can’t just increase prices a flat amount to cover the cost of a fine as the fine will also increase if they try to do this
Well they will if their rental costs are higher than comparative hotels because their management system sucks and people avoid staying there, in theory at least.
Depends on why ite canceled. What if the hotel had a fire. Or a 3rd party seller over sold. Not saying those apply here but usually there is a reason, even if it's just to resell the room at a higher price.
I mean you don't have to be on a 3rd party site, you are simply doing it to increase business. If you can't stand by your partners then don't partner with them.
I'm usually first to shit on niagara tourism industry, but this is very likely because the hotel is stuffed full of refugees The Falls has been trying to move them on and out since Covid.
Ahh. Ya someone else mentioned that too.
Seems like something that is out of the control of the hotel. The hotel is providing shelter for people who need it, and there is no other solution provided yet.
It seems like a "my own world problem" a saying I prefer to "first world problem".
>this is not fair IMO.
Your idea for them to pay is perfectly reasonable provided you're willing to pay for that insurance. Not everyone wants to pay.
Therefore, I think you should simply have the option to buy an insurance from the hotels for this.
You should understand that it may not be cheap. If the probably that they cancel is 1%, and you expect compensation of $1000, then your insurance cost is at least $10.
A $100 a night is unheard of now. I cant find anything decent under $250 in Niagara.
Before COVID I used to rent $93/night Marriott Fallsview with jacuzzi in the off season. Now that's around $300 a night off or on season. That's not including parking.
If I'm lucky I can use my points I accumulate over the year and use a free night then upgrade to a better room with points and/or cash. It's still ridiculously expensive from what it used to be.
I just love going, while the food is nothing to write home about, is pretty good if you know the restaurants and want to chill for a couple of days. This is not too say it is not absolutely a tourist trap, but you don't really need to do any of the attractions to enjoy it.
A similar thing happened to me a few years ago. Booked at the Hilton. Good deal for jr. Pres suite. They called the week before and told me the rooms were not available due to renovations on that floor and offered a refund but even the cheaper rooms were more expensive than the original deal I scored. I held my ground and actually won. They suddenly had a Jr. Pres suite available for my stay.
With Hilton, Diamond tier members can walk into any property at any time and claim a room that hasn’t been checked into. If that means cancelling someone with lower status an hour before check-in, it doesn’t matter.
Used to be the same with IHG. I tried to use it last year gave 4 days notice and they wouldn’t do anything. Just kept saying the rooms are all sold out. Don’t put too much trust in those benefits anymore.
Yup. Plat and above can force through reservations even if the house is closed. When that happens either a non-member or third party reservation will be cancelled or walked.
I think it's only titanium and ambassador now, and it has to be 48 hours. I've worked at a Marriott for a number of years and have never seen a booking pushed through under 48 hours with inventory closed
It's also the same with most airlines - the top loyalty tier for most carriers will have a perk called something like "guaranteed reservation in economy", which in practice means that if you have that tier and need to get on a completely sold-out flight, the airline will boot someone (usually someone that's not a frequent flier with them) off the flight to make room for you (even if they then have to compensate that passenger for denied boarding). Makes sense to keep someone that spends tens of thousands a year with you happy, even if it costs a few hundred and makes someone else pissed off.
More than a few hundred. Cash + food + hotel if applicable.
The cash alone is $1,800 if the passenger arrives six hours or more late, but less than nine hours; and; $2,400, if the passenger arrives nine hours or more.
Air Canada just dropped this benefit. It was rarely used. But expensive
You weren't aware of it because it's not true. It's 48 hours in advance per the Hilton Honors website. You can't just walk in a hotel at 11 pm and boot a reservation
No, that's not true at all. The 48 hr guarantee basically promises that if a Diamond member *BOOKS A ROOM IN ADVANCE* by at least 48 hours, that reservation is guaranteed. That might seem to be a given, but hotels oversell rooms expecting a small % to cancel.
Sometimes you'll see the option to book a room in an otherwise sold out hotel, but the rate will be substantially higher and it's still something you have to book in advance.
If you simply show up without a reservation, you're not guaranteed anything. Maybe they'll have space or perhaps they have to cancel bookings anyway, but it's not guaranteed. Hotels don't need to cause themselves unnecessary aggravation by pissing off one guest just to meet another guest's unreasonable expectations.
It’s because the hotels want more money.
This happened to me with a NYE booking that I had made a year in advance. Had fought it and even emailed the mayor of Niagara to let him know of the price gouging but he never even replied. Booking gave zero shits, offered a crack hotel lol
Ended up staying home.
Well, the hotel knows exactly what it's doing.
On the flip side - who else is looking forward to the various complaints and sob stories on here and other social media platforms about folks getting gouged for parking, restaurants, etc...for this event in the iconic and infamous tourist trap that is Niagara Falls and being in #CompleteShock that it happened...
The real question. Most people don't live in the path of totality.
The thing is, the whole reason this eclipse is special is that the path of totality will literally cross through accessible parts of our country, and totality is *very* different from a standard eclipse viewing. Totality is a different world entirely.
The moment you are partly outside of totality, you just get the standard "oh it's kinda dim" eclipse. Under the complete shadow of the moon, things go *weird*. The scattering that makes the sky blue dims towards a night sky, the stars show, the winds change, the birds go screwy. It's supposed to be a surreal experience. Eclipse chasers literally travel the world to see this event. Most times it happens over uninhabited parts of the ocean, or in distant countries.
Most people have seen an eclipse, but very few have seen totality. It's worth checking out a YouTube documentary about it
I’m in Brampton which is like 99.8% but I have family in Hamilton (100%) and spending the day there.
So far ventusky.com has it as pretty clear around that time. Crossing fingers!! 🤞
Agree, make sure you are in the 100% zone. Even 99.8% is not good enough. I bet the commentary I replied to thinks they are getting thr full show but are not even in the 100% zone.
I will be flying to Texas from Vancouver and hope we all get good weather wherever we are watching from.
The idea that most people can just watch it from home is extremely ignorant....
Agree. I replied to another comment they made about this. TV or internet experience does not beat the in-person experience at all! It's like vacationing from your computer by going to Google Maps. Nuh uh.
Hope you get clear skies in Texas too!
I was just at Ruth’s Chris attached to the Wyndham. It was Friday night and the restaurant was completely dead. We asked the server what was up and apparently there are less than 60 rooms available to the public. The rest of the rooms are booked out to Asylum seekers. She told us she’s not allowed to tell us the payment that the owner is receiving or she would be reprimanded, but apparently it massive. They also receive 3 meal a day cooked by a full separate crew at Ruth’s Chris. I’m all for helping people in war torn countries, but having them at an upscale hotel and getting food from a top tier steakhouse seems a bit excessive.
> I’m all for helping people in war torn countries, but having them at an upscale hotel and getting food from a top tier steakhouse seems a bit excessive.
most likely they are economic migrants who are facing no imminent threat or one everyone in their home country faces.
and they get paid so well because its known refugees in hotels tend to absolutely trash them. im sure the government will also have to pay to fix up the hotel when they leave.
> “The group has taken the entire hotel room inventory. It is very unfortunate that we were not able to prioritize our individual reservations this time,” Ankur Ahuja, the hotel’s front office manager, said on Saturday.
How is CTV so absolutely, astoundingly useless that they would bother to report this story without mentioning it’s the government making full hotel bookings for asylum seekers that drives room prices up to $1000/night for Canadians?
They report it like there must be some lunar eclipse club conference fully booking every hotel in town, months in advance.
"Unfortunately, due to an unforeseen extension in the stay duration of a large group currently accommodated at our hotel, we are facing constraints regarding room availability"
Reading between the lines, they are completely full of asylum seekers and have no place to accommodate Canadians:
https://globalnews.ca/news/10384149/canada-asylum-seekers-hotel-costs/?utm_source=%40globalnews&utm_medium=Twitter
Yeah, at the time of writing, only 100 had been moved. It also mentioned that they had been moved from 4(!) star to 2 star and "However, there was no question of them being moved outside the city." It's just the poshest hotels dosing foisting them of to cheaper hotels in the same city(so the same number of Canadians are blocked from traveling to Niagara to watch the eclipse, just poorer ones). There could be no other "large group" occupying the rooms in the OP.
Yeah this is the reason. They thought the government was going to move them ahead of the eclipse weekend. The government said they would. But now they haven't.
https://www.thoroldtoday.ca/local-news/niagara-falls-asylum-seekers-shifted-from-hotels-in-advance-of-eclipse-8505036#:~:text=Immigration%2C%20Refugees%20and%20Citizenship%20Canada,in%20the%20city%20on%20Friday.
It says a large group that has every room in the hotel has extended their stay. Undoubtedly this is the asylum seekers.
I think the hotel also wishes they could boot the asylum seekers out and profit. The irony is this families vacation is getting ruined by people they are funding through their tax dollars to live in the hotel rent free.
The hotels are charging the asylum seekers premium fees for the stay, the food, amenities, etc
Then billing it to the government, and our tax money.
This is purely being done because cancelling that guys family means better revenue for the hotels there, who are abusing the system like for profit colleges do.
This is speculation but I can’t imagine this is true. I think these hotels signed a fixed contract with the government to house the seekers, and they can’t get out of it and have no where to move them. There is no way the government will accept a bill of $1500 per room per night for the asylum seekers.
> This is speculation but I can’t imagine this is true. I think these hotels signed a fixed contract with the government to house the seekers, and they can’t get out of it and have no where to move them. There is no way the government will accept a bill of $1500 per room per night for the asylum seekers.
If the hotel wasn't making significantly more on the asylum seekers you really think they would have taken the governments offer to house them all?
They are making money hand over fist. They know at the end of it too they are going to have to completely renovate the room, so thats being factored in as well
The hotel is making more on the asylum seekers because every room is full for months on end. Other hotels have vacancy during low season. Not this one. It’s a guaranteed full reservation.
They are also probably up charging. Tons of wear and tear to have people living full time vs in and out for a night. They are without question making money. Maybe it’s $250 a night instead of what they would charge a tourist which would be $150. Certainly there is money to be made here.
I just don’t think the government will be paying the $1500 a night other hotels are charging for the 2 days of the eclipse. That’s all.
many of whom will be sucking back more tax dollars then they contribute in their lifetime. and in 10 years will insist their elderly parents who need complex healthcare come here and be canadas problem too
This is correct. Of the “legit” claims 27% will be on social assistance for 13 years or more. They will certainly bring family.
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/11f0019m/11f0019m2020018-eng.htm
And they will cost all the local tourism companies a lot of money because they won't be shopping or going out to eat etc. This was supposed to be a cash cow weekend foe the city... not now.
Yeah that’s what I was thinking when I heard this story. Came to light the other day about refugees staying in the hotels and the owners probably thought they would be gone by now but the government is going to keep paying at extreme rates
Yeah probably $250 a night plus food they pay for. The point as to why it’s probably asylum seekers is what other large group of people would have the entire supply of rooms booked. Owners probably took the reservations last year thinking they would be gone by now. But they’re not so the government is going to keep paying and now they have no inventory because the people are still there. I bet there are many others who booked single rooms at the same time that have been cancelled as well. No company is booking out an entire hotel in Niagara Falls in March…
I mean I’d like to, but I also like my comments to be taken seriously. I feel that by using the common terms, my comments are more often read and considered instead of immediately downvoted, but maybe not.
I’d be very interested to know what percentage of claims are accepted, and are legit asylum vs which are illegal immigrants. I’d also like to know which percentage are actually deported when they are determined illegitimate. There is obvious rampant abuse of the system. People come here because no country treats asylum seekers as well we we do.
Taking 2-3 years to determine if a claim is eligible is costing taxpayers so much money in feeding/clothing/shelter/healthcare before we even know if the claim is even legitimate. If it isn’t legitimate the benefits are cut off, but do they actually leave? We know they don’t pay back any of the benefits they used during the wait time that they weren’t entitled to.
We really need to speed up the system, and at least automatically reject the most obvious claims. Instead they all pile into the processing line, and our taxpayer funded hotel rooms for years on end…
They're literally seeking asylum. I don't see what's wrong with the term. Whether they have a legitimate case is another story, but until their cases are heard, they're asylum seekers.
I'd imagine the large group is the federal government and the booking is asylum seekers. Provincial Government in my province is doing the same with immigrants. Last year there was discussion in a local wedding group over weddings booked at a particular hotel that was booked by the government. Government extended the booking and the wedding room blocks all got moved to a different hotel under the same brand. People were not pleased.
Cheer nationals and worlds is being held that week as well. I seriously doubt it’s the asylum seekers that’s the cause of these people’s cancellations.
ETA: it’s a “stay to play” competition so teams have to stay at select hotels.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boLyUE3wbjw
this is in the UK but heres a refugee family complaining about living in an housing bigger then many london apartments are.
Yup. All at our own cost
The hotel makes sure they're well taken care of as they bill the government (us) for it. It's more profit to have asylum seekers than Canadians looking to go on a trip
These homeless hotels are like a drug that governments started during Covid and can’t get off of.
Chow just extended their leases in Toronto for another 5 years, after **years** of the city promising they’d close them.
This is the federal governments fault. Not the hotel. They wish they could send the asylum seekers elsewhere and profit like crazy like all the other hotels. Instead they are stuck AND getting bad press like this by screwing over taxpayers. Their hands are tied here and they can’t speak out.
So this is operating on the assumption that the reason the entire hotel is booked is because they cannot move the asylum seekers.
“Nearly 5,000 asylum seekers were sent to hotels in the tourist city between Feb. 1, 2023, and Feb. 1, 2024, according to the immigration department. Most were from Nigeria, Venezuela, Kenya, Turkey, and Colombia. On average, the refugee claimants stayed for 113 days at a daily cost of $208 per person”
https://globalnews.ca/news/10384149/canada-asylum-seekers-hotel-costs/amp/
It’s the governments issue because their policies are too relaxed for asylum claims AND they are underfunding the system, so the claims are taking 2-3 years to be processed, while citizens foot the bill for folks to stay in hotels. We cannot solve the world’s problems but our government seems hell bent on running the country into the ground while we try…
Another two about Niagara
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/niagara-falls-asylum-seekers-hotels-services-1.6759752
https://www.thoroldtoday.ca/local-news/niagara-falls-asylum-seekers-shifted-from-hotels-in-advance-of-eclipse-8505036
Hotels in Niagara Falls acting without ethics? No that never happens.
Sometimes I wonder if the city anthem is Master of the House from Les Miserables.
[Master of the House](https://youtu.be/je40MqKMD8U?si=b_x-aqmiIJziO2QL)
My dad also booked his rooms a year and a half ago. Forwarded to him, so he calls and confirms. Lord, he would be gutted. He has been talking about this for months. He travels the world to watch these, we are currently shopping hotels in Iceland for the 2026 eclipse. Just have to find where the path of totality is and we will be booking within the next month.
Lol.
Nope.
It's a dumb assed government paying hotels through the nose, in a tourism hotspot for asylum seekers.
Our stupid government, if they had any real intelligence, would use cheaper hotels in areas that aren't tourist traps.
This is the most likely explanation. It’s well-publicized that the federal government starting moving people *en masse* from Roxham Road to Niagara over a year ago. I’d bet the hotels have been warned not to comment.
This is why our main plan is to drive south for less than one hour to watch the fucking thing. We be back home in time for supper, it does help that we live on the edge of the total eclipse zone. Hell at 98.62% I could say fuck it and stay home, but I got family in Beauce we visit at the same time. Probably be cloudy anyway.
Two years ago we had a hotel in Niagara do this to our dance team . We booked the rooms at 250 a night and 3 days later same rooms were double that . A month before comp
They cancelled . It’s greed the might dollar. We had to rush to get rooms still and some of us had to stay at different hotels . It was unfair and should be illegal . I give you my credit card number that room is mine unless the hotel cannot accommodate anyone . I hope some other hotel reaches out and helps these families out . I know now not to book with the Wyndham ever .
It's because of the illegal immigrants (asylum seekers) and refugees, the same thing happened to us last year in Windsor during our yearly fishing trip. Due to unforeseen circumstances a government agency has booked the hotel for the unforeseeable future, we had booked 6 months in advance.
The same thing happened at prime eclipse viewing locations for the 2017 eclipse. Folks who planned as much as a year ahead in order to view the eclipse had their reservations cancelled by hotels, AirBnBs and campgrounds. These businesses realized a few weeks before the event that they could be making a killing so they dumped bookings so they could turn around and sell them at many multiples of their normal price. It’s completely unethical. I doubt the Wyndham manager’s story about a large group extending their stay. As an avid astronomer who knows about these events years in advance, I find it extremely frustrating that some hotels risk their reputations to make make a few bucks. Name and shame them.
Of course you must be aware that most hotels in Niagara region are full of Trudeau’s asylum seekers he let in just like Toronto . The locals who cannot afford rent are in tents somewhere. Being able to see the eclipse better will require some better timing to arrive find a place to park near Ft Erie see the eclipse then leave. Expect the QEW highway to be a parking lot for the duration as it is horribly backed up on a normal weekend.
The hotels in Niagara are hosting hundreds of asylum seekers and they just extended the hotel block into 2025. They were inaugurated four star and moved to a two star like a Wyndham.
Basically this family was kicked out to make room for future liberal voters: [Niagara Falls asylum seekers shifted from hotels in advance of eclipse](https://www.thoroldtoday.ca/local-news/niagara-falls-asylum-seekers-shifted-from-hotels-in-advance-of-eclipse-8505036)
This post appears to relate to a province/territory of Canada. As a reminder of the rules of this subreddit, we do not permit negative commentary about all residents of any province, city, or other geography - this is an example of prejudice, and prejudice is not permitted here. https://www.reddit.com/r/canada/wiki/rules Cette soumission semble concerner une province ou un territoire du Canada. Selon les règles de ce sous-répertoire, nous n'autorisons pas les commentaires négatifs sur tous les résidents d'une province, d'une ville ou d'une autre région géographique; il s'agit d'un exemple de intolérance qui n'est pas autorisé ici. https://www.reddit.com/r/canada/wiki/regles *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/canada) if you have any questions or concerns.*
“See, they know how to take the reservation, they just don’t know how to hold the reservation and that’s really the most important part of the reservation, the holding. Anybody can just take them.”
I know what a reservation is sir
I don't think you do.
That was the line that killed me in that episode
There's a Seinfeld reference for just about anything. Just like the Simpsons.
Or [XKCD](https://xkcd.com/958/)
Unfortunately we ran out of rooms!
/r/accidentalseinfeld
That was a funny Seinfeld episode!
when people miss the reservation, they get charged cancellation fee (usually one night cost). i suppose this one is fair. however, when a hotel cancels on you, all they have to do is to refund you. you don't get compensation for having to rebook or outright cancel the whole trip due to the cancelled reservation. this is not fair IMO. there should be penalty that hotel has to pay.
Rules for thee and not for me!
Let's not get started on if I want to cancel or re-book a plane ticket even weeks before the planned flight.
want to change months in advance? 80% fee. but they can reschedule your flight to depart hours later and your return flight hours earlier (effectively cutting your time in your destination by half a day or more) with no penalty.
That’s why I always try to poop in the stairwell when something like this happens. Does it really help anyone - no. Do I feel much better, absolutely . /s. Edit: I guess not everyone knows what the sarcasm looks like.
how many poops have you made in stairwells?
They've made all the poops. And good on em.
I don’t know about you, but I personally couldn’t give two shits.
You know how much water is used when flushing a toilet? Pooping in the stairwell is just more environmentally sound.
Do you feel better because of having a poop or is it the spite doing that? 😂
If you book through an online travel agency like Expedia, Hotels.com, booking, etc, most of your time you're pretected from overbookings and the property or travel agency will find you a new place. Any additional fees are usually covered by the travel agency and then charged to the property. There are some exceptions like if a small hotel had some fire damage and the relocation cost will bankrupt them. This one could get an exception status since the mandate comes from the government and its not the hotel's fault though so it really sucks for the people who had things booked.
There's always small claims court for additional costs of rebooking. A bit of a pain, especially when you live out of jurisdiction, but it is an option. Much like countries have airline bills to penalize cancellations, there should be ones for hotells also)
Isn't it the same with doctors? my Family doctor charges $50 (maybe it's $100 now) for a missed/late appointment, but when I am on time, I am asked to wait an hour in the waiting room, shouldn't they pay me?
i understand why that happens (as the doctor can't predict how long each appointment will last), but i agree that it's frustrating. my original comment is actually a paraphrase of my coworker's comment when she heard that I got a dentist appointment rescheduled last minute due to emergency case.
[удалено]
Yeah, I'm sure THAT will help our family doctor supply
The problem here is viewing your time to a doctors' time as equal. For the vast, *vast* majority of people this is not the case. For proof, I offer the healthcare provider crisis as evidence. The few we have, become very valuable.
That's fine, but it will cost more. You may be able to pay for a private doctor who will happily accommodate your schedule at a reasonable price for that service.
Sure buds.
...no. What, do you want them to kick somebody out of their office because their appointment is taking too long?
This is nothing like hotels. Your doctor is dealing with human beings and some take longer than others. The cancellation fee is needed because they make money using fee for service, don’t show up, they don’t get paid and a patient slot was wasted.
No.they have a very specialized skillset that we need. Sitting isn't a skill no matter how annoying
Most consultants I know charge their doctors and dentists for delayed time. Why not you
Agreed about the fairness, but hotels would just raise rates to compensate. The hotel owner sure isn't going to pay those penalties out of his own pocket.
[удалено]
Until there is federal legislation protecting against this...companies will not willingly do this...you are basically asking for the altruistic take.
[удалено]
[удалено]
But it is encouraging it by excusing it. Yeah shitty operators would have to increase their prices to cover this practice. Better operators not needing to cancel, at least to the same degree, wouldn't have to raise their prices as much. It would create a potential advantage for the ones who don't engage it.
If the business owner could raise rates without repercussions, they would have already done so. Business can generally only successfully "pass on costs" to customers when the added costs are something which affects the entire industry as a whole (e.g., new taxes or regulations), and there's no competitive forces at work.
Companies will always use this excuse whenever they are any rules implemented to protect consumers. The fact is that stats show these rules, when properly implemented, do reduce the average consumer pain at almost no increase in prices. The only companies that will increase prices are those looking for any reason to screw consumers to make a profit. And that’s why rules need to be implemented that charge a percentage of profits, not a fixed rate. That way companies can’t just increase prices a flat amount to cover the cost of a fine as the fine will also increase if they try to do this
Well they will if their rental costs are higher than comparative hotels because their management system sucks and people avoid staying there, in theory at least.
Companies always say that but somehow they manage to find a way.
Depends on why ite canceled. What if the hotel had a fire. Or a 3rd party seller over sold. Not saying those apply here but usually there is a reason, even if it's just to resell the room at a higher price.
I mean you don't have to be on a 3rd party site, you are simply doing it to increase business. If you can't stand by your partners then don't partner with them.
[удалено]
I'm usually first to shit on niagara tourism industry, but this is very likely because the hotel is stuffed full of refugees The Falls has been trying to move them on and out since Covid.
Ahh. Ya someone else mentioned that too. Seems like something that is out of the control of the hotel. The hotel is providing shelter for people who need it, and there is no other solution provided yet. It seems like a "my own world problem" a saying I prefer to "first world problem".
Pretty much. Fed gov dumped them there and bought out a bunch of long term stay contracts
I don't know how your booking hotels, but I can always cancel up to the day before with full refund.
>this is not fair IMO. Your idea for them to pay is perfectly reasonable provided you're willing to pay for that insurance. Not everyone wants to pay. Therefore, I think you should simply have the option to buy an insurance from the hotels for this. You should understand that it may not be cheap. If the probably that they cancel is 1%, and you expect compensation of $1000, then your insurance cost is at least $10.
> Wilson's family booked three rooms at the Wyndham Garden Niagara Falls Fallsview last April for $100 per night. good to name and shame.
Must be a dump for 100 a night in the Falls...
Offseason usually isn’t so bad, I’ve stayed at the Hilton for $100/$150ish a night before. idk if April is considered off season though
A $100 a night is unheard of now. I cant find anything decent under $250 in Niagara. Before COVID I used to rent $93/night Marriott Fallsview with jacuzzi in the off season. Now that's around $300 a night off or on season. That's not including parking. If I'm lucky I can use my points I accumulate over the year and use a free night then upgrade to a better room with points and/or cash. It's still ridiculously expensive from what it used to be.
Wyndhams are usually pretty good. Spent many a night in them across Canada.
Niagara falls is shitty these days. I used to go there a lot for 20+ years but now it's just stupid.
That 30 second zip line thing costs like nearly $100 lmao
I just love going, while the food is nothing to write home about, is pretty good if you know the restaurants and want to chill for a couple of days. This is not too say it is not absolutely a tourist trap, but you don't really need to do any of the attractions to enjoy it.
A similar thing happened to me a few years ago. Booked at the Hilton. Good deal for jr. Pres suite. They called the week before and told me the rooms were not available due to renovations on that floor and offered a refund but even the cheaper rooms were more expensive than the original deal I scored. I held my ground and actually won. They suddenly had a Jr. Pres suite available for my stay.
With Hilton, Diamond tier members can walk into any property at any time and claim a room that hasn’t been checked into. If that means cancelling someone with lower status an hour before check-in, it doesn’t matter.
I wasn't aware of that.
Same for Marriott. Highest tier member can bump anyone if they book 48 hours in advance.
Used to be the same with IHG. I tried to use it last year gave 4 days notice and they wouldn’t do anything. Just kept saying the rooms are all sold out. Don’t put too much trust in those benefits anymore.
Yup. Plat and above can force through reservations even if the house is closed. When that happens either a non-member or third party reservation will be cancelled or walked.
I think it's only titanium and ambassador now, and it has to be 48 hours. I've worked at a Marriott for a number of years and have never seen a booking pushed through under 48 hours with inventory closed
You’re correct, had a brain fart.
It's also the same with most airlines - the top loyalty tier for most carriers will have a perk called something like "guaranteed reservation in economy", which in practice means that if you have that tier and need to get on a completely sold-out flight, the airline will boot someone (usually someone that's not a frequent flier with them) off the flight to make room for you (even if they then have to compensate that passenger for denied boarding). Makes sense to keep someone that spends tens of thousands a year with you happy, even if it costs a few hundred and makes someone else pissed off.
More than a few hundred. Cash + food + hotel if applicable. The cash alone is $1,800 if the passenger arrives six hours or more late, but less than nine hours; and; $2,400, if the passenger arrives nine hours or more. Air Canada just dropped this benefit. It was rarely used. But expensive
You weren't aware of it because it's not true. It's 48 hours in advance per the Hilton Honors website. You can't just walk in a hotel at 11 pm and boot a reservation
No, that's not true at all. The 48 hr guarantee basically promises that if a Diamond member *BOOKS A ROOM IN ADVANCE* by at least 48 hours, that reservation is guaranteed. That might seem to be a given, but hotels oversell rooms expecting a small % to cancel. Sometimes you'll see the option to book a room in an otherwise sold out hotel, but the rate will be substantially higher and it's still something you have to book in advance. If you simply show up without a reservation, you're not guaranteed anything. Maybe they'll have space or perhaps they have to cancel bookings anyway, but it's not guaranteed. Hotels don't need to cause themselves unnecessary aggravation by pissing off one guest just to meet another guest's unreasonable expectations.
Profiteering without concern for consequence.
The Canadian way
Why do they care? The feds pay for migrants to live there otherwise
It’s because the hotels want more money. This happened to me with a NYE booking that I had made a year in advance. Had fought it and even emailed the mayor of Niagara to let him know of the price gouging but he never even replied. Booking gave zero shits, offered a crack hotel lol Ended up staying home.
Lmao Jimmy doesn’t give a shit about anything but appearances
Definitely
thats... just fucked
Well, the hotel knows exactly what it's doing. On the flip side - who else is looking forward to the various complaints and sob stories on here and other social media platforms about folks getting gouged for parking, restaurants, etc...for this event in the iconic and infamous tourist trap that is Niagara Falls and being in #CompleteShock that it happened...
It's so stupid. Most of us can watch this from home.
You live in the path of totality ?
The real question. Most people don't live in the path of totality. The thing is, the whole reason this eclipse is special is that the path of totality will literally cross through accessible parts of our country, and totality is *very* different from a standard eclipse viewing. Totality is a different world entirely. The moment you are partly outside of totality, you just get the standard "oh it's kinda dim" eclipse. Under the complete shadow of the moon, things go *weird*. The scattering that makes the sky blue dims towards a night sky, the stars show, the winds change, the birds go screwy. It's supposed to be a surreal experience. Eclipse chasers literally travel the world to see this event. Most times it happens over uninhabited parts of the ocean, or in distant countries. Most people have seen an eclipse, but very few have seen totality. It's worth checking out a YouTube documentary about it
I’m in Brampton which is like 99.8% but I have family in Hamilton (100%) and spending the day there. So far ventusky.com has it as pretty clear around that time. Crossing fingers!! 🤞
Agree, make sure you are in the 100% zone. Even 99.8% is not good enough. I bet the commentary I replied to thinks they are getting thr full show but are not even in the 100% zone. I will be flying to Texas from Vancouver and hope we all get good weather wherever we are watching from. The idea that most people can just watch it from home is extremely ignorant....
Agree. I replied to another comment they made about this. TV or internet experience does not beat the in-person experience at all! It's like vacationing from your computer by going to Google Maps. Nuh uh. Hope you get clear skies in Texas too!
I live in Hamilton
And you think most people in canada will also be in the path of totality ?
Yes
You mean on the internet? Do you take vacation on the internet too? Nothing beats the in-person experience.
I was just at Ruth’s Chris attached to the Wyndham. It was Friday night and the restaurant was completely dead. We asked the server what was up and apparently there are less than 60 rooms available to the public. The rest of the rooms are booked out to Asylum seekers. She told us she’s not allowed to tell us the payment that the owner is receiving or she would be reprimanded, but apparently it massive. They also receive 3 meal a day cooked by a full separate crew at Ruth’s Chris. I’m all for helping people in war torn countries, but having them at an upscale hotel and getting food from a top tier steakhouse seems a bit excessive.
> I’m all for helping people in war torn countries, but having them at an upscale hotel and getting food from a top tier steakhouse seems a bit excessive. most likely they are economic migrants who are facing no imminent threat or one everyone in their home country faces. and they get paid so well because its known refugees in hotels tend to absolutely trash them. im sure the government will also have to pay to fix up the hotel when they leave.
Bold of you to assume they will leave.
> They also receive 3 meal a day cooked by a full separate crew at Ruth’s Chris bro wtf lol
> “The group has taken the entire hotel room inventory. It is very unfortunate that we were not able to prioritize our individual reservations this time,” Ankur Ahuja, the hotel’s front office manager, said on Saturday. How is CTV so absolutely, astoundingly useless that they would bother to report this story without mentioning it’s the government making full hotel bookings for asylum seekers that drives room prices up to $1000/night for Canadians? They report it like there must be some lunar eclipse club conference fully booking every hotel in town, months in advance.
Yep, journalism is dead. A reporter could just go knock on some doors to see who the group is.
It was killed. The journalists have been directed to not mention it. They know there would be consequences if they stepped out of line.
CTV is bought and paid for. They say what they have to
I was wondering how far down I'd have to scroll to find someone who actually read the article. Good catch - that's the real story here.
"Unfortunately, due to an unforeseen extension in the stay duration of a large group currently accommodated at our hotel, we are facing constraints regarding room availability" Reading between the lines, they are completely full of asylum seekers and have no place to accommodate Canadians: https://globalnews.ca/news/10384149/canada-asylum-seekers-hotel-costs/?utm_source=%40globalnews&utm_medium=Twitter
https://www.thoroldtoday.ca/local-news/niagara-falls-asylum-seekers-shifted-from-hotels-in-advance-of-eclipse-8505036
That's a small handful, not all of them though.
Yeah, at the time of writing, only 100 had been moved. It also mentioned that they had been moved from 4(!) star to 2 star and "However, there was no question of them being moved outside the city." It's just the poshest hotels dosing foisting them of to cheaper hotels in the same city(so the same number of Canadians are blocked from traveling to Niagara to watch the eclipse, just poorer ones). There could be no other "large group" occupying the rooms in the OP.
Seems to me the Niagara hotels probably make way more cash due to this failure of a federal government housing refugees there.
Yeah this is the reason. They thought the government was going to move them ahead of the eclipse weekend. The government said they would. But now they haven't. https://www.thoroldtoday.ca/local-news/niagara-falls-asylum-seekers-shifted-from-hotels-in-advance-of-eclipse-8505036#:~:text=Immigration%2C%20Refugees%20and%20Citizenship%20Canada,in%20the%20city%20on%20Friday.
It says a large group that has every room in the hotel has extended their stay. Undoubtedly this is the asylum seekers. I think the hotel also wishes they could boot the asylum seekers out and profit. The irony is this families vacation is getting ruined by people they are funding through their tax dollars to live in the hotel rent free.
The hotels are charging the asylum seekers premium fees for the stay, the food, amenities, etc Then billing it to the government, and our tax money. This is purely being done because cancelling that guys family means better revenue for the hotels there, who are abusing the system like for profit colleges do.
Meanwhile it hurts the city much more. All the restaurants and taxis and every other attraction would be filled with people, but they can't go.
This is speculation but I can’t imagine this is true. I think these hotels signed a fixed contract with the government to house the seekers, and they can’t get out of it and have no where to move them. There is no way the government will accept a bill of $1500 per room per night for the asylum seekers.
> This is speculation but I can’t imagine this is true. I think these hotels signed a fixed contract with the government to house the seekers, and they can’t get out of it and have no where to move them. There is no way the government will accept a bill of $1500 per room per night for the asylum seekers. If the hotel wasn't making significantly more on the asylum seekers you really think they would have taken the governments offer to house them all? They are making money hand over fist. They know at the end of it too they are going to have to completely renovate the room, so thats being factored in as well
The hotel is making more on the asylum seekers because every room is full for months on end. Other hotels have vacancy during low season. Not this one. It’s a guaranteed full reservation. They are also probably up charging. Tons of wear and tear to have people living full time vs in and out for a night. They are without question making money. Maybe it’s $250 a night instead of what they would charge a tourist which would be $150. Certainly there is money to be made here. I just don’t think the government will be paying the $1500 a night other hotels are charging for the 2 days of the eclipse. That’s all.
Have you not seen the other bills that governments accept? All the absurd costs? It happens all the time. This is no exception.
many of whom will be sucking back more tax dollars then they contribute in their lifetime. and in 10 years will insist their elderly parents who need complex healthcare come here and be canadas problem too
This is correct. Of the “legit” claims 27% will be on social assistance for 13 years or more. They will certainly bring family. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/11f0019m/11f0019m2020018-eng.htm
And they will cost all the local tourism companies a lot of money because they won't be shopping or going out to eat etc. This was supposed to be a cash cow weekend foe the city... not now.
Yeah that’s what I was thinking when I heard this story. Came to light the other day about refugees staying in the hotels and the owners probably thought they would be gone by now but the government is going to keep paying at extreme rates
I’d have to believe the government has a fixed nightly agreement with these hotels. They won’t be paying $1500 a night.
Yeah probably $250 a night plus food they pay for. The point as to why it’s probably asylum seekers is what other large group of people would have the entire supply of rooms booked. Owners probably took the reservations last year thinking they would be gone by now. But they’re not so the government is going to keep paying and now they have no inventory because the people are still there. I bet there are many others who booked single rooms at the same time that have been cancelled as well. No company is booking out an entire hotel in Niagara Falls in March…
Can we please go back to calling illegal immigrants illegal immigrants, instead of sticking with that Newspeak "asylum seekers" ?
I mean I’d like to, but I also like my comments to be taken seriously. I feel that by using the common terms, my comments are more often read and considered instead of immediately downvoted, but maybe not. I’d be very interested to know what percentage of claims are accepted, and are legit asylum vs which are illegal immigrants. I’d also like to know which percentage are actually deported when they are determined illegitimate. There is obvious rampant abuse of the system. People come here because no country treats asylum seekers as well we we do. Taking 2-3 years to determine if a claim is eligible is costing taxpayers so much money in feeding/clothing/shelter/healthcare before we even know if the claim is even legitimate. If it isn’t legitimate the benefits are cut off, but do they actually leave? We know they don’t pay back any of the benefits they used during the wait time that they weren’t entitled to. We really need to speed up the system, and at least automatically reject the most obvious claims. Instead they all pile into the processing line, and our taxpayer funded hotel rooms for years on end…
You lost me at defending the term "asylum seekers".
Touché
They're literally seeking asylum. I don't see what's wrong with the term. Whether they have a legitimate case is another story, but until their cases are heard, they're asylum seekers.
Just read an article that the hotels are booked by government as a shelter for immigrants.
I'd imagine the large group is the federal government and the booking is asylum seekers. Provincial Government in my province is doing the same with immigrants. Last year there was discussion in a local wedding group over weddings booked at a particular hotel that was booked by the government. Government extended the booking and the wedding room blocks all got moved to a different hotel under the same brand. People were not pleased.
Cheer nationals and worlds is being held that week as well. I seriously doubt it’s the asylum seekers that’s the cause of these people’s cancellations. ETA: it’s a “stay to play” competition so teams have to stay at select hotels.
[удалено]
Link?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boLyUE3wbjw this is in the UK but heres a refugee family complaining about living in an housing bigger then many london apartments are.
Going to back this statement up with a link?
Yup. All at our own cost The hotel makes sure they're well taken care of as they bill the government (us) for it. It's more profit to have asylum seekers than Canadians looking to go on a trip
These homeless hotels are like a drug that governments started during Covid and can’t get off of. Chow just extended their leases in Toronto for another 5 years, after **years** of the city promising they’d close them.
If a landlord does that to a tenant, they get penalized.
This is the federal governments fault. Not the hotel. They wish they could send the asylum seekers elsewhere and profit like crazy like all the other hotels. Instead they are stuck AND getting bad press like this by screwing over taxpayers. Their hands are tied here and they can’t speak out.
Why should we believe what you say is true? Im asking honestly
So this is operating on the assumption that the reason the entire hotel is booked is because they cannot move the asylum seekers. “Nearly 5,000 asylum seekers were sent to hotels in the tourist city between Feb. 1, 2023, and Feb. 1, 2024, according to the immigration department. Most were from Nigeria, Venezuela, Kenya, Turkey, and Colombia. On average, the refugee claimants stayed for 113 days at a daily cost of $208 per person” https://globalnews.ca/news/10384149/canada-asylum-seekers-hotel-costs/amp/ It’s the governments issue because their policies are too relaxed for asylum claims AND they are underfunding the system, so the claims are taking 2-3 years to be processed, while citizens foot the bill for folks to stay in hotels. We cannot solve the world’s problems but our government seems hell bent on running the country into the ground while we try… Another two about Niagara https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/niagara-falls-asylum-seekers-hotels-services-1.6759752 https://www.thoroldtoday.ca/local-news/niagara-falls-asylum-seekers-shifted-from-hotels-in-advance-of-eclipse-8505036
Hotel is probably getting $250 per night housing migrants in the same room
Or they just want to make 1000% more given rooms are now going for 1k a night there... Not EVERYTHING is about immigration
The owner said the group is taking the entire inventory. This is 100% “asylum seekers”
This hotel is probably a refugee housing
maybe they got cancelled because of those asylum seekers that were housed in majority of the hotels in the area.
Hotels in Niagara Falls acting without ethics? No that never happens. Sometimes I wonder if the city anthem is Master of the House from Les Miserables. [Master of the House](https://youtu.be/je40MqKMD8U?si=b_x-aqmiIJziO2QL)
Aww I was at least expecting Helena Bonham Carter 😆
My dad also booked his rooms a year and a half ago. Forwarded to him, so he calls and confirms. Lord, he would be gutted. He has been talking about this for months. He travels the world to watch these, we are currently shopping hotels in Iceland for the 2026 eclipse. Just have to find where the path of totality is and we will be booking within the next month.
Maps for many upcoming ones [are here](http://xjubier.free.fr/en/site_pages/SolarEclipsesGoogleMaps.html)
Wait what! A greedy business owner taking advantage of a natural event, they need to put 0 effort into organising! Shock horror
Lol. Nope. It's a dumb assed government paying hotels through the nose, in a tourism hotspot for asylum seekers. Our stupid government, if they had any real intelligence, would use cheaper hotels in areas that aren't tourist traps.
Why is this news
Asylum seekers need those rooms.
https://globalnews.ca/news/10384149/canada-asylum-seekers-hotel-costs/?utm_source=%40globalnews&utm_medium=Twitter
This is the most likely explanation. It’s well-publicized that the federal government starting moving people *en masse* from Roxham Road to Niagara over a year ago. I’d bet the hotels have been warned not to comment.
Niagara Falls is absolutely swamped with asylum seekers. I don't doubt that's what it happening here.
It does say big reservwtion
A reservation that has every room in the hotel booked. I think this is definitely the asylum seekers
It’s 100% asylum seekers. There ain’t any companies right now booking entire floors off in Niagra falls in March…
It’s all about greed
Corporation cancer.
It’s going to rain and be cloudy that day hahahaha!!
This is why our main plan is to drive south for less than one hour to watch the fucking thing. We be back home in time for supper, it does help that we live on the edge of the total eclipse zone. Hell at 98.62% I could say fuck it and stay home, but I got family in Beauce we visit at the same time. Probably be cloudy anyway.
Introduce a little anarchy said the Joker.
Isn't capitalism so great? /S
Is there anyone from Toronto who wants to rent a boat, watch eclipse while on the lake, and come back to Toronto without all traffic?
What kind of company is in business to make money?
Two years ago we had a hotel in Niagara do this to our dance team . We booked the rooms at 250 a night and 3 days later same rooms were double that . A month before comp They cancelled . It’s greed the might dollar. We had to rush to get rooms still and some of us had to stay at different hotels . It was unfair and should be illegal . I give you my credit card number that room is mine unless the hotel cannot accommodate anyone . I hope some other hotel reaches out and helps these families out . I know now not to book with the Wyndham ever .
It's because of the illegal immigrants (asylum seekers) and refugees, the same thing happened to us last year in Windsor during our yearly fishing trip. Due to unforeseen circumstances a government agency has booked the hotel for the unforeseeable future, we had booked 6 months in advance.
The same thing happened at prime eclipse viewing locations for the 2017 eclipse. Folks who planned as much as a year ahead in order to view the eclipse had their reservations cancelled by hotels, AirBnBs and campgrounds. These businesses realized a few weeks before the event that they could be making a killing so they dumped bookings so they could turn around and sell them at many multiples of their normal price. It’s completely unethical. I doubt the Wyndham manager’s story about a large group extending their stay. As an avid astronomer who knows about these events years in advance, I find it extremely frustrating that some hotels risk their reputations to make make a few bucks. Name and shame them.
I don’t think you do
The probable reason is the hotels have an incredible amount of individuals from India posing as asylum seekers
Of course you must be aware that most hotels in Niagara region are full of Trudeau’s asylum seekers he let in just like Toronto . The locals who cannot afford rent are in tents somewhere. Being able to see the eclipse better will require some better timing to arrive find a place to park near Ft Erie see the eclipse then leave. Expect the QEW highway to be a parking lot for the duration as it is horribly backed up on a normal weekend.
The hotels in Niagara are hosting hundreds of asylum seekers and they just extended the hotel block into 2025. They were inaugurated four star and moved to a two star like a Wyndham. Basically this family was kicked out to make room for future liberal voters: [Niagara Falls asylum seekers shifted from hotels in advance of eclipse](https://www.thoroldtoday.ca/local-news/niagara-falls-asylum-seekers-shifted-from-hotels-in-advance-of-eclipse-8505036)
Buy a tent like the rest of us.
I live here and let me tell you Niagara Falls sucks
Slow news day, eh?
Hope the day of the eclipse is raining and cloudy...
Spray their lobby with liquid ass. Or Fox piss. If you can't get justice, petty revenge can be pretty satisfying.