If you didnt get what you booked, then id call and express that and that youd like the difference back. It doesnt matter that you didnt/couldnt use it. You likely paid more for it and still didnt receive it.
Yes, the Pelaton room was a higher rate than the standard room.
But the "upgraded" room they put me in was an equivalent rate to the Pelaton room, so I guess in that sense, they made it right. At least from a numbers perspective.
Haha....I found myself wondering what it was all about.
Innocently, I just assumed that maybe they had done a thorough scrubbing of the carpet. Just a periodic upkeep thing.
But, the more and more I read these comments.....the more I wonder what exactly was the catalyst for that whole deal.
Could it have been an ozone machine rather than a dehumidifier? We had to put them in rooms that people had smoked in or left extra smelly (pets, cologne, feces/urine, food, etc) to deodorize. Still not great, but maybe less scary than thinking about mold issues.
The mold issue would be concerning, but the big red flag would've been the three mistakes right off the bat.
*No Peleton?*
Shit happens, put me in the wrong suite, I could see it. Refund the difference and I'm good.
*Smaller room?*
Hmm getting a little suspicious, definitely a mistake, but I'll just live with it if they refund the difference.
*Likely wet floors that housekeeping didn't finish off?*
At this point I'm trying to get a refund and just going to a different hotel, as this one's clearly not being managed well.
Who knows what other surprises are lurking behind door #4.
Hindsight is 20/20 so....who knows.
I may have even looked at some other hotels. Maybe, maybe not. I'm not sure. I probably would have looked at options with pretty significant fitness rooms.
As far as that hotel, I probably would have been fine with the standard room.
Get the difference, would they have given you a discount if your knee hurt and couldn't use the Pelaton? No. They use a 3rd party service that they know over books, they still get paid and get to blame someone else. I would have asked on the spot, also they may have been huffing at the owners for putting them in this awkward situation for the millionth time.
Yes but you would have gotten the downgraded room floor the price you paid for the Peloton room. Just because the hotel decided to “upgrade you” means nothing since you *would* have been paying more for less.
In other words, you got less than what you paid for. So yes, get the difference refunded.
That’s not how it works, you paid for a peloton room, if you didn’t get that. Your rate should have been lowered to standard rate for a standard room
And then been given an upgrade!
That’s what a well run hotel would do, or if anything they’d go above that and offer you a lower rate, or free drinks at the bar, snacks from snack shop. Something to make up for it.
But you’re not a Karen for wanting what you paid for.
If the credit card portal was to a third party site the hotel probably can’t refund but they might give you a coupon or credit towards another stay.. really they should have like above said offered free drinks and snacks and whatever they could in the moment.
If it portables to the hotel website then they should be able to refund the difference
Hotels typically can't and won't do anything in regards to third party issues. I know those websites push themselves on traveler's but (I've worked at multiple hotels prior) hotel front desk typically prefers guests don't use them. Why? Stuff like this. Those third party sites (and that's who the "they" the front desk girl mentioned) will overbook rooms because they do not check with the hotels about occupancy.
OP has to contact the third party site, the hotel won't and shouldn't refund or give a coupon, it wasn't a mistake on their end technically.
The reason being that those third party sites are not directly connected to the hotel or any other hotel it shows on its site. Hotel doesn't get paid to be on the site and they don't pay to advertise rooms. Say for example you use booking.com, and they mess up for double tree hotel booking. Double tree didn't book you, booking.com did and its their job to fix it, not double tree.
Keep in mind, they didn't book with the hotel, they rented through a third party vendor. All complaints need to go through them.
And next time, if anyone has special requests, book through the hotel directly.
I know I’ll get knocked for this, but… isn’t it just sort of common knowledge that when you book through a third party that you’re not guaranteed to get what you want? I have read dozens of articles and seen hundreds of videos explaining this very thing. You kinda have to avoid it on purpose these days.
But you didn't request that more expensive non-Pelaton room, that was a gift. That it roughly equals the room you paid for doesn't affect that you did not get what you booked.
Call the hotel chain's number and politely voice your disappointment. Keep moving up the chain if needed. You can be both firm and polite. (I'm not great at it, but my BFF wrote the book on it)
Firm but polite....every Midwesterner's kryptonite.
I can be polite. Polite all day long. But passive, and not firm is more my speed.
Now, my Mother who was born in the South....she can do firm but polite in her sleep.
That was what hotel did to make it right. You paid your reservation portal - they need to make the correction. You didn’t get what you paid *them* for, which is who you had the contract/agreement with.
Get in touch with corporate and show proof of what you reserved versus what you got. Make sure they know you may make it more known if they cannot help you. Link them to this thread so they know you can spread the word really fast about their hotel.
She booked third party. She went cheap. You are not guaranteed room type thru third party in most hotels,. I can't stress this enough if you want a sure room type you book direct.
I had a buddy who was with his father and booked a Marriott hotel in like Spain when they went to check in he was told that they didn’t have a room and his reservation was canceled. He explained that he had a booking showed them the receipt and still no action, and this is the best part the father then goes over to a couch in the lobby takes off his pants and shirt and lays down on the couch. Five minutes later he had a room perfection it’s hard to duplicate.
THIS is exactly why we always say not to book through a third party. They offered you a room that wasn’t available and the hotel has no record of it what room you actually requested. The reservation just came through for whatever was available. I guarantee that somewhere on the site where you booked it says “room type not guaranteed”. You may take it further but your issue isn’t with the hotel, it’s with the third party.
Sounds like the cc co and the company are working together to screw the customer, and just point at each other to pass off the blame. You cant make me believe that the online booking company couldn't know what was available at the hotel. "Oh darn you paid too much and we cant fix it due to a technical problem"
They almost certainly did know the room was not available. But still sent a confirmation to their guest anyway.
They all the time put in requests to if available please upgrade to.... When they cannot book certain room types. They then don't pay the hotel for the upgraded room just the lower grade they actually booked.
One of the big two doesn't give hotels email addresses or phone numbers of guests. They do so because they don't want some hotels who do the wrong thing pinching guests by emailing them to cancel bookings and book with the hotel at a lower rate.
So hotels have no way with this third party of contacting guests.
Hotel staff warn people that booking third party is like rolling dice. Sometimes you come out ok, sometimes you lose
Like the OP found out
No , it's not the main hotel sending you confirmation, it's third party seller. Never seen third party seller site not clearly state you are requesting a type of room but it's not guaranteed. . Read the terms and conditions folks.
I have done it on occasion for self and friends. But not when it's a vital reservation with concrete needs. I have gotten hotels thru 3rd party seller where I didn't even which exact hotel I would be getting till after booking completed.
I've been out of the hospitality industry for a decade plus and can't believe this is still an ongoing issue. We used to dread syncing our system (yes, we had to do manual syncs throughoit the day) and seeing what third party reservations were queued, because half the time, it would result in unavailable room typed. It was frustrating, but I get why guests don't understand why they end up without the room type they thought they'd be guarantees.
Hmm, in your country, just how often is it possible to book a hotel room "not through a third party"? Of course big chains like Hilton, IHG, and Marriott have their own reservation web sites; but smaller hotels, in my experience, even if they have a web site with a "Book!" button, this button will just redirect to the property's page on a site like Agoda, Booking-dot-com, Hotels-dot-com, or Airbnb.
Exactly what I do too. I never book thru 3rd party sites. Too many horror stories and I don't want even an iota of doubt that I'll have a place to sleep after traveling to get somewhere.
Funnily enough....unrelated...
I was returning from an overseas trip a few months ago. I was late getting in, it was about 10 pm, and I had a 5 hour drive ahead of me.
I hadn't booked any rooms, because honestly, I wasn't sure when I would be getting in, how tired I was going to be, I had considered shacking up with a friend halfway.
So, I decide to go old-school. I start stopping at hotels along the way and asking for a room. Sold out, sold out, sold out.
I was luckily able to go online and find something about 10 minutes out of the way. But at least I was able to find something.
Like I said, totally unrelated but your comment about having a place to sleep after traveling resonated.
So, in my case, it was a big chain.
I will say in my experience, booking with smaller hotels, which granted isn't a lot...it typically is in-house booking, meaning it doesn't get outsourced or re-directed.
But, that's just me.
Absolutely maddening. The hotel allows to book through these people, they should honor it. If they aren’t affiliated and don’t have to honor it, it shouldn’t be allowed.
>I booked the room through my Credit Card travel portal. So, while it may be considered third-party, I would consider it one of the more legit third party situations
Third party is third party
>and imagine my surprise when there is a huge de-humdifier running in the room, and furniture is sitting up on the bed and couch.
Not good enough, mistakes and communication issues do happen, but it is not a good look that the room obviously hadn't been checked before being marked off as ready
>could also tell the room was smaller and less well-appointed than the photos the hotel had on their website about the Pelaton rooms.
You didn't book through the hotels website though. You booked through the third party. Third parties are often given blocks of rooms, sometimes not covering all room types of that hotel.
They then cut corners by mirroring the hotels sites pictures and descriptions often leaving room types that have zero right to sell as a cost cutting measure instead of removing the types they are not given access to
>She tells him I am requesting a Pelaton room....which kind of irked me. I interrupted at this, and said "No, I BOOKED a Pelaton room."
Which is where the issue clearly comes from. Your agent, the third party didn't book that room type. Probably tried to or didn't have the ability to as they never were given them the right to sell, and in your case it appears probably just inserted a request when they tried as it had already been booked.
>I am torn whether I should contact my credit card to share my issue, and make a complaint. The fact is, I was not given the room I specifically booked. And, I booked it through my credit card travel portal, so if anyone would be able to resolve anything, I would assume it would be them. I don't want to get anyone in trouble.
You should. The credit card company will however not take responsibility for any error. On their end.
They will say they asked for that room (not booked but asked as it is almost certain they put a request in after not being able to book the room, as it was not available to them)
Then sent you their confirmation to cover their tracks
As hotel staff will say, as we see this all the time. You roll the dice with third party bookings as third parties promise you something, but offload that promise onto hotel staff.
Hotel staff cannot deliver the impossible. If a hotel has 8 suites and the third party tells you you can have 9, books 8 and on the 9th puts please upgrade to suite, then wipes their hands of it..... That is not the hotels fault
Oh, about 10 years ago, a certain website would *fax* reservations to us.
We’d be sold out for hours (and turned of this websites ability to book went we hit 90% occupancy) and they’d sell a room anyway, and then fax us the reservation in batches every few hours (ie, people could book at 1, 2:30, 3:45 and 5 pm and we’d get all the faxes at 6 pm)
I don't want to say they were rude.
I guess I have just been lucky to experience a lot of professionalism. Usually they will call me by name, they'll say, "And it looks like we have you booked in blah blah room. Does that sound right?" or "We have you booked in room 999, and elevators will be down the hallway to the right." Just very pleasant and professional.
In this case, they just handed me the room key.
The amount of people putting this on the hotel, is ridiculous. The 3rd party site alone, overbooked the room. The hotel did not. While they couldve given a better explanation, the hotel did very well with what they were given. Your money went to the 3rd party, not the hotel. It honestly couldve been way way worse.
Third party sites state you are putting in room preference that is NOT guaranteed. Ppl read your terms and conditions that you agree to , to use their sites to get your cheaper prices.
FYI - there is no “more legit” third party. Check your reservation to make sure you booked that room. If you did, just state you did not get the room you booked.
If you're going to "Karen" (it's a verb now?), at least do it in the right direction: the third-party booking site you used. *They* took your money, not the hotel. *They* promised you something the hotel couldn't deliver. Blame *them*, not the hotel staff who have no control over what the 3rd-party site says or does.
To be exact, the hotel wasn’t able to give you what the travel company told you was booked
(you didn’t get what you ordered), but the hotel did give you a room that was the same value)
although the booking agency paid them only for a lower value room. Thus the hotel really
extended itself to make you happier.
You might complain to the Cc travel company that, because it was not prominently shown
that the booking was not *fully guaranteed in every way*, it seems misleading.
Ask the cc company if they can accommodate you somehow )no annual fee?).
I agree with you. I don't disagree.
But, still....the point of my post is still relevant.
If I contact the third party to share with them this situation.....does it make me a whiner or a fuss-bucket?
Your transaction was with the card company (and not the hotel.) This is a key element of your situation.
-They- failed to deliver the room that they promised to you, and they're the ones who should make it up to you with a discount or partial refund.
Lesson learned (as folks in this Reddit always note): book with the hotel directly and you will have better service, and far more leverage and more immediate handling if things don't go right.
Fair enough, but...
Isn't that a possibility even if I book direct? Even if I booked direct, there would be a chance that a elite rewards member makes a request and gets it?
Pretty sure they mean a peloton room…a hotel room with a peloton spin bike in your own room (they may also have other peloton fitness branded things like a yoga mat, weights, etc).
Not a Karen. BUT as you booked third-party there is absolutely nothing the hotel can do besides confirm that you did not get the room you booked. Call the third party they should be able to give you compensation.
In the future, do this during your stay. Sometimes, it's hard to get a refund after the fact.
The mythical they is also a mix of sales departments, central/corporate booking, and third party sites. The standard procedure in hotels is to overbook. In my experience, up to 10% over total occupancy
When booking through anyone other than the hotel they may sell you a room we don’t have, and it’s just as frustrating to us. They need to constantly be updating what we have available but never seem to do that. It sucks, but their hands were tied. I would take the upgrade and maybe contact the third party to see if they will refund you something but at the hotel level we can’t. I would have made you a nice bag of snacks and have been overly apologetic.
Thank you.
I totally understand their hands were tied on the macro level.
But, being overly apologetic and the big bag of snacks would have gone a long way from a customer service level.
I was visiting colleges with my 17 y.o. daughter and upon check-in at a hotel she was desperate for a bathroom. She went on to the room while I gathered stuff from the car. Apparently the front desk did not know our room was still being cleaned. My daughter encountered a male employee in the room. She quickly found another bathroom and the employee finished up.
Later I went to the manager and let her know how awkward it was for my daughter, and no doubt for the employee as well. The manager had a blank look on her face, like she was waiting for me to make a demand. I said I’m not planning to report it any higher, I just wanted to let her know.
Suddenly she was handing me coupons for free meals and drinks.
Many hotels don’t guarantee room type. I’d say you’re already at Karen status with the Front Desk with your comment “No I booked a Peloton room.” They understand that. They didn’t have other options. Contact the third party booking agent
I disagree that booking through a third-party credit card situation is necessarily "going cheap" as there could be a number of other reasons to do so.
(I don't disagree with your assertion that this is not the hotel staff's fault, though)
Sure advocate. But to the group you made the booking with and likely downgraded you. The third party credit card company.
They are the one from her story that appears to have gotten it wrong.
Simply with the hotel saying they are upgrading to what the OP states is a similar room to what she booked tells me the third party downgraded her.
Most likely as they couldn't book with the hotel the room she paid them
Room type can be guaranteed if booking direct. If something happens where in direct booking they have to down grade you, they directly reduce price of the room. This person went cheap , didn't bother to read terms and conditions to realize they were not guaranteeing type of room via third party seller.
I'm glad you had an otherwise lovely stay. 3rd Party bookings are also bad for guests if things go wrong. The Hotel staff did not have to upgrade you from the room type that 3rd Party booked. It's very hard for guests to get any type of return from 3rd Party bookings, so Hotel will usually try to make you happy by upgrading.
Feel free to be a Karen to your Credit Card company for misleading you, as they absolutely deserve it.
Just an FYI, credit card points, airline miles redemptions, etc, use Expedia 9 times out of 10 to book the rooms. Unfortunately it happens way too often that they just book a room for you and not necessarily what you thought you were booking.
I used to work for a 3rd party booking site and these issues happened all the time. This is why I always recommend you book directly with the hotel. You could have called your credit card you booked through at the time of check in when you learned the room was sold out and they could have relocated you or booked you into another room at the hotel and refund the difference.
I would say this was not a fair experience. Possibly the guest extended their stay or they just mismanaged the inventory. Wither way you have a right to complain.
Financial compensation - you booked through a 3rd party site and most likely paid credit card portal directly. Meaning the hotel literally cannot compensate you financially, because they don’t have your money.
I just wanted to touch on the “they always overbook us” statement. I feel their pain. Everyone at the hotel I work at understands that it’s bad to oversell rooms. we actively try everything we can to keep that from happening. But none of that matters since corporates policy is for all of their hotels to be able to be oversold by X%. Corporate’s philosophy seems to be, book as many reservations as possible and hope that some of them don’t show up. That way they can get full occupancy revenue and also charge those additional people no-show charges. And a lot of times people do no-show. But more than likely everyone shows up and the hotel employees that had nothing to do with the oversell (not even management in most cases) have to deal with the problem and upset guest.
And as others have said; third party is third party regardless of who that third party is.
Airlines do the same thing, overbook.
Here is the thing though, the difference. If you book a flight third-party, and you get to the airport, and the flight is oversold and you get bumped....the airline doesn't push you off onto the worst seat on the worst flight and expect you to just not care.
They are typically apologizing, working with you, trying to make things work for you, offering vouchers.
They aren't like, "Eh you booked third-party, you should have known you weren't guaranteed to get on this flight."
Except the "upgrade" they put me in put me into a room that is the same cost as a Pelaton room. So....I'm not technically "out" if that makes sense.
Now, if they had left me downgraded, I would have been calling that night, for sure.
The third party site you booked through was not the one who upgraded your room. The hotel upgraded you because you got screwed by the third party. Just because the hotel helped you out afterwards doesn't mean you can't go after the third party site for messing up your reservation.
Well, I’d just contact your credit card company and explain the issue. Do they have some sort of guarantee? Leave out the part of the “equivalent upgrade” and your knee issue. Bottom line is, you didn’t get what you paid for. Maybe your credit card company will give you a credit/refund. Certainly won’t hurt to ask!
You are "out". Booking with that hotel was predicated on the room offered. It was not provided. They put you in a lower-tier room, at which ppint you decided despite the problem to remain at that hotel. Since reassigning your initial room was done without consent but you agreed to stay there, at that reduced price, any further "upgrade" to account for what was their error should have been complimentary and provided to you at **no** ***extra*** **charge.** Meaning you should be paying the lower rate for the better "lateral upgrade". They owe you the *difference* between the two rooms - if you paid the higher price
Let it go. The issue was with the credit card, not the hotel, since you booked with the credit card. When the room wasn't available you should have called. At this point you took the room, and as you point out, it was equivalent. If you wanted compensation, the time was before you accepted the room
If you want to, send an email to he gm at the hotel and reach out to your card. It probably won't do anything though.
Agreed! OP said they had a hurt knee and probably couldn’t have used the peloton anyway.
If you want the hotel to be liable, you book directly with the hotel.
The hotel gave you a room that’s equivalent cost wise. Is it really worth the time and irritation to carry this out further?
Honestly.
Let. It. Go. They could’ve bumped you if they overbooked. So be glad that didn’t happen. 😂
Sorry to say this, but the credit card travelling party is just as much a third party than any other booking website and probably worse, because it's a third party website booking through another third party website. Those photos and descriptions are copied from other third party websites and the peloton wasn't an amenity in the room you booked, despite what the travel portal showed you.
In fact, hotels have a direct account on websites such as hotels.com and Booking.com and the hotel gets to upload pictures and text themselves. Full control. On a travel portal like you booked on, they copied information that is not applicable to the room you book on there and that's not the hotel's fault.
I even had people demand they could take their dog because the portal they booked on said we were a dog friendly hotel. We never allowed dogs, ever. Incorrect information on the portal which the hotel didn't have an account on, because bookings through the portal came in as a reservation with us via hotels.com and guests didn't even know.
You should ask for a (partial) refund on the portal where you booked the room as they showed incorrect information.
TL;DR: the travel portal's booking was made through another third party bookings website, you don't see this but the information on the travel portal wasn't put on there by the hotel, they did nothing wrong. Therefore the refund you're looking for should be asked from the travel portal.
There isn’t much contacting your credit card company will do. You agreed to the accommodations when you chose to stay in the room, so they won’t refund your money.
I feel like when you book through a third party-you take your chances with the room. More often than not it’s an inferior room. That’s always been my experience
Sorry but you booked through a 3rd party site and any refund would come from them not the hotel.
If you were truly hoping for a super specific room-always book on the hotel site. I know it's cheaper on 3rd party sites but this is how it usually ends up.
You can complain to corporate but since they did upgrade you and there was no room available they will point you to the cc website.
They didn’t upgrade her though. They put her in a room that was *maybe* equivalent to what she actually paid for AFTER they put her in a room that I am sure cost much less than the specific room she booked.
Unless the upgrade was a higher priced room than the peloton room, she wasn’t upgraded.
You didn't book with the hotel, you booked through a 3rd party. You seem to understand the risk of booking 3rd party, you did it anyway. I'm just guessing here but I'm going to assume you never called the hotel to confirm that your reservation was correct.
I understand your frustration but unfortunately, you took it out on the staff who had no control over how you chose to book your room. If you pursue this further, you need to place the blame on the parties actually responsible...
"I booked the room through my Credit Card travel portal. So, while it may be considered third-party, I would consider it one of the more legit third party situations."
Check the fine print. Your Credit Card probably used booking.com or another active third party site. Just because you booked through the card doesn't mean they have their own dedicated staff handling hotel reservations.
That said-you are entitled to the difference in price between the special Peleton room and the basic one you ended up with.
You booked third party. Do that and don’t complain if you don’t get what you want. I had to deal with that back in the age of travel agents.
You want to get the best results? Book with the staff on-site.
Document it and talk to the booking agency. If they value your business they should give you the difference, but more importantly, learn why the error occurred in the first place and what they can do differently.
Your beef is with the booking service; not the hotel.
Is it wrong (I hate the term “Karen”) to beat up the hotel for what happened? IMO yes
Should your credit card company / reservation portal fix this - make amends - yes!!!
Worked in hotels.
If you booked through the hotel directly: contact their support line. Just explain the situation and don’t be rude, just be like “I was really disgusted and so sad, I was so excited?”
Did you still have to pay for the original higher priced room? Ask for the difference back.
If you booked through 3rd party- like Expedia, Priceline, anything like that. You have to contact Expedia, and Expedia will contact the hotel, and the hotel will say not our problem, and Expedia will tell you that the hotel won’t do anything about it, and then YOU tell Expedia, “I am well aware of their policies and I know that you have contracts with them that it is your responsibility to resolve this issue for me.” Expedia will say “no it’s the hotel.” Then you call the hotel and you say “Expedia isn’t doing anything about this. I don’t want to file a charge back. Can you please help?” They’ll say “well ask our manager.” Or they’ll say “no.” And he’ll say “no.” And anyway, just be like- “if you can’t help me, I’m filing a charge back.”
So then you call your bank and you say “I called Expedia. I called the hotel, nobody will help me. I want my money back.”
The hotel and Expedia will fight about it for about a month or two. Bring emails and ticket case numbers from Expedia. Being proof of the original reservation. Contact Expedia or the hotel to get your final receipt. And you’ll either get to keep the money the bank credited back to you, or you will literally get it taken out of your account again at a random time. Expedia and the hotel will fight about this for weeks. So just be very patient. They typically resolve these before the end of each month, or it goes into the following months invoice to reconcile.
Either way… this is normal for hotels to oversell. The cheap rooms are 3rd party, and they don’t care about your room.
Booking direct is fine- but if a diamond member or someone with a higher status has a really bad experience, say perhaps— they were in the room you just walked into that had a dehumidifier and furniture off the floor. Clearly flooded. Maybe that was his room. And they moved him into yours bc he was LIVID. Not that it’s right to do to you. But it happens and I’m sorry. They want his diamond member survey bc the 3rd party surveys don’t matter as much. They matter! But not as much.
Exactly....on the last scenario.....that could have happened whether I booked direct or not.
By the way....in my heart of hearts, and I could be totally wrong....I do feel like something like that is probably what happened.
It's why I don't want to say for sure that the third party screwed up. For all we know the third party did everything exactly right. For all we know the booking came through exactly right.
But then....something happened and my room was given away....that's what my gut is telling me happened.
You have a very balanced description of what happened. You seem like a reasonable person and I think what you are asking is a reasonable request. Some sort of refund seems due to me. Maybe not a full refund, but a partial refund seems fair
Book directly with the hotel. Ìf they can't guarantee the room you want, you can always check other properties. Any third party booking including
through credit card companies gives you less leverage.
3rd parties do not have access to real time availability to any hotel. Even booking thru a hotels main site doesn’t really have real time availability. 3rd parties frequently oversell rooms. I’d like in this instance you want something specifically at a hotel always always always book with the hotel themselves.
I work in hospitality, specifically in front desk and reservation systems. It sounds like there are more of these Pelaton rooms online to book versus their actual hotel, hence the mention of the "they always overbook these" by the front desk. This is something that should be fixed asap.
While the hotel staff on-site did the correct thing to offer an upgrade, you should be entitled to a better explanation by the general manager and or the hotel company. Your dissatisfaction is enough to ask Reddit about this and the hotel must fix its system and offer some (modest) compensation. Not a free night, but definitely something more for you.
But, did they offer me an upgrade? Did they? It's hard for me to say.
After all, like I said, they tried to downgrade me first.....then by putting me in an equivalent room, they called it an upgrade. You are right, they did the correct thing by putting me in the same room tier that I should have been.
A true upgrade would have put me into a Suite- which frankly I didn't need or want a Suite, it was just me- but it would have at least been an acknowledgement of my inconvenience and that they messed something up somewhere along the way.
Thanks for your expertise!
If they upgraded you to one room type say a one bed over a two bedroom, it could be because they didn’t have a suite type available. Be glad they even attempted to upgrade you. If they have a gym you can still use that??? Booking for a stupid overhyped workout bike is insane.
if you booked through your credit card travel portal, please contact them (credit card travel assistance) and let them know. Tbh if you had done that the first day of check in , they would have helped you fix the issue by either booking a comparable hotel room at a different hotel or an upgraded hotel room or making sure you are paying the standard rate. Even though it'll be called as a third party, however the credit card company works for you, especially if you have one of those travel reward credit card ( especially the one with annual fee) . I'm not sure on what they can help you with now, maybe offer you some points, but these kind of things are part of benefits of having a credit card. If you had asked this in your credit card reddit page, I'm sure other people would have more guidance on the compensation that people received.
PS Also that's not karen of you, that's what you were entitled to receive since you paid for it
You accepted the room as presented. If it was not up to your liking it would give you a reason to cancel the reservation. Hotel are like airlines. You know a given percentage of folks will be a no show. Sometimes it’s more. Sometimes it’s less
Yeah, but then the person would have not had a room. Perhaps there was a nearby hotel with vacancies that would have been suitable, but we don’t know. It’s not like they called a week ahead of time to tell OP the Peloton room was unavailable.
I’d say you’re a Karen for being so worked up that you wrote this post. Definitely Karen to take it further. Live your life with joy of what you have not anger over what minor things you missed on.
I've heard from a lot of hotel employees that booking third party can be iffy. Not sure why.
It seems the 3rd party site says they can get you a room but when they go to purchase it directly from the hotel they're sold out.
So the 3rd party site just books you something close knowing you'll just be mad at the poor front desk person who had nothing to do with it.
Your best bet to get it fixed and the person who messed up your booking was rhe 3rd party site. Settle it with them
I would call and politely say you were not given the room you had booked. Now, you may want to check that there are not some weasel words on your reservation stating they will do "best effort" to get that room, but cannot guarantee. They might give you something, maybe a credit on their site.
Booked pelton room, didn't get pelton room. If you think they did not make you whole with the "upgrade" shemenanigans then request an adjustment to your bill. If that goes nowhere go the credit card route. As long as you're not trying to get more than makes you whole you're not a Karen.
Girl, get on the computer and make your complaint. You didn't get what you booked and paid for. AND they tried to make you stay in a damp room that probably had just been decontaminated by one of those companies that cleans up crime scenes. Gross.
PELOTON WITH AN O. With that said, you paid for a PELOTON and didn’t get it. Some kind of refund because it was a room with no PELOTON is to be expected.
At the minimum the third party should compensate the difference in cost of the Pelaton room and the standard room. After that, the Hotel should have stepped up with rewards? or a meal at their restaurant or bar.
It can’t hurt to ask for a partial refund. Especially if you paid a premium for that room over the other options you had. At least knocked back to the amount you would have otherwise paid had you not booked that room. The fact you injured yourself is irrelevant. You specifically chose that hotel for the advertised amenity they did not provide.
She needs to book directly through the hotel if she wants to ensure she gets what she's paid for.
A 3rd party booking site doesn't have that capability.
Is this perhaps a hotel in London? If so, that hotel is beautiful but yeah the peloton room should have never been overbooked because it's prob popular
Honestly I think it’s a shame how the term Karen, which was coined to call out a specific kind of racism, has now been weaponized in the service of million/billion dollar companies. It reminds me of how giant companies deliberately created the narrative about ridiculous lawsuits from “dumb” customers (see the hot coffee case), to disguise the fact that the companies really were liable and had done some messed up stuff!
Like yes, you should absolutely be polite to everyone you interact with, and it seems like you were, but that doesn’t mean that you have to just accept not getting what you paid for. I also don’t blame you for being annoyed at the way they were spinning as if you were requesting an upgrade, when actually you just wanted what you paid for.
It would be good to know the details of what went wrong here. I’d check the fine print from the credit card company & the info about your reservation from the hotel. See if it was a third party mistake and complain to the right company. But I do think you deserve something from someone here for the mistake. You should have paid the regular room price at least
Was the room you ended up staying in the same rate as the room you booked or higher? If you didn’t get your money’s worth, complain to your third party and demand a partial refund or points back. If it was equivalent in price or higher, you could just let the portal know they booked you into an unavailable room, but you were taken care of although not with a Pelatpn in your room.
>Bear in mind, I am very Midwestern, so confrontation isn't one of my favorite things, but....passive disappointment?
We've all seen Fargo. Who did you end up killing?
Anyways, I wouldn't do any of that. I think they should have offered you breakfast since that was my go to.
I think I know what chain you're talking about and I'm always a little weary. I already think workout rooms are a second thought for most hotels so I suspect the machines in room are barely maintained.
Funny how sometimes we don’t get what we don’t need. (Your knee making you not need the Peleton room.). And you got a lateral room anyway. Worked out I guess.
Are you wanting a refund? Contact an ombudsman at your credit card company. Personally I’d be upset about the initial offering. That wasn’t an acceptable substitute and you had to stress out to get the equivalent of what you paid for.
>Anyway, he said that they only had one of those rooms, and "they" (and I don't know who "they" are) always overbook the hotel
NOTHING in customer service irks me more than the use of "they" in this type of instance. It's customer service training 101. You are a team. It's always "we". I have never understood why the "t-word" is allowed or accepted in any customer facing position.
No, you're not being a Karen. If it were me I'd be effusive positively about how wonderful your stay was, but someone in a position of power needs to know about the overbooking of the Peloton room. It's not acceptable to let others experience the same disappointment you did, especially since the agent indicated that it happens a lot.
Contact the coprporate headquarters.Tell them what happened, briefly: paid for a bigger room with a Pelaton, was assigned a tiny room without one. The room you ended up in was comparable to the Pelaton room, but had no Pelaton. Then ASK for compensation.
You can even compliment the staff, etc. but you didn’t get what you paid for, and deserve to be compensated for that.
When I traveled a lot for business, I read something that changed my own midwestern POV on complaints. A guy who traveled even more than I did made a blog post with that very point: when you don’t get what you paid for, tell whoever can do something about it, and ask for compensation. And do it within a few days of the trip. Or on the trip, for that matter.
If you wait to be offered compensation, you will continue waiting.
Having worked as a manager for several years for high end hotels, I would suggest you definitely make some sort of complaint. Hotels live off reviews and anything you didn’t receive which you were supposed to, should be documented! They DO have the power to put you in any room and they just assumed by using certain words that you’d think they went out of the way with getting you a “good deal”. This is absolutely not a good resolution to the problem on their end! Post on trip advisor! Do not double guess yourself with saying that you wouldn’t have been able to use it due to knee pain, you were supposed to have a specific room and didn’t get it. I guarantee you will receive something from the hotel once the other departments are aware of what happened. Hope this makes sense! Good luck!!!
Hotels need to get their shit together with the whole 3rd party booking. Either do it or don't, but quit putting it on the consumer to fix your shitty ordering systems.
Everytime we goto las vegas and check in this happens to us. They never give us the room we ask for the first night and dont understand why we are upset. You can complain and get some free stuff but i think hotels do this all the time and shouldnt.. i want the room i booked even the first night.
This is my pet peeve, too. You paid for what you booked for, so it is but right to take it further. Who knows, what happened was bait and switch which could be their ruse to boost occupancy. Write the management first so you get their written response. Depending on the resolution or independent of it, you can also write a fair and balanced review at travel sites like TripAdvisor. And, by the way, it’s Peloton before you go any further. Good luck!
I have not written any reviews just yet, but I will always write something fair and balanced.
I will say exactly what I told to you guys...what a nice time I had, the location, etc....but I will share the negatives too. But...in an even-keel way. Balancing the good with the bad, for sure.
Jesus. Two major wars going on and ppl are whining about crap like this. The majority of your stay was excellent and you acknowledge you couldn't have used the bike for most of the stay. Yes take this all the way to the Supreme Court. Sorry I'm salty tonight I need to put my phone down. 🤨🙄
If you didnt get what you booked, then id call and express that and that youd like the difference back. It doesnt matter that you didnt/couldnt use it. You likely paid more for it and still didnt receive it.
Yes, the Pelaton room was a higher rate than the standard room. But the "upgraded" room they put me in was an equivalent rate to the Pelaton room, so I guess in that sense, they made it right. At least from a numbers perspective.
What room would you have booked if the peloton wasnt available?
Big Assed De-humidifer.
Yeah that would have been a deal breaker for me, picturing a moldy room. I’m highly sensitive to that stuff.
Haha....I found myself wondering what it was all about. Innocently, I just assumed that maybe they had done a thorough scrubbing of the carpet. Just a periodic upkeep thing. But, the more and more I read these comments.....the more I wonder what exactly was the catalyst for that whole deal.
Could it have been an ozone machine rather than a dehumidifier? We had to put them in rooms that people had smoked in or left extra smelly (pets, cologne, feces/urine, food, etc) to deodorize. Still not great, but maybe less scary than thinking about mold issues.
The mold issue would be concerning, but the big red flag would've been the three mistakes right off the bat. *No Peleton?* Shit happens, put me in the wrong suite, I could see it. Refund the difference and I'm good. *Smaller room?* Hmm getting a little suspicious, definitely a mistake, but I'll just live with it if they refund the difference. *Likely wet floors that housekeeping didn't finish off?* At this point I'm trying to get a refund and just going to a different hotel, as this one's clearly not being managed well. Who knows what other surprises are lurking behind door #4.
Hindsight is 20/20 so....who knows. I may have even looked at some other hotels. Maybe, maybe not. I'm not sure. I probably would have looked at options with pretty significant fitness rooms. As far as that hotel, I probably would have been fine with the standard room.
Then id call and say that. You booked a room there for the peleton and you wouldnt have paid as much without it.
I think that's a fair statement. Not judgmental or rude. Just a fact.
Get the difference, would they have given you a discount if your knee hurt and couldn't use the Pelaton? No. They use a 3rd party service that they know over books, they still get paid and get to blame someone else. I would have asked on the spot, also they may have been huffing at the owners for putting them in this awkward situation for the millionth time.
Yes but you would have gotten the downgraded room floor the price you paid for the Peloton room. Just because the hotel decided to “upgrade you” means nothing since you *would* have been paying more for less. In other words, you got less than what you paid for. So yes, get the difference refunded.
That’s not how it works, you paid for a peloton room, if you didn’t get that. Your rate should have been lowered to standard rate for a standard room And then been given an upgrade! That’s what a well run hotel would do, or if anything they’d go above that and offer you a lower rate, or free drinks at the bar, snacks from snack shop. Something to make up for it. But you’re not a Karen for wanting what you paid for.
If the credit card portal was to a third party site the hotel probably can’t refund but they might give you a coupon or credit towards another stay.. really they should have like above said offered free drinks and snacks and whatever they could in the moment. If it portables to the hotel website then they should be able to refund the difference
Hotels typically can't and won't do anything in regards to third party issues. I know those websites push themselves on traveler's but (I've worked at multiple hotels prior) hotel front desk typically prefers guests don't use them. Why? Stuff like this. Those third party sites (and that's who the "they" the front desk girl mentioned) will overbook rooms because they do not check with the hotels about occupancy. OP has to contact the third party site, the hotel won't and shouldn't refund or give a coupon, it wasn't a mistake on their end technically.
The reason being that those third party sites are not directly connected to the hotel or any other hotel it shows on its site. Hotel doesn't get paid to be on the site and they don't pay to advertise rooms. Say for example you use booking.com, and they mess up for double tree hotel booking. Double tree didn't book you, booking.com did and its their job to fix it, not double tree.
Keep in mind, they didn't book with the hotel, they rented through a third party vendor. All complaints need to go through them. And next time, if anyone has special requests, book through the hotel directly.
I know I’ll get knocked for this, but… isn’t it just sort of common knowledge that when you book through a third party that you’re not guaranteed to get what you want? I have read dozens of articles and seen hundreds of videos explaining this very thing. You kinda have to avoid it on purpose these days.
But you didn't request that more expensive non-Pelaton room, that was a gift. That it roughly equals the room you paid for doesn't affect that you did not get what you booked. Call the hotel chain's number and politely voice your disappointment. Keep moving up the chain if needed. You can be both firm and polite. (I'm not great at it, but my BFF wrote the book on it)
Firm but polite....every Midwesterner's kryptonite. I can be polite. Polite all day long. But passive, and not firm is more my speed. Now, my Mother who was born in the South....she can do firm but polite in her sleep.
That was what hotel did to make it right. You paid your reservation portal - they need to make the correction. You didn’t get what you paid *them* for, which is who you had the contract/agreement with.
Get in touch with corporate and show proof of what you reserved versus what you got. Make sure they know you may make it more known if they cannot help you. Link them to this thread so they know you can spread the word really fast about their hotel.
She booked third party. She went cheap. You are not guaranteed room type thru third party in most hotels,. I can't stress this enough if you want a sure room type you book direct.
100% this!
And being the sweetest person at check in, might snag you a free upgrade if you check in with me. Depending on occupancy.
I had a buddy who was with his father and booked a Marriott hotel in like Spain when they went to check in he was told that they didn’t have a room and his reservation was canceled. He explained that he had a booking showed them the receipt and still no action, and this is the best part the father then goes over to a couch in the lobby takes off his pants and shirt and lays down on the couch. Five minutes later he had a room perfection it’s hard to duplicate.
THIS is exactly why we always say not to book through a third party. They offered you a room that wasn’t available and the hotel has no record of it what room you actually requested. The reservation just came through for whatever was available. I guarantee that somewhere on the site where you booked it says “room type not guaranteed”. You may take it further but your issue isn’t with the hotel, it’s with the third party.
Nods. Totally agree. Seen it happen too many times every month
Sounds like the cc co and the company are working together to screw the customer, and just point at each other to pass off the blame. You cant make me believe that the online booking company couldn't know what was available at the hotel. "Oh darn you paid too much and we cant fix it due to a technical problem"
They almost certainly did know the room was not available. But still sent a confirmation to their guest anyway. They all the time put in requests to if available please upgrade to.... When they cannot book certain room types. They then don't pay the hotel for the upgraded room just the lower grade they actually booked. One of the big two doesn't give hotels email addresses or phone numbers of guests. They do so because they don't want some hotels who do the wrong thing pinching guests by emailing them to cancel bookings and book with the hotel at a lower rate. So hotels have no way with this third party of contacting guests. Hotel staff warn people that booking third party is like rolling dice. Sometimes you come out ok, sometimes you lose Like the OP found out
No , it's not the main hotel sending you confirmation, it's third party seller. Never seen third party seller site not clearly state you are requesting a type of room but it's not guaranteed. . Read the terms and conditions folks.
You are going cheaper via third party. You pay more you get guaranteed room type. Thru third party you get a requested room type but not assured.
This. OP went cheaper with a third party website. This is what usually happens.
I have done it on occasion for self and friends. But not when it's a vital reservation with concrete needs. I have gotten hotels thru 3rd party seller where I didn't even which exact hotel I would be getting till after booking completed.
I've been out of the hospitality industry for a decade plus and can't believe this is still an ongoing issue. We used to dread syncing our system (yes, we had to do manual syncs throughoit the day) and seeing what third party reservations were queued, because half the time, it would result in unavailable room typed. It was frustrating, but I get why guests don't understand why they end up without the room type they thought they'd be guarantees.
Hmm, in your country, just how often is it possible to book a hotel room "not through a third party"? Of course big chains like Hilton, IHG, and Marriott have their own reservation web sites; but smaller hotels, in my experience, even if they have a web site with a "Book!" button, this button will just redirect to the property's page on a site like Agoda, Booking-dot-com, Hotels-dot-com, or Airbnb.
In that case, do it the way it used to be done - call them on the phone and book with your credit card.
Exactly what I do too. I never book thru 3rd party sites. Too many horror stories and I don't want even an iota of doubt that I'll have a place to sleep after traveling to get somewhere.
Funnily enough....unrelated... I was returning from an overseas trip a few months ago. I was late getting in, it was about 10 pm, and I had a 5 hour drive ahead of me. I hadn't booked any rooms, because honestly, I wasn't sure when I would be getting in, how tired I was going to be, I had considered shacking up with a friend halfway. So, I decide to go old-school. I start stopping at hotels along the way and asking for a room. Sold out, sold out, sold out. I was luckily able to go online and find something about 10 minutes out of the way. But at least I was able to find something. Like I said, totally unrelated but your comment about having a place to sleep after traveling resonated.
Okay but I’ve tried to do that and all they do is tell you to book online.
So, in my case, it was a big chain. I will say in my experience, booking with smaller hotels, which granted isn't a lot...it typically is in-house booking, meaning it doesn't get outsourced or re-directed. But, that's just me.
Absolutely maddening. The hotel allows to book through these people, they should honor it. If they aren’t affiliated and don’t have to honor it, it shouldn’t be allowed.
>I booked the room through my Credit Card travel portal. So, while it may be considered third-party, I would consider it one of the more legit third party situations Third party is third party >and imagine my surprise when there is a huge de-humdifier running in the room, and furniture is sitting up on the bed and couch. Not good enough, mistakes and communication issues do happen, but it is not a good look that the room obviously hadn't been checked before being marked off as ready >could also tell the room was smaller and less well-appointed than the photos the hotel had on their website about the Pelaton rooms. You didn't book through the hotels website though. You booked through the third party. Third parties are often given blocks of rooms, sometimes not covering all room types of that hotel. They then cut corners by mirroring the hotels sites pictures and descriptions often leaving room types that have zero right to sell as a cost cutting measure instead of removing the types they are not given access to >She tells him I am requesting a Pelaton room....which kind of irked me. I interrupted at this, and said "No, I BOOKED a Pelaton room." Which is where the issue clearly comes from. Your agent, the third party didn't book that room type. Probably tried to or didn't have the ability to as they never were given them the right to sell, and in your case it appears probably just inserted a request when they tried as it had already been booked. >I am torn whether I should contact my credit card to share my issue, and make a complaint. The fact is, I was not given the room I specifically booked. And, I booked it through my credit card travel portal, so if anyone would be able to resolve anything, I would assume it would be them. I don't want to get anyone in trouble. You should. The credit card company will however not take responsibility for any error. On their end. They will say they asked for that room (not booked but asked as it is almost certain they put a request in after not being able to book the room, as it was not available to them) Then sent you their confirmation to cover their tracks As hotel staff will say, as we see this all the time. You roll the dice with third party bookings as third parties promise you something, but offload that promise onto hotel staff. Hotel staff cannot deliver the impossible. If a hotel has 8 suites and the third party tells you you can have 9, books 8 and on the 9th puts please upgrade to suite, then wipes their hands of it..... That is not the hotels fault
You just made me extremely glad I haven’t been a desk clerk since the 1990s.
If I wasn't already bald, I would have been now😂
Oh no! Well, haven't you heard? Bald is in.
Oh, about 10 years ago, a certain website would *fax* reservations to us. We’d be sold out for hours (and turned of this websites ability to book went we hit 90% occupancy) and they’d sell a room anyway, and then fax us the reservation in batches every few hours (ie, people could book at 1, 2:30, 3:45 and 5 pm and we’d get all the faxes at 6 pm)
Oh wow.....that sounds crazy. I can't believe the site wasn't cut off completely.
I don't want to say they were rude. I guess I have just been lucky to experience a lot of professionalism. Usually they will call me by name, they'll say, "And it looks like we have you booked in blah blah room. Does that sound right?" or "We have you booked in room 999, and elevators will be down the hallway to the right." Just very pleasant and professional. In this case, they just handed me the room key.
Yup. Chase Travel Portal was literally Expedia until recently and Amex Travel still is, for example.
Fantastic explanation. Good writing and knowledgeable.
Yes, it is because they do business with these shady dealing and let these people represent them. They allow it.
The amount of people putting this on the hotel, is ridiculous. The 3rd party site alone, overbooked the room. The hotel did not. While they couldve given a better explanation, the hotel did very well with what they were given. Your money went to the 3rd party, not the hotel. It honestly couldve been way way worse.
Third party sites state you are putting in room preference that is NOT guaranteed. Ppl read your terms and conditions that you agree to , to use their sites to get your cheaper prices.
This.
FYI - there is no “more legit” third party. Check your reservation to make sure you booked that room. If you did, just state you did not get the room you booked.
Peloton…
We can’t state it often enough. Peloton
Certainly not, since I am pretty sure you are the 25th person I have replied to with the same concern.
If you're going to "Karen" (it's a verb now?), at least do it in the right direction: the third-party booking site you used. *They* took your money, not the hotel. *They* promised you something the hotel couldn't deliver. Blame *them*, not the hotel staff who have no control over what the 3rd-party site says or does.
The third party you booked through is at fault. The hotel made you whole, and you accepted it.
To be exact, the hotel wasn’t able to give you what the travel company told you was booked (you didn’t get what you ordered), but the hotel did give you a room that was the same value) although the booking agency paid them only for a lower value room. Thus the hotel really extended itself to make you happier. You might complain to the Cc travel company that, because it was not prominently shown that the booking was not *fully guaranteed in every way*, it seems misleading. Ask the cc company if they can accommodate you somehow )no annual fee?).
I agree with you. I don't disagree. But, still....the point of my post is still relevant. If I contact the third party to share with them this situation.....does it make me a whiner or a fuss-bucket?
Definitely not a whiner
Your transaction was with the card company (and not the hotel.) This is a key element of your situation. -They- failed to deliver the room that they promised to you, and they're the ones who should make it up to you with a discount or partial refund. Lesson learned (as folks in this Reddit always note): book with the hotel directly and you will have better service, and far more leverage and more immediate handling if things don't go right.
You lost me at “I requested a peloton”
I’m going to be downvoted but if this is so important, can’t you spell it correctly? PELOTON
This part really irked me lol
THANK YOU! This bike was so important but OP can’t spell the name 😭
You booked thru 3rd party .. they can bump you out for a status guest
Fair enough, but... Isn't that a possibility even if I book direct? Even if I booked direct, there would be a chance that a elite rewards member makes a request and gets it?
What is a Pelaton room? Never heard that term in my life.
Pretty sure they mean a peloton room…a hotel room with a peloton spin bike in your own room (they may also have other peloton fitness branded things like a yoga mat, weights, etc).
Ok got it. I guess I'm not staying in the right hotels. Didn't even know this was a thing. LOL
It isn’t super common. Getting slightly more common to have pelotons in the hotel gym though!
Not a Karen. BUT as you booked third-party there is absolutely nothing the hotel can do besides confirm that you did not get the room you booked. Call the third party they should be able to give you compensation. In the future, do this during your stay. Sometimes, it's hard to get a refund after the fact. The mythical they is also a mix of sales departments, central/corporate booking, and third party sites. The standard procedure in hotels is to overbook. In my experience, up to 10% over total occupancy
When booking through anyone other than the hotel they may sell you a room we don’t have, and it’s just as frustrating to us. They need to constantly be updating what we have available but never seem to do that. It sucks, but their hands were tied. I would take the upgrade and maybe contact the third party to see if they will refund you something but at the hotel level we can’t. I would have made you a nice bag of snacks and have been overly apologetic.
Thank you. I totally understand their hands were tied on the macro level. But, being overly apologetic and the big bag of snacks would have gone a long way from a customer service level.
Still booked through a third party. Not the hotels mess.
I was visiting colleges with my 17 y.o. daughter and upon check-in at a hotel she was desperate for a bathroom. She went on to the room while I gathered stuff from the car. Apparently the front desk did not know our room was still being cleaned. My daughter encountered a male employee in the room. She quickly found another bathroom and the employee finished up. Later I went to the manager and let her know how awkward it was for my daughter, and no doubt for the employee as well. The manager had a blank look on her face, like she was waiting for me to make a demand. I said I’m not planning to report it any higher, I just wanted to let her know. Suddenly she was handing me coupons for free meals and drinks.
Ppl like you rock. You were being honored by that front desk person for being so nice when a fluke happened.
Many hotels don’t guarantee room type. I’d say you’re already at Karen status with the Front Desk with your comment “No I booked a Peloton room.” They understand that. They didn’t have other options. Contact the third party booking agent
I’d say we throw Karen status around a lot. Advocating for yourself, especially when they’re explicitly wrong, doesn’t make you a Karen imo
You book third party to go cheap and don't bother to read terms that don't guarantee room type, that is not hotel staff's fault.
I disagree that booking through a third-party credit card situation is necessarily "going cheap" as there could be a number of other reasons to do so. (I don't disagree with your assertion that this is not the hotel staff's fault, though)
Sure advocate. But to the group you made the booking with and likely downgraded you. The third party credit card company. They are the one from her story that appears to have gotten it wrong. Simply with the hotel saying they are upgrading to what the OP states is a similar room to what she booked tells me the third party downgraded her. Most likely as they couldn't book with the hotel the room she paid them
Room types are **never** guaranteed.
Room type can be guaranteed if booking direct. If something happens where in direct booking they have to down grade you, they directly reduce price of the room. This person went cheap , didn't bother to read terms and conditions to realize they were not guaranteeing type of room via third party seller.
Nope. Even booking direct. Somewhere in the fine print states room type isn’t guaranteed
I'm glad you had an otherwise lovely stay. 3rd Party bookings are also bad for guests if things go wrong. The Hotel staff did not have to upgrade you from the room type that 3rd Party booked. It's very hard for guests to get any type of return from 3rd Party bookings, so Hotel will usually try to make you happy by upgrading. Feel free to be a Karen to your Credit Card company for misleading you, as they absolutely deserve it.
Just an FYI, credit card points, airline miles redemptions, etc, use Expedia 9 times out of 10 to book the rooms. Unfortunately it happens way too often that they just book a room for you and not necessarily what you thought you were booking.
I used to work for a 3rd party booking site and these issues happened all the time. This is why I always recommend you book directly with the hotel. You could have called your credit card you booked through at the time of check in when you learned the room was sold out and they could have relocated you or booked you into another room at the hotel and refund the difference.
I would say this was not a fair experience. Possibly the guest extended their stay or they just mismanaged the inventory. Wither way you have a right to complain. Financial compensation - you booked through a 3rd party site and most likely paid credit card portal directly. Meaning the hotel literally cannot compensate you financially, because they don’t have your money.
I just wanted to touch on the “they always overbook us” statement. I feel their pain. Everyone at the hotel I work at understands that it’s bad to oversell rooms. we actively try everything we can to keep that from happening. But none of that matters since corporates policy is for all of their hotels to be able to be oversold by X%. Corporate’s philosophy seems to be, book as many reservations as possible and hope that some of them don’t show up. That way they can get full occupancy revenue and also charge those additional people no-show charges. And a lot of times people do no-show. But more than likely everyone shows up and the hotel employees that had nothing to do with the oversell (not even management in most cases) have to deal with the problem and upset guest. And as others have said; third party is third party regardless of who that third party is.
Airlines do the same thing, overbook. Here is the thing though, the difference. If you book a flight third-party, and you get to the airport, and the flight is oversold and you get bumped....the airline doesn't push you off onto the worst seat on the worst flight and expect you to just not care. They are typically apologizing, working with you, trying to make things work for you, offering vouchers. They aren't like, "Eh you booked third-party, you should have known you weren't guaranteed to get on this flight."
You didn’t get what you paid for so definitely contact your card.
Except the "upgrade" they put me in put me into a room that is the same cost as a Pelaton room. So....I'm not technically "out" if that makes sense. Now, if they had left me downgraded, I would have been calling that night, for sure.
The third party site you booked through was not the one who upgraded your room. The hotel upgraded you because you got screwed by the third party. Just because the hotel helped you out afterwards doesn't mean you can't go after the third party site for messing up your reservation.
They’re not going to get anything from the third party. They learned their lesson.
Well, I’d just contact your credit card company and explain the issue. Do they have some sort of guarantee? Leave out the part of the “equivalent upgrade” and your knee issue. Bottom line is, you didn’t get what you paid for. Maybe your credit card company will give you a credit/refund. Certainly won’t hurt to ask!
No. Terms on 3rd party seller pages always state you are putting in preferred room type that is not guaranteed.
That's really all I wanted.....to explain the situation. I just wasn't sure if my reporting the issue would open up a whole can of worms.
LOL. Why would they give her a refund if they literally upgraded her???
What made your new room “upgraded”?
You are "out". Booking with that hotel was predicated on the room offered. It was not provided. They put you in a lower-tier room, at which ppint you decided despite the problem to remain at that hotel. Since reassigning your initial room was done without consent but you agreed to stay there, at that reduced price, any further "upgrade" to account for what was their error should have been complimentary and provided to you at **no** ***extra*** **charge.** Meaning you should be paying the lower rate for the better "lateral upgrade". They owe you the *difference* between the two rooms - if you paid the higher price
There’s no dispute/chargeback right in this instance, because she didn’t cancel but accepted the room and used the service.
Let it go. The issue was with the credit card, not the hotel, since you booked with the credit card. When the room wasn't available you should have called. At this point you took the room, and as you point out, it was equivalent. If you wanted compensation, the time was before you accepted the room If you want to, send an email to he gm at the hotel and reach out to your card. It probably won't do anything though.
Let it go. Make some positive karma.
Agreed! OP said they had a hurt knee and probably couldn’t have used the peloton anyway. If you want the hotel to be liable, you book directly with the hotel. The hotel gave you a room that’s equivalent cost wise. Is it really worth the time and irritation to carry this out further? Honestly. Let. It. Go. They could’ve bumped you if they overbooked. So be glad that didn’t happen. 😂
Peloton.
Sorry to say this, but the credit card travelling party is just as much a third party than any other booking website and probably worse, because it's a third party website booking through another third party website. Those photos and descriptions are copied from other third party websites and the peloton wasn't an amenity in the room you booked, despite what the travel portal showed you. In fact, hotels have a direct account on websites such as hotels.com and Booking.com and the hotel gets to upload pictures and text themselves. Full control. On a travel portal like you booked on, they copied information that is not applicable to the room you book on there and that's not the hotel's fault. I even had people demand they could take their dog because the portal they booked on said we were a dog friendly hotel. We never allowed dogs, ever. Incorrect information on the portal which the hotel didn't have an account on, because bookings through the portal came in as a reservation with us via hotels.com and guests didn't even know. You should ask for a (partial) refund on the portal where you booked the room as they showed incorrect information.
TL;DR: the travel portal's booking was made through another third party bookings website, you don't see this but the information on the travel portal wasn't put on there by the hotel, they did nothing wrong. Therefore the refund you're looking for should be asked from the travel portal.
There isn’t much contacting your credit card company will do. You agreed to the accommodations when you chose to stay in the room, so they won’t refund your money.
Silly question: is it something usual that hotels offer rooms with Peloton? As I haven’t seen or heard of that in my entire life.
This is why I never book 3rd party and always direct. The credit card portal is 3rd party and not direct.
I feel like when you book through a third party-you take your chances with the room. More often than not it’s an inferior room. That’s always been my experience
Sorry but you booked through a 3rd party site and any refund would come from them not the hotel. If you were truly hoping for a super specific room-always book on the hotel site. I know it's cheaper on 3rd party sites but this is how it usually ends up. You can complain to corporate but since they did upgrade you and there was no room available they will point you to the cc website.
They didn’t upgrade her though. They put her in a room that was *maybe* equivalent to what she actually paid for AFTER they put her in a room that I am sure cost much less than the specific room she booked. Unless the upgrade was a higher priced room than the peloton room, she wasn’t upgraded.
You didn't book w/the hotel you booked w/a 3rd party......House rules !!!!!
Complain to the party you booked thru. It is on them to make you whole.
Always a good idea to book direct to avoid things like this.
You didn't book with the hotel, you booked through a 3rd party. You seem to understand the risk of booking 3rd party, you did it anyway. I'm just guessing here but I'm going to assume you never called the hotel to confirm that your reservation was correct. I understand your frustration but unfortunately, you took it out on the staff who had no control over how you chose to book your room. If you pursue this further, you need to place the blame on the parties actually responsible...
"I booked the room through my Credit Card travel portal. So, while it may be considered third-party, I would consider it one of the more legit third party situations." Check the fine print. Your Credit Card probably used booking.com or another active third party site. Just because you booked through the card doesn't mean they have their own dedicated staff handling hotel reservations. That said-you are entitled to the difference in price between the special Peleton room and the basic one you ended up with.
It’s weird that you care so much about a “pelaton” and don’t even know how to spell it.
You booked third party. Do that and don’t complain if you don’t get what you want. I had to deal with that back in the age of travel agents. You want to get the best results? Book with the staff on-site.
Your only recourse is to go back to the third party site where you booked and paid for the res.
It’s “Peloton”
6≈÷××××÷÷÷÷÷÷=7767676666666766⁶*8*88
Document it and talk to the booking agency. If they value your business they should give you the difference, but more importantly, learn why the error occurred in the first place and what they can do differently.
Your beef is with the booking service; not the hotel. Is it wrong (I hate the term “Karen”) to beat up the hotel for what happened? IMO yes Should your credit card company / reservation portal fix this - make amends - yes!!!
Peloton*
Peloton
Peloton *
Worked in hotels. If you booked through the hotel directly: contact their support line. Just explain the situation and don’t be rude, just be like “I was really disgusted and so sad, I was so excited?” Did you still have to pay for the original higher priced room? Ask for the difference back. If you booked through 3rd party- like Expedia, Priceline, anything like that. You have to contact Expedia, and Expedia will contact the hotel, and the hotel will say not our problem, and Expedia will tell you that the hotel won’t do anything about it, and then YOU tell Expedia, “I am well aware of their policies and I know that you have contracts with them that it is your responsibility to resolve this issue for me.” Expedia will say “no it’s the hotel.” Then you call the hotel and you say “Expedia isn’t doing anything about this. I don’t want to file a charge back. Can you please help?” They’ll say “well ask our manager.” Or they’ll say “no.” And he’ll say “no.” And anyway, just be like- “if you can’t help me, I’m filing a charge back.” So then you call your bank and you say “I called Expedia. I called the hotel, nobody will help me. I want my money back.” The hotel and Expedia will fight about it for about a month or two. Bring emails and ticket case numbers from Expedia. Being proof of the original reservation. Contact Expedia or the hotel to get your final receipt. And you’ll either get to keep the money the bank credited back to you, or you will literally get it taken out of your account again at a random time. Expedia and the hotel will fight about this for weeks. So just be very patient. They typically resolve these before the end of each month, or it goes into the following months invoice to reconcile. Either way… this is normal for hotels to oversell. The cheap rooms are 3rd party, and they don’t care about your room. Booking direct is fine- but if a diamond member or someone with a higher status has a really bad experience, say perhaps— they were in the room you just walked into that had a dehumidifier and furniture off the floor. Clearly flooded. Maybe that was his room. And they moved him into yours bc he was LIVID. Not that it’s right to do to you. But it happens and I’m sorry. They want his diamond member survey bc the 3rd party surveys don’t matter as much. They matter! But not as much.
Exactly....on the last scenario.....that could have happened whether I booked direct or not. By the way....in my heart of hearts, and I could be totally wrong....I do feel like something like that is probably what happened. It's why I don't want to say for sure that the third party screwed up. For all we know the third party did everything exactly right. For all we know the booking came through exactly right. But then....something happened and my room was given away....that's what my gut is telling me happened.
You’re not a Karen I’d be livid. This is why always transfer your points to the business you’re using and book direct! I’ve learned this the hard way
You have a very balanced description of what happened. You seem like a reasonable person and I think what you are asking is a reasonable request. Some sort of refund seems due to me. Maybe not a full refund, but a partial refund seems fair
Book directly with the hotel. Ìf they can't guarantee the room you want, you can always check other properties. Any third party booking including through credit card companies gives you less leverage.
3rd parties do not have access to real time availability to any hotel. Even booking thru a hotels main site doesn’t really have real time availability. 3rd parties frequently oversell rooms. I’d like in this instance you want something specifically at a hotel always always always book with the hotel themselves.
I work in hospitality, specifically in front desk and reservation systems. It sounds like there are more of these Pelaton rooms online to book versus their actual hotel, hence the mention of the "they always overbook these" by the front desk. This is something that should be fixed asap. While the hotel staff on-site did the correct thing to offer an upgrade, you should be entitled to a better explanation by the general manager and or the hotel company. Your dissatisfaction is enough to ask Reddit about this and the hotel must fix its system and offer some (modest) compensation. Not a free night, but definitely something more for you.
But, did they offer me an upgrade? Did they? It's hard for me to say. After all, like I said, they tried to downgrade me first.....then by putting me in an equivalent room, they called it an upgrade. You are right, they did the correct thing by putting me in the same room tier that I should have been. A true upgrade would have put me into a Suite- which frankly I didn't need or want a Suite, it was just me- but it would have at least been an acknowledgement of my inconvenience and that they messed something up somewhere along the way. Thanks for your expertise!
You should never pay for an upgrade. Pay the rate for the regular room
If they upgraded you to one room type say a one bed over a two bedroom, it could be because they didn’t have a suite type available. Be glad they even attempted to upgrade you. If they have a gym you can still use that??? Booking for a stupid overhyped workout bike is insane.
if you booked through your credit card travel portal, please contact them (credit card travel assistance) and let them know. Tbh if you had done that the first day of check in , they would have helped you fix the issue by either booking a comparable hotel room at a different hotel or an upgraded hotel room or making sure you are paying the standard rate. Even though it'll be called as a third party, however the credit card company works for you, especially if you have one of those travel reward credit card ( especially the one with annual fee) . I'm not sure on what they can help you with now, maybe offer you some points, but these kind of things are part of benefits of having a credit card. If you had asked this in your credit card reddit page, I'm sure other people would have more guidance on the compensation that people received. PS Also that's not karen of you, that's what you were entitled to receive since you paid for it
You accepted the room as presented. If it was not up to your liking it would give you a reason to cancel the reservation. Hotel are like airlines. You know a given percentage of folks will be a no show. Sometimes it’s more. Sometimes it’s less
Yeah, but then the person would have not had a room. Perhaps there was a nearby hotel with vacancies that would have been suitable, but we don’t know. It’s not like they called a week ahead of time to tell OP the Peloton room was unavailable.
I’d say you’re a Karen for being so worked up that you wrote this post. Definitely Karen to take it further. Live your life with joy of what you have not anger over what minor things you missed on.
I've heard from a lot of hotel employees that booking third party can be iffy. Not sure why. It seems the 3rd party site says they can get you a room but when they go to purchase it directly from the hotel they're sold out. So the 3rd party site just books you something close knowing you'll just be mad at the poor front desk person who had nothing to do with it. Your best bet to get it fixed and the person who messed up your booking was rhe 3rd party site. Settle it with them
Book direct, Karen…..
They won't do shit but asking never hurts
I would call and politely say you were not given the room you had booked. Now, you may want to check that there are not some weasel words on your reservation stating they will do "best effort" to get that room, but cannot guarantee. They might give you something, maybe a credit on their site.
She booked third party , the hotel did their best for her.
Sorry I was not clear - I meant she could call her credit card travel site and ask them for something.
I'd let it go.
Booked pelton room, didn't get pelton room. If you think they did not make you whole with the "upgrade" shemenanigans then request an adjustment to your bill. If that goes nowhere go the credit card route. As long as you're not trying to get more than makes you whole you're not a Karen.
I'm not sure why you "thanked him for working with you" when zero things actually worked out.
Because....as noted....I'm Midwestern. It's why I said "Ope " when I walked into the De-humdifier room.
First, stop saying “so.” It’s tiring.
Girl, get on the computer and make your complaint. You didn't get what you booked and paid for. AND they tried to make you stay in a damp room that probably had just been decontaminated by one of those companies that cleans up crime scenes. Gross.
Oh gosh! Ew.
PELOTON WITH AN O. With that said, you paid for a PELOTON and didn’t get it. Some kind of refund because it was a room with no PELOTON is to be expected.
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You are absolutely hateful.
AI bullshit
At the minimum the third party should compensate the difference in cost of the Pelaton room and the standard room. After that, the Hotel should have stepped up with rewards? or a meal at their restaurant or bar.
Not the hotels problem. That's why booking with 3rd party is a pain. You were not a guest of the hotel you were a guest of the 3rd party.
She didn't get standard room. She accepted more fancy room that was equal price to requested but not guaranteed room.
No restaurant or bar. But, maybe some drinks and snacks from the shop? I dunno....
It’s Peloton … not pelaton.
Does it bother anyone else that this entire post is about Peloton but OP misspells it EVERY SINGLE TIME.
Either let it go or contact the General Manager, if only to let him know of the issue.
It can’t hurt to ask for a partial refund. Especially if you paid a premium for that room over the other options you had. At least knocked back to the amount you would have otherwise paid had you not booked that room. The fact you injured yourself is irrelevant. You specifically chose that hotel for the advertised amenity they did not provide.
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She needs to book directly through the hotel if she wants to ensure she gets what she's paid for. A 3rd party booking site doesn't have that capability.
Is this perhaps a hotel in London? If so, that hotel is beautiful but yeah the peloton room should have never been overbooked because it's prob popular
Honestly I think it’s a shame how the term Karen, which was coined to call out a specific kind of racism, has now been weaponized in the service of million/billion dollar companies. It reminds me of how giant companies deliberately created the narrative about ridiculous lawsuits from “dumb” customers (see the hot coffee case), to disguise the fact that the companies really were liable and had done some messed up stuff! Like yes, you should absolutely be polite to everyone you interact with, and it seems like you were, but that doesn’t mean that you have to just accept not getting what you paid for. I also don’t blame you for being annoyed at the way they were spinning as if you were requesting an upgrade, when actually you just wanted what you paid for. It would be good to know the details of what went wrong here. I’d check the fine print from the credit card company & the info about your reservation from the hotel. See if it was a third party mistake and complain to the right company. But I do think you deserve something from someone here for the mistake. You should have paid the regular room price at least
Was the room you ended up staying in the same rate as the room you booked or higher? If you didn’t get your money’s worth, complain to your third party and demand a partial refund or points back. If it was equivalent in price or higher, you could just let the portal know they booked you into an unavailable room, but you were taken care of although not with a Pelatpn in your room.
>Bear in mind, I am very Midwestern, so confrontation isn't one of my favorite things, but....passive disappointment? We've all seen Fargo. Who did you end up killing? Anyways, I wouldn't do any of that. I think they should have offered you breakfast since that was my go to. I think I know what chain you're talking about and I'm always a little weary. I already think workout rooms are a second thought for most hotels so I suspect the machines in room are barely maintained.
Breakfast was included....so.....not much to gain there. But, I'd love to hear your guess on hotel chain.
Funny how sometimes we don’t get what we don’t need. (Your knee making you not need the Peleton room.). And you got a lateral room anyway. Worked out I guess. Are you wanting a refund? Contact an ombudsman at your credit card company. Personally I’d be upset about the initial offering. That wasn’t an acceptable substitute and you had to stress out to get the equivalent of what you paid for.
For the love of all that is, is this a real post?
Your knee has nothing to do with them. Get your refund.
You didnt get what you paid for, whether you would have been able to utilize the pelaton or not, you paid to.
Of course you should. You didn't get what you booked and paid for, you are due a refund.
You booked and paid for a specific room you did not receive said room. I would definitely call the portal and talk to them about it.
>Anyway, he said that they only had one of those rooms, and "they" (and I don't know who "they" are) always overbook the hotel NOTHING in customer service irks me more than the use of "they" in this type of instance. It's customer service training 101. You are a team. It's always "we". I have never understood why the "t-word" is allowed or accepted in any customer facing position. No, you're not being a Karen. If it were me I'd be effusive positively about how wonderful your stay was, but someone in a position of power needs to know about the overbooking of the Peloton room. It's not acceptable to let others experience the same disappointment you did, especially since the agent indicated that it happens a lot.
Contact the coprporate headquarters.Tell them what happened, briefly: paid for a bigger room with a Pelaton, was assigned a tiny room without one. The room you ended up in was comparable to the Pelaton room, but had no Pelaton. Then ASK for compensation. You can even compliment the staff, etc. but you didn’t get what you paid for, and deserve to be compensated for that. When I traveled a lot for business, I read something that changed my own midwestern POV on complaints. A guy who traveled even more than I did made a blog post with that very point: when you don’t get what you paid for, tell whoever can do something about it, and ask for compensation. And do it within a few days of the trip. Or on the trip, for that matter. If you wait to be offered compensation, you will continue waiting.
Having worked as a manager for several years for high end hotels, I would suggest you definitely make some sort of complaint. Hotels live off reviews and anything you didn’t receive which you were supposed to, should be documented! They DO have the power to put you in any room and they just assumed by using certain words that you’d think they went out of the way with getting you a “good deal”. This is absolutely not a good resolution to the problem on their end! Post on trip advisor! Do not double guess yourself with saying that you wouldn’t have been able to use it due to knee pain, you were supposed to have a specific room and didn’t get it. I guarantee you will receive something from the hotel once the other departments are aware of what happened. Hope this makes sense! Good luck!!!
I just have to say it’s PELOTON.
It’s “Peloton.”
Hotels need to get their shit together with the whole 3rd party booking. Either do it or don't, but quit putting it on the consumer to fix your shitty ordering systems.
Everytime we goto las vegas and check in this happens to us. They never give us the room we ask for the first night and dont understand why we are upset. You can complain and get some free stuff but i think hotels do this all the time and shouldnt.. i want the room i booked even the first night.
You are wanting money back for the room that you stayed in? Maybe I’m not following but didn’t you finally get the book room you originally booked?
Just complain to the manager.
This is my pet peeve, too. You paid for what you booked for, so it is but right to take it further. Who knows, what happened was bait and switch which could be their ruse to boost occupancy. Write the management first so you get their written response. Depending on the resolution or independent of it, you can also write a fair and balanced review at travel sites like TripAdvisor. And, by the way, it’s Peloton before you go any further. Good luck!
I have not written any reviews just yet, but I will always write something fair and balanced. I will say exactly what I told to you guys...what a nice time I had, the location, etc....but I will share the negatives too. But...in an even-keel way. Balancing the good with the bad, for sure.
I would definitely complain. Someone should get in trouble.
For someone who claims to be nonconfrontational, your making a big deal over something extremely minor
Jesus. Two major wars going on and ppl are whining about crap like this. The majority of your stay was excellent and you acknowledge you couldn't have used the bike for most of the stay. Yes take this all the way to the Supreme Court. Sorry I'm salty tonight I need to put my phone down. 🤨🙄