Hotel Reservations

[TSOL]

Having been employed in the hospitality industry for years I may be able to shed some light on what may be happening here. Many time hotels will run these types of specials during their slow season in an effort to boost their occupancy; airlines & car rental companies will also do the same. Usually there are restrictions involved with these specials for example subject to availability, minimum # of nights stay, restrictions apply, one per customer etc.

The way these normally work is the hotel will set aside X number of rooms for this special rate, once these rooms are all booked our their occupancy reaches a certain percent for that time period they blackout the discounted rate as their rooms are now in a higher demand. This is what I suspect happened to you, when you called the first time the PASS special was available and your reservation was booked but by the time you called back a week later they blacked out any further special rates fro that time period. I have seen this happen in the same day on occasion when demand is high.

As for charging your debit card I suspect that there was some sort of cancellation policy that if the reservation was canceled you would be charged X night(s) stay. This is also a standard practice in many hotels. But without knowing the exact wording of their PASS promotion I can only make a guess as to what happened.

 

[panzertanker]

But without knowing the exact wording of their PASS promotion I can only make a guess as to what happened.

And, unfortunately, OP does not have the PASS at this time, just the web site and advertisement....

 

[panzertanker]

I know that websites can be stale and that’s why I didn’t rely on that information alone. I checked with the website and the written advertisement at the front desk. I have a copy of that document. Neither of these spell out the dates as blk out dates. Furthermore, I would have expected them to mention this the time of reservation. They didn’t and admit their mistake. They probably would haven’t noticed until I checked out, if I hadn’t called them.

-B

Apology accepted, thanks.

Have you spoken to the hotel manager/district manager, etc???

There would have to be some way to work it out if there is no other loop hole for them to squirm through...

 

[bombbat]

I want to thanks all for your replies, since then I have made reservations at another hotel. Unfortunately, I just don't the time to follow through with this. The resort knows that and that is the reason they can get away with poor customer service and false ambiguous advertising. They refunded the money.

I don't think the staff had any intent, just incompetence.

 

[panzertanker]

I want to thanks all for your replies, since then I have made reservations at another hotel. Unfortunately, I just don't the time to follow through with this. The resort knows that and that is the reason they can get away with poor customer service and false ambiguous advertising. They refunded the money.

I don't think the staff had any intent, just incompetence.

Gald it worked out for you.
Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas.