We actually ended up at a Marriott, but it was under construction at the time and they made it clear

He kept asking why we canceled. He was very uncooperative and unprofessional. I have tried calling at various times of the day, hoping to talk with someone different so I could get a name or email of the manager or owner, but he has answered every time I have called.
I asked Super 8 corporate to review her refund request. It investigated the cancellation and offered Buescher a full refund. But the money came from Wyndham corporate, which owns the Super 8 brand, not from the hotel.
But I m troubled by this case, which very nearly didn t go her way. Super 8, like many other budget hotels, seems to dole out franchises like Halloween candy, aa journey travel route but often exercises minimal control over its hotels.
So it s pretty easy for an owner to go rogue and refuse to honor an agreement, even when there s proof of a phone call, a written confirmation agreement, and even cell phone records to verify a cancellation was made.
If there s a lesson to be learned, it s that you need to notify the agency through which you booked a hotel room. Maybe the threat aa journey travel route of having this Super 8 franchise blacklisted by Priceline would have been more incentive to issue a refund.
I think you and mikegun may be missing a small point. Most hotels really hate these NET MERCHANT RATES since they are at least 25-35% off the best available aa journey travel route rate. The only reason hotels take them is because after 9/11 room occupancy rates tumbled. The whole deal just got stuck since then.
I am not making excuses for Super 8, but do they need to baby Priceline customers? They processed the room CANCELLATION. But Priceline needs to process the REFUND. The hotel is NOT HOLDING the customer s money. The parent company (of the franchise) went above and beyond.
People need to understand that the HOTEL RESERVATION system aa journey travel route will process a cancellation (nothing but a status change). The hotel simply does NOT BILL THE MERCHANT. But that does not signal an ACCOUNTING or PAYMENT transaction automatically OF THE MERCHANT.
The hotel SHOULD have honoured the refund request because it was the hotel s fault for not advising the guest that she must cancel through Priceline. The hotel should aa journey travel route never have cancelled the reservation. Furthermore, aa journey travel route it would be impossible for the hotel to refund the guest s full amount because firstly, the hotel never took payment from the guest. They collected from Priceline aa journey travel route and Priceline collected from the guest. Secondly, what the hotel gets from Priceline is less than what the guest paid. However, aa journey travel route it should be noted that Wyndham Corporate will enforce the rules with their franchisees and fine them if they fail to comply. If you can never get a satisfactory resolution from the property, always phone the brand customer care department. Technically, aa journey travel route the guest did make an error but it s a reasonable mistake and the hotel should have known better.
I think you are right, I am expecting too much of the hotel. I don't know of a way they would notify Priceline either, nor should they have to. But I think it would have been the right thing to do had they simply mentioned to her that she should call Priceline. I do think it was going above and beyond for the parent company to refund her, and I commend them for that.
I really don't like this whole merchant process for the reasons you mentioned. I recall another time, back before I learned not to use these sites, I was staying at a hotel in Memphis and was put in a horrible room that was half under construction, had a door in the lobby, aa journey travel route and while it had a bed, was missing some other amenities such as a working TV. I asked to be moved and was told by the front desk staff, "Not for the price you paid." They really don't like that they give these guests worse rooms and lousy service, but I understand aa journey travel route why that that is the case.
WARNING: YOU ARE BUYING THIS HOTEL ROOM STAY FROM A MERCHANT OF THE HOTEL. ALL BUSINESS TRANSACTIONS MUST BE DONE THROUGH THE MERCHANT. THE HOTEL HAS NO OBLIGATION OTHER THAN TO PROVIDE YOU THE ROOM AND ITS AMENITIES. DO NOT CALL THE HOTEL. CALL THE MERCHANT.
If the hotel did not charge Priceline, then Priceline should give the customer her money back. Priceline aa journey travel route should not make (or be entitled) a windfall profit over poor communication aa journey travel route if they did not pay the hotel for the room.
The first and only problem is booking a room at a Super 8, Motel 6 or ANY of the hotels on that end of the spectrum . . . if you don t get bed bugs you are going to get a crummy lumpy bed, cheap thin towels and overall generally an experience which will compare to your dorm room at college, along with many of the same characters in the adjoining rooms
This is an example of a traveler not doing their due diligence to make sure all was well in her credit card world. She seems to have made the reservation through Priceline, pre-paid through Priceline and didn t involve Priceline in the cancellation.
As a matter of doing the right thing , yes, I feel she should have gotten a refund. As a matter of ignorance shouldn t be a defense , no, she shouldn t have gotten aa journey travel route a refund and that would have taught her to do it right the next time.
I agree she should have canceled through Priceline, but once she got a cancellation number from the hotel I think the game changed. They let her cancel, aa journey travel route thus they shouldn t be able to penalize her. Their mistake.
Yep. Agree. Once she had the confirmation number, I don t think the outcome was really in doubt. It was just who behind-the-scenes was responsible for issuing the refund or who mistakenly charged her in the first place. I think she could ve saved herself some grief, but all s well
I agree. Cancelling through priceline would probably have saved her some hassle. aa journey travel route My problem is that if she was required to cancel through priceline the hotel should have said so. Consider that no one is saying that priceline is contesting the cancellation, demanding to keep fees, etc. Its no different than booking through a TA, then calling the hotel directly to cancel.
aa journey travel route Let me see if I understand your point. The hotel, i.e. the principal, provides a cancellation number, the gold standard in the travel world that a reservation has been cancelled. But then it turns around and says psych , fooled you, the cancellation number was really an April s fools joke, you still owe us the money.
Frequent travelers understand this, but it s not reasonable to require this level of industry knowledge from a casual travelers. Booking a simple domestic hotel room should not require a six week training class.
I don t think there should be a gotcha in hotel bookings. The problem is people are so used to thinking aa journey travel route that the A in OTA means AGENTs meaning they are acting as AGENTS of the HOTEL (which is the principal). The problem is the OTAs for some types of hotel bookings are no longer just agents they have become MERCHANTS. The FTC should really come down hard on this. Either aa journey travel route you are an AGENT or a MERCHANT but not both.
That the credit card info was processed by Priceline, aa journey travel route the hotel or a third party makes no difference she gave the info to Priceline. Had she gone to them first, they wouldn t have passed the info on to the hotel.
We actually ended up at a Marriott, but it was under construction at the time and they made it clear that we paid to little. It was when we will looking for an apartment. We had used Priceline name your own price.
When my Mom came to visit she used Hot Wire and got a great hotel, The Peabody. The only problem was they told her her rate was too low, and they charged her more when she checked in. They said it was a mistake rate and they had to charge the difference aa journey travel route or she would have to leave. A call to Hot Wire did absolutely nothing to help. She sucked it up and paid as we already had 4 cousins staying with us in our 1 bedroom apartment.
No necessarily. She screwed up in how she went about cancelling. I believe that the hotel also screwed up and should have directed her back to Priceline, but the bottom line is she should have known where to call for the cancellation. aa journey travel route It was in the terms and conditions of her booking. Do online shoppers/buyers read?
Hey I didn t know you spent some time there. I worked for FedEx (in MEM) for almost a decade in the 80s. Community there mostly FDX, Northworst and Holiday Inn folks. It was during those years where I saw airports aa journey travel route I never dreamed of going (to). Peabody is nice. Did you see the ducks marching? The walks you are talking about must be near Mud Island or the upscale condos aa journey travel route near there. Otherwise, you are looking for a mugging. Most of the FDX MIS folks now are at COS. They could not get enough techies to live in MEM. Only thing I miss about MEM is the food *real* BBQ and Fried Catfish with Hush Puppies. Sometimes aa journey travel route I miss flying NONREV, ID90 or jump seat. But I m really tired of the airport scene and want to stay put in one place for a long time. Wow, I didn t know your liked Elvis :-)
Yep, we lived in the cheap apartments just passed the really fancy houses on Mud Island. My wife did her internship with the police department and the VA hospital. She saw some of the scariest parts of Memphis. I can still hardly believe some of the stories she told me. My favorite place was The BBQ Shop on Poplar. I m pretty sure that was the actual name. We did get to see the ducks. Also the resturaunt in the Peabody used to have really good lunch specials. That was a fun town.
If you click on the overall Priceline.com terms, and scroll through most of the 36 pages (including stuff that mostly has nothing to do with non-opaque hotel reservations), it does suggest that you should call Priceline, but even then not in a clear unequivocal fashion:
Late Arrival and Failure to Check-in on First Night: While you should call Priceline if you wish to cancel a cancellable reservation in advance of your stay, if you are going to be delayed on your date of check in or find that you cannot check in to your hotel on the date you requested, you should contact the hotel to let them know. If you fail to check in to your h