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No reservations? Next time, call the hotel to confirm

October 16, 2008

Here’s another reason to call your hotel before checking in: Your online travel agency may say you have a reservation and your credit card may show a charge for the booking, but that’s no guarantee you’ll have a room.

Heather Kennedy booked a room at the Plaza Hotel Curacao through Travelocity, and she believed the confirmation from the online agency meant that she had a real reservation. But it apparently didn’t.

When I checked in, I found that they did not have my reservation.

It was late, so they said the reservations desk would call Travelocity the next morning. On Sept. 13, the reservations desk called Travelocity. Travelocity assured them we had a reservation and promised to fax a proof of payment.

The hotel never received the fax. At least two more attempts to obtain a proof of payment from Travelocity were made before we had to check out on Sept. 14.

At that time, they required that we pay $380 for the room, saying that Travelocity would reimburse us when we got home.

Kennedy contacted me when Travelocity wouldn’t acknowledge her request for a refund. I told her that the process can take time, but that if she didn’t hear back in a few weeks, I would contact the agency on her behalf.

In early October, Travelocity acknowledged her note. Yesterday, I received the following update.

It looks like my refund came through. No apologies or real communication of any sort.

I probably won’t be inclined to visit Travelocity in the future, but at least I got my money back.

Thanks for having my back if things had gotten bad with them. :)

I wouldn’t be so quick to blame Travelocity for losing this reservation. Often, reservations are sent to hotels by fax (yes, fax). When the machine runs out of paper, reservations get lost.

But Travelocity could have handled Kennedy’s case a lot better by taking care of the missing reservation while she was a guest and, if that wasn’t possible, at least responding to her request for compensation quickly.

The takeaway for the rest of us? Unless the confirmation comes directly from the hotel, always call the property before you arrive to confirm your reservation.

Otherwise, you might pay a lot more for your room than you expected. Or you might not have a room at all.

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

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16 comments

  • http://www.donnunn.com/ Don Nunn

    In my experience, not even a confirmation from the hotel itself will save you any trouble.

    Twice in the last few years, I stayed at the Embassy Suites in downtown Denver. (It’s closed now, replaced by the Ritz-Carlton Denver.) I booked the reservation with them directly, had their specifically provided confirmation number and printed confirmation information, called to confirm the reservation a few days before I traveled and was assured the reservation was in place and waiting, and both times they had no record of the reservation when I arrived. They had rooms available each time but no record of the reservations otherwise, so it was never more than a headache of taking almost an hour to check into the hotel each time. And the second time, the desk manager questioned the validity of the confirmation number and printed confirmation document I had — as if I were trying to scam them somehow, though she never said that outright.

    Rather an odd experience, and a reminder that not even the hotel itself always knows what reservations it has, even if it’s repeatedly providing confirmation.

  • Chrs in NC

    Chris, you wrote “I wouldn’t be so quick to blame Travelocity for losing this reservation.”

    I respectfully disagree. While its true that FAX transmissions are frequently “lost” I believe that it was the Travelocity agent’s responsibility to call the hotel after FAXing the receipt to ensure that the hotel received the documents. It appears that the Travelocity agent really dropped the ball on this one. Just saying that you FAXed it, vs calling after the FAX to confirm that it went through are two different things. Therefore, Travelocity bears the majority of the blame for the missed FAX transmissions.

    I second Don’s comment. Just because you make the reservations directly with the hotel does not guarantee that the reservation will be lost. The most common error seems to be a combination of an agent mispelling my last name. My experiences have mostly been positive.

    The one exception is where a hotel refused to acknowledge that we had a reservation, but the deposit was already charged to our credit card. After 30 minutes of arguing, the front desk manager finally acknowledged that we had a reservation, but refused to acknowledged the rate (He wanted to charge us double the rate). After another 15 minutes, the manager backed down and reduced the rate to within $10 of the original reservation. By then, my father, who was travelling with me, was so upset that he refused to stay in the hotel, on principle. We ended up getting the deposit credited to my CC, went across the street to a competing hotel, even though the rate was higher. To date, I have never stayed at this hotel again when travelling to this area.

    In my experience, stories like this one are not due to incompetence, rather, by indifference or laziness. There are simply too many people in the travel agent that don’t want to do any extra work to help out the traveller. Thats why, they will say, I’ll re-FAX, and then thats done, case closed. The excellent service agent will be the ones that take the initiative to call and confirm.

  • http://www.travelocity.com Joel Frey

    Hello from Travelocity. First, Heather we’re sorry that your experience with us was not what you expected. I’ve shared your story with our customer care team and we will use it to get better.

    There are a few points to note about our hotel reservation process:

    1) Only a small percentage of our hotel bookings are confirmed between us and the hotel using a fax machine.
    2) We have established “direct connects” with the majority of our hotel partners that electronically confirms a reservation in the hotel’s own property management system after its made on our site.
    3) Several years ago, in an effort to eliminate this problem, we created a “reservation rescue” desk within our customer care team. This group of agents job is to call hotels to make sure that reservation did make into the hotels system after the customer booked it on our site. Since implementing this system, the number of “dropped” reservations our customers have experienced has decreased considerably.

    Unfortunately, it didn’t help Heather in this instance. However, Heather, we’d still like the opportunity to win your business back. If you are so inclined, please send me a note at joel.frey@travelocity.com when you have a moment.

    Thank you.

  • Carver Clark Farrow

    I am still amazed that after all these horror stories people still book with third party . Book directly with the travel provider. It seems to cause substantially less problems.

    I understand Chris’ point about confirming reservations, and were I to book with a 3rd party (not likely) I would absolutely confirm the reservations. But I travel about 100 nights a year. I’m not calling to confirm my car, hotel, and air travel. When I show up with my confirmation code printed out from the travel provider’s website, I expect that they will honor both the reservation and amount (fat fingered fares notwithstanding). If not, then we cannot do further business.

    It really is that simlple.

  • http://www.singleparenttravel.net John F

    Don’t tell my travel agent colleagues but Travelocity, I am impressed!

    Joel–are you the Gnome?

  • MarkieA

    I love the way that folks in the “customer care” – not customer “service” – industry currently handle their interactions. They don’t apologize for screwing up; they’re sorry that your experience wasn’t what you expected. Like it’s somehow your fault; maybe you expect too much? Granted, I have no idea what the conversation between Joel F and Heather will be if/when Heather drops him a line, but this is indicative of the entire customer service/care/experience industry lately. They’re so afraid to own up to their responsibility for fear that this will lead to further legal action.

    John F – I don’t see why you’re so impressed with Travelocity on this one. Is it the way that they obviously didn’t follow up with the hotel to confirm that the reservation went through? Or maybe the way that they promised to fax proof of payment and didn’t follow through on that one, either. Or the way that it only took several weeks to finally refund her. It seems pretty obvious – assuming accurate and full detail from Heather – that Travelocity dropped the ball on this one. That they eventually own up to it and do the right thing shouldn’t be the basis for praise; that should be the norm.

  • Moira J

    As others have said here, making the reservation with the hotel directly AND getting a confirmation number does not always guarantee that checking-in will be trouble free.

    A year ago I had to go to Lisbon on business. There were three national/ international conventions/conferences taking place in that city on my intended day of arrival. I phoned 16 hotels before I found one with a vacancy. Make that two, but the rate at the other one was 1000 euros per night, way beyond my means. I made the reservation by phone with the affordable one at 120 euros, guaranteed for late arrival with my AMEX card and was given a confirmation number. On arrival at the hotel, there was no record of my reservation. Only the production of the confirmation number convinced the reservation clerk to look into the matter further.

    There were three clerks all equipped with the most up-to-date computers, but there was no record of my reservation in the computer bank for that location or the chain’s other locations in the city. Fortunately for me, my clerk showed some enterprise by checking through the assortment of notes that were on a shelf below the counter. It appeared that the person with whom I had spoken had written down the information on a piece of note paper and had not made any computer entries before he went off duty for the day. In the end, I received an apology for the inconvenience and the accommodation turned out to be first rate.

    What did this experience teach me? To err is human so always get a confirmation number and the name of the person with whom the reservation is made when making the reservation directly with the hotel. Never lose your cool, but politely insist on getting what you were guaranteed. When the mistake is theirs, they must admit it and no matter how “full” the hotel is supposed to be, I have been told that they do keep vacant rooms for just these eventualities.

  • mark

    I had a bit of a scare last week. I used price line to book my hotel in Montreal but upon arival i was told they had not record. Lucky i had my conformation page and he was able to find it with that it seems someone transposed to letters on my last name.

  • Christine Brusseau

    Last year we booked a room in Grand Rapids Michigan through hotels.com which we “thought” it was a reasonable price. When we arrived the clerk informed us that the rate we paid was HIGHER than what we would have paid if we rang directly. We prepaid $75.00 per night and found out that the room offered was only $55.00……..the clerk then upgraded us to a suite at no extra charge. We also booked a room in Alexandria VA through Expedia and realised that we could have paid less if we rang in advance. Apparently the service charges by the online agent were through the roof. The front office manager then said that next time we travel…first get a quote online then call directly. This way if we left early we wouldn’t lose our money.
    This is not always the case, however, often we are led to believe that we are getting a better deal by not going through the hotel directly.
    THEN just recently, I booked a room in Quebec city directly after checking online…same price and when we checked in, they gave us a 10% discount for “seniors”, which was not offered by the online company.
    I’ve learned my lesson

  • http://www.bookhotelscheaper.com David

    I work in a hotel and recently we have had a spate of missing reservations, all from Travelocity. While they were quick to rectify the situation after being informed, it requires MY having to call them and be placed on hold for up to 30 minutes in order to get the paperwork. Disconnected once, unable to get to the phone AFTER 25 minutes of waiting and being hung up on, it took 90 minutes to straighten out a missing reservation 10 days ago because I had to call 3 times.

    While I sent the guest to a room and they didn’t have to wait, it is infuriating to have to spend this much time just trying to get through to ‘India’ when these Third Party sites get such an exorbident mark-up. If the Travelocity guy is still reading this – can your dedicated ’800 hotel help number’ and get people to answer the phone in a timely manner because reservations can and will get lost and we are ALL in the same boat – trying to help the guest as seamlessly as possible!

  • Chicky

    My method is this: I’ll go to a third-party site like hotels.com and see what’s available on the days I’m traveling, and what looks like it’s in my price range and location. THEN, I go directly to the hotel’s Web site and see if they have any Internet-only specials or other online discounts. If I like what I see, I book directly through the hotel’s site and print my confirmation to take with me. Usually, I also do call the hotel to confirm, but I’ve found booking through the hotel’s web site is generally reliable.

    To me, the third-party people provide a good basis for rate shopping, as well as for hotel reviews, but I prefer to book directly through the hotel.

  • GG

    Just a few days ago we were talking about (human) travel agents for tickets… Looks like they would work for hotels too.

  • tomcat

    Hi – made room bookings for same Edinburgh hotel with 2 different online hotel agencies within the past 2 weeks. Credit card charged immediately on each occasion, and booking confirmed as an instant online booking by agency.

    Each occasion there was no booking at hotel.

    First problem with ‘vivastay’ second occasionwith yeego. Arrived at hotel – no room – although on persuasion, they did provide one. Vivastay not contactable until next day, since time of arrival after 5pm, Issue not resolved until next day after leaving hotel,.

    Experience with ‘yeego’ unsatisfactory in the extreme – contacted hotel prior to arrival – no booking- yeego uncontactabel via UK office – after a multitude of e-mails & phoen calls, eventuall resolved by their office in Antalya, Turkety.
    They advertise a UK office, but the writers experience is that for practical purposes this appears to be an answerphone, without any calls back . The writers experience is that neither agency was reliable for travel bookings, and neither will be used again

  • cheryl

    I am livid. There should be a law against this consumer legal theft! I booked a room, through Hotels.com..part of a rather large group of “interactive travel” companies. Yep..I am all set…I called the customer service folks at Hotels.com, I am given a guarantee that my room is booked. Two confirmations emailed…just to put my mind at rest. Oh wait…I call the hotel…they have been booked for months. WHAT???? I have been on the phone all day with Hotels.com, including their corporate office. I asked what would happen if we got to the hotel…no room..and because of an event..no room for miles….Jennifer’s answer” Well, that is not the situation” NO thanks to Hotels.com! If I had not been proactive in my quest for a confirmation..I never would have known. Oh sure, she would give my money back..( which could take up to 30 days so much for my travel budget) and match the 130 bucks for another room. In the end..I got a voucher..that get this..when I went to rebook…I was told by Hotels.com that there were stipulations attached to the voucher..and because the particular hotel..that I had to scramble and find on my own..(one room became available)…the voucher that the so “kindly” issued me…with no indication of the terms attached when they wanted to make promises to get me off their backs. Now..I learn..that peace offering is empty. I could not use it when I chose to.

    My suggestion to the corporate snob that spoke with me is….why do I get a confirmation..before they themselves get one? Would that be so hard? I am not done with this. How is this legal?

  • Pat Byrd

    Do not use Yeego if you may have even the slights chance of canceling, they are really uncooperative and use their cancellation policy to take your money. Here is my story.
    I booked a hotel in Barcelona for 5 nights with Yeego. It was our last stop on a 17 day vacation in Spain which started in Madrid.
    Unfortunately my husband got sick with an infection and was running a fever for 24 hours. We emailed our doctor in the US and my husband started on antibiotics. However he was in bed for 3 days and couldn’t eat and was not doing well. So our last day in Madrid we made the decision to return home instead of continuing on our trip. This was 9 days before we were do to arrive in Barcelona. Yeego had email several days earlier to say they had charged our credit card for the full stay in Barcelona. The email also said

    Please do not change the subject when replying to this email or it will not get delivered. If you need to reply to us, please type above this warning.

    So I “replied” to Yeego that I had to cancel due to illness. As I said this was 9 days prior to arrival. I email again that day, the next day and the next day (for a total of 4 emails) and never got a reply. When returned home I email again (4 days prior to arrival) and I get a response that said they would return all but one nights cost because I hadn’t cancelled 5 days in advance. I wrote back ( and re sent the original email) and said that they had not responded to any of my previous emails. I then find out that this is not the hotel’s cancellation policy (which was 48 hours) but Yeego’s and so I have to assume that they keep the money. I continued to email on a daily basis and have yet to have them respond again. I am still trying to get back my 136 Euros. My next move is to send them the link to this web sight and see if that gets a response.

  • http://www.irdenver.com/ Mandy Gerr

    Consistency is really that important especially in dealing with distant communication. With this kind of problem concerning reservations, I think proper confirmation would assure you of the reservation you’ve made. There would always be cases like yours but I think acceptance n the wrong process would not hurt the company so I’m bothered by the way they treated your case. It seems that they have not caused problems anyway.

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