Comments on: “This feels like a scam. You make a reservation … they keep your money.”

By: Guy

Guy — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 14:13:05 +0000

From the hoteliers point of view ?
On our reservation is stated clearly : all cancelations should be done in writing and confirlmed by the hotel.
But then how many guests read the confirmation they got for their booking ?

People call us and get angry when you ask them politely to send a short message by mail, that will be answered

People tend to forget that a booking is a legal contract.
One party pays, the other party delivers.
Any changes ? make it legal too ….

By: Jenna

Jenna — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 18:08:36 +0000

So what happens if you ask for a cancellation number but tell you that they can’t give you one unless they’ve already charged your credit card?

This happend to me. I have since sent the establishment an email asking for verification of my reservation cancellation in writing…and detailed who I spoke with and that she could not give me a cancellation number etc. I’m hoping at any rate, if I have to dispute the claim, I have some proof that I did try to cancel the reservation. Any other suggestions of what I should do?

By: Carver

Carver — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 07:23:03 +0000

@RCP

Actually that statement is not close to being true. Many stores have policies and procedures for giving refunds if the customer doesn’t have a receipt.

@Jasper

I’m don’t disagree that the hotel is being as ass. My point is simply that a confirmation or cancellation number is powerful evidence for the traveller. Its akin to having a receipt. I can photoshop a receipt in 5 minutes, but unless I know what the store receipt looks like, no one will believe its veracity. A confirmation/cancellation number is the same. Unless you know the format, a fake one is pretty obvious.

@Jim

That’s a bit of an extreme and unique situation that’s hardly relevant. A confirmation number is proof you made the reservation. It says nothing about whether the travel provider will honor it. But its hardly useless in most cases.

@Paulette.

You don’t need a confirmation number. You get one, but if you show up without the confirmation number, you still get the room if all’s well.While it is logical that a cancellation number provides proof, like one poster said, not every chain provides a unique cancellation number.

By: David Z

David Z — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 15:55:12 +0000

If we can make reservations online…why in the hell can we not cancel online?

Some do, albeit that depends on the vendor.

By: RCP

RCP — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 02:49:04 +0000

Some chains may keep the same confirmation/cancellation number. It is the event chain that tell you what occurred. If there are so many hotel haters on here, go buy an RV. Don’t rent it. You think you hated hotels, you will be beside yourself with RV rentals.

If you do not have a cancellation number, you will not get refunded. Just like you will not get a refund without a receipt at any store in the world.

By: Jim

Jim — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 19:20:20 +0000

We have an interesting reversal of this situation.
On November 22/08 we booked online and received a confirmation number from Advantage Rent a car for a car rental in Toronto in July 2009.
Hertz bought out Advantage’s rights in April 2009.
Hertz decided not to honor any of the bookings that Advantage already had in place and Advantage did not demand they honor those bookings.
To top things off, nobody even had the consideration to let us know the reservation ceased to exist.

Your confirmation/cancellation number means nothing!

By: Paulette

Paulette — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 18:35:11 +0000

Jasper: Simply referencing anything Seinfeld reduces the credibility of your arguments to nil.

Did this person try to cancel online? Most hotel chains (Motel 6 being one exception) allow online cancellations at their primary Web site, some even for reservations not made online. And I’m not buying another poster’s argument about people who aren’t regular travelers not understanding the need for a cancellation number. You need a confirmation number to stay; it makes sense that you’ll need another number to stay away. This person was savvy enough to enlist a travel ombudsman, he/she should have known about needing a cancellation number.

By: tyler hurst

tyler hurst — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 17:38:45 +0000

If we can make reservations online…why in the hell can we not cancel online?

By: Ron

Ron — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 17:27:47 +0000

Life is often unfair and the naive get cheated. How many of us have been burned and then learned the lesson? Sure, a cancellation number turns out to be important when you need it, but not everyone realizes that the first time around.
Live and learn.
(either scenario is quite plausible: no-show guest who wants to get refund and less than competant or mal-intended hotel employee/management)
Sites like these are good to avoid learning things the hard way. But then you have to have a somewhat suspicious attitude to start with, to even read these sites.

By: Kitty

Kitty — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 16:10:09 +0000

And for hotels that do NOT process cancelation numbers? There are still many, many, MANY hotels, even large chains, that do not provide such technical details. I worked at a hotel that still worked on a DOS system, where you were lucky to be able to check out if the system was doing a reboot or the FIVE HOUR LONG manual night audit. I can’t tell you how many people got pissed off at me for the d**med computer problems. What am I suppose to do, buy the hotel a new computer system?

But yes, most often the fault does lie with the desk. Customers still are usually right, after all.

By: Nobody

Nobody — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 16:02:20 +0000

“I want confirmation, Kaminski.”–Capt. John Earle, Honolulu Holiday Inn, December 7, 1941.
“If it ain’t in writing, it never happened.”–Nobody, every day

Here lies Fast-Gun Eddie
RIP
Nobody was faster

By: Karen

Karen — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:56:20 +0000

My thoughts on this is- she booked a non refundable/no cancellation rate. Then the hotel’s agent would have try to have her not cancel- since they would not allow refund whether she stayed or not. The traveller booked the lowest possible rate which demands prepayment and no cancellation. That’s a reminder to read all policies on the rate you book and also a plus for travel agents- We know and do that for you!

By: Bill Oei

Bill Oei — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:47:21 +0000

if you called the 800 # there would be a recording. you can demand HQ review the recording. you will also win in small claims.

By: Jasper

Jasper — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 10:34:43 +0000

@Carver: Very smart mathematicians create complicated algorithms with multiple level of redundancy which allows them to instantly know whether a purported number is a fraud, or a simple transcription error.

Again, this is only proof that hotels are shifting the burden of doing their administration on the customer. This is ridiculous. Do I have to keep stock for my supermarket? No. Of course not. I’m not the manager.

The customer should get her money back. She reserved space, canceled it, and never used the service offered. There is no sell.

It is the world upside down when customers have to do the administrations of a company. This customer now ends up paying for a company failing to do their administration properly, without ever using a service.

I can not see how this is not an enormous incentive for companies to not maintain any administration, and just let the customer pay up. “Sorry, you don’t have our 256 digit cancellation number, the fourteen unique PIN numbers and the 37th digit of the number pi? No, we can’t cancel your room.”

By: Regina

Regina — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 20:57:04 +0000

RE: “How on earth would the casual traveler know about the magic ‘cancellation number’?”
Huh? Unless you have never traveled in your entire life, you would know about cancellation numbers. They’ve been used for years and hotels usually give them to you without being asked. While this hotel may be sleazy, it was ultimately the customer’s responsibility to get that number. When she found herself talking to an employee who didn’t want to cancel the reservation, that should have set off a red flag and she should have asked to speak to a manager.