Kate Silver didn’t stay at the Hotel Arlecchino in Venice earlier this year, even though she had a confirmation from her online travel agency. Instead, she and her husband, Howard, were “walked” to the Hotel Continental when the Arlecchino was oversold.
HOTEL
Like 21 percent of other Americans, Larry Vail smokes. Having a room where he can light up is important when he travels, so when he booked his accommodations at the Sunset Jamaica Grande Resort & Spa through Bookit.com, he made sure it was a designated smoking room.
Free drinks. Room upgrades. Better restaurants. That’s what the travel industry thinks you want from your next travel experience.
Olivia Suarez books a hotel room for her husband in Valencia, Spain, through a travel agent. But when he’s sent to another hotel, his bill also gets an upgrade — to the tune of more than $1,000. Now, the hotel, travel agent and reservation company are pointing fingers at each other, as she tries to recover the money.
on a recent flight from Philadelphia to Phoenix on US Airways, Sarah Andrus left her jacket underneath the seat in front of her. “It was a gift from a friend and unique,” recalled Andrus, a director for an Olean, N.Y.-based manufacturing company. “I called the airline with low expectations of recovering my jacket, but I thought I’d give it a try.”
When they’re unable to operate the property safely. In a multiple-choice survey about hotel room refundability, 83 percent of readers voted “yes” on that option.
When I say this is a hot topic, I’m not kidding. I had to shut down the comments on this post earlier today because people just couldn’t get along. But here’s your chance to sound off in a more civilized forum: A weekend poll. More hotels are offering nonrefundable rooms. And more guests are booking [...]
The following exercise is highly unscientific, journalistically questionable, yet somewhat entertaining. In trying to determine which industry is socking to travelers with fees in the worst possible way, it’s down to two contenders: airlines and hotels.
It’s a waterpark. No, it’s a hotel. No, it’s both.
Technology can be a helpful tool for the traveler, or it can be the tool of the devil. In Cindy Lammert’s case, it’s definitely the latter. Her recent online booking at the Sofitel Munich Bayerpost through the Accor site got so screwed up that no phone calls or emails could fix it.
I don’t think I would have believed it unless I saw it for myself. I would have guessed that airlines or hotels would be the leading generators of surprise fees. But no — it’s car rental companies.
If you think your hotel clerk is out to get you, you might be right.
Before I get into today’s post, a word or two about On Your Side. A few readers have concluded that this is a travel site — and with good reason. After all, the wiki only contains the names and numbers of travel companies.
What do guests want from their hotel? If you answered “designer beds” and “spiffy lobbies” maybe you’ve been sipping the hotel industry Kool-Aid for too long.
Although he sometimes feels “a little dishonest” about it, Jeremy Reed says he doesn’t have much choice: With seven children, from an infant to a teenager, and on a limited budget, he often reserves only one hotel room when he’s on vacation.
Ben Weiss calls Priceline to extend his hotel stay by a day, but a representative misunderstands him and cancels his entire reservation. Now he can’t get it back. Did Priceline break its own rules by canceling the vacation? And does Weiss have any recourse?
“It’s like Ritz-Carlton on steroids,” Kari said after we checked into the Peninsula Beverly Hills.
The Georgian is a gorgeous Art Deco hotel in Santa Monica, Calif., that overlooks the city’s historic pier.
One of the most popular posts of 2008 on this site was about my visit to the then-new Aloft hotel in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. In it, I detailed some of the cool amenities this Starwood concept offered.
If you think hotels will never stoop to the level of airlines — charging extra for anything that isn’t bolted down — maybe you’ve never heard of easyHotel.
