Sarah Steffen thought she was making a routine call to Dollar to add a child seat to her confirmed car rental reservation. But the company had some bad news for her: it didn’t have a seat for her — or a car.

In fact, a Dollar representative informed her, she was out of luck if she wanted a car from them. Rent elsewhere.

How could it do that?

Steffen explains what happened to her in an email late yesterday:

Back in April/May 2009, I confirmed a reservation with Dollar rental cars for a one-way rental from Dallas to Oklahoma City, picking up on 9/4/09 and returning on 9/7/09.

I called them today to add a toddler carseat to my rental only to be told that they no longer offer one-way rentals to Oklahoma City. This wouldn’t be an issue, except for the fact that my reservation is for $217 and to make a similar reservation with another company, my rate will skyrocket to close to $500.

This may not have been an issue if they had let me know of this change in advance when I called 6 weeks ago to change my pick-up/drop-off times (due to flight schedule changes), and again last week to confirm my reservation.

I have been through the telephone chain of hell, speaking with reservations, customer service, and their “pre-rental” assistance center with no avail.

Normally, if a car rental company can’t accommodate a customer, it covers the difference to rent a vehicle from a competitor. But first, I wanted to know why Dollar was turning down a confirmed customer.

Here’s what my Dollar contact told me:

There is nothing I can do on this one. Here’s the deal … Just this week, the Oklahoma City location has been converted from a corporate store to a franchised store. One-ways were not a big deal when OKC and Dallas were both corporate-owned. Now that OKC is franchised, it presents problems when they are driving a corporate car and wanting to drop in a franchised city.

Unfortunately, this person is a victim of really bad timing. It’s one of those things that I have no control over.

Dollar said it would send Steffen a few vouchers for a future rental.

Case closed? Not quite.

A few hours later, Dollar contacted Steffen with some good news. She explains:

I spoke with [Dollar representative] Kathleen Hernandez and she offered to pay the difference between the Dollar rate and Hertz’s rate. I am happy with this resolution and am very impressed with her professionalism. She got to the bottom of this issue very quickly.

I’m impressed, too. Dollar did the right thing.

Good thing Steffen phoned Dollar to ask for a child seat, otherwise she would have been in for an unpleasant surprise in Dallas. Dollar should have contacted anyone affected by this refranchising move before their rental date, of course.

Had Steffen found herself car-less in Dallas, she would have had few options for recovering the extra money she had to spend. Fortunately, it didn’t come to that.

(Photo: ragingwire/Flickr Creative Commons)Similar Posts:

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Question: I am writing to you in frustration over how Orbitz has misled me and now will not even admit to its obvious mistake.

I recently booked our annual vacation through Orbitz at Barcelo Maya Palace in Cancun, Mexico, because the resort sounded beautiful and the hotel is new with rooms described as excellent by most visitors.

When we arrived at the resort, we were told that we didn’t have reservations. After much confusion, they told us we were supposed to be at the Barcelo Maya Beach Hotel, the oldest and lowest-rated hotel in this complex.

I immediately contacted Orbitz customer service and spent more than an hour trying to get this resolved. After speaking with several people, I finally was connected to a supervisor, who told me that she could upgrade us to the Barcelo Maya Place Hotel for an additional $2,000, and if I could provide her proof that we were booked at the hotel, they would reimburse us.

Though I was very upset that my family and I were forced to stay at a hotel that we did not choose or want, we tried to make the best of the remaining time there.

After our return, I contacted Orbitz repeatedly to try to resolve this. They have offered me a $75 voucher and now say that the reason my confirmation says the Barcelo Maya Palace is because this is the logo of the resort complex and has nothing to do with my selection. Why do they send confirmation if it means nothing? This is so frustrating. Can you please help or give me any advice? — Donna Savic, Louisville, Ky.

Answer: If Orbitz promised you a room at the Barcelo Maya Palace Hotel, then that’s what you should have received.

I reviewed your e-mailed confirmation. It says your hotel is the Barcelo Maya Palace within the Barcelo Riviera Maya All Inclusive Complex. Any reasonable person would conclude you were staying at the nice hotel — not the dump.

The burden should have been on Orbitz to find a copy of your confirmation and verify that you had been booked at the wrong hotel. I can’t believe the online agency would ask you to spend an extra $2,000 and offer to refund it only if you could prove it made a mistake.

Did Orbitz try to deceive you when you booked your Cancun vacation? I doubt it. This kind of mix-up isn’t uncommon. I recall another case with Orbitz, where a guest believed he was staying at a Reno, Nevada resort but ended up being sent to an adjacent property, where he checked into what he called the “worst hotel room I’ve ever seen.” When I asked about his reservation, Orbitz not only refunded the full price of his stay, it also dropped the hotel from its reservations system.

There are two ways you could have avoided this. First, you could have phoned the hotel to confirm your reservation. That’s always a good idea when you’re booking through a third party, because reservations can get lost. You’d probably be surprised by how many hotels still handle their reservations by fax.

Second, you could have applied the “too-good-to-be-true” litmus test to your resort. Was the price so low that something didn’t seem right? For example, if you’re getting a brand-new, highly-rated, all-inclusive resort in Mexico for $59 a night, you might want to double-check to make sure you’re getting what you think you’re getting.

I contacted Orbitz on your behalf. It apologized for the “disappointing experience” and refunded you $135 for the phone calls you made from Mexico. It also changed the amount of your voucher from $75 to $200.Similar Posts:

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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.Similar Posts:

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Question: We recently booked a hotel room in Las Vegas through Hotwire.com. We prepaid $952 for it. Hotwire took our money but never gave us the room it promised.

We traveled to Las Vegas for an employee’s wedding, and were supposed to be staying at the Wynn in Las Vegas. But when we tried to check in, a clerk told us there was no reservation in our name.

I phoned Hotwire, which checked its records and discovered Wynn had neglected to complete the reservation. It was a holiday weekend, and there were no more available rooms at the hotel, so we were basically out of luck.

Hotwire offered a refund and tried to find another place for us to stay. We were sent to the Loews Lake Las Vegas Resort, which is located about 20 miles outside of Las Vegas and is a $62 taxi fare. Needless to say, we missed every event for the wedding with the exception of the wedding itself.

Hotwire completely ruined our trip. Although they offered us $50 vouchers for the “inconvenience” of having to stay at another hotel, I feel that we should be reimbursed for every expense we incurred, since our vacation ended up being nothing but frustration after frustration. What do you think? – Mary Jane Prough, Santa Cruz, Calif.

Answer: Hotwire should have found a room for you at the Wynn or a comparable property – not sent you to the suburbs with a $50 voucher as compensation.

Hotwire offers discounts on hotel rooms by letting you pick the hotel category, but not a specific property. So you could pick a four-star hotel in Las Vegas, but wouldn’t know the name of the resort until you’ve paid for it. That’s why Hotwire is sometimes referred to as an “opaque” site.

This has nothing to do with your missing reservation. When that happens, it doesn’t matter that your hotel reservation was made online or offline, through an opaque or a “clear” Web site, or whether you prepaid or used your award points. If you had a confirmation, but no reservation, then someone screwed up. And it’s up to that someone to fix it.

If Hotwire was correct, then Wynn failed to process your reservation. And that means Wynn – not Hotwire – should have tried to make things right. It could have done that by either finding a room at one of its other properties or at one of the other nearby hotels with which it has agreements to walk its customers (being “walked” is an industry term for sending a guest to another hotel when you’ve run out of rooms).

If, on the other hand, someone at Hotwire pushed the wrong button, then the company should have found a comparable hotel in a similar location. Not a resort out in the suburbs.

Bottom line: someone screwed up. Hotwire, in fact, offered you either a three-star hotel on the north end of the Strip for $112 a night or a four-star resort “located 10 miles outside of town” for $175 a night. The Loews – which, don’t get me wrong, is a really nice resort – is closer to 20 miles outside of town.

In a situation like this, I would have stayed in the check-in area until you had acceptable accommodations. Do not leave without a room key. The hotel will try to persuade you to move on, but don’t.

I think Hotwire’s $50 voucher was a good start. I’m not sure it owed you a full refund for your trip, but the certificates didn’t quite cut it. After I contacted Hotwire on your behalf, a representative called you and apologized for the mix-up. Hotwire credited you $571, which covers your weekend at the Loews.Similar Posts:

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Question: I have a problem with a missing hotel reservation that I need your help with. I recently booked a room through Cheaptickets.com at the Executive Inn Airport in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., during the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show.

I prepaid for the room by credit card and I confirmed my reservation with Cheaptickets about a week before the trip. But when I checked in, I was told there was no record of the reservation.
I tried to contact Cheaptickets several times from the hotel lobby, but got through to a variety of representatives who either put me on hold or tried to transfer me to someone else.

Ultimately, I had to find another hotel room at a higher rate. I sent a letter outlining the problems with my experience to Cheaptickets’ Chicago office via certified mail. I also sent an email to them outlining my concerns and got an “auto reply” but no further response.

At this point, I would be satisfied to get the initial cost of my room at the Executive Inn refunded, if not the difference between my first hotel and the second one. Is this something I can get any help with? – Dave Bucher, Minneapolis

Answer: Cheaptickets should have honored your prepaid reservation. And if it couldn’t, it should have found a suitable hotel room instead of making you listen to elevator music while waiting on “hold.”

There are two possible explanations for why your reservation was lost. First, Cheaptickets and the hotel might have had a failure to communicate. That happens a lot. Some hotels still handle their confirmations by old-fashioned fax. And faxes can run out of paper or ink or the associate could enter the wrong dates in the property’s reservations system.

The hotel might have also accepted more reservations than it had, a practice called overbooking. Hotels use sophisticated property management systems that predict room demand, set prices and allow them to accept more reservations than rooms, because they calculate some guests won’t show up.

The system usually works, but when everyone tries to check in during the week of the boat show, the hotel would have to send you to another property at its expense, unless, of course, it can’t find your reservation.

That’s why it’s important to not only contact your online travel agency to confirm your reservation, but also the hotel. If the Executive Inn doesn’t have your reservation, what’s the point of a Cheaptickets confirmation? I would be reluctant to accept any verification unless it comes directly from the airline, cruise line or hotel. The paperwork from your online travel agency is helpful, but you shouldn’t rely on it.

I think you could have pressed your point with the hotel and Cheaptickets. Don’t allow someone to place you on hold. There are polite ways of doing this. Tell the representative your cell phone is almost out of battery, and that you need to speak with a supervisor. (I don’t know about you, but my cell phone is always almost out of juice.)

You could have also asked to speak with a manager at the Executive Inn. If you had a printout of your confirmation, you might have been able to negotiate to be “walked” to another hotel, meaning the hotel would have covered at least part of your hotel bill.

I contacted Cheaptickets on your behalf, and it credited your card for the full amount of your prepaid room at the Executive Inn. An apology and a refund for the price difference on your second hotel would have been nice too, but at least you got your money back.Similar Posts:

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As far as mistakes go, the one Janet Gordon recently made didn’t seem like a big deal. She booked an airline from ticket Toronto to London under the name “Jan.”

But what happened next could only be summed up in one word — “chaos” — says her husband, David.

“It was a major hassle,” remembers Gordon, a human resources director for a college in Swansea, England. At almost every turn, the couple had to explain why the name on Jan’s ticket didn’t match her passport. “The computers wouldn’t allow us to check in and issue a boarding card,” he says.

In a business where slip-ups are almost as common as surcharges, the wrong-name-on-my-ticket error is a standout. You don’t have to look far for ticketing mistakes in an age of do-it-yourself booking. Take it from me: not only do I write the Travel Troubleshooter column, a question-and-answer feature that helps people solve real-world problems, but I’m also a an expert on errors.

I’ll get to my own shortcomings in a minute. But right now, let’s review the five biggest booking blunders — and how they could have been prevented:

1. Wrong name on my ticket
Before 9/11, airlines and security personnel — and I use the term “security personnel” loosely — might have let a nickname or even a maiden name on a ticket slide. No longer. If you have the wrong name on your ticket, you’re probably grounded. And there are two reasons for this: security and greed. The Transportation Security Administration wants to be sure the same person who bought the ticket, and who was screened, is boarding the plane. But when there’s an inexact match, the airline can either charge a $100 “change” fee or even force you to buy a new ticket. In an industry where every dollar counts, the exact-name rule is the government’s gift to cash-starved air carriers.

That’s the situation Gordon was confronted with, even when it was obvious that “Jan” and “Janet” were one and the same. There were suggestions that a new ticket might need to be purchased. “We didn’t let it get to that,” he recalls. Instead, he asked to speak with a supervisor who could finally fix the codes so that the ticket and passport matched up. How did all of this happen in the first place? Turns out Jan Gordon had signed up for a frequent flier account under her informal name, so when she booked an award ticket, it also used her informal — and inaccurate — name.

How to avoid it? Triple-check the name on your ticket. Make sure your computer doesn’t autofill another name and that the name on your passport or driver’s license matches up with your ticket. Here’s a recent videocast I did on dealing with a wrong-name scenario.

2. Booking a ticket on the wrong airline
Believe it or not, people board the wrong flight every day. I’m not even talking about codeshare flights, which is industry-speak for booking a ticket on one airline but then flying on a “partner” airline with different rules and maybe lower service standards. I’m talking about simply making the wrong choice of airline.

For example, the elite-level business traveler who is accustomed to being treated like royalty when he flies on his preferred carrier might want to stay away from a budget airline. “I gave Southwest a try and I hated it,” they’ll write to me. “I’m never flying with them again.” Of course not. If you don’t like flight attendants with a sense of humor, peanut snacks and on-time flights, you’ll probably hate Southwest, too. On the flip side, I hear from travelers who book tickets on full-service network airlines and then complain about the price. Which is silly. How else do you think an airline is going to pay for all of that service?

How to avoid it? Watch for the codeshare designation when you book online and do a little research before buying an airline ticket. That way, your expectations won’t be too high. Or too low. Also, consider using an experienced travel agent.

3. The city switcheroo
Selecting the wrong city pairs — going from point ‘B’ to point ‘A’ instead of from ‘A’ to ‘B’ — is another common error. Jennifer Hyde bought four tickets on Delta Air Lines through Orbitz. But instead of booking them from Boston to Baltimore she inadvertently switched cities, rendering the tickets completely useless. “Needless to say, neither Orbitz nor Delta is doing anything to help,” she says. Hyde, a homemaker from Newton, Mass., would have to pay a change fee for each ticket, plus any fare differential, to make things right. Not good.

How could someone switch cities? It’s easy. To an inexperienced Web user — and OK, let’s be completely honest here, even to some experienced users — those pull-down menus on travel sites can be utterly confusing. When you’re typing in airport city codes like BWI and BOS, it’s easy to forget which airport goes where. (But it could be worse — Hyde might have ended up with a ticket to the familiar-looking BAL city code, which would have taken her to Batman, Turkey.) Point is, if you’re not paying attention, of if you’re dyslexic, you could click “accept” all the way through the reservation process and you wouldn’t know you messed up until it was too late.

How to avoid it? Pay attention! If you’re easily distracted maybe you should be working with a qualified travel agent instead of booking yourself. And read your confirmation immediately. If you spot a mistake, your agent might be able to undo it at no charge.

4. Buying a ticket that’s too restrictive
Booking the wrong kind of ticket is yet another common error. Airline sites often assume you want to purchase the cheapest and most restrictive fare, so that’s the first quote you’re usually offered. The pricier, fully refundable tickets are buried deeper in the site, which is too bad. For air travelers whose plans might change, these are the best selections.

Why should you pay more for a ticket? Because if your plans change and you’re holding a non-refundable ticket, it will be practically worthless. Every day I field a question from air travelers who would have benefited from this advice. They ask the airline to make exceptions to its refundability rules. They make up excuses. They throw tantrums. It almost never works.

How to avoid it? If you can’t buy the right ticket, at least buy the right insurance policy. It might protect you if you change plans.

5. Wrong date
Like the wrong city switcheroo, the wrong date problem is an epidemic among air travelers. Part of the reason is simple absentmindedness: choosing the sixth month instead of the seventh month and then not reading the subsequent screens.

But part of the reason is that airline Web sites are anything but user-friendly. Reader Nancy Smythe wrote to me recently about her flight from West Palm Beach, Fla., to London, which she booked directly online through the airline. It turns out the carrier had sold her a ticket it couldn’t deliver — her connection times were too short. So it agreed to rebook her on a later flight. But when it sent her the new ticket, it had the wrong date on it. When she pointed out the mistake, she was asked to pay a change fee. “This wasn’t my error,” she says. So why should she pay for it? Smythe’s experience reveals the maddening secret of ticketing mistakes. The airline will try to make you pay for an error — even if it’s not yours.

How to avoid it? Wake up and read the screen! No, seriously. This can usually be avoided by just reviewing your itinerary before you click the “book” button.

So look out for wrong names, wrong airlines, wrong cities, wrong dates and wrong expectations. Easy for me to say, right?

Wrong.

I’ve made every mistake in the book — and then some — when it comes to travel. All of the above errors are on my record. And let me also add that my mistakes aren’t limited to travel. I have some big-time screw-ups to my name that extend into my professional and personal life. Hey, don’t we all?

But as I look at the subject of mistakes in general, and ticketing mistakes in particular, I’m not worried about the ones we make once and learn from and are unlikely to repeat.

It’s the ones that we make over and over for no other reason than that we’re just easily manipulated — those are the screw-ups that infuriate me.Similar Posts:

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Question: I have two problems with Expedia that I was hoping you could help me sort out. I booked a stay at an all-inclusive hotel in Cancun called The Royal. We paid extra specifically for a corner suite, which, according to advertising on the resort’s site and Expedia, entitled me to a “two-sided ocean view” and an “assigned” beach cabana.

When we arrived, our second side view was of the rooftop of another hotel. The assigned cabanas have been nonexistent for more than a year. All guests must battle it out for a cabana, first come first serve.

When I complained to the general manager he was unsympathetic and would not refund the difference in price between the next lower-priced room that did not offer these two features, and what we paid. The Royal has been unresponsive to me and to Expedia, which attempted to intervene on my behalf.

I tried to post a review on Expedia, but it flatly refused to publish it. I have followed its rules, but it has repeatedly told me it won’t post my write-up because I’m not following the rules. Expedia won’t tell me which rule I didn’t follow.

I firmly believe Expedia has a policy of not posting unflattering reviews of properties it represents. I know for a fact from other sites that others who rented my same class of room ran into the exact same set of lies and refusal to address the grievance and none are posted on Expedia. Can you help me get my money back and publish the post? – Bob Ledford, Seattle

Answer: Expedia should have given you the room it promised, and if it couldn’t, it should have issued a quick refund and published your comments on its site.

When you noticed your accommodations were not what you had expected, you immediately asked the resort to address your problem. Good move. You also contacted your online travel agent, asking for help.

Expedia guarantees that the hotels it sells will meet your expectations. Have a look at its Expedia Promise, which assures you that “you can depend on our information.” To me, your story sounds like a promise not kept.

I think you could have been a little bit firmer with both the hotel and Expedia. Rather than working the phones from your room, you might have removed your belongings from your quarters, parked yourself at the front desk and politely requested that you be moved to your proper room and shown your private cabana. If there were no other rooms, then it was time to either re-negotiate your room rate with Expedia’s help or check into a resort that would meet your requirements.

I asked Expedia about its posting rules. The agency said it prohibits the use of “vulgar or inappropriate language, discussing refunds or pursuits of a refund, naming any Expedia or hotel staff or discussing your conversations with Expedia and/or hotel staff.” None of your comments appeared to violate its rules.

Expedia reviewed your case and determined that your review had been “temporarily declined” so that the online agency could verify the information you provided and make any necessary changes. It says your write-up was in the queue awaiting approval and by the time you read this, should be on the site.

The company also refunded $378 – the difference in price between the room you booked and the next room type down.Similar Posts:

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