Erika Spott is a card-carrying member of Choice Hotels’ loyalty program, and she gives the hotel chain her business because she can always count on getting clean, reasonably-priced room.
ROOM
Anna Johnson is unhappy with her Hotwire hotel room. Her problem: The site isn’t consistent with its star ratings, and now she’s stuck with a room at a property she didn’t want. Is she entitled to a refund?
Hotwire offers Loretta Krahn a hotel room in Rosemont, Ill. She ends up in Elk Grove, Ill. Now she wants her money back, but Hotwire refuses. Is she out of luck?
Days Inn doesn’t exactly have a reputation for sparkling clean rooms and five-star customer service. Then again, Alyssa Erikson didn’t choose the hotel — Priceline did when she booked it through the site’s popular “Name Your Own Price” service.
Kate Farrelly has a little ant problem in her apartment, so she decided to book a hotel room while her landlord fumigated her building. She paid $181 for two nights in a “pet friendly” room at the Vagabond Inn Glendale through a Priceline-affiliate site.
Matthew Gast’s hotel room in Rome is saturated with cigarette smells, even though he’s “guaranteed” a nonsmoking room. When he moves to a new room, he loses his socks and underwear. But the hotel doesn’t seem to care. Should it?
Next time you check into the Fairfield Inn in Sandusky, Ohio, mind the safe in your room. They’ll add a $1.07 fee to your confirmed rate for having one — whether you want it or not.
Patrick Kerr books a hotel in Paris for the unbelievable rate of 10 euros a night. Turns out it’s a mistake – the rate is off by a decimal point. His online agency promises a refund, but sends him a voucher, instead. What should Kerr do?
When Zoraida Fernandez checks into her hotel, she’s met with two surprises: Both of her rooms reek of cigarette smoke, and one of them has only one bed, instead of the two she was promised — this, despite the fact that her online agency, Hotels.com, had guaranteed her two nonsmoking rooms. The agency offers her a discount and a voucher. Should it do more?
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.
It’s been a while since we looked at the pets-in-hotel-rooms controversy. But today I have a cautionary tale about taking your dog on vacation.
Tammy Bowman prepays for a nonsmoking room for four guests at a Holiday Inn in Manhattan. But she gets a smaller, smoking room and is then told to take it or leave it. She stays. Is she entitled to anything for her trouble?
Here’s a phrase you hear a lot in my line of work: You get what you pay for.
Norman and Mary Lou Vitrano are by their own admission not Internet-savvy, which is why they phoned the Doubletree Beach Resort Tampa Bay/North Redington Beach to make their room reservations last August. When the couple’s plans changed and they tried to cancel their reservation, a hotel representative informed them their room was completely non-refundable.
Lisa Deason thought she’d booked a hotel room in New York for four guests through Hotwire. But her confirmation told her otherwise: the room could only accommodate two people, at most.
Elliott is consumer advocate 
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