Jack Taras and his friends thought they would be checking in to the Occidental Grand hotel on the Dominican Republic’s postcard-perfect Eastern shore for Spring Break. But when Taras, a 19-year-old sophomore from Providence College, arrived at the resort, he was greeted with the hotel industry’s latest trick: he was walked down.
“They were sent to hotel that wasn’t as nice,” says his father, John Taras. He phoned his son’s online travel agency, Cheaptickets.com, and asked about the downgrade, which lasted the full five nights of Jack’s stay. It deferred to the hotel, which offered an apology and a vague explanation of a “computer mishap” that resulted in an overbooking.
“Walking” is a practice that’s as old as the hotel industry. When a resort is overbooked, it typically sends a guest to a comparable property, covering the cost of transportation, a phone call and accommodations. But somewhere along the way — probably at the start of the current recession — the word “comparable” was conveniently dropped, and hotels quietly began sending guests to lesser properties.
That’s not supposed to happen, according to Joseph McInerney, president and CEO of the American Hotel & Lodging Association, a trade group. “It’s most often the hotel’s policy that guests are provided accommodations in a facility of equal quality,” he told me. “The last thing that a property wants to happen is to compound the problem by sending the guest to an unacceptable facility.”
But problems are being compounded. That’s the bad news. There’s also some good news: Walking doesn’t happen as often as it did before the economy started going soft. The latest lodging industry forecasts predict more empty rooms in the months ahead, in an historic downturn that a recent PKF Hospitality Research study predicted would be “deeper and last longer” than previously thought. “With lower occupancy rates, I’m sure hotels are not having to walk as many guests,” says Robert Mandelbaum, PKF’s director of research information services.
The Occidental Grand offered Taras a voucher for a two-night stay, which he doesn’t want, and Cheaptickets.com has told him his case is being escalated to a supervisor. I contacted both the resort and the site on Taras’ behalf, but neither has responded.
It’s easy to understand why a hotel would want to walk a guest “down” when it’s overbooked. The property must cover the cost of your room when you’re “walked” and even though it often pays a discounted industry rate, it can save a few bucks by sending you to a lesser property and pocketing the difference.
Question is: what to do when it happens to you? Here are a few tips for guests who have been walked:
1. Refuse the room
Richard Carson wishes he’d done that when a four-star hotel in San Diego decided to downgrade him to a motel recently. “We arrived about 3 p.m. and were told we had no room, because 15 guests had decided to prolong their stay,” he says. “I’m sure that if I had been a no-show, they would have pocketed our deposits, even though there were no rooms available.”
He’s right. If Carson had politely stood his ground, pointing out his guaranteed reservation for a medical convention that had blocked hundreds of rooms at the same property, he probably would have been sent to a better hotel, if not offered a room at that one.
“The next time, I will simply start disrobing in the lobby, and wait for them to suddenly find a room,” he jokes. Now there’s an idea.
2. Know what’s happening behind the scenes
When someone tells you they’re out of rooms, it doesn’t necessarily mean the hotel is full. It just means there’s no room for you.
“It’s totally political,” says Kitty Cayo, who used to walk people for a hotel in the Midwest that she prefers not to name. “No frequent-stayer status? Walked. Not a corporate client? Good-bye. Booked through central reservations and an infrequent pleasure traveler? Hasta la vista.” She says at times there were rooms available, but they were being held for a VIP or two, “who managers hoped like hell were going to show up.”
Knowing that full doesn’t always mean “full” can be useful when you’re negotiating the terms of your walking papers. If a hotel employee admits that a few rooms are being held for late-arriving VIPs, you might talk your way into a better hotel.
3. Invoke your status
Speaking of which, if you’re a frequent guest, and you’re in danger of being walked down, this would be a good time to whip out your program membership card.
When Lyn Greenhill tried to check in at a Hilton Garden Inn recently, and was sent to “some other property I’ve never heard of,” he called the Hilton HHonors phone line. As a gold-level member of its frequent-stayer program, Greenhill had more clout than the average guest.
Like it or not, better customers are often singled out for preferred treatment, so having a card can protect you against a walk and a downgrade. But it’s no guarantee. A Hilton representative said the best it could do for Greenhill was to offer him a room at the Garden Inn the next day. So he phoned the nearby Marriott property, which had room.
4. Crack a joke
No, seriously.
That’s what Jonathan Yarmis did when a Marriott property in Los Angeles tried to walk him to a less desirable hotel. “What would you do if J.W. Marriott were in town?” he asked the clerk. “Well, I’m sure we’d find Mr. Marriott something,” the employee responded. “Well,” said Yarmis, “I have it on good authority that he’s not coming — and I’ll take his room.” The clerk laughed and asked him to wait a minute. “Sure enough, they found a room,” he recalls.
Moral of the story? There’s always a room or, at the very least, it’s someone else’s problem.
5. Be nice
It may make the difference between a downgrade and an upgrade.
When Anne Wiggins checked into a luxury hotel in San Jose, Costa Rica, a receptionist told there was no room at the inn. “I asked what the problem was and they said the education convention was still in progress and no rooms were available,” recalls Wiggins, a retired college administrator. She politely asked to speak with a manager, who declared, “No problema” and ordered an employee to walk her to a condo. “What a lovely place,” she remembers. “It had two bedrooms, each with its own bath, a kitchen, dining room and living room. There was a gorgeous view out each window. We stayed there for several days and were not charged extra.”
Being nice is your most effective weapon against an involuntary downgrade. Niceness often trumps status and hotel employees can — and frequently do — go out of their way for a friendly guest.
Ideally, when a hotel runs out of rooms, it should do everything it can to make you happy. Right down to the last detail.
Consider what the Sheraton Old San Juan did for Clyde Permenter when it couldn’t accommodate him. “They reserved a room at the DoubleTree, paid for it, paid for my taxi fares, for a complimentary buffet breakfast and returned my deposit,” he recalls. When he returned the next week after a cruise, he was upgraded to a suite. “What more could they have done?” he asks.
Until every hotel guest is “walked” like Permenter, these tips will ensure you get what you paid for.
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{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
And do what we smart hospitality industry meeting professionals do up front: ASK what the bookers’ contracts say with the hotels about walking and if you are ask skeptical as I am …ask for a copy.
Also find out how far you may be ‘walked’ if it is necessary. A colleague’s story from some years ago from a meeting in Detroit: people were “walked” to Windsor — just across the river but requiring a passport for re-admittance to the US!
Tho’ “walking” is a common practice, esp. when hotels are “under departed” (one of my favorite terms when guests stay over), one needs to do all that you, Chris, suggested, and more. It’s smart to pay attention to weather and flight conditions too — bad weather somewhere may result in guests who cannot depart even if some are able to arrive.
My first experience, once In last year holiday, I and my family attended Novotel in Jakarta without reservation, of course, they didn’t prepare a room for us. Then We tried Mercure, Le Grandeur and so on, I found the same result. I had just realized how the vacation session was like. Fortunately, we found a humble inn in the peripheral region. It was really a stupid experience. So thank you for the helpful tips and suggestion.
To avoid being “walked” call the FRONT DESK of hotel the morning of your arrival date to reconfirm your reservation. Be certain to ask the Desk Clerk name, ID number, or Agent Sine, and to make a note on the reservaton that you reconfirmed.
I agree that being nice is always the best policy. But in reality, the best defense against being walked is to be an elite member of the loyalty program. For example, marriott will pay for the first nights room and give you up to $200 additional, depending on the brand. Here is the platinum guarantee at full service marriott brands.
If unable to honor reservation, the hotel will pay for your accommodations that night at a nearby comparable hotel and compensate the member for the inconvenience. Compensation varies by lodging brand (see below):
At Marriott Hotels & Resorts; Renaissance Hotels & Resorts; Marriott Conference Centers; Marriott Vacation Club International; and Horizons by Marriott Vacation Club: Alternative accommodations, plus $200 and 2 free room certificates.
Unfortunately, I don’t travel enough to rate platinum status for any loyalty program. Tinfoil status, maybe. :)
But I do always call the hotel to confirm they received my reservation and that there are no problems. Plus, I usually also book through the hotel’s own Web site, which seems to cut down on the problems, for some reason.
And as always: being nice is often your best “weapon.” People will, indeed, go a little farther for someone who is being nice than for the individual who has just gone ballistic. It might not work, but it never hurts.
I concur about booking through the hotel website. I’ve basically given up on using third party sites. The hotel appreciates it as it povides higher revenue for the hotel and there are fewer parties handling the reservation, i.e. few places for errors to happen.
Why would anyone use a “travel agent” like CheapTickets? Look at their prices. Usually, there is nothing “cheap” in what they offer. They and most other online sites will handle your reservation and many times will charge you extra for the privilege of doing business with them. They often do not perform the services of a traditional travel agent such as taking care of their clients when a “situation” arises.
If I am taking a simple domestic trip, I may check on online site to help determine where I want to stay, but will go to the provider’s web-site to book the travel. I would rather be a direct customer with the airline or hotel chain than have the name of a “travel agency” that will not act as an advocate for me if needed on my reservation record . If the trip is to a foreign country or is a complicated domestic one, I will work with “brick and mortar” travel agent in my neighborhood.
Two weeks ago I came across a post about a similar situation in which a customer who booked through Hotwire got the “walk down” by a Holiday Inn.
At this point I didn’t understand who was at fault and I recommended that he contact you. Now that you posted this article to help me understand this tactic, I know that the hotel is the one likely the one at fault. Hopefully he sees the link I posted to this article.
Here is a link to the post:
http://www.my3cents.com/showReview.cgi?id=54350
if you’re absolutely afraid of an overbooked hotel. call before your reservation (few days, the day before, doesnt matter)
and make a few requests, for example a room without feathers, or tons of extra pillows, etc.
point is they will “put” you in this room far before you arrive and the room should not be given away because of the special requests.
(i used to work at both hilton and marriott)
@Victor
That sounds like a great idea.
I had a crazy experience about seven years ago in Palm Springs, CA. My girlfriends and I were in town for a music festival and we booked our hotel room (at a mid-level family type hotel) months in advance. We called in the afternoon of our scheduled check-in to tell them that we’d be checking in late, after the festival, and they said that was fine and they’d hold our room. Unfortunately, when we tried to check in after midnight we were told that not only was the hotel full, so were all the hotels for an hour’s drive. We told them we weren’t leaving, and the manager ended up allowing us to sleep in a storage room that had a pull-out couch for a few hours until a room opened up. It was definitely NOT ideal and an experience I would never want to repeat, but we did end up with a room (at about five A.M.) and they didn’t end up charging us anything, so, being young and adventurous, we felt like it all worked out in the end!
When I was young, my family went to the Plaza in NY. My family had confirmed and prepaid for our one room for 5 of us (2 adults, 2 small kids and one baby) but our flight was very delayed and we didn’t get there until 1am.
Luckily, the Plaza didn’t ‘walk’ us; while our “cheap” room was gone, there was one room left in the whole building, the Presidential Suite or what I believe is now called the Royal Plaza Suite. Anyways, it was bigger than our house, had 2 or 3 fireplaces, and was amazing to us kids who were in the big city for the first time (I’m from North Dakota).
I saw my first homeless people too, but my parents wouldn’t let me invite them to our room, which had extra beds, telling me that we were guests of the hotel so we weren’t allowed to invite anyone without their permission. Sigh… the doorman wouldn’t take me seriously being that I was only 5, and once my parents figured out I was trying to get permission, they rushed me through the lobby. Home Alone 2 is likely the closest I will ever get to there again. :D
Number 5: “Be nice” can lead the lambs to the slaughter. My experience has been that being firm and direct is far more effective than being nice in getting what you’ve paid for from the hospitality (and I use that word loosely) industry.
Tell them what you were expecting and why and then ask why you should accept less. Be nice when you approach the counter be less so if they expect you to accept being ripped off.