Question: I hope you can help me with an issue that came up with our recent cruise on Celebrity that included a hotel the night before. When I scheduled the cruise, I added one night prior in San Juan at the Gran Melia Puerto Rico, because the hotel was offering an all-inclusive option, according to the cruise line.
I paid $634 for this property, believing I would receive not only a pre-night hotel with my meals and drinks, but also transportation to the pier the very next day to begin the cruise with my husband.
When I presented the voucher at the hotel on the scheduled date the front desk representative informed me that there was no reservation under my name. I quickly contacted my travel agent and the cruise line directly and over an hour later I was called back to the front desk and they checked us in. But they didn’t offer an all-inclusive option.
I called Celebrity back after settling into our room to find out why there was a mix-up, and they said there was nothing they could do about it. Since I had no other choice, I paid for my meals at the hotel — a total of $188 for dinner, breakfast and beverages. I also had to pay for a taxi to the port the next day.
I have called Celebrity since our return, sent e-mails and written a letter with copies of the vouchers and receipt, and the only answer we get is that we were refunded the $80 for the taxi and they are unable to grant our request for additional compensation. Can you help? — Vanessa Thompson, Toms River, N.J.
Answer: You should have been offered an all-inclusive — and hassle-free — room at the Gran Melia. Instead, you spent more than an hour of your hard-earned vacation arguing with your cruise line about a reservation. That’s not good.
You really handled this one by the book. You confirmed your reservation and checked the terms of your all-inclusive visit. Once you checked in, you asked the hotel, your cruise line and your travel agent to fix the problem. Even when you returned home, you handled this like a pro, applying polite but firm pressure on Celebrity to make this right.
So where did you go wrong?
As far as I can tell, you didn’t. Sometimes you can do everything right and still fail to get the company to respond correctly. It’s what I call the “other one percent” because there’s a small portion of cases where even insider knowledge of the system can’t help you.
It’s unclear if a credit card dispute or a small claims court action would have worked. After all, you stayed in the hotel but just didn’t get some of the promised amenities. It’s difficult to persuade a credit card company or court to help in that kind of situation (but not impossible).
I contacted Celebrity, and it turns out the hotel stopped offering an all-inclusive option three years ago, which was replaced with a meal plan. You had paid for that option, but because of an “internal miscommunication” it didn’t show up in your reservation. Celebrity refunded $188 for the meals and beverages and 50 percent of the cost of the hotel pre-night package — a total of $505 — as an apology.
(Photo: James Willamor/Flickr Creative Commons)
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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
As a practicing attorney, I think the OP would have a fairly easy case to obtain $188 from Carnival. The reason is that some amenities are easily quantifiable; e.g. meals, free parking, transportation. etc. A judge can simply look at your receipts.
By contrast, other amenities such as ocean views, upgraded toiletries, upgraded bedding, usually aren’t nearly as quantifiable and a court is likely to consider the hotel to be in substantial compliance with its promises.
Here, the reneged upon amenites relates to meals which the OP can quantify her loss. As such she would have had an easy case if it went to small claims court.
Challenge the original charge. See if the credit card company will reverse it. If they will, then the company has a claim for the fair value of what they gave you . . . . that would be an interesting case to see the proof of value of the hotel for what they gave you. . . .c’mon Carver – challenge the charge, win, and then let the hotel prove quantum meruit!
@Carver,
You can try suing Carnival, but since Celebrity is owned by Royal Caribbean you likely would not be as successful as you would have hoped.
Leave it to Chris to get the job done. Sometimes, it takes a pro to handle the situation like one.
@Joe
My response was to Chris’ assertion that its hard to win in court since she stayed and got a room. Not whether court was the best way to go.
Having said that, disputing a credit card charge becomes a lot harder if you’re more than 50 miles from home or in another state. Besides. I’d rather be a plaintiff than defendant any day.
Carver,A very logical and well expressed post as usual. Thank goodness you are not given to emotional outbursts,political correctness ,namebashing etc. I am sure your legal expertise and extensive travel experiences benefit us all.
Carver -you need to play both sides more often – all being said defense is easier than offense because most of the time defense controls what the issues are . . . . and when they get raised on discovery and pleadings . . . .
@Joe
Remember Joe, we’re talking about small claims court which usually, although not always, bars attorneys. Discovery, pleadings, etc. are usually non-existent beyond the original complaint. But, the plaintiff is in a much lower stressful position having been the one to initiate litigation, can end it unilaterally, won’t be out any additional funds regardless of the outcome, etc.
FWIW, you don’t have to dispute the entire bill. At least with Amex, I’ve successfully disputed partial amounts. The last time in fact I did this was Sears – they were unable to follow their price-match policy (I was matching their own next-day sale price, btw on a snow blower (not cheap)). I tried emails for several weeks, got nowhere, so disputed the portion of the original charge that should have been refunded. I included the printed policy, receipts, ad showing lower price & emails I had sent. No problem at all.
Don’t see why a dispute for $188 of the total would not have worked in this case.