London hotel takes a hard line on stranded air traveler’s refund request

Grow up! Their policy CLEARLY states that there are no refunds within 24hrs of checkin, regardless of circumstances. It’s called travel insurance and it’s sold so that people like you are covered in situations like this… unless you are of course too stupid to actually take any out in which case you have shot yourself in the foot!
Quit your attitude, read the fine print and prepare for situations like this but covering yourself; failure to do so is your fault and yours alone, not the hotels.

“Quit your attitude”

Seems like the only one with an attitude here is you. Or perhaps the Yotel rep who blatantly stated in their e-mail that they care more about profit than doing what’s right. But hey, I’m glad they did; it’s one more hotel I can avoid in the future.

As for travel insurance, as it’s being pointed out in articles elsewhere, even that only goes so far. And I wouldn’t doubt that Elliott will have an article or two about people who bought travel insurance and are getting screwed by said insurance company after this.

The hotel I work for has received emails from third party websites such as Expedia and Travelocity along with a few wholesalers asking us to politely waive any cancellation or no show fee’s from guests not being able to travel due to the volcano. While we are usually strict with our policy, we are kindly waiving fee’s as this is an extraordinary circumstance which no one can control (and we have really only had less than a handful of cancellations).While we (the hotels) do have the cancellation policy for a reason, I’m still surprised this hotel didn’t waive the fee to begin with.

While I understand the cancellation policy I cannot for one minute believe that this place has no people staying there. The “Yotel” is acting as if everyone who got stuck at the airport was near home or with family and not a business traveller in any way shape, or form.

Far more likely, as is the case I have heard in NY is that people are stranded and the hotels are doing quite well. In fact several people I heard call into a radio show I listen to and complain that the hotels in NY are raising their prices because of people needing rooms. Others I have heard were discounting rates 15% for stranded travellers. I just hope that wasn’t 15% off rack rate.

This is an odd transaction – certainly the hotel is within its rights for a less than 24 hour cancelation and I am sure there are many people who are in this situation for many hotels around the world, sorry but the unexpected does happen sometimes and this is what insurance or accepting the loss oneself is all about – but I cannot imagine that the hotel could not have sold the space many times over. Every newscast I have seen shows people sleeping in airports on cots or chairs, there must be at least a few who would shell out money for a bed and a shower! The hotel must be a real “sleeper” and needs to buy a few adverts for itself in the terminals!

Who would seriously buy travel insurance for a one-night hotel stay?

Anyway, I’m with Carver here. Part of the cancellation policy seems to imply that even if the hotel is closed in an emergency and guests cannot access it, no refunds will be given. At the very least, that’s an extremely customer-hostile policy.

Is the hotel legally entitled to refuse a refund in this case? Possibly. I’m glad Chris wrote about this, though, because I think they deserve the negative publicity. I find it very hard to believe that they’re suffering from a lack of occupancy given the number of stranded passengers. It would not surprise me at all if they were refusing a refund to this guest while simultaneously selling his room to someone else (and probably at a higher price that he would have paid, too).

So the OP couldn’t help it and the hotel was unable to refund the money due to their own policy. Travel insurance would have probably covered the cost for the night, but instead of buying travel insurance the OP decided that the hotel should be kind and bend their rules to accomindate them. Why is it when consumers make mistakes, they expect the company to pay for it?

There are numerous reputable news reports out of Europe that show overbooked hotels and price gouging. If Yotel is at Heathrow, I am highly skeptical that it wasn’t able to resell the room.

While I don’t think its illegal or even unethical for Yotel to keep the Mr. Ward’s deposit, I do think decision is dumbfounding! The travel disruption is extraordinary and the smart business decision would be to refund Mr. Ward’s deposit. We will never know if Yotel did or could have resold the room. If they did resell the room, I believe that Mr. Ward should get his deposit back.

We own property in a resort area of Colorado. Occasionally the road to the town gets closed and people are stranded. Even though the management company has strict cancellation policies, they will waive them in case travel to/from the town is impaired. The sales manager even let us in on a little secret. Usually occupancy levels is a wash because although people can’t arrive, the people who were there can’t leave! I would imagine the same situation at Heathrow, where there are lots of stranded passengers looking for hotel space.

So, that leads me to believe that either
1) Yotel’s marketing department is so poorly run that no one at Heathrow knows that it is there, or
2) Yotel took Mr. Ward’s money, and resold the room (at possibly a higher rate) or
3) Yotel let the room sit empty and made no attempts to resell the room.

To all the TAs out there…. would Travel Insurance ACTUALLY help? because I can see scenarios where they would try to avoid paying claiming this was an extraordinary event.

Chris

They asked for the hotel to waive their policy and they refused. By doing so, they didn’t violate any rules. These things happen any time, not just due to volcanos. A flight could be cancelled due to mechanical reasons for example.

Now, in my opinion, the Yotel *should* have refunded the money, but the marketplace will punish them quite severely for this, I’m sure.

I’d like to see a “wall of shame” website with all of the hotels that raised their rates during this crisis. I am sure the travelling public would punish them severely once this crisis is over.

Right, I’ll never stay there. Customer service, yet again, suffers for the almighty euro/pound/dollar etc. Thank goodness there are still businesses who care (Michelle). Those are the ones, in the long run, who survive. ALL of us check a “Trip Adviser” of some sort, don’t we?

barbie … you must be misinformed. I know for a fact that TravelGuard, one of the leading travel insurance providers, is covering this for anyone who bought a policy where “natural disasters” and weather was covered.
I’ve talked to them more than once over the past week about it.

steve … its his choice not to cover it and it appears that he was doing other things than just staying at the Yotel. If the one night is that big of deal to him, I guess he should have bought the policy.

Wait, isn’t this just the kind of act of God that YOTEL should have insurance for? Barring that, isn’t this part of the cost of doing business?

Surely Yotel has factored acts of God, terrorism, etc into its business plan. Right, Yotel? You guys did think of that when you decided to locate at Heathrow, right?

While Yotel was certainly within their rights per their (perhaps illegal) policy, as I’m sure even Mr Ward would agree, Yotel executives have spectacularly mishandled this situation. They completely missed the fact that Mr Ward (and, I’d venture, most people) is less interested in the money than in having them do the right thing. How could one possibly be more penny-wise and pound foolish than this: Yotel execs have now inadvertently drawn attention to something travelers should be aware of: Yotel either doesn’t understand you or doesn’t care. They operate in airports, but choose to be less accommodating than airlines. These guys are in the wrong business.

Does anyone else smell a rat here? Think about it: Yotel doesn’t let you change or cancel due to a flight delay, security alert or other force majeure, thereby shifting the burden onto the passenger. Revenue from delayed flights, missed connections and other no-fault no-shows is clearly part of Yotel’s business model.

They have insulted Mr Ward’s (and now readers’) intelligence by saying ridiculous things like “we still have to charge” (no, you don’t have to; you choose to) and saying they are usually able to “be flexible” on a small scale, but not on a large scale. Again, it’s a choice. Yotel made their position very clear. It’s our choice to reward them or not; or, better yet, to beg the authorities at Heathrow and other airports where Yotel operates to invite some competition. Yotel deserves it.

Responsible travel journalists, for their part, should mention this very restrictive cancellation policy when covering Yotel. It should certainly factor into travelers’ decisions. Sorry, Yotel, you brought this on yourselves.

hmm. When did the volcano ‘first erupt’ for the purposes of the insurers who have decided to amend their policies or, perhaps, they treat them like ‘pre-existing conditions?’ This volcano has been erupting on and off for decades. . . . there is all sorts of mischief an insurer can play with on this one.

FYI, as of now, Yotel is still accepting reservations at Heathrow for overnight tonight.

For starters, it was stupid for a Yotel employee to admit in writing that they are keeping the deposit for purely greedy reasons. Never say something in an e-mail that you wouldn’t want to eventually see the light of day. Especially if the e-mail is addressed to someone who’s not in your own organization.

Of course Yotel *can* keep the deposit. It doesn’t mean that they *should*. I guess that’s the difference between a business you would never frequent again, and one that earns your loyalty.

When companies cover their interests (profits) over common courtesy. The business begins to generate “ill” will as apposed to goodwill. This is just one of many potential examples. Treat the customer well and you will likely get return business. Otherwise you will get to appear on a blog like this…you decide.

First, I am disturbed by Yotel’s comment: “This allows a reasonable period to resell a room and allows us not to need to overbook rooms at any time, which is better for our guests.” If they do not refund the cost of the room, it remains technically your room, even unoccupied; it should remain empty. If they book the room, then surely there is no loss to them and should refund.
Second, a tip on a mistake I made. I reserved at a London hotel I use often, and gave them the date of my departure, not realizing I would be arriving the next day London time. I had to pay for that ‘first’ day.

Joe … I’m not a travel agent but I used to own an agency. TAs live off of commissions. That is their primary source of revenue not the $50 fee you pay to book an airline ticket. TAs make a commision on just about everything you book through them and a lot of their contracts prohibit disclosing or refunding any portion of the commission.

Just remember that a good TA is in it for the long haul. They want you back in the door for your next purchase so they aren’t going to steer you to a bad product just because it pays a higher commission. They may steer to to a higher priced product because they know the company, their claims process and the policy meets your needs. A travel insurance company that doesn’t pay on claims sells useless policies. No matter what the price of the policy is. Just look at Chris’s history.

Then again … not all TA are good TAs so read the DOC (the legalese) and make sure the policy covers what you want it to cover.

If you are really concerned about the commission, buy online and mark none for your TA. Of course, if you are buying the product they recommended, you just took money out of their pocket that cost you nothing.

I have stayed at the Yotel in Heathrow several times. It is actually inside Terminal 4, just outside of security. It is somewhat difficult to find. The airline I fly when I go there rents spots for the business and 1st class PAX to allow them to nap and shower after the all night trip. The rooms I have stayed in have always been spotless clean and comfortable. Room service is great, but a bit more expensive than most hotels in the area. Not too bad for a 10 x 8 foot room that squeezes in a bed, desk and full bath.

But the business model of Yotel is designed at keeping every room full all the time every day, so having one possibly unoccupied wrecked their plan for the week. They rent rooms by the hour even if you are staying for several days. If you tell them you are arriving at 06:00 and are leaving at 12:00, that is what you get charged for and that is all the time you get, not even a minute more. You may get a room that someone just exited (after it gets cleaned of course) for an early morning flight and someone may be in your room almost immediately after you leave. All-in-all, the process seems to work well.

I think that the response received from Yotel on the cancellation request was someone making a costly mistake and forgetting they were talking to a customer. They could have just said “We will look into refunding your deposit if we rent the room to someone else” and then just kept the money anyway and the customer would not have been so upset. The further offer of a “free” night just made it worse. This shows an inflexibility that does not need to be a part of any company’s business model. The amount of bad publicity this will generate will surely cost them more than the few dollars the deposit equalled. I know it has definitely changed my opinion, and not for the better.