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The strange case of the dog bite and the $2,305 hotel bill
182 comments
HOLIDAY INN
182 comments
The lights went out, but Holiday Inn kept my money
Question: We recently checked into the Holiday Inn Express Hotel Poulsbo in Poulsbo, Wash., and experienced a lapse in service. We need your help with a refund.
There was a winter storm with ice on the road, and after a treacherous drive from the Kingston Ferry, which was shut down after we disembarked because of wind, we arrived in Poulsbo. We checked into the hotel at 5:30 p.m. or so. At 6:45 p.m., the lights went out.
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47 comments
Case dismissed: Oops, I booked eight nights instead of one
Meryl Lee Seewald thought she was booking just one night at the Holiday Inn Miami International Airport. Instead, she booked eight.
Now she’s stuck with a nonrefundable one-week reservation at the hotel. Oh, if she’d only used a professional travel agent!
But wait: Seewald is the travel agent, and the reservation is for a client who is taking a cruise.
Now what?
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204 comments
Two rooms with one bed — and no refund
Question: I have recently had a problem with Hotels.com, and I hope you can help me. I called them to reserve one room at a Holiday Inn in San Francisco. This was to be a gift for my two granddaughters.
I was sent two email confirmations, which I assumed were duplicates since they both were for one room for two nights. My granddaughters were given two keys when they arrived. They showed the desk clerk the confirmation, but were told the reservation was for two rooms and that they were prepaid.
It turned out that each room had only one bed, so the girls did use both rooms. I received my Visa bill the next day and saw that I was billed for two rooms — two different charges for $302 each.
I called the Holiday Inn and was told that it was Hotels.com’s problem. The reservation that was made was for two rooms, and they had nothing to do with the billing. Hotels.com denies that they made an error, and that because the girls used both rooms, they would not refund the money.
I feel they made the mistake in reserving two rooms, and I should not be made to pay for the extra room, even though it was used. Is this the way they make money? — Nula Fales, Elk Grove, Calif.
Answer: Certainly not. If you only ordered one room, then Hotels.com should have only given you one. Any business that tries to sell you more than you wanted, wouldn’t last very long online, or anywhere.
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28 comments
Is this enough compensation? A discount on an icy hotel room
When the power went out in Jeri Kellerman’s hotel room at the Holiday Inn Express in Poulsbo, Wash., she and her husband spent the night in pitch black and freezing cold.
They assumed they’d get a refund for their room — others affected by the blackout in the area did. But they assumed wrong.
Their case raises bigger questions. Is there ever a time when a hotel should offer a full refund for a room? What about an act of God, like a natural disaster? Is a partial refund, or even just an apology, ever sufficient?
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85 comments
So that’s why hotels put water bottles in your room
If you thought hotels just stock the minibar in your room with overpriced bottles of Fiji in order to line their pockets, think again. Sure, at $6 or more per container, it’s liquid gold — but it could also prevent all of your guests from getting sick when the tap water is no longer safe to drink.
Consider what happened to Rosanne Skopp when she stayed at the Holiday Inn Miami Beach recently.
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7 comments
“The hotel manager hung up on us”
Gary Benedik was driving through Memphis recently when he decided to stop for the night. He made a reservation at a Holiday Inn, but discovered a short while later that the hotel was too far out of the way. But by then it was too late: he’d already been charged for the room.
Shouldn’t Holiday Inn cut him a little slack?
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37 comments
