Help! They upgraded my hotel bill

Question: I have a problem that you may be able to help me with. Last year, my husband, Juan, traveled to Valencia, Spain. I made his hotel reservations through a travel agency.

When he tried to check in at Melia Rey Don Jaime, it did not have a room for him. He was moved to the Confortel. The rate at the Confortel was nearly three times more than his original reservation. He was charged an extra $1,034.

Juan was told to call the reservation company, Utell, which promised to straighten this out when he returned home. After he came back to the states, he submitted his receipts to Utell.

But Utell recently told me that the hotel property is no longer with their company and that I would have to deal with the hotel in Spain on my own to get a refund. Can you please help me? — Olivia Suarez, Albuquerque, N.M.

Answer: Your husband shouldn’t have had to pay the difference between the hotel he was supposed to stay in, and the one he was sent to.

If the Melia Rey Don Jaime was overbooked, then the commonly accepted hotel industry practice is to “walk” you to a comparable hotel. Most hotels will cover any rate difference, which means you would only have to pay the rate you were quoted by the first hotel. It is also supposed to reimburse you for any transportation expenses to the new hotel, plus a phone call.

It’s unclear to me why that didn’t happen, or how Utell eventually got involved. If the Melia Rey Don Jaime didn’t “walk” your husband, he should have phoned your travel agent, who could have applied some pressure to the hotel to honor the reservation at another hotel.

No one should have told Juan to contact Utell. Roping in Utell, which offers reservations services to travel agents, is like telling someone with a complaint about a restaurant meal to contact the food wholesaler. This should have been handled between your husband’s hotel, your travel agent, and you.

Once you asked Utell for help, it should have punted this back to your agent or your hotel to sort the problem out. Again, it’s unclear why that didn’t happen, and why you were left to negotiate directly with the hotel. I think the time to have done that was when your husband was standing at the check-in desk, without a room. That’s when issues like payment need to get sorted out — not weeks after you’ve returned home.

Since Utell promised to help you, I contacted the company on your behalf. It sent you a check for $1,034.

  • BucksterSF

    What’s wrong with that travel agent? People use a travel agent to get an advocate when things go wrong. Does this person really not understand these stories are why people flock to travel web sites in droves?

    I had a situation in the 1980s where a reservation didn’t go right – the property flatly denied the rate that was negotiated via the agent. the agent just threw up their hands when I returned. I haven’t used one in over 20 years – which is a shame since it was nice just to make a phone call.

  • Arizona Road Warrior

    @ BucksterSF – “What’s wrong with that travel agent?”
    - – - – - – - – -
    I agree with you; however, the article didn’t state if the reservation was made through a brick & mortar travel agent or an online booking site (i.e. Expedia, Hotel.com, Hotwire, Priceline, etc.). It only stated “I made his hotel reservations through a travel agency.” Regardless, I don’t know why Mrs. Suarez didn’t contact this travel agency first…or I don’t know why Mr. Suarez contact this travel agency before leaving the hotel that he was orginally booked into.

    Personally, I won’t have left the first hotel without having the issue of the higher rate at the new hotel resolved. Waiting until you get home and being thousands of miles of away isn’t the best situation to resolve a problem.

  • Barb

    This sounds like the probelm I had this summer when my agent booked a room in Rivera Maya with a roll away and when we got to the hotel, we were told there was no such thing. My agent assured me via email that the arrangements were done. I even showed the hotel and the Apple rep the email. Both told us to take care of it when we got home. We were forced to pay another $200 for an upgraded room. Neither Apple Vacations or my travel agent reimbursed us after we got home. What’s the point of using a travel agent??? I’ll never use Apple or that travel agent again.

  • Plat flyer

    Easy to say you’ll stick around until it’s resolved but what if it’s not getting resolved? You’ll stand there your whole trip…be realistic here!

  • Carver

    @Barb

    That’s why I say, just book directly with the travel provider and get everything in writing… from them.

  • Arizona Road Warrior

    @ Plat flyer – “Easy to say you’ll stick around until it’s resolved but what if it’s not getting resolved? You’ll stand there your whole trip…be realistic here!”
    - – - – - – - -
    Realistic…it should have taken less than 30 minutes to resolve the problem. The first step would have been to ask to speak with the General Manager…this will cause the front desk manager, manager on duty, etc. to resolve the problem because they don’t want to get their butt chewed out for having a simple problem of this escalating to the General Manager or you ended up dealing with the General Manager that can resolve the problem.

    One time, a Sheraton Suites hotel made a mistake with my reservation by giving away my room and they had no rooms left when I checked. It took them five minutes to arrange for a room at another hotel which they paid for as well as to pay for my breakfast and taxi rides. The following morning, the General Manager of the hotel contacted me and gave me 20,000 SPG points for my troubles.

    In this situation, it seems to me that the front desk personnel at the Melia Rey Don Jaime blew off Mr. Suarez by telling him to contact the reservation company.

  • Troy Gorda

    Many times in an international situation, there are language barriers that prevent, “just sticking around”. There are also currency exchange issues that confuse people. On top of that there are time difference issues. Due to these factors, sometimes you have no choice but to wait. Sometimes the instructions you receive from employees “in the moment” are not always the best or in your best interest, especially if there is a line of people behind the person with a reservation problem.

  • Barbara

    Was the check for dollars or euros?

  • Joey

    It’s interesting that Chris says involving Utell is highly unusual but that the traveler was both referred to them by a hotel and then promptly got Utell’s promise to fix things. They also apparently weren’t overly surprised to learn one of their agents agreed to such a refund, else they’d have put up a fight when Chris contacted them. The way I read this situation is that once a walk-over didn’t occur, they absolutely were going to be involved, albeit normally it’d be when the travel agent called on behalf of the customer. So, the customer calling directly, even if somewhat unusual, didn’t really change Utell’s role.

  • Melissa

    @Barb, I don’t think the two situations sound alike at all. A roll away is a “request”, commonly requested (but never guaranteed) when passengers want to try to fit more than the normal amount of people in one room. It sounds like you wound up paying for the proper room you probably should have booked from the beginning. Not sure how you can hold that against Apple Vacations when your travel agent should have sold you the proper sized room from the beginning. The gentleman in the scenario above had no room at all. Big difference.