Make sure you read everything you click, warns reader Jason:
Just a tip to pass along that I am finding out the hard way…Make sure you read the fine print when it comes to making online reservations to a Holiday Inn through their website. I recently booked 4 days in a Washington, DC hotel late next month for a short vacation for my wife and I. Recent events in out life led us to have to cancel our vacation. When I called today to cancel my reservations, I was told that my purchase was “non-refundable” and they would be unable to return my payment. I then called the hotel i made my reservations with direct, and they too told me that they *could* cancel my reservation, but my payment was “non-refundable” since i booked online. Sure enough, when I went back to look at my online receipt, there at the bottom it tells me that if I cancel, my payment is non-refundable.
The worst part is that I am quite loyal to Holiday Inn and their other brands. I not only joined their Reward Club a few years back, but I *always* use them first when looking for a hotel, and rarely go anywhere else. Now, when I am in a jam, it turns out that brand loyalty does not mean much to them. Now, they are essentially charging me almost around $495 for canceling a reservation more than a month in advance.
I plan on calling them again on Monday to try to get someone to help me out of this, but at the moment, things are not looking good for me. I’ve sent an e-mail appealing my case to as many addresses I could find, so hopefully that will help. If any of your users can offer me any hints on how to swing this in my favor, it would be much appreciated. Oh, and if anyone has Stevan Porter’s contact or e-mail address that would be a huge bonus too.
We clicked around the Holiday Inn website and saw that Holiday Inn’s policy was to charge a cancellation fee of one night’s stay for all the hotels we chose. We looked at two hotels in New York and one in Washington D.C.
The warning read:
Canceling your reservation after 6:00 PM (local hotel time) on 22 June, 2007, or failing to show, will result in a charge equal to the first night’s stay per room to your credit card. Taxes may apply. Failing to call or show before check-out time after the first night of a reservation will result in cancellation of the remainder of your reservation.
We assume that since you paid in advance, the story is different. Do the readers have any suggestions for Jason? —MEGHANN MARCO
(Photo: Ben Popken)
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Homewood Suites offers prepaid rates as well. First you go through the page that says “lowest rates guaranteed” and “no prepayment”, and then you get offered the lowest rate which is a prepaid non-refundable rate.
@FightOnTrojans:
Actually you might be on to something here. It would be interesting to look at the housing laws around DC to see if this were covered. Certainly a landlord can’t do this to a tenant breaking a lease (the double dipping, that is). In some states, a hotel can’t even throw out a guest without going through the court for an eviction.
Probably a longshot, but what the heck?
I think the best approach to this is to analyze the non-refundable payment provision as a liquidated damages clause (see Wikipedia for a decent explanation of liquidated damages, but it’s essentially agreeing in advance to the amount of the other side’s damages if you don’t keep your end of a contract). And liquidated damage provisions are non-enforceable if they aren’t reasonable or don’t properly compensate the party for likely losses. Since it’s probable the room will be rebooked when cancelled so far in advance, it appears the hotel will recoup the cost of the room and is only justified in charging a rebooking fee of some type. I’d head to small claims court for this one (since you really can’t expect your credit card company to deal with the legal niceties), and I think you have a very good chance of success on this basis.
You should try one of the Hilton chains. I cancel and change my length of stay frequently. Never have been charged a dime, even if I was late canceling.
@RandomHookup:
Hotels are not regulated under the housing laws, since they are for “transient” residents. You would have to stay more than 30 consecutive day in a hotel to achieve “non transient” status.
Again, people are so far away from the original point. The OP reserved a room, is trying to break his guaranteed reservation and credit card contract. What the hotel does with that room if he does not show up is completely irrelevant.
@MommaJ:
I’d also like to point out that under the cardholder and merchant agreement, after attempting a chargeback that is denied, you can go to what is called arbitration – in arbitration, the client can be penalized if he looses again, while if the outcome is this time in his/her favor – they recoup their original claim, as well as an additional penalty.
This of course in no way applies here of course, as the hotel is completely honoring the original booking agreement, while the customer is refusing to.
@bedofnails:
But don’t you see something inherently wrong with the hotel’s ability to basically get paid twice for the same room for the same days? I’m not disputing the non-refundable part, that’s the way it is written, and the person agreed to it, and I understand why the hotels do it. At least let him keep the credit to apply it to another time (minus whatever nominal and reasonable fee they want to charge) as long as the customer gave reasonable notice to the hotel of his change in plans. If not, then allow him to transfer it to someone else via Craigslist or whatever other method. I still believe that there is something wrong with allowing hotels to double-charge for the same room. If it isn’t against the law, then it should be.
I worked for a Holiday Inn for 15 years. He not only clicked one time, but three accepting the cancellation policy. I know; I have dealt with many people wanting to cancel. Yes it is up to the hotel to refund if they want to, but the rate is so low because of the anticipated cancellations and no shows. Thus the rate averages out to be a higher rate on the books
It is recorded in the system as such and each click can be proven to the credit card companies.
Also, the 3 charge backs or a chargeback at all never cost us unless we blatantly did something wrong or failed to give a credit we promised.
Read the fine print, why do you think that Holiday Inn has the “Lowest Internet Rate” guarantee. Also, Steve Porter will just send your case to Guest Relations (see below), and send you a letter about hotel being independently owned and operated.
Sorry.
PS: The more you call the more adamant that the hotel will be against the cancellation. You know the Power Trip thing. Your best shot is calling 1-800-HOLIDAY and asking for guest relations. They will ask the hotel for you; however, if you are not a Platinum Priority Club Member (60 nights or more a year) they will not put much pressure on the hotel for you.
I forgot, he can sell the resercation if he can. It happens all the time during specail events.
I smell bullshit. I worked in a hotel for several years and I have NEVER heard of charging someone for a reservation they cancelled a month in advance. Our individual hotel policy stated that if someone made a “guaranteed” reservation with a credit card and didn’t cancel or show, we COULD charge them. 99.9% of the time we never did unless we had a full house and could have sold the room to someone else.
That being said, a guest’s credit card was never actually charged until they checked out. Making a reservation online or through the 1-800 number with a credit card simply put a room on hold.
Now for a nickel’s worth of free advice. When possible, call the hotel directly. If you find a good deal on a room online, find the hotel’s number, call them up and see if they will honor the online price. I’m sure it isn’t true for every hotel, but we generally had some wiggle room. Besides, you can find out specifics like cancellation policies, amenities, ect. that may differ from one hotel to another depending on the individual owner.
I love the homeless shelter idea – call the manager of the property and make it clear that unless you get a refund you are going to have a different homeless person in the room every night.
@FightOnTrojans:
I see nothing wrong with the house receiving double revenue for any given bed. Simple economics. Hotels do this all the time with “city-wide” events and “no-shows”.
However, I do agree with you in that the guest should then be able to modify the dates (with reasonable restrictions, i.e. non holidays, avoiding higher occupancy dates, etc.) In this however is the rub – the hotel is in to make the most possible money for every bed on any given night. Given this, allowing a guest who wants to default on their reservation and “re-schedule” the opportunity to do so, the hotel may be shooting themselves in the foot.
@bedofnails:
So stating common sense on this forum gets one lumped together with WalMart and TSA?
@shadowman615
A voice of reason in this rabble of “gimme gimme”s
@YlimE08: Why do you smell that.
Yes if you call the hotel direct you possibly will get a good rate, but we never quoted the internet “No Cancel Rate”. The reason; less chance, on the hotels part to mess up the cancellation policy while telling the guest. Rates will vary from hotel clerk to clerk and hotel manager to manager, just depending.
99% of our rates could be canceled up to 4pm on the day of arrival, unless there was a special event going on, and then our cancellation policy was the same as the internet rate but the rate was higher. You book it & you can not cancel it.
The hotel is a “for profit” institution, if you do not like the parameters of the rate, book the rate that is $5 to $10 higher and you have the option of cancelling. It is just like when I fly somewhere, I do not take the lowest rate, I take one that gives me some flexibility to change, etc UNLESS I am absolutely positive that there will be no changes, and then I go for the lowest rate that I can get.
You do not get a loan for a car and decide later that the interest rate is too high and decide to cancel it, the same goes for most “for profit” businesses. You do not buy something on a 90% clearance rack with no returns and decide later you want to return it and are upset because you cannot (As long as there is nothing wrong with it). The restrictions get tighter the lower the price.
You do not get a loan for a car and decide later that the interest rate is too high and decide to cancel it
Actually, yes. It’s called refinancing, or simply paying it off.
You do not buy something on a 90% clearance rack with no returns and decide later you want to return it
The non-refundable hotel rates are 10% or 15% off, not 90% off. And you can always sell or give away the clearance rack item, but the hotel is doing their best to make sure that the reservation has no residual value when they say you can’t change the name on the reservation.
@miran:
I would think the threat of bad publicity would induce the hotel to give you a break. Businesses look especially bad when their policies adversely affect a member of the military (even if it was indirectly in your case).
I just talked to a representative from Holiday Inn via their toll-free number. She said what he purchased (from the information given) was a pre-paid non-refundable rate and the site tells you this 3 times before the transaction is complete.
If he had made a reservation for a regular or discount rate (AARP, AAA, etc.), he could have cancelled without penalty.
From what Shirley, Sheila, Sheryl, (I forget which it was) told me, he was purchasing in advance to get a more deeply discounted rate.
Mystery solved.
You know, he is bound by the agreement, and he did agree to the policy, which he admitted.
Just because it’s their policy doesn’t make it a good policy or a consumer-friendly policy. Other people have admitted in the comments to making the same mistake, which they say they won’t repeat, and I’m sure the fellow who fell into it this time won’t do it again. Still, he’s being charged for a service he can’t use, and I have to agree that’s pretty lame, and I’d want a way around it as well.
Read the fine print is a valuable lesson, but don’t do business with a company that has poor policies you disagree with is even better.
It’s not small print – at least no smaller than the body of the descriptive text on their reservations form.
And the Modify and Cancel Policy is highlighted in red – usually a colour designed to attract attention.
@bedofnails:
I still have a problem with the double-charging. That’s like a restaurant taking your leftovers and selling it to someone else. The hotel wants to make sure it gets paid for the room. If he cancels so late that the hotel doesn’t have enough time to rebook it with someone else on a night when they are fully booked, then I agree, he should pay for the room. However, if they are able to rebook the room with someone, they should give him a credit for another night. I tend to lean towards seeking out a compromise with the customer to hopefully gain his loyalty. Small upfront cost, a little extra work, but a happy and loyal customer.
I had a Holiday Inn Express employee help me out with a bad situation one night (booked a room at a competitor’s place that turned out to be horrible). She gave me an extremely low rate and got me out of there. I then turned her mostly empty hotel into an almost fully booked one by moving 15 families out of their competitor’s hotel and into hers. She and I were in constant contact the whole weekend as I added additional families and she didn’t give me any hassle. I still remember everything she did, and for that I stay at HIE whenever I travel. A story like this disappoints me.
Oh well, we’ll just have to agree to disagree.
It would be a nice goodwill gesture for HIE to give him a refund (since he’s been a repeat customer and he gave them lots of notice), but I don’t think it’s required. It sounds like he accepted the terms of the deal — prepay and get a lower rate, but if you cancel, you’re SOL. If there was any possibility that he wasn’t going to use the room, he shouldn’t have agreed to the deal.
I reread the post — he keeps referring to a reservation, but this is a prepay thing and it sounds like the terms were pretty clear.
Hotel rooms are perishable items. Rates are based on Supply and Demand. All the whining is making me ill.
In a high demand situation, the seller can make the rules. Imagine if the place and time you need is sold out. Even if you were willing to book a year in advance, pay up front, twice the normal rate, and make your own bed, you’d still not be able to get a room. Ha!
On the other hand, saavy travelers who find plentiful supply and a hungry operator will likely be able to negotiate a great rate. I’ve often given the double senior Triple A walk-in rate when I feared going down with empty rooms.
Holiday Inn. Shame on you!!
Do they have on their site a screen or prompt that states that this sort of reservation is non refundable and make you click “yes” I read this before you continue?
If they don’t they should.
Hey everyone, this was my post, and I just sent the following update e-mail to Consumerist. I thought I would post it here for everyone in the thread to see:
Thanks for posting about my reservation issue that I told you about the other day. I found lot of the responses in the thread rather interesting. In response to some of the comments, I knew I made a mistake once I reread my reservations. I simply didn’t pay attention enough while making my reservation to see that it was a non-refundable one, and I learned the hard way that I need to pay better attention. My reasons for sending the tip to you were two-fold; 1: I wanted to give everyone else a heads-up on the policy in case they made find themselves making the same mistake as I did. and 2: even though I knew I made a mistake, I still thought it was quite ridiculous that I would be out nearly $500 for canceling a reservation more than a month in advance. I thought someone on Consumerist may have an idea that could help me out.
Anyway, it turns out my daily visits to Consumerist paid off for me. The same day I sent an e-mail to Consumerist, I also sent e-mail to the Priority Club Customer Service, Online Reservations Customer Service, and also the specific hotel I reserved at Customer Service. Also, I thought I would try to send an email to Stevan Porter (Head of US operations) but any e-mail I tried just bounced back. (I was guessing at what the e-mail address would be.) However, an e-mail I sent to Chief Executive, Andrew Cosslett *didn’t* get bounced. Yesterday when I came home from work, I was surprised to have a message on my answering machine from a representative of Mr. Cosslett in the Executive Offices of Intercontinental Hotels Group. He explained to me that they had reviewed my email and to call him back in order to talk about what they could do for me.
Well, I just got off the phone with them, and I am happy to say that they have agreed to allow me to reschedule my reservations. The representative was kind enough to explain that being a member of the Rewards Club and my loyalty as a customer came into play when they allowed me to reschedule. I thought this whole situation was handled very well by them and I thought the agreement was very fair.
Granted, it took an e-mail to the Chief Executive of ICH Hotel Group, but they did end up coming through for me. So hats off to them for doing me a *big* favor. My wife and I are looking forward to our rescheduled trip in a few months!
Well hello there, I am new to the comments, but have been a fan for months. I work part time at a holiday inn express. We shall not name the city in which it is located.
Basically when you make a reservation online, you get to choose from a variety of rates. The first rate is the cheapest, and it is called the “advanced purchase rate” This rate is usually about 10 to 15 dollars cheaper then the walk in rate for that day, but the catch is, well its advance purchase. You cant cancel, and it is non refundable.
Then there is the discount rate, which is what we call the AAA rate. Most hotels require that you show a AAA card, and the rate is usually 5-10 dollars cheaper.
There is then the “best flexible rate” this is the walk in rate.
And Finally, there is the “1000 bonus points” if you are a priority club member, you get an extra 1000 points (for about 10 dollars more)
When you reserve under any rate “other than advanced purchase” it is just a reservation. But when you choose the advanced purchase rate, you are pre-paying for a cheaper rate, but you cant cancel. The fact that you are a priority club member usually doesnt help either. The best thing to do in this case though is ask for the General Manager. They are then only ones that might be able to help.
Hope this helps.
I had a similar experience with Holiday Inn Express. After speaking to a “manager” about it on the customer service line they also agreed to let me reschedule to a later date. They also said if one of my co-workers needed to use the reservation they could do so. My co-worker just tried to use the reservation and he was told he couldn’t. Of course, this infuriates me and I will never ever stay at a Holiday Inn Express again.
I read through the preceding comments and my thoughts on this are:
1. I acknowledge that I clicked the acceptance of the conditions on the rate. Holiday Inn Express is within their legal right (IMHO) to charge me for the reservation no matter how unfair I may think it is.
2. By reserving and essentially prepaying for my room online and well in advance (and also trying to cancel well in advance) I provided a tangible benefit to their business. Mainly, letting them know they would be able to rent me the room during a certain period, etc.
3. As a business traveler who is frequently staying in hotels I often have the need to change reservations at the last minute. I also have a need to make reservations in advance so I can ensure I’ll have a place to stay. It isn’t just on a whimsy that I may have to change a reservation – it’s just a necessity of doing business that sometimes plans change at the last minute.
4. There are many hotels that cater to the business traveler and I suspect the industry is very competitive. Rarely is Holiday Inn ever in a situation where they are the only option available.
While they may have a legal right to screw me on the reservation I don’t have to like it and I don’t have to patronize their hotel in the future. They will get the money from the reservation but never again will they get my business. Not only that, but I will tell as many people as possible about this and I suspect many of them will not patronize Holiday Inn Express either.
Will Holiday Inn go broke because I’m unhappy with them? Of course not. But it will hurt them and in a competitive industry I imagine the cumulative impact of this policy of theirs will cost them dearly.
My advice: Never ever stay at a Holiday Inn Express.
I book by telephone through hotel.com for a Holiday End Express. I did not realise that it was non-refundable until I tried to cancel. I explained to hotel.com that I did not understand it that way when I was booking. The service person that took my booking did speak plainly enough and we had some static going on. I as to speak to a supervisor and was told that I would be told the same “that our policy”. I said OK “Let them tell me that”. I was then put on hold for 3 min. The same rep. came back on to tell me that my credit would be credited the a refund.
I also learned that I was not getting a lower rate. I could have got same price direct. And I got a lower price on another brand hotel than I could have gotten form hotel.com.
Just to let you know before you make a reservation at a Holiday Inn Express. I had made reservations three weeks ago online and like everone else didn’t pay much attention to the cancel policy because most hotel chains allow cancelations 48 hours before scheduled stay. Not Holiday Inn Express, I just tried to cancel because of hurricane Irene a catorgory 2 hurricane was bearing down on Cape Hatteras NC where I scheduled to stay and you would think they would let me cancel my reservation because of the hurricane NO WAY they could care less about me and would not let me cancel my reservation. I’[ll eat this one but never again. I know it’s crazy, just beware don’t get stuck like me.