A La Quinta employee who’s asked to remain anonymous wrote in to complain about La Quinta’s room reservation policies. They “guarantee” a room by obligating you to pay full price for it even if you don’t show up, but they also reserve the right to overbook the hotel by 5 rooms and re-book your room at another La Quinta.
I’ve been working with the La Quinta hotel chain for a year or so now. A few months ago, a policy was put in place (at least in my hotel, which I would assume applies to all) that reservations cannot be made without a credit card. This is so we can charge the guest full room price as a “no-show” and “hold” their room for them until 5AM the following morning.
Well, this is all fine and dandy, but now a new policy is in place that allows central reservations (1800 call center) to overbook a hotel by 5 rooms even if the hotel is completely full. This is a horrible plan as it rips off people by making their “credit card guarantee” just another way to make La Quinta money, as it doesn’t “guarantee” anything as their rooms could be given away to one of the 5 overbooked guests if they arrives before you do. This is a first come first serve system, so yes, even if you booked six months in advance, and someone else was overbooked that day through central reservations, as long as they arrive before you, they could take your room and leave you without a room.
If this happens, La Quinta will pay for your stay at another La Quinta location, but who wants to drive 30 minutes/hours to another hotel if you booked months in advance!!! In the mighty words of As Penn and Teller would say, that is bullshit.
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Wow, I was really surprised to read this on a professional-blog… I don’t work in the hotel business, but a family member does (not for La Quinta), and all hotels do this to try to ensure no vacancies. Furthermore, if the author had done a bit of fact checking, they’d note that La Quinta’s policy is really no different than any other hotel (and no, I’m not associated with La Quinta; I wouldn’t stay in one)… Just surprised the author posted this.
[www.lq.com]
“Will my credit card be charged if I don’t cancel and I don’t show up?…To avoid being charged, reservations must be canceled in accordance with the cancellation policy outlined by the hotel…”
I just completed a fairly long road trip across the US over 15 days. After being disappointed with the trash that is the <$100/night hotel business we started going to only La Quinta because they had consistently decent rooms and pretty good staff. Not only that but none of them charged for our dog.
@Kajj: Yeah, I probably should have quoted longer and been funnier.
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We, incidentally, have always had very good experiences w/ Super 8 when looking at cheap motels. You can’t get extra pillows at most of them, the amenities and furnishings are VERY basic, but they’re clean and quiet. And since they cater more to long-haul truckers, they handle weird check-in/check-out times well, as I discovered when I got food poisoning mid-cross-country-road-trip. Tons of them take pets. And they allow a fair amount of local control, so a lot of them have some real personality in the lobby, and interesting one-off amenities — we stayed at one with a MASSIVE collection of old VHSs in the lobby and VCRs in every room. Cheap, easy, really great after a long drive.
Well, we haven’t had a bad experience the handful of times we stayed at a La Quinta. We like them because they allow pets, ad we almost always travel with our Boxer. We’ve also never had an overboking problem, probably because we call the motel and let them know if we’re going to be delayed or later than the expected arrival.
@Buran:
Because they knew we were in the area and trying to harass us.
@dasinmd:
All hotels do this AND I recognize that, without this practice in place we might pay more as consumers.
But that doesn’t mean we have zero right to be outraged when a “reservation” means nothing. I had a friend who used to work the phone lines for Super 8 and she’d repeatedly complain to me about the “stupid customers” who dared to think their reservation, well, MEANT something.
“Idiots! A reservation doesn’t guarantee a room!”
“Do you TELL them that?”
“It’s in the fine print.”
“Do you TELL THEM THAT?”
“Not my fault if they’re too stupid to read. A reservation just means they’re down on the list for a room but not that it’s saved for them.”
Great. So how come a customer never gets to say this?
“Oh gosh, sorry Super 8- I know I had a reservation with you but a reservation doesn’t really guarantee that I’m going to show up, so I don’t feel like I should have to pay.”
People forget that something doesn’t need to be considered an acceptable business practice merely because it’s a customary thing.
This story reminds me of that Seinfeld episode:
Car Agent: I know why we have reservations.
Jerry: I don’t think you do. If you did, I’d have a car. See, you know how to TAKE the reservation, you just don’t know how to HOLD the reservation and that’s really the most important part of the reservation, the holding. Anybody can just take them.
I actually stayed in one over the weekend, in Orlando. It was one of the most positive hotel experiences I’ve ever had, even moreso over the Ritz-Carlton. Everything was clean, well-managed, and efficient, the bed was comfortable, and the maids paid attention to the “do-not-disturb” sign.
having worked in a business-class-near-the-airport hotel for several years, i have to admit it pays to be a regular and get to know the people working at the front desk. this assumes that the people at the front desk have a memory longer than that of a mayfly.
fortunately, most of my coworkers weren’t idiots and actually cared. if we noticed that it was starting to get late and we were filling up with walk ins, we’d look for reservations from our regulars and do the unthinkable -CALL the phone number associated with their reservation to make sure they were coming or see if they needed to cancel.
on the rare occasions that they had booked for the wrong day or gotten held up and weren’t actually coming, we fixed it with no penalty.
but if they said they were on the way, we’d go ahead and check them in right then, before they arrived.
if you are going to be staying at a hotel more than a couple of times a year it really can pay to spend 5 minutes at the desk chatting with the staff so they remember you. of course, chatting doesn’t mean complaining about the service or amenities because that’s just not going to help win them over to your side
If the hotel never allows you to cancel a booking of your room for a full or partial refund (say, half the price of the room), i.e. 24 hours before check-in, then I would agree that there’s no reason to overbook.
However, if you can cancel your booking for even a partial refund, then I can see why they would still overbook. Say a hotel fully books for a certain day a month before. If they get people to pre-pay then there’s less of a chance that a given person will cancel a booking. But someone still might cancel their booking within that month. So they can overbook some.
I think what we need to know is:
1. Does La Quinta allow you to cancel a “guaranteed” booked room for at least a partial refund?
2. How often does the hotel actually have to send customers to another location?
3. Is this 5 room overbook a policy for the entire chain? 5 rooms seems like a small amount for the chain as a whole, as I’ve heard of hotels over booking by 20+ rooms before.
I think there’s a problem with letting Central Reservations overbook. The
hotel itself knows what the market is like and how likely it is that people
will cancel last minute or not show up. I also wonder if there are any
restrictions in place for events? Like Superbowl, when all the hotels in the
area are sold out. Would they be allowed to overbook then? It really should
be left up to the hotel’s discretion. If they overbook and end up oversold,
the hotel should know who to walk, ie. 1 night stays, non-pre-paid,
non-frequent stayers whether through programs, like HHonors, or a local
business who does tons of business with that hotel. As an HHonors Diamond
member, I’ve only been walked once, and they gave me cash + the free room!
Of course, not all of us have the option of racking up enough stays to
qualify for some reward perks, but another option would be to call the hotel
and ask that you not be walked because of X and Y reason. I’m sure most
places will accommodate.
As far as La Quinta is concerned, they are nice hotels. Some aren’t in the
best areas, but their rooms are clean and their breakfast is ok. I just
prefer Hilton brands mainly because of the choice. When a group of us are
traveling, it is nice to stay at a place that has a good breakfast. I am
definitely a breakfast person and I do like the option of not spending time
and money outside of the hotel for things other than donuts.