This website has a similar complaint from an anonymous customer:

# PL TN — 2008-04-25

I agree that HotWire is a scam! I booked a 3-night stay in Savannah at what their website showed was a 3-star hotel. When I got the confirmation, it was a 2-star, without very good customer reviews. I could have made the same reservation myself at that location and paid only $10 more! I've asked them to change,gave them screen shots of better hotels, etc. and now they tell me that their "Research Team" is looking into it. Unfortunately, that will take 7-10 days to get a reply, which the 10th days is the day before I leave for my trip. And the longer they wait, the fewer good rooms are left. Anyway, I'm not holding out much hope. But be assured I will never use HotWire again and I will make sure all my family, friends, acquaintenances and anyone else I find will know what a rip off this company is

One problem may be that Hotwire uses its own rating system for hotels, according to a USA Today article from 2005 (when the original lawsuit was first filed).

Like other leading travel sites, Hotwire has its own hotel star-rating system. That's because there is no single accepted star-rating system in the USA.

The problem with all these different rating systems is that even when they're accurate, they don't necessarily jibe with travelers' ideas about what star ratings mean. Your notion of what a constitutes a three-star property may not match Hotwire's (or any other site's) definition. And there's little consistency among the systems.

The site creates star ratings for hotels by consulting ratings from other industry sources. Hotwire may also visit the property, though not all hotels are inspected in person. The company adjusts star ratings to conform to its own scale.

The Days Inn that Hotwire gave 2.5 stars merited just two stars from Orbitz, Travelocity, Priceline and AAA. Mobil doesn't rate it.

Here's an excerpt from the email Ryan received. Based on the third paragraph, it seems that the lawsuit isn't about Hotwire using a more lenient rating system, but actually selling lower-rated rooms as higher-rated ones.

THE FOLLOWING EMAIL REGARDS THE "HOTWIRE LITIGATION."

A proposed class action lawsuit is pending against Hotwire, Inc. Our client filed this case on behalf of certain California consumers who, since 2004, used Hotwire.com to reserve and pay for hotel rooms. We received your email agreeing to disclose your name to our office and we appreciate your help in investigating these claims.

This lawsuit alleges that certain Hotwire customers (including yourself) used Hotwire.com to book and pay for a hotel room with a certain "star rating" (as given by Hotwire's "Hotel Ratings Guide", one version of which is attached to this email for your review) but when the specific hotel name was revealed (after your non-refundable purchase), you actually received a hotel equated with a lower star rating than what you requested and purchased.

Hotwire has advised that at some point since 2004, like our client, YOU booked and paid for a hotel room of a certain star rating, but actually received a hotel equated by Hotwire with a lower star rating than what you requested/purchased. We are seeking to represent you and all others in your situation to get you financially compensated for the difference in what you paid for and what you actually received.

LAW OFFICES OF KEVIN T. BARNES
5670 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 1460
Los Angeles, CA 90036-5627
Ph: (323) 549-9100 / Fax: (323) 549-0101

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.

This Saturday night a friend of mine was turning 30 and one of our group of friends made reservations for 12 at a new Sushi restaurant in Raleigh called Sono.
 
I had not been there before - but in the email that let everyone one know where and when to meet we were told that everyone had to be there before they could seat us all. I understand this policy (sort of). When we arrived there was one couple missing and thus there were ten of us at the small bar waiting. We received a call from the missing couple saying that they were having trouble parking but they were on their way.
 
While we were waiting I talked to my friend who had made there reservations and said we should be asked to be seated since we are taking up room at this small bar (which was and also badly managed since only about 4 of us got served a drink) and blocking the way for people who were being seated since the bar was between the door and the dinning area. My friend said that when she made the reservations she was asked to give her credit card number and that she would be charged $20 for every person who did not show up. This seemed like a contradiction.
 
So I went up to the front of house and asked that we be seated - I explained that 10 out of the 12 were there and that the other couple where on their way. The bored response I received was "this is not our policy" - you must have the total number of people to be present before we could be seated.I pointed out that we were talking up valuable bar real estate and blocking the way for the rest of the customers and it would make more sense to have up seated out the empty table that was set up for us. Again the same bored response. I then suggested that they follow their other policy which was to charge my credit card $40 if the couple did not show up, I was willing to risk it. They said they could not do that either. I asked them if that made sense - I was hoping they would answer that it was not their policy. But instead I was told that again I would have to wait for all members of our party to show up etc etc... There is really nothing to say after that and so I went back to our party, the couple arrived and eventually we were seated.
 
My wife wrote on their feedback ticket this issue - but I just found the issue funny and annoying - especially in this economy and especially if you are a restaurant - when you are new you are busy but 4 months down the road it will only be repeat business that keeps these places open and I will not visit there again.

"I've seen your recent posts about the Westin Casuarina in Las Vegas and they are SPOT ON!" anonymous writes. He used to work there and does not have warm feelings for the management. He adds, "the property has several times barely escaped Starwood removing their name and flag (The Westin flag is the holy grail of Starwood properties)."

I hope this list of names and contact info is helpful...
 
Main Property Number - 702-836-5900
Executive Office Fax Number - 702-836-5991
 
*Note - all email accounts are first initial and last name @westinlv.com (John Doe = jdoe@westinlv.com)
 
Sig Ortloff - Hotel GM - o. 702-836-5930
David Smith - Casino GM - o. 702-836-5959
Sharron Salinas - Hotel GM Assistant - o. 702-836-5987
Luann Trimarchi - Casino GM Assistnant - o. 702-836-5992
Christoph Hoeflich - Asst. Hotel GM - o.702-836- 5965 - c. 513-373-9056
Asst. Casino GM - o. 702-836-5933
Stacy Houston - Director of Guest Services (Front Office Manager) - o. 702-836-5945
 
Hope they help!

After seeing the story about the Westin in Las Vegas charging for unpaid convention fees, I thought I would share my experience with the hotel from last weekend.

An organization I am involved with had a 1 day meeting at the Westin Casuarina on Saturday, March 29th. I flew in on the 28th and went to check in to the hotel around 4 or 5 o'clock that afternoon. According the the person who planned the event, everyone was going to be sharing a room with someone else from the organization. However, when I checked into my room I found a single king size bed. I assumed that i was the lucky man out who got his own room and headed out on the town. When I got back to my room around midnight, I found that the guy I should have been sharing a two bed room with had arrived. He already complained to no success because the hotel was full. He then asked for a roll away bed but they were out of those. Tired from my flight and a good times on the down I decided not to argue with it that night and pulled up come comforter and pillows and hit the floor.
 
The next morning I talked to the person who set up the event and he verified that we in fact should have had a double room. So, I talked to the front desk and asked for a manager. The lady at the desk said she could help me so I explained my dissatisfaction with the fact that I had to sleep on the floor. She apologized and explained that the hotel was full and they had some problems with some guests staying longer than expected and a lot of people requesting the roll away beds. She then said since they were full all they could really offer me for my night on the floor was to extend my checkout for later in the day. A lot of good this did me since I was going to the meeting for the rest of the day and then leaving to stay with a friend who lived in Vegas. I continued to argue with her but didn't get anywhere.
 
I guess between my bad experience and the experience The Coaching Center had with the Westin, it's not only a bad place to hold a conference, but a bad place to stay all together.
 
Randy

Dear Mr. Kellner,

I'm not the type of person to generally write letters such as this, but Continental used to be a company I not only used regularly for travel, but that I also envied enough to want to work for. On top of flying 50,000 miles or more over several years, I even applied for a job with Continental because it seemed like an organization I would want to be a part of.

However, I hate to say that, in the past several months my experience with Continental has been so aggravating that I have not only become increasingly frustrated, but have even changed my allegiance to another airline. I would have considered this a clean enough break in my relationship with your company, if I did not have a few existing reservations with Continental that require me to still deal with your customer service group. These dealings, as recently as today, leave me completely dumbfounded.

My difficulties started when I attempted to use a number of my accrued miles to purchase BusinessFirst reward tickets for my fiancee and I to go on our honeymoon. After putting two ideal reservations on hold, I called later that night to book the reservation. After a quick and easy phone call, I was told the reservations had been made, the miles deducted, and we were all set to go. When I asked why the reservation still showed as, "On Hold" in my online account, rather than, "Confirmed", I was told that it would take several hours to process, and I would receive an email.

After several hours had passed I became anxious and called back to customer service to check why the status had not changed. I was told that not only were the reservations not confirmed, but they, in fact, had been changed in such a way that my fiancee and I had been split into separate records, my held reservation only showed one leg of the trip, and my fiancee's flights were for different dates. Moreover, I was told that the flights I had originally put on hold were no longer available at the 100,000 mile award level, but that I was welcome to book them for 250,000 miles each. Keep in mind that throughout this process, I had printed copies of my original reservation, showing the proper flights on hold and ready for purchase at the correct price.

I will spare you the details of what ensued. I actually kept a running log of the next 8 phone calls I had with customer service, over a 3 day period, for a sum total of 12 hours. Through some miracle, throughout this ordeal, I was connected with one amazing customer service representative who had sympathy for my situation. Still, try as she did to help, her job was only made harder by a number of ridiculous policies, including the fact that she was not allowed to give an extension where I could call her back, nor was she allowed to call me back, though she regularly needed to leave for long periods of time to call other groups within Continental and partner airlines. Through sheer tenacity, and I don't want to know what else, after three days this representative was able to cut through enough red tape to restore our original reservation.

The question still remains - why did all this have to happen? By the time I found my way to this first helpful representative, there was no way in the system to look back and determine who the representative was who had mangled my reservation, yet told me it was correct. And, of course, there was no way to determine which representative was the one who hung up on me, after curtly telling me that I had attempted to force the online system to somehow book a reservation that it should not.

Today, I intended to make one small time change to an entirely different, existing reward reservation. I checked online to ensure availability, and called customer service to make the change. After I agreed to a $35 charge, the representative told me the change had been made, the $35 charge had been made to my card, and that I would receive an email shortly reflecting the change.

Low and behold, an email arrived showing that, not only had I been charged $50 for the change, rather than the agreed upon $35, but what's more, the flight had not been changed! The itinerary was exactly as it was before the call!!

I called customer service yet again. This time, I was connected to a less-than-pleasant representative who, when I asked to speak to a supervisor, explained that she was the, "first line of response", and that I could not speak to a supervisor without speaking to her. I explained what had happened. The representative told me that the previous representative had misquoted the change fee, and that I would be charged the $50 (which I never agreed to) regardless. This 'first line of response' was then, fortunately, able to change the flight as requested.

It's likely that you're not even still reading this at this point. But, if by some chance you haven't tuned out, my simple question is - what am I supposed to do when I deal with Continental?!?!? I realize that in practice the customer is not always right - customer service representatives are forced to deal with rude, ill-informed, and unreasonable customers. But in each of my dealings with the airline, I have tried my best to be none of these. Still, where does it leave me when every time I get off the phone with your airline, I'm left wondering if what I was just told was correct, or if what I was told was done actually was.

Am I supposed to start recording every conversation I have with your airline? I know that you do, but when I asked if those tapes could be accessed two representatives told me, "no". So if I repeatedly find myself in the situation where I'm pitting my word against a representative's, and that representative has the power to summarily dismiss me as wrong, what is my recourse?

I appreciate that you are busy, and further appreciate any time you have given to reading this. I don't necessarily expect any answer, let alone any resolution. But, if you should have the time to even pass this on to someone who would be willing to answer, I would genuinely appreciate it. Without feeling like this situation won't continue to arise, I don't see how I could consider buying another ticket on Continental, and would encourage others not to as well.

Thank you in advance for your time,

Mike

Actually, though I didn't expect any answer, I got way more than I had bargained for. After sending the email to both Larry Kellner, and to Consumerist, I got a call on my cell phone from the Executive Assistant to the CEO. The woman was very nice, and apologized profusely for the problems I have had. I got nervous when she pulled up the reservation I had fought for 3 days for, for our honeymoon, since it was finally right, and I didn't want to risk anyone touching it.

But, she also said she would credit the difference in the fee that I was misquoted, and incorrectly charged.

Further, she emailed me her direct contact information, and told me not to hesitate to contact her in the future with any difficulties, or success stories, that I might have in dealing with customer service.

For what it's worth, she said they would be tracking down the employee's involved in the problematic calls that I had, to figure out the problems; but she did not imply that any of the follow up would be passed along to me.

All in all, I'd say I'm still wary to book anything else on Continental at this point, despite having a ton of miles still accrued. But, I will sleep a little better knowing that if we show up at the airport to leave for our honeymoon, and have any difficulties, I have a number to call for someone who won't just immediately tell me I'm wrong and hang up on me.

Small victories,

Mike

(Photo:Zonaphoto)

San Francisco lawyer Thomas A. Cohen, an attorney for the class, called the settlement "a terrific resolution" and said plaintiffs had a right to return to court to bring a contempt motion if U-Haul was "somehow using words in a way . . . confusing to a customer."

The case involved U-Haul's practice of accepting all advance reservations booked online or with telephone reservation agents. Under the company policy, customers were to be told their reservation was "confirmed" and that they would be called the day before their move with instructions on where and when to pick up their equipment. According to the suit, many customers were forced to wait hours or days and travel long distances for the pickup.

In his ruling, Stevens said U-Haul had used "the words 'confirmed reservation' in order to lock up customers as soon as possible and minimize the chances that customers are going to shop around."

U-Haul settles California class action [L.A. Times]
(Photo: PetroleumJelliffe)

"August 21, 2007

Last month I booked tickets for me and my wife on Expedia for air travel later this week as follows: Continental First Class (refundable) EWR-DEN/ Frontier Coach (non-refundable) DEN-LAS / Continental First Class (refundable) LAS-EWR for later this week. My wife injured her back so I called your toll-free number to cancel the reservation. The representative with whom I spoke told me that I would have a credit of $3,063.78 on Frontier Airlines, since they were the "validating carrier" (carrier who issued the tickets) and that my refundable first class tickets had become non-refundable...."

I would have assumed that Continental would have issued my tickets since they were the originating carrier and made up the majority of the cost and the travel - and since I live on the East Coast, a Frontier credit doesn't really do me any good. Whenever I have booked travel in the past, the carrier on the first leg has been the carrier who issues the tickets. Furthermore, I was shocked to learn that the refundable portion of my trip had become non-refundable.

I then asked to speak with a supervisor who told me that the determination of which carrier will serve as the validating carrier is "up to the airlines" and that Expedia has nothing to do with it and does not know before the ticket is issued who that carrier will be. She added that in Expedia's rules and regulations it states that when you book through Expedia, the entire itinerary is subject to the most restrictive ticket's restrictions, so since my coach Frontier tickets were non-refundable, so was the whole itinerary - including the expensive first class normally refundable tickets. I have never heard of this policy before from any travel booking service.

When I asked to speak to that supervisor's supervisor, I was hung up on.

I then called your Corporate Headquarters and the receptionist gave me the number of your Corporate Customer Service Department. The first woman I spoke with was defensive and repeatedly said that there was language in the fine print on the web site entitling Expedia to do what it's doing. I asked to speak with her supervisor and was transferred to Martin, who was very friendly and sympathetic. He explained that Expedia chooses the validating carrier based on the carrier's commission structure and that Frontier's commissions to travel agents are higher than Continental's, so that's why Frontier issued the tickets.

So, contrary to what I had been told by three other representatives of your company, not only does your company know who the validating carrier will be but chooses the validating carrier based on its commission structure.

I have the following problems with your policies and actions:

1. It is not clearly stated that the carrier who issues the tickets is up to Expedia and may not be the originating carrier. And that this is entirely in your interest and not the consumer's. And this goes against what most consumers would reasonably expect when booking their tickets.

2. That you turn refundable tickets into non-refundable tickets if those refundable tickets are part of an itinerary with non-refundable tickets. You don't make this policy clear to consumers and it makes no sense. I can only assume it is because you can make more money with this arrangement.

3. That your customer service agents were defensive, unhelpful and repeatedly misinformed me by stating that Expedia has no control over which airline issues the tickets booked through the site.

I would like you to do the following:

1. Either refund my money or give me a credit for the full amount that I can use on Continental Airlines.

2. Make your policies clearer so that other consumers don't go through what I went through. If I knew then what I know now (and still wanted to use your service) I would have booked the Frontier segment separately.

I am very disappointed with the way you treated me and these customer-unfriendly practices. I hope that you will rectify this immediately.

Regards,

Jonathan R. Teller

cc: Ben Popken, Editor - Consumerist.com

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.

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.

(Photo: Ben Popken)

[My mother and law] and her boyfriend are on a multi-stop vacation and are currently stuck in Palm Beach FL (not the worst place to be considering the weather up north). Well they were supposed to leave for NYC this morning but they're flight was canceled by Delta and according to CNN it was done "out of an abundance of caution". I assume that this is due to last month's PR debacle that all the airlines got themselves into.

Anyway, they were rebooked for Monday. The problem here lies in the fact that they have hotel reservations (3/16 and 3/17) in NYC as well as Broadway tickets. The hotel has canceled their Saturday reservation but is still going to charge them for Friday's reservation given the short notice. I'm not sure what the story with the Broadway tickets is at this point.

My question to you is, do you have any advice or suggestions to help them get Delta to reimburse the hotel cost given the fact that the flight (which was to arrive in NYC at 10 am) was canceled "out of an abundance of caution" for a snowstorm that isn't supposed to hit NYC until 3 pm?

Beyond the normal prescription steps (call customer service, escalate, write a letter to the CEO), no. This one has us a bit stumped, though we suspect your should be focusing on the hotel, not the airline. Readers, thoughts? — BEN POPKEN

(Photo: code poet)

Namely, that it's not entirely clear his sister would lose if she decided to take Ritz Carlton and Hotels.com to court.

Check it out, good legal stuff to know about contracts, like the "peppercorn theory." — BEN POPKEN

The Typo Hypo (Cont.) [The Mark Pike]

At first, she successfully booked for three nights. Three days later, Hotels.com emailed to apologize for the typographic error, and offer a $100 voucher, but neither they nor the Ritz Carlton would be honoring the reservation.

At least she's not stuck for the $2000 it would be otherwise. But are the hotel vendors in the right? Can they legally cancel a reservation for a typo? Mark perused their contract and couldn't find anything to that effect. Perhaps you will. — BEN POPKEN

Your Two Cents On Typos [The Mark Pike]

Shane writes:

After not being able to get his reserved Uhaul , Chris decided he would just rent a trailer from them and hook it up to his brother's 1995 Ford Explorer. That's when the fun really started.

95% of life is showing up on time. The other 5% is resisting the urge to vanquish the fools you find when you get there.

Generally speaking, U-Haul seems to run a significant side business charging you to make reservations for the wrong truck, for the wrong hours, "subjected to availability." It costs David M. $10 to hear from U-Haul, twice, that U-Haul had thoughtfully made him a reservation for a vehicle that wouldn't suit his needs.

Of course, even if David had accepted that reservation, past experience dictates he would have shown up and the truck wouldn't have been there. David's email, after the jump.

Before I begin, let me set the dates: I had to move yesterday (Sunday, October 1)...this was a one-day window for me, as my old apartment was paid through the first.

Here's the story:

- About two weeks before I moved, I went to U-Haul's website and made an on-line reservation for a 17' truck for a 24-hour period (we wanted to pre-pack a lot on Saturday evening (9/30) before the move. I was told by the website that someone would be contacting me in the next day to confirm the reservation. No one contacted me the next day, but my reservation on U-Haul's website switched to "confirmed" status, and I also received an e-mail confirming the reservation (which I only glanced at), so all seemed okay.

- I should mention this here: U-Haul charges you $5.00 just to make a reservation (which, presumably, will be applied toward your future rental). You have to enter your CC# on the website...

- A few days later, someone from U-Haul called me to tell me that actually, there were no 17' trucks available for "the time period I had specified"...would a 14' truck be okay? I told him that I had asked for a 17' truck, but it was all right if there were no such trucks available.

- Friday evening, when my girlfriend's parents were helping us pack, her father (thankfully) asked me to double-check the time to pick up the truck, so I check the confirmation e-mail (reservation #21937022)...

...and saw that the pick-up time was 9:00am Saturday (9/30), with a drop-off time of 4:00pm the same day. Just to be clear, I had specified a pick-up time of 4:00pm on Saturday and a 24-hour rental.

- Vexed, I called U-Haul and asked why my reservation was for only seven hours when I had specified 24 hours in my original request. The phone call went something like this:

Me: I can't just rent the truck on Saturday for six hours...I'm moving on SUNDAY...it's totally useless to me on Saturday.

Customer Service Rep: Sir...the website says "subject to availability" when you make the reservation.

Me: That's fine...I understand that it's "subject to availability". That said, when you determined that the services were UNAVAILABLE during the period I requested, why was I sent a CONFIRMATION? Why wasn't I sent an e-mail stating "sorry...your reservation time is unavailable, here are some available times..."? If you had told me that, I would have been fine with it and rented with another comapny.

CSR: ...the website says subject to availability...

Me: Then I want to cancel my reservation because it isn't what I wanted and I can't move that day.

CSR: ...your reservation has been cancelled *click* <—-that was her hanging up on me.

It was already 8:00pm, so I decided to wait until tomorrow (Saturday) to find another moving truck.

- Saturday morning, I call a few local U-Haul locations and no one has trucks available. Finally, I decide to call their national number, figuring that they'll have access to inventory all over the Bay Area...I understand that we may have to drive a ways to pick up another U-Haul, but thems the breaks. So I have the following interaction:

Me: I would like to rent a U-Haul this afternoon and keep it for 24 hours, as I'm moving tomorrow. I need a 14' or a 17' truck, and I need it for 24 hours.

CSR: I need to get your CC# because there is a $5.00 reservation fee...

Me: I know there's a $5.00 fee, and I'm totally willing to pay it, but I don't want to pay it, then get a call in an hour telling me that there is a 14' truck available for 5 hours this afternoon. If I pay this, can you confirm that there is a reservation available for the time period I've requested?

CSR: Sir, I wouldn't even be able to select these truck sizes if they weren't available. Someone will be calling you in an hour to confirm a location to pick up the truck you want to reserve.

Me: (Grudgingly) Fine...but my understanding is that there is a truck somewhere available that fits my requested parameters.

I take a shower, still without a concrete reservation. While I'm doing that, my girlfriend calls Penske, another rental comany, gets a nice woman on the phone, and reserves a 15' truck for pick-up only three miles from our apartment. All of this is done in the span of one phone conversation...no waiting for a CSR to call back and (not) confirm the reservation. All is good.

Two hours later, my cell phone rings:

CSR: This is ***** from U-haul calling to confirm your reservation today. Unfortunately, all the larger trucks are reserved, but we have a moving VAN available in Oakland...

Me: I already have a truck from another company...thanks for taking my $5.00, though, and not adhering to the reservation parameters I requested. <*click*>

Yeah...so now U-haul has at least $10.00 of my money and may, for all I know, tack on another cancellation fee for the "reservation" I cancelled on Friday evening.

Now I know that I should have looked more closely at the confirmation e-mail that U-Haul sent me, but when I see "U-Haul Reservation: Confirmed" in the subject line, I feel that it's safe to assume that the reservation I made was confirmed (as opposed to a completely different reservation subject to the whims of U-Haul's "subject to availability" policy). I wonder how many other people are bilked by U-Haul in the same manner, and whether their shady-ass business practice is even legal. To me, it smacks of "class-action lawsuit".

Needless to say, I won't be using U-Haul again.

Tom Farmer knows this. That's why, after DoubleTree Club Houston gave away his reserved, guaranteed hotel rooms in 2001, Tom thoughtfully prepared a Powerpoint Presentation entitled 'Yours Is A Very Bad Hotel' explaining the problem in a fashion that even a corporate weasel could understand.

A truly brilliant exercise in scathing consumerist sarcasm. Thanks to Upgrade Travel for pointing our attention to it.

Yours Is A Very Bad Hotel [Powerpoint Presentation]

It's unfortunate that it's edited, would be interesting to hear the rest of the story.

Be sure to read the complainant's original post to see the specific thrusts the supervisor is responding to.

Obviously he's not completely in the right, it sounds like he's asking for a complete free ride, but you have to admit there's some semantic shenanigans on Travelocity's side.

"All You Ever Wanted To Know About the Travelocity "Guarantee" [Flyertalk.com] (Thanks to Mark!

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Kayak, Farechase, Sidestep, Mobissimo, Qixo, Bezurk, Pricegrabber and Searchparty were all deftly probed to see which was the easiest to use and gave the user the most options and the best prices.

The result? As in flight aggregators, Kayak came out on top. So it seems like there's little reason to go anywhere besides kayak.com if you want a good all-in-one travel aggregator. Of course, why bother? We've never really found these services to be even half as good as doing about five minutes of research on your own.

Hey, Upgrade Travel! You should do rental car search engines next.

Disaggregating the aggegators Part 2: Rating the hotel metasearches [Upgrade Travel]
Previously: Upgrade Travel Disaggregates Fare Aggregators