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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