Rotten Reservation Week…

As much as I travel I am lucky that I rarely have issues with my travel reservations. I find when I have troubles traveling it’s all or nothing that week. Last week was one of those weeks.

My trip took me from Myrtle Beach, SC to Santa Ana, CA. The week was a shorter week than normal with me flying home on Thursday. My site visit was 50 miles northeast of the airport I arrived at. To prevent any traffic related issues I stayed in Riverside at the Marriott the first two nights then the last night returned to Santa Ana to spend the night at the Hilton next to the airport.

Sounds simple right?
- A flight
- A car rental
- Two motel reservations

This should not be too complicated for a frequent traveler to pull off. I guess this was not my week. It was my turn to have the travel week that falls apart at the seams.

I got to the Marriott and my reservation was not in the system. So I dig out my confirmation number and they look it up. For some reason it was in the master Marriott system but not at the local facility. So about 20 minutes later they got me checked in to a room. Generally it takes just a few minutes to check in. It also happened to two other co-workers of mine that checked in after me. So I write it off to the local hotel.

I move down to the Hilton Irvine/Orange County Airport to find my reservation is not in the system. Again I pull out my confirmation number to find out my reservation was for the 04/06/09 instead of 04/09/09. They are sold out and have no rooms. They forced the system to get me a “conference room” that had a fold out couch. Least to say the room was huge with a table that seated eight people, a kitchen and bar area. The TV was a flat panel about 50” and I had two bathrooms.

If you don’t show up for your reservation you get hit with a charge for a “no-show”. All the years I’ve traveled I don’t think I’ve ever had a “no-show” charge. At least not one that was caused by me… I’ve had times when my flight did not get me to my destination and I’d call and cancel. But to never let the hotel chain know is just out of character for me.

So I do the best thing I can and handwrite a note to the Hotel Manager begging forgiveness and asking them to bend the rules and credit me the no-show charge. In my note I plead my case and noted that I would call her when I get home and find out the result.

I got home and the next day I was called by the manager who told me that they would not waive the no-show charge for me. I was really surprised with as much business as I give the Hilton chain that they would be so harsh in the reply. She explained that I cost them revenue by not showing up. I find it highly unlikely that they left that room vacant after a certain time but I don’t have any way to confirm that suspicion.

Considering the no-show charge was $175 I just couldn’t let go that easily. I really felt they could have worked with me to negotiate a lower rate or something. I decided to call the Hilton corporate line and ask them. I didn’t hide the fact that I had tried to take it up with the local facility when I was explaining the situation to them. The lady I spoke to was very helpful and told me the local facility is who makes these decisions and that she would write the District Manager on my behalf and ask them to re-consider the charge based on my 10 year history with the Hilton chain.

Over the weekend I get a call from the same lady at the local facility telling me the same thing. Not going to happen, I cost them money.

So I replied back to the corporate office and explained the reply I got from the local facility. The corporate office told me they will make the one time exception and with proof of payment for the room they will send me a check for the $175.

I have to say I was not impressed with the local facility and will not stay there again unless it’s the very last option. Hilton corporate certainly made me feel good about how they handled the situation. They very well could have lost a good customer, but they did the right thing.

I’m glad I got my bad travel week out of the way. The last one I had that was all out of sorts was about 2 years back going to Reno, NV. That trip must have had the build-up of several years for all the things that went wrong on that trip. I’ll write about it sometime.

Good thing I’m home this week… Maybe I should double check my reservations for next while I’m home. You can bet I’ll add a new check to be sure I don’t transpose my dates in the future.