TravelManKen
Aug 14, 01, 9:50 am
A little investigative reporting from Jane Costello for FT'ers...
August 14, 2001
Business Fare
Travelocity Customers Take Issue With Canceled Hotel Reservations
By JANE COSTELLO
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE
When Jim Brownell logged on to Travelocity.com to cancel a hotel reservation, he found someone else had beaten him to it.
Last March, Mr. Brownell, a retired teacher from Philadelphia, says he booked a reservation through Travelocity for a stay at the Mexico City Airport Hilton. He was one of approximately 50 travelers who took advantage of the fact that the hotel had inadvertently loaded a "zero" rate into the computer system, offering free stays for travelers.
Travelocity.com2
As reported, when Hilton learned of the error, the hotel chain agreed to honor the $0 rate for the first night, as long as guests agreed to pay a competitive rate for the remainder of their stay.
Mr. Brownell kept his reservation active on the chance that Hilton would change its mind and allow guests to stay more than one night for free. When that didn't happen, he decided to log on to Travelocity in June and cancel his reservation.
To his surprise, the reservation had already been canceled. When Mr. Brownell called Travelocity's customer-service center for an explanation, he was told that someone identifying himself as Mr. Brownell had called the day before to cancel.
"I hadn't planned to go, but at the time I thought, 'why not?' " says Mr. Brownell. "Now, I'm not going anywhere."
As it turns out, Mr. Brownell wasn't the only person whose reservation was canceled that day. Steve Kilian, who also took advantage of the free-room deal, booked a stay for three nights. When he logged on to Travelocity, he too found that his reservation also had been canceled without his knowledge.
Both travelers were suspicious and thought that someone from Hilton might have bypassed Travelocity's system and canceled the reservation in order to free up the "free" room for a paying customer.
Hilton spokeswoman Jeanne Datz says that isn't the case. She points out that both guests agreed to stay for subsequent nights at a rate of more than $100 a night.
Adding to the confusion, the two sets of reservations were canceled through Travelocity, not Hilton, within minutes of each other. In both cases, records indicate that the cancellation was done via telephone.
Officials at Travelocity can offer no explanation as to how the cancellations happened and say they will continue to research the issue.
"The whole thing is absurd," says Mr. Kilian. "What if I'd wanted to go? I'd be stuck."
Write to Jane Costello at jane.costello@wsj.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
URL for this Article:
http://interactive.wsj.com/archive/retrieve.cgi?id=SB996263394913000857.djm
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright © 2001 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Printing, distribution, and use of this material is governed by your Subscription Agreement and copyright laws.
For information about subscribing, go to http://wsj.com
------------------
Ken in Sacramento
August 14, 2001
Business Fare
Travelocity Customers Take Issue With Canceled Hotel Reservations
By JANE COSTELLO
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE
When Jim Brownell logged on to Travelocity.com to cancel a hotel reservation, he found someone else had beaten him to it.
Last March, Mr. Brownell, a retired teacher from Philadelphia, says he booked a reservation through Travelocity for a stay at the Mexico City Airport Hilton. He was one of approximately 50 travelers who took advantage of the fact that the hotel had inadvertently loaded a "zero" rate into the computer system, offering free stays for travelers.
Travelocity.com2
As reported, when Hilton learned of the error, the hotel chain agreed to honor the $0 rate for the first night, as long as guests agreed to pay a competitive rate for the remainder of their stay.
Mr. Brownell kept his reservation active on the chance that Hilton would change its mind and allow guests to stay more than one night for free. When that didn't happen, he decided to log on to Travelocity in June and cancel his reservation.
To his surprise, the reservation had already been canceled. When Mr. Brownell called Travelocity's customer-service center for an explanation, he was told that someone identifying himself as Mr. Brownell had called the day before to cancel.
"I hadn't planned to go, but at the time I thought, 'why not?' " says Mr. Brownell. "Now, I'm not going anywhere."
As it turns out, Mr. Brownell wasn't the only person whose reservation was canceled that day. Steve Kilian, who also took advantage of the free-room deal, booked a stay for three nights. When he logged on to Travelocity, he too found that his reservation also had been canceled without his knowledge.
Both travelers were suspicious and thought that someone from Hilton might have bypassed Travelocity's system and canceled the reservation in order to free up the "free" room for a paying customer.
Hilton spokeswoman Jeanne Datz says that isn't the case. She points out that both guests agreed to stay for subsequent nights at a rate of more than $100 a night.
Adding to the confusion, the two sets of reservations were canceled through Travelocity, not Hilton, within minutes of each other. In both cases, records indicate that the cancellation was done via telephone.
Officials at Travelocity can offer no explanation as to how the cancellations happened and say they will continue to research the issue.
"The whole thing is absurd," says Mr. Kilian. "What if I'd wanted to go? I'd be stuck."
Write to Jane Costello at jane.costello@wsj.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
URL for this Article:
http://interactive.wsj.com/archive/retrieve.cgi?id=SB996263394913000857.djm
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright © 2001 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Printing, distribution, and use of this material is governed by your Subscription Agreement and copyright laws.
For information about subscribing, go to http://wsj.com
------------------
Ken in Sacramento