hotel says I don't have a confirmation but I do
 

HI There - Long time lurker, first time poster here. I have learned so much from all of you. I need help now. I have learned enough to know that what is happening to me is not right. I made a reservation 3 weeks ago at the Residence Inn Omaha for May 3rd. I am platinum with Marriott, and made the reservation online. I had another reservation, which I cancelled, to stay at the Marriott, we are loyal Marriott travelers if at all possible. When I saw a room available I grabbed it. Fast forward to this week. Res Inn Omaha calls and says that it was a computer glitch. Their computer continued to sell rooms even though there were no rooms available (it is the Berkshire Hathaway meeting weekend). They tell me I don't have a room. They are trying to find me a room some place else, but no luck yet. I explained I was platinum and would like to stay at the hotel and I have a printed confirmation from them. She explained that the computer continued to sell the rooms to more than 25 platinum members when there were no rooms left. When I asked about compensation for being "walked", she said that I never had a room to begin with.......Any advice from the experts???? Can they just say I don't have a room and ignore my reservation?

Since you hold a written confirmation fir a reservation, it is a bit silly for the hotel to suggest otherwise. Add this to the fact that they are trying to find alternate accommodations for you and it is safe to conclude that the RI has some culpability.

You probably have to make a determination about whether you will will accept something reasonably comparable, that they find for you and let it go at that, or actually show up at check-in time and demand the benefits of the Platinum guarantee.

In the event that they find something for you that is acceptable, I would still require that they credit your MR account for the stay and points that you might have earned.

Given that it's in advance, it's a major event and there isn't space, I wouldn't do anything silly such as show up and make demands.

The result of that is likely to be sleeping in the back seat of a car because there aren't going to be any rooms to be had anywhere.

Far better to get the situation straightened out and then, after the fact, ask for the compensation.

Always important to solve the problem and then seek the compensation.

Let's get past this, "you never had a room to begin with" thing. You had a room. It says so on your confirmation. They sold rooms they didn't have? Too bad for them. There's a similar thread going on on the Starwood forum about the Rose Bowl parade.

There will likely be speculation about whether they really made a mistake about leaving the inventory open or if they realized that they could sell a whole bunch of rooms at a higher price. I don't know the answer to that question.

These "pre-walks" don't do any good 6-7 weeks before a big event. By that time, all the rooms in the city are gone. I did do a quick search on hotels.com and found a bunch of 2* hotels, but nothing exciting.

Others are going to disagree with me but, as far as I'm concerned, in a situation like this one, the hit they just gave you is as good as a walk (Hey, see what I did there?). True, they gave you "advance notice," so you weren't technically walked, but they put you in the same situation. I believe that they should give you walk compensation, although I know that their T&C would disagree with me. But, from a customer service standpoint, they owe it to you.

Mike

Unfortunately, it probably fits in the category of "price mistakes due to computer glitches". The mechants can cancel orders/confirmations.

Reading the other posts on "walks", being notified in advance precludes this being considered a walk and invoking the Platinum Guarantees. Also, depending upon state laws, hotels may have the ability to void a reservation with prior notice and be exempt from liability.

However, I would push the issue up to Marriott corporate and see what they are willing to do on your behalf. I have a friend that was booked in Cancun. The property had delays in recovering from hurricane damage. Hotel tried walking away from the reservation. Corporate got involved and he was hosted in a neighboring hotel (not Marriott) for the week.

I'm not sure what the problem is, but if the OP is a Plat, then either the hotel has a corporate approved Plat overide blackout or you get a room there. But I don't think they have that corp approval as I am able to make a reserveration for the night of May 3rd at the Omaha RI with no problems. So something doesn't seem right here. I would definitely suggest calling the hotel and asking to speak to a manager to find out just what is happening.

I'd suggest remaking the reservation online and not going through an agent.

I made the reservation online originally, and got a confirmation. They are saying that the reservation is not valid because it was a computer error, and no rooms were available when the reservation was made. The reservation still shows up in my upcoming reservation list online. I printed out a paper copy in case they delete the reservation on line, just not sure what good it will do.

Thank you everyone for weighing in. I am supposed to hear back from the hotel in the next day or two. I will post their response. I told them I would like to keep my room, and they just kept saying "you don't have a room".

Sounds like an extraordinary demand date, in which case, is an exception to the plat. guarantee for the room.

Hope they find you a room, but compensation is unlikely. That's why they are contacting you in advance.

Calling corporate may get you a few extra points as a courtesy gesture, but probably not what some might be thinking. (Good Luck!)

As of 9:15pm PST The Omaha Marriott still has rooms for the 3rd of May available, they won't sell them for 1 night but they will for a multi-night reservation....

Confirmation Number = Reservation
 

Exactly! I find the response from the hotel to be ludicrous. Once you get a confirmation number, you have a reservation.

I've worked at several different hotels over the years. (Although, no Marriotts.) One position I held was Revenue Manager, so I've actually been through a similar situation from the hotel side. I find it disheartening that this hotel seems ready to pass their problem on to the guest. Hotels are run by humans; so, mistakes happen. But, this hotel should be doing more.

In my experience, when I was forced to pre-walk guests, the hotel did not pick up the cost. What we did was arrange for a room at a comparable hotel in the area at the same rate. (If the other hotel had a higher rate, we paid the difference.) When a comparable hotel wasn't available, we made sure the guest's rate was appropriately discounted. On top of that, we'd offer to comp a room night or two if the guest was returning to the area at a later date.

I also worked at the Disney Reservations Center in Orlando for a number of years. Although not exactly the same, the closure of one of the resorts after 9/11 meant that thousands of guests had to be relocated. That was easier, as guests could be placed at other Disney properties. But, every single relocated guest was offered something in exchange for the hassle. That was just part of the culture there: when business decisions impact guests, you do everything in your power to minimize the problems. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like this hotel has that mindset.

I'm not sure what I wrote will help the OP much. Maybe the information will help. Unfortunately, most hotel chains don't have specific guidelines to handle these situations. Guests are left to mediate the issue directly with the hotel.

Contact customer service and explain the situation and that the hotel is refusing to honor the Plat Benefit (ultimate reservation guarantee, you are entitled to a nice check, ultimate certificate for a free room anywhere in the world and a comparable room at another hotel in the area at the Residence Inn's expense)...btw I'm certain the hotel continued to sell rooms even though they didn't exist...but it's up to the hotel to control their inventory (ie wasn't a technical system issue, sounds more like a human system issue to me...someone wasn't watching things)

The OP would not have been able to make a reservation if they had a Plat Blackout.....there have been no system issues that I'm aware of that would have caused something like this

Actually they all do....guests shouldn't have to mediate anything

Yes I've been up since 3 and a tad crabby...stuff like what the OP is experiencing shouldn't happen in this industry regardless of hotel brand...IMO the hotel messed up and this is not the way I've always handled similar situations (oh the $$$ I've spent on mistakes over my career....but the $$$ I've made from the loyalty is greater)

My original point was that I doubt there was a Plat Blackout especially since the OP was told "the computer continued to sell the rooms to more than 25 platinum members when there were no rooms left." (And I could still make a reservation for the date in question.)

To me that sounds like someone at the hotel "should" have applied for a Blackout, but never did and now the hotel is dealing with a bunch of Plats making reservations when they are totally booked up. And as a result they are trying to figure out a way to get out of the Plat Room Guarantee.

Of course maybe they did try to apply and they didn't meet the criteria for a Blackout. :eek: