Dear Mr. Hotel Manager:

I am writing this concerning your hotel’s failure to honor its contract to provide lodging for my wife Tuesday June 14 and Wednesday June 15. This was a prepaid, not merely confirmed, reservation with a confirmation number of XXXXXXXXX under the name of Mrs. Rebelyell. The rate my wife paid, in advance, was $209.50 per night plus taxes for a total of $492.32.

When my wife arrived at your hotel at around 9 p.m., on June 14 she was told that the hotel room she had already paid for had been given to someone else. Apparently the XXXXXX concert had given your hotel the opportunity to rent her room to someone else at a higher rate and so she was told to hit the road. Your hotel picked up the negligible cost of one night at the Doubletree, which only benefitted my wife’s employer. You did not provide her with any compensation whatsoever for the hundreds of dollars of additional work she had to do in getting set up for the trade show being held at the convention center connected to your hotel. On the night my wife was walked rooms at the Doubletree were going for less than $100. I’m sure you got an industry discount. So your hotel likely turned a tidy profit by breaching its contract with my wife.

The lady at the front desk told my wife her credit card would be credited with a refund. That didn’t happen. Finally, after two additional, rather lengthy calls, she finally got her money back a few days ago (for some reason the people we talked to said the record wasn’t plain that she had been walked). It takes a long time to gather the information to make these calls and then more time on hold; I suspect you know that many people will just give up and let their employer eat these charges and that’s why it took so much effort to get the money refunded.

Here’s the bottom line. My wife had a binding contract with your hotel and your hotel breached it. You are required under the law of contracts to compensate her for all damages that she suffered, including the “hassle” factor. I have contacted Starwood about this and they assured us that someone from your hotel would get in touch with my wife. No one did. If you fail to properly compensate my wife I will show her how to prepare a complaint to file in small claims court, where she will prevail.

She is willing to settle this matter if you will deposit 5,000 Starpoints into her Starwood Preferred Guest account. If you want to do more in an effort to earn her future business you can, but that’s all she is asking for. Her account number is XXXXXXXXX. This represents a small fraction of the damage she suffered, but it is at least acknowledgment that she was mistreated. And let’s face it, as long as you can sell people’s prepaid rooms out from under them and make a profit you will, unless the victims of this unsavory trade practice stand up and demand compensation.

My wife isn’t asking for much at all, but if you think her demand is excessive she is more than happy to let you have your day in court. She’s still mad about the way she was treated, and since I had to hear about it on the phone for quite a while, I’m still mad, too. She and all of your customers deserve better.

With all kind regards, I remain,

Yours very truly,



Rebelyell