Originally Posted by
milestraveler
I recently had a reservation at a Wingate by Wyndham and arrived late in the evening during a power outage. The hotel refused to give me a room (they didn't have power for the computer to issue keys and hadn't figured out how to use manual keys to let guests in) and refused to walk me, instead asking me to wait for the power to come back. I was not given any estimate of restoration time.
As context: several other hotels in the area were also without power, some had lost power but had it back up by this point, and others never lost power.
Wow, this is some terrible service from a property tier that was designed to compete with the Hampton Inns and Holiday Inn Expresses.
I've been in the hotel industry most of my life, literally. And while power outages hurt like nothing else since property management systems have moved into the cloud, and room 'keys' are non-existent, these are definitely not good excuses for poor service.
So let me answer your questions from someone that's been on both sides.
Originally Posted by
milestraveler
Questions: assuming that there alternate hotels with power (as there were in this case), how long is it reasonable to ask a guest to wait for power restoration before walking the guest? And, as a guest, how long it is reasonable to wait before walking oneself? And lastly, should this be treated as a "walk", with the hotel paying for the alternate room, or is this reasonably beyond the control of the hotel, relieving them of all obligation (other than, perhaps, a refund)?
I wouldn't ask a guest to wait--I'd figure out options and let the guest decide. No one wants to wait in a hotel lobby without power when they're just needing some rest.
As a guest, if I didn't have any real information on when the power might be back, and there's other options around. I'd tell the property that I understand that the circumstances are beyond their control, but I need rest and want to cancel my reservation without penalty. If they didn't oblige, I would have gone elsewhere and just disputed the charge. Hotels rarely get to keep revenue from 'no show' reservations when they're disputed by the credit card holder.
As a hotel owner and operator, I wouldn't attempt to pay for a room that I have no control over for a guest. But I would make sure that I wouldn't charge them for a room that's not available, and give them the flexibility to do what they need since I couldn't deliver a product. In fact, if I was working front desk at that Wingate, I would've pulled out my cell phone and called all the hotels around for power and room availability for you. And then I would've given you the option to wait at my hotel for power to return, or to go to another property without being charged. That would have been the fair thing to do imo.
