<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by TrojanHorse:
Ahh just remembered another question that happens to me on occasion..
When I take the Red Eye from the West Coast to the East Coast, I usually make a hotel reservation for the prior night.. For example, lets say I leave LAX at 10 p.m. on Sunday with a 5 a.m Arrival at IAD on Monday morning.. I usually will book a room (guaranteed with a cc) for Sunday night noting in the reservation that I will not be arriving until say 5 to 6 a.m. on Monday a.m. as I'm taking the red eye.. In addition I will call on Sunday evening to reconfirm this.. The hotel usually will say no problem as your room will be ready for you when you arrive. blah blah blah
Well a few times, I have arrived and they have given away my room and don't have one for me and walked me.. now after a red eye, you can imagine, walking is not very fun.
Why do they do this???? It makes me want to jump over the counter and well you get the point..
Oh yeah.. why do we have to guarantee with a CC if it isn't really a Guarantee???</font>
Another good question TrojanHorse-
The truth is ALL hotels oversell, usually by about 5%. On an oversold night rooms are given to guests as they arrive (first come first serve if you will). Because you were probably the last person to arrive, you got walked. I'm sure you were angry but I assure you that the front desk hates to walk people too: 1)Its a pain in the ... (paperwork) and 2) People get very angry when they are tired and it can get ugly. Especially when there are two people checking in at the same time and only one room left! There are often arguments between reservations and the front office for this reason.
Keep in mind that guaranteeing a room with a credit card is NOT a guarantee for you. It is a guarantee for the hotel. If you don't show up and don't cancel, the hotel is GUARANTEED that room revenue by charging your credit card anyways.
If you have called to confirm on sunday night then you really should have a room saved for you. In my opinion, it is a poor management decision to walk you, especially if you are a frequent guest of the hotel which it sounds like you are. Maybe they were hoping that someone would check out early in the morning and they could give you that room.
Next time when you call the night before, tell them that they can't walk you because you are meeting people in the hotel in the morning or something like that. That might improve your odds.