Originally Posted by
levilevi
So - as part of a larger trip , we have a one night stay in Denver after landing, so decided to use the Capital One portal to use the $300 on that hotel, save the points, etc etc.
Booked May 3. Stay is July 1.
I called the hotel today just to check on something and ask a question - and I asked to look at my reservation while I was on the phone just in case (haven't used an OTA in probably at least a decade), and... lo and behold.. nothing... not by my name, CC number, any of the confirmation numbers from Capital One Travel. I even forwarded the reservation to the person I was talking to (front desk manager). She couldn't find anything.
I just got off the phone with Capital One Travel - the person said immediately "rest assured, you have a reservation, we just dont sent that information to the hotel until 15 days prior, and its a common practice for travel agencies."
I'm, of course, going to call this Friday (14 days prior) back to the hotel to verify because I'm concerned now, but ... can anyone lend any credence to this 15 day thing with OTAs? The front desk manager at the hotel surely would know this and say something like "oh, it could be that you're outside of 15 days" especially when she saw I booked through an OTA. Cap1 is powered by Hopper if i'm not mistaken... so ... any others experience this and can calm me down?
I'm just trying to avoid showing up late in the day with young kids and having an issue.
Originally Posted by
TerryK
I don't know about Capital One Travel specifically but some agencies only send booking details about one week prior to stay. This 15-day explanation is plausible.
Agency has a number of rooms blocked. There could be a good number of new bookings/changes/cancellations between now and July 1. Hence, some agencies only send booking information to properties one week or even a few days prior to check in.
The Front Desk Manager handles activities at the front desk where guests all have current reservations. The Reservation Manager should have known about this 15-7-3 day prior booking detail transfer as he/she handles future bookings.
Originally Posted by
SpaethCo
A number of the booking details will ultimately not be your information. CapOne hotel bookings are done via a virtual credit card number that is generated just to pay for that room.
The billing address will also be something like "1111 Expedia Group Way W" depending on where Hopper sourced the room inventory from.
Originally Posted by
tatterdema
IMHO, You have a valid reason to be concerned. Although they always say that about 15 days, yadda yadda, I personally have never seen that. I have worked in hotels for over 20+ years and never seen it. Same with travel I have personally booked through OTA's, probably a dozen a year. Have never seen this. The hotel has ALWAYS had my reservation shortly after booking it, except in cases where there is an issue. In this day and age of computers, there is no reason to hold back bookings. That is just my own personal experience, others may differ. Come back and let us know if they found it.
To update you all and warn - I called yesterday, 6/20, which is 11 days prior to check in - hotel front desk had nothing. Got concerned, but thought "maybe it wasnt sent over weekend/US Holiday" and called again this afternoon. Hotel had nothing. Called back to Cap1 Travel - the person had a different tune "we sent the hotel your booking info in May, when you booked it." But to this agent's credit, she called the hotel directly, and after a 15 minute hold (presumably while she waited herself on hold) she came back with a hotel confirmation number and when I asked what happened she said the hotel never seemed to get the original reservation info, but she directly booked again with the hotel while I was on hold.
Obviously this could be a one-off, and I'm sure that upon arrival this could have been sorted out, but much rather do it from my home, and not have tired family with luggage in the lobby doing this...
ETA: called hotel back just now to confirm/make sure all was good - same person that I spoke to (and Cap1 spoke to) knew my name immediately, a nice laugh/convo, all good.
(I had posted a similar question in the general OTA thread - cross post - here's the link:
When does OTA transfer full booking info to hotel ?, and will put a link to this there - Mods - feel free to determine if both shouldn't be there)