Reservation not honoured
 

Hi Everyone,

I had a situation happen a few weeks ago, and I'm wondering what sort of customer service response I should expect.

Wed Aug 27th I used the Best Western App on my iPhone to reserve a room at a BW location in Canton, NY as a first night stop on my way elsewhere. I received a confirmation number and a follow-up e-mail that my reservation had been confirmed.

Upon arriving at the hotel at approx. 9pm I was told that they did not have my reservation & that I must have wrongly booked at the hotel in Canton, Ohio. After showing the front desk staff my confirmation their annoyed response was that they were having computer problems and that they did not have my reservation and they did not have any available rooms. (Turns out Canton, NY is a University town and there were no other rooms available for over 100 Miles.) I was told that there was nothing that they could do as all of the rooms in town were sold out... & Good Bye.

Exhausted I ended up driving 2-hours to Lake Placid where hotel rooms were available.

I left a message for customer service and they have not yet called me back. I know its been a few weeks, but I now have time to try to sort this out and wonder if it's reasonable to expect BW to cover the cost of my hotel in Lake Placid that night? I don't travel for work, so I'm only a "Gold Elite" with BW.

Thanks in advance :)

Anything is reasonable, but nothing is required. Vote with your feet and stop using the chain until & unless you see the refund.

From my experience with BW.. CS could care less, it's all on the hotel which sounds like a lousy place.. Sorry that happened, how crappy.. Stay away from BW when possible..

Thanks for your input. I spoke with CS today & although they admit that they had computer issues that day, their files are showing that I cancelled the reservation... They now are going to contact the hotel to see what their records show and will get back to me in 7-ish days. I'm definitely not married to the brand in any way and their resolution to this situation will make or break my relationship with them.

I may not be a business traveler, but in the past 12 months I have stayed in BW hotels in 4 different countries, so I guess we will see if that's ever going to happen again or not.

I'm assuming this was guaranteed with a credit card. It's too late now, but I would have demanded they treat it like a walk, which means they are required to find you comparable nearby lodging, pay for the first night and transportation costs. Some chains have walking policies for top tier guests. I am a diamond with both Hilton and Hyatt, and Hilton's policy is to pay $200 to a diamond if they have to walk them and it's my understanding Hyatt has a strict no walking policy for diamonds. Hopefully this never happens to you again, but if it does make sure it's treated like a walk.

I would try calling BW back and seeing if they will reimburse you for the first night at your hotel seeing you had to drive 200 miles. If they won't I would consider filing a BBB complaint and/or a complaint with the NY attorney general.

It's too late now. But seriously BBB complaint and NY attorney? Wow no comment.

Like others said. If you have email confirmation then they have to honor it. System issue is their issue not yours. You did everything by the book. They should have found u a location and pay for your travel.

Customer care will give you some points and maybe travel card to shut u up.

Pm me I will tell you what to do. Don't bother with attorney general it won't get you anywhere.


P. S. Don't take advice from people who always direct you to attorney for small issues.

Normally companies don't want a negative BBB complaint. If the poster files a complaint with the BBB, it will probably be enough to get him the compensation for being walked.

AG works a lot like the BBB on consumer complaints. You aren't out anything filing a complaint if the BBB complaint doesn't work and it might be enough of a scare to get the first night and transportation reimbursed since they didn't follow the law for walking a guest.

OP go to this link for the TA reviews:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev..._New_York.html

It appears the GM is pretty good about responding to negative comments. If you haven't contact him directly, I would go that route as well. If you have already tried him with no luck then leave a one star review with an explanation of being walked without being compensated appropriately.

Gotta disagree about corporate customer service for BW. Maybe it's because I've been a Rewards (Gold Crown) member for 15+ years with a whole lot of stays, but the three times in 15 years when I've had problems big enough to bother customer service with, they've done a great job of resolving them. Maybe they're not the fastest, but I ended up feeling like they'd solved the problem, including when the local property was run by a real jerk.

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to come back and give an update. I still hadn't heard back from Best Western this morning so I called the Cust. Care number again and this time got a wonderful rep. She pulled my file and apologized immediately saying that the Hotel in Canton, NY should have treated this like a Walk, rather than just sending me on my way and canceling the hotel. I'm forwarding her a copy of my visa statement and they will be reimbursing me for the cost of the hotel that I did stay at that evening.

I'm happy that this is coming to a close, but I'm still very disappointed with the overall service that I received, and am extremely frustrated that I had to call in three separate times before this was resolved.

I won't say that I will never stay at a BW again, but I'm definitely going to think twice before I do. For me, customer service follow up is HUGE. I get that things happen sometimes, (like computer systems crashing) but its the way that a company fixes their problems that speaks volumes to me.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions & input. :)