mike&co

Wife and daughter arrived in New York last night (great flight but delayed by a catering issue at Heathrow and a parking stand issue at JFK - no complaints ) However, by the time they cleared immigration and got an Uber, they arrived at the intercontinental Barclay at 10.30pm. Advised by reception staff that the hotel was full (overbooked by 30% apparently) therefore no room for them. Due to the late hour, they were offered a suite for one night (reeking of cigarette smoke but they were so exhausted they decided to get some rest) Not sure what’s going to happen today. I’m aware of “walking” in the States but just wanted to get some ideas of comparable hotels / advice. No doubt they’ll be moved to another hotel today. Is it worthwhile contacting BA holidays at this stage ? Currently 5.20am in New York so I wanted to try and give them a heads up before they contact reception. For information, they’re in New York until next Thursday night.

vintagepilot

BAH have a 24hr duty office - the number should be on the e-ticket email. We have had issues during a trip and they were very helpful.

steveholt

Obviously, no shortage of hotels in midtown NYC. The IC Barclays is a four-star hotel, so they should insist on a hotel of a similar caliber in the area + transportation to that hotel.

Schwann

How can a hotel be overbooked 30% but still have rooms available? Or did they mean overbooked for their room type?

Hopefully given Saturday night was probably a busy one they can have an acceptable room there for the rest of the trip - judging by a search it doesn't seem busy for a stay from today until Thursday.

mike&co

Tried calling the BA holidays 24hr help desk. Number on the hotel voucher 02087074460.

In the unlikely event that your holiday doesn't run to plan, we're here to help get things back on track. You can call our 24 hour UK helpline on 0208 707 4460.

Both connecting me to the same automated message. Apparently, another 24 hr contact number was provided (via a text message) prior to departure. No pre departure text received. Any other numbers I can try ?

mike&co

My thoughts exactly. They were booked into a superior double double room with BA so I assume that room type has been sold out.

The overbooking policy seems to be the issue tho. I’ve checked the IHG Barclay website and it’s showing availability on several room types, including my wife’s allocated room but are these rooms actually available or simply being sold based on their expectations of guests cancelling within the cancellation window or simply not turning up (unlikely)

corporate-wage-slave

I don't know if they changed the message, but send an email with the subject line of "URGENT - hotel overbooked -{lead pax name} - {PNR}" and a brief description similar to your first post, and the best mobile number. It is monitored out of office hours. I would expect that BAH's contract is one of the more meaningful ones for this hotel and the hotel will be encouraged to resolve the booking to the passengers' satisfaction.

[email protected]

thomasd21

I can second this - despite it being an email channel, you get replies / phone calls back within minutes usually.

mike&co

Update…..BA holidays rep has been in touch. They’ve already made contact with the hotel management and my wife now has a point of contact to go and see this morning. Very impressed. Thanks for your assistance.

ringingup

Let us know what happens next!

Jimmie76

I sympathise, I’ve turned up somewhere and found there was no room reserved on a BA holiday.

When BA holidays screwed up when we went to Dubai it wasn’t great at first. The girl I spoke to wasn’t the brightest but she did at least answer the phone at 4am UK time on Christmas Eve. She released our money that BA held to the hotel to allow us to stay there. It cost me money to cover their mistake which was annoying. Not the end of the world though as I knew I would get it back from them eventually which I did. It did require follow up emails to get the money but BA made sure I wasn’t out of pocket due to the currency fluctuations.

The hotel were brilliant though as they understood we were innocent victims in all this. They did find us a room in the band we paid for for the first night and then after I asked nicely they moved us to better rooms for no extra which was good of them.

Hope your situation is resolved quickly and amicably.

Dicksbits

We stayed at the intercontinental Barclay in May and arrived after 9pm but had no issues thankfully. Same room type as OP. BA holiday. Second time we’ve stayed there but of course this time we got stung by the nightly destination fee in the small print. Wasn’t even mentioned at checkout, we were told: Nothing owing, then an unwelcome £164 charge appeared on the CC statement a few days later…

As for the BA helpline: They were very helpful when I found myself in an unsafe situation in Marrakech a few years ago, and flew me home a day early. Found service over the phone second to none.

mike&co

That’s interesting. Warned my wife about this ($35 per night) prior to her leaving yesterday but she was informed there were no additional charges to be paid whatsoever. Think I’ll be mentioning it again to her when we talk later so that she can clarify with the duty manager who is now dealing with her situation. They had a busy day planned today so won’t know the position until later tonight.

ringingup

Mike, what was the outcome?

Saladman

Obviously too late now as you've had contact but i've just come back from a BAH and the phone number that was texted to me by BA just before I left, was 0208 707 4495.

May help someone else in the future.