MKB

If this is how IHG treats Spires, I dread to think how non-members are treated.

Having been denied a room at the HIX Stoke, UK, a few months ago, we have just been denied our booked room at the Holiday Inn Bloomsbury.

We tried to check in just after midnight and it seems the whole of Greater London is sold out. After an hour of trying to find alternative accommodation a taxi was called to take us 110 miles home to the Midlands, our Sunday plans in tatters. The taxi took 90 minutes to arrive. We expect to be home some time
after 5am.

scubaccr

Not an IHG only scenario, most other chain hotels eg MR/HH overbook too it is an industry wide scenario. Very few franchise (and chain owned) hotels do not overbook each+every night based on historical statistics

No doubt hotel oversold, both deliberately, and maybe even extra forced by IHG booking guarantee to elites. Hotels always oversell by expected (historically) noshows, but if everyone turns up and expected noshows don't occur then hotel needs walk some guests, usyually targetting non-elites. Issue here is arriving > midnight hotel had already given away your room even if kept as long as possible (you being Spire) as unless you'd contacted to say def coming hotel has no choice but to give room to other booked guests, especially if no contingency walk rooms boooked as other local hotels to Bloomsbury soldout too

I can't believe no hotels what so ever showed up on internet searches? Some search engines may struggle as time/date rolls over to next day after midnight and don't cope very well with previous days date that one needs to search on. I'd have found my own with search and told IHG hotel to book+pay it.

I'd have tried either trivago or hotelscombined websites, and as an elite walk scenario one is not restricted to IHG franchise, if nothing locally of same std bookable then a better hotel needs to be paid for, whilst walk should be both a)nearby hotel b)comparable standard of hotel (at least as good), I am sure taxi to midlands costs hotel a fair bit, maybe more than a room night, but for "foreign tourists' that would not have been an option.

As a Spire, IHG hotel needs refund your room rate and pay both i)first night at other hotel even if costlier ii)pay cost to reach alternate hotel

Gongzuokuang

This is greedy and there is no reasonable justification for this. If you reserved and guaranteed with a charge card, then you will be charged for the room, whether you use it or not. If they are overbooking, then they are doing it with the hope of getting paid TWICE for the same room. It is unethical.

I understand the excuse they give: they oversell because some people will reserve a room, and then no-show. But what hotel these days will allow you to make a reservation and then cancel on the day of the stay? And when people no-show... THEY ARE CHARGED. So what difference does it make if they don't show?

Airlines overbook -- another abomination -- but they will often let no-shows rebook on a later flight. But IHG isn't going to give you a night sometime in the future if you no-show. This is unethical.

I suppose that there might be someone that will argue that the hotel might become completely booked, say, weeks in advance. Then you'll have some people cancel before the 24-48 hour cancellation deadline. In those cases the hotel could potentially end up with some empty rooms, and therefore they oversell as a hedge. Same if someone books for 5 nights, then leaves after 3 nights. There are probably other scenarios. But in all these cases, there is no reason that the hotel's management software can't tag elites and GUARANTEE the GUARANTEE (since a single guarantee is apparently meaningless.).

And what does this do to those that prepay? That should be considered a SOLID "NO WALK" booking given that you can't cancel the room.

These hotels should be able to enhance their software to protect their best customers.

craigthemif

Tell that to every person who would be unable to buy a ticket for a flight, even though seats would fly empty due to no-shows.

Overbooking is 100% NOT the problem. The problem is how the travel companies deal with getting their estimates wrong.

Unfortunately the OP has learned that IHG status doesn't get you anything if you don't call to confirm that you are indeed planning to show up.

MKB

Well I wouldn't have believed it either. Even the Duty Manager said he'd never seen anything like it. Me, my partner, the duty manager and his assistance spent from 00:25 to 01:30 checking websites and calling hotels. Even after our taxi was booked at 01:30, I kept trying hotels I knew were huge and might have a single room they hadn't put in the GDS systems. All to no avail. I felt quite sorry for the DM as there was nothing he could do and he was getting quite stressed.

The aggregator websites showed only around six hotels across the entirety of London with rooms, but calling up showed that this was phantom inventory they didn't actually have. There was nothing at Heathrow or Gatwick. I did actually find one room at the Canary Riverside Plaza Hotel for Ł1200+, and, to their credit, the HI Bloomsbury were prepared to take this. However the Canary refused to accept an inter-hotel booking and said we had to pay it directly ourselves, and, the HI Duty Manager could not guarantee we would get reimbursed going that route.

What I would question is why any hotels were overbooking in London on a night of such unprecedented demand. Where exactly did they plan to put their overbooked guests?

Whether it was relevant or not, I don't know, but we were on a points stay booked a few weeks ago, and hotels were charging 2-3 times their usual Saturday night prices for last night for the rooms that were remaining in the past week. So there was an incentive to accept cash bookings at the expense of award stays already booked.

I am also surprised that with IHG, being an elite member gives you absolutely no protection against being walked. The Duty Manager was apologetic and at a loss to explain how it could have happened. He said I should have been contacted, and, I did get one missed call from a telephone number beginning 07 at 22:46, but no message was left. Being wary of the scam 07 super-premium numbers which charge a Ł10 connection when you return the call, I worked on the assumption that if it was important they would have left a message or call back. I don't yet know if that call was from the HI, but I would have expected their calls to come from a geographic number not a mobile or premium-rate number.

The Duty Manager was also apologetic about the taxi company the HI is contracted with. It seems they have history for not turning up, guests have missed flights, and he didn't understand why his hotel was still using them. Sure enough, the 30-minute wait that was promised on booking at 01:30 kept getting extended until the taxi eventually arrived at 02:57. Uber was doing surge pricing, and the DM couldn't guarantee we would be refunded if we booked our own transport home.

To make matters worse, and it's comical except when you're experiencing it yourself, the driver kept farting throughout the two-hour journey.

We had a whole range of events planned for London today, and were due to be coming home now at 21:50. I did toy with the idea of getting a train back down at lunchtime, but having been up until 05:30 and then not succeeding in getting any decent sleep beyond our usual 8am wake-up time, we've been a bit zombified today and not able to salvage anything of the day.

If my previous experience at the HIX Stoke is anything to go by, I'm fully expecting the promised phone call from the General Manager on Monday not to materialise, and then to have a battle to get any redress. We'll see...

MKB

Can't agreed with that. If you have a confirmed reservation, you can't be expected to call every hotel you stay at to reconfirm on the day, just in case they are over-booked.

The HIX Stoke walked me at 18:15. The HI Liverpool City Centre did the same a few years ago at 19:30. If I had checked in any earlier than 00:25 at the HI Bloomsbury yesterday, it would simply have been some other poor soul who went without accommodation.

I have only ever called hotels to let them know about a late arrival if it's after 2am, as there's then a chance they might have run their day-end routines and I want them to process the check-in before that to guarantee the night credit. Even then, unless I've told the hotel I'm not coming, they should keep the room open, or if they want to overbook, be sure that they have somewhere else to send me when I arrive.

thunderlounge

I’m not faulting you, but for myself if I’m going to be checking in at 19:00 or later I’ll let the hotel know for this very exact reason. I’ve never been walked, even at a property where I’ve had no status. It may be overkill, but so far (knock on wood) it has worked. If the hotel isn’t sold out, I may not call unless it will be 21:00 or later, but so far the very slight inconvenience has been well worth the time.

s0ssos

I guess IHG status really is no status.
There are penalties for Marriott for walking guests.

scienm

Same here. I'm Spire RA, but I would contact the hotel if I'm going to check in so late especially when fully booked. If it's ICs, I let them know only when I'm going to check in after midnight. Don't believe holiday inn.

MSPeconomist

LondonElite

Shambolic. I feel for you.

Super Mario

Get your logic out of here. The United debacle told us what to think.

Overbooking is a huge part of the business. I agree that there should be some sort of improved procedure. Maybe Elites have a longer period before it is given away? Maybe there is an automated call placed?

Coathanger

Maybe even a push notification via the IHG app to elite members on the day of check in to confirm they will be staying, and advising check in time, during times of high occupancy?

olympian

Also surely with the standard cancellation deadline now on the day before check-in, rather than on the day itself, hotels have even longer to sort out alternative accommodation for any overbookings and make contact with guests they're potentially walking.

chrism20