Many travelers like the comfort of a big chain hotel when traveling overseas, others prefer something local with more character. While I personally like character, as a travel agent I’ve learned to appreciate things about the chains, especially in terms of having a backup for problems.
My client was heading to a big conference in Senegal this November. Being the sort who plans ahead, she had me book a reservation back in June. We chose the Meridien President in Dakar, and confirmed a six-night stay.
While her flight schedule changed based on stopovers before and afterwards, the hotel booking stayed the same. (The only thing she did was to add a night before her departure in a separate reservation.) This made it particularly surprising to get a message from her from Dakar saying there was a mistake. Quite simply, the hotel disavowed the reservation completely. The Meridien President desk staff said they only had a record of the reservation for that added night but nothing for the conference.
They had given her a room for a night but said she would have to move out the next afternoon.
Well, stuff happens and I figured there was some problem with the booking, a misspelling, a change we had made that inadvertently messed things up, a date error. After checking, it was none of the above.
The client in fact had showed them our printed confirmation with the Starwood confirmation number. The Meridien still said, “Sorry, the number is invalid, we have no reservation.”
At this point I got on the phone to our travel agent help desk. Where they confirmed, the reservation was fine, and passed me off to a supervisor. She called the hotel, was told the same thing. “Sorry, and we are full.” After one desk clerk hung up on her she got the night manager (there is an eight hour time difference) and talked them into one more night. Beyond that, she was told only the manager could fix the problem, if it could be fixed. Of course, he did not get in until their morning.
The woman at Starwood suggested I call back early the next day, or even at night if I could, so I phoned about midnight West Coast time, and eventually got a great supervisor named Anna. Who, once she figured it was not our mistake, was angry on our behalf.
To make a very long story short, Anna called the hotel repeatedly in Senegal, and finally got a manager to agree to give my client the room per her original reservation.
We did hear that a number of people were being turned away with reservations at the hotel, so either because of an error or deliberate overbooking, there was a serious problem this week.
We still, in fact, don’t know whether they really couldn’t find the reservation, or whether they were just trying to get her to go away.
However, in this case, while I spent a lot of time on the phone as her travel agent, the hotel’s Starwood affliation was in the end, why she got her room. A Starwood supervisor finally got them to honor their contract.
Had she booked with an independent property, all of our joint efforts may have gone for nothing. Another alternative for backup is booking with a hotel that is part of a group like Leading Hotels of the World, or Small Luxury Hotels, because they also have very good U.S. representation if something goes wrong.
Fortunately for the traveling public, in most cases, hotel reservations are honored as booked. But, in those minority of times that they are not, it’s good to have someone covering your back.
Photo: Courtesy Le Meridien President in Dakar
Janice Hough is a California-based travel agent a travel blogger and a part-time comedy writer. A frequent flier herself, she’s been doing battle with airlines, hotels, and other travel companies for over three decades. Besides writing for Travelers United, Janice has a humor blog at Leftcoastsportsbabe.com (Warning, the political and sports humor therein does not represent the views of anyone but herself.)
