It might have been looked back upon as a funny story — later. Much later. Because when traveling with another couple recently, we came oh-so-close to arriving in a foreign city with a hotel booking at a hotel that was closed.
Now, as a travel agent, I like booking my own travel well in advance, if possible, as it is theoretically less stressful.
In this case, knowing we needed an additional night in Budapest after a river cruise, I had booked two rooms at Le Meridien back in January for a stay in early December, using a Signature Travel Network rate. (Signature is one of several travel agency consortiums. They not only have good rates at their several hundred affiliate hotels, they also include extras; in this case, breakfast for two and a food-beverage credit.)
This summer, Starwood hotels sent an email message saying the hotel would leave the chain and be re-flagged as the Elizabeth Park hotel. The message explained that all rates would be honored, except there would be no more Starwood frequent guest points. Fair enough. I contacted the hotel. The property confirmed they would not only honor the rate, but the original amenities as well.
Soon after, I read that the Elizabeth Park hotel in Budapest was to become a Ritz-Carlton. This sounded good, especially when the hotel confirmed when I emailed that, again, they would still honor the rate amenities for my booking.
A few weeks before our departure, I realized that I had forgotten a small detail — I had not reconfirmed that my friends would also receive the breakfast and food-beverage credit. So, to be on the safe side, I sent yet another email.
That turned out to be a very important reconfirmation email, because the helpful Ritz-Carlton Budapest reservations agent this time responded,
“Thank you for your e-mail and with reference to it I would like to inform you that I forwarded your request to the Marriott Hotel. They work on the transfer of reservations and when they have your reservations in their system the Guest Relation Manager will send you a reply to your request.” And “thank you for your patience.”
Ritz-Carlton is actually part of the Marriott brand now, so it was conceivable that they were just transferring the reservation to their new reservation system. But, after a few more emails, that turned out not to be the case.
The short version is that Ritz-Carlton had begun doing some renovation on their new hotel, and decided after about a month that it was either too disruptive or moving too slowly with the hotel being open during renovations. The chain decided to close the property for the winter, and re-open it in March.
My friends’ booking, as well as mine, had been transferred to the Budapest Marriott. It is about a half-mile away and, once more, we were getting the same rate and amenities. The only issue — no one told us. Had I not reconfirmed, we would have gotten off a river cruise with a fair amount of luggage and taken a taxi to a closed hotel under construction!
Perhaps, upon trying to call the number we had for the Ritz-Carlton, the agent on duty would have told us about the booking transfer. But, there is no guarantee, with time-zone changes, that an agent that handled future bookings would even be available. Plus, as December is low season, if we couldn’t reach anyone we could no doubt have found other rooms in the city and dealt with the potential no-show charge at the Marriott.
This potential tale of no room at the inn, might have turned into a funny story, much later.
Apparently it was simply a communications slip up, either from Signature or the hotel. In the end, it really doesn’t matter who didn’t pass on the change. Everything turned out well and we had a great stay at the Budapest Marriott.
The moral of the story: It never hurts to double-check the reservation closer to arrival, especially when booking hotels far in advance. This may help reconfirm special requests. Sometimes this might mean discovering a better rate. And yes, it can even mean discovering your hotel, at least temporarily, no longer exists.
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.)
