Years ago, many hotels would accept reservations without a credit card, but only hold the rooms until, say, 4 or 6 p.m. A credit card guaranteed late arrival, but also meant travelers that didn’t show up would be charged.
These days, a credit card guarantee is almost always mandatory, with cancellation required usually at least a day in advance to avoid a one-night charge. The only good news for consumers is that promising payment does mean the hotel should hold the room, no matter how late the arrival — “should” being the operative word.
In a recent case, my clients were taking a Saturday evening flight to Boston from Dulles. I booked them at a Sheraton Four Points near the airport, after ascertaining that the hotel ran a 24-hour shuttle for pickup.
As it turned out, there were thunderstorms on the East Coast, which resulted in their incoming aircraft being diverted to Greensboro, North Carolina, before arriving in Dulles.
Fortunately, the clients had expressed concern earlier over the weather and I had been online and able to monitor the flight. We were worried it would be canceled, but the plane did finally take off over 2 hours late, about 12:30 a.m. East Coast time. At this point I called the hotel to advise their exact arrival time, and to make sure the shuttle would still be running.
Except the shuttle wasn’t the problem. The desk clerk informed me they had no rooms. Thinking he had misunderstood, I explained, no, we have guaranteed reservations.
He said that they had given the rooms away. I pointed out that with the guarantee the hotel was going to be paid for the rooms anyway and had no business doing that. Then I told them in any case, they needed to fix it. At this point I expected they would be “walked” to some nearby hotel. Not a fun proposition at 2 a.m.
To make a long (20 minute phone call) story short, the clerk apparently found two rooms he originally “wasn’t sure had been cleaned,” casually mentioning he hoped two other reservations didn’t show up. And, they were able to check in without incident.
When I complained to a Sheraton sales rep the next day, she told me, “Technically, late arrival would be before midnight,” but she was surprised a hotel would do this “if they were not in a walk situation.”
Because of the uncertainty on this flight, options were limited. However, it’s always a good idea to communicate with the property if there’s a delay. If the hotel hadn’t been able to miraculously find rooms, maybe they could have at least started on the process for something else sooner.
For that matter, it doesn’t hurt to call a hotel directly if there is a last-minute cancellation. In my experience hotels are getting less flexible with the rules, but sometimes they will make exceptions.
Had my clients’ flight been canceled, or had they given up and gone home and not been able to reach me on a Saturday night, the hotel would have probably charged for both rooms as no-shows, even though they filled all their rooms anyway.
The bigger issue here is that hotels do overbook, just like the airlines. It’s not right for them to have it both ways. Guaranteed SHOULD mean guaranteed.
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.)
