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Booking Hotels Online (How to Avoid the Pitfalls)
This article was in the Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2003Oct24.html washingtonpost.com When Hotel Sites Don't Click It seems so easy: Log on, find a deal, book. But things can go awry with online agencies. We look at the pitfalls, and how to avoid them. By Gary Lee Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, October 26, 2003; Page P01 While checking the Web for a Miami hotel last April, David Manero of Hyattsville found an irresistible deal: a $100 room at the Breakwater in South Beach offered by the Hotel Distribution Network, a discount reservations agency. That was $42 off the usual starting rate. Manero reserved four nights and prepaid with a credit card. But when he and his family arrived in August, the property had no vacant rooms and was no longer affiliated with HDN, which is based in Sanford, Fla. Manero couldn't reach an HDN operator, either, leaving him on his own to find another hotel. Two months, a dozen calls and countless e-mails later, he's still waiting for an explanation. For frequent patrons of online hotel-booking services, Manero's saga may have a familiar ring. In recent weeks, the Travel section has received correspondence from disgruntled customers of many major Internet hotel and travel booking sites (Hotels.com, Expedia.com, Travelocity.com, Quikbook.com, Orbitz.com, etc.); the sites of chains such as Days Inn and Starwood Hotels and Resorts; and some of the smaller agencies such as HDN. The complaints range from misplaced reservations to finding out they could have gotten a cheaper rate for the same hotel elsewhere. "More and more you can get some fantastic deals for rooms on the Web," said Bob Jones, a consumer advocate featured on OneTravel.com, a discount Web site. "But you have to be careful or else you could find yourself out of a lot of money with little recourse." Attempts to reach customer service personnel -- if you can even find the phone number in the online maze -- often lead to a labyrinth of recorded greetings, unhelpful form letters and ill-informed agents. When I called HDN to ask about Manero's case, I was put on hold. "Your call is important to us," a voice said at two-minute intervals. "There are four calls ahead of you." After 40 minutes, I gave up. Frequently offering discounts of 50 percent or more off regular rates, Internet hotel agencies can be a boon for travelers. And their popularity is growing: Forrester Research, a Cambridge, Mass., consulting firm, predicts that U.S. hotels will get roughly 15 percent of their revenue from online bookings in 2004, up from about 8 percent this year. As a frequent user of Internet booking agencies, I hit snags regularly. A few months ago, I reserved a room at New York's Edison Hotel with Hotels.com, one of the largest online discounters, but when I arrived the staff had no record of my reservation. After two calls to the agency, the hotel gave me a room for the price that Hotels.com had promised. More recently, I prepaid for a room at the Monaco in Denver with Priceline.com, but when I checked out, the hotel insisted I pay it directly. (Priceline later refunded my account.) Even with the most reliable companies, things don't always run smoothly. When I wanted to add a couple of days to my stay at a Miami hotel reserved through Quikbook, it was impossible to get a live operator on a Sunday afternoon. I ended up extending directly with the hotel -- at a higher rate. (Quikbook has recently added operators on weekends.) Quikbook President Ray Vastola, who says his agency rarely receives complaints, blames technology for many of the snafus other companies experience. "With millions of transactions taking place every day between agencies and hotels that operate on different [reservations] systems," he said, "some things are going to fall through the cracks." Joe McInerney, president of the American Hotel & Lodging Association in Washington, takes a more critical view. "These problems occur because most third-party hotel booking sites are in the business of selling rooms but are not well trained in hospitality or service," he said. "They are not concerned about keeping the customer satisfied." The sheer volume of rooms booked also comes into play. Although better known for selling airline tickets, Expedia and Travelocity, for example, do a whopping business in hotel reservations. Expedia says it booked more than 11 million rooms in 2002, more than any other Web agency. For its part, Travelweb.com, which launched this summer and is partly owned by several major U.S. hotel chains, wants to lure customers away from the third-party agencies. The pitch: Patrons won't experience lost reservations and other problems because the site is connected directly to the chains' booking systems, thus eliminating the middleman -- the online discounters who must transfer their clients' reservations to the hotels. Is it working? "I think it's too early to say," said Ed Perkins, an Oregon consumer travel advocate formerly with Consumer Reports Travel Letter. Whatever the process, booking online -- while often rewarding -- can be a risky endeavour. Here are some of the common problems and suggested solutions or ways to avoid them. Refunds The Problem: Receiving a refund can be difficult. Agencies tie up the process in red tape, often taking two months or longer to reimburse . Example: Manero, in his dealings with HDN, called and e-mailed the company several times after returning from his Miami trip but couldn't connect with its customer service department. I made two calls to HDN but got recordings routing me to voice mail. Two e-mails went unanswered. Eventually, Manero asked his credit card company, American Express, to intervene. He later received a letter from HDN saying a refund would be posted to his credit card. After three weeks, it arrived. Although the larger agencies declined to disclose how often refunds are requested, Michael Zaletel, president of i4vegas.com, which books Vegas resorts, said 10 to 12 percent of its customers ask for refunds. In most instances, the requests are the result of changes in travel plans, Zaletel said. Manero's case, in which no hotel room was provided, is just one of several instances in which travelers should be eligible for refunds. Others include: • Major problems with the room or service. • Cancellation of prepaid reservations made within an established time frame. • Overcharges or double-billing to a credit card. • When travel is impossible because of a hurricane or other natural disaster. Kurt Weinsheimer, vice president of hotels for Orbitz, puts it bluntly. "Hotel sites work somewhat like airlines," he said. "The deeper discount you get, the harder it is to get a refund." The Solution: Spokespeople for the major reservations sites advise customers to keep printouts of the confirmation number and all transactions, as well as familiarize themselves with the refund policies of the agency and hotel where they reserve. This is key, as eligibility requirements for refunds differ among companies, room categories and particular deals. For instance, once rooms are booked on Priceline.com and Hotwire.com, two reverse-auction travel sites, no refunds are granted. On Orbitz, some rooms are sold at special "Orbitz Saver" rates, significant discounts the company negotiates. You must pay in full at the time of booking, and to receive a full refund (minus a $25 cancellation fee), you must cancel at least 72 hours in advance. Travelers canceling less than 72 hours before arrival may qualify for partial refunds. Expedia, Travelocity and other agencies offer comparable special deals, with similar policies. By comparison, for non-deep-discounted rooms, travelers usually must cancel within 24 hours before arrival to get a refund, though you may be subject to a cancellation fee. Hotels.com charges $25 for all cancellations, for example, while Quikbook charges $10 for cancellations of prepaid rooms -- and nothing if you cancel in time for a room that wasn't prepaid. If a refund is due, go after it promptly, providing all supporting documents. Even in instances where the refund requirements are not fully met, ask for one. (Bob Diener, president of Hotels.com, said that in some extraordinary circumstances, such as a death or sickness, refund restrictions can be waived.) OneTravel's Jones recommends that travelers concerned about recouping their money should consider travel insurance. "It's important to be aware of the circumstances under which the insurance company will help you get a refund," he said. "But if you qualify, they will save you from a major headache." In all cases, customers should pin down customer service agents on how long it should take for a refund. If it does not come through by that date, contact the credit card company used for the reservation, which can do much of the legwork. Customer Service The Problem: Customer service staff at online agencies and hotel front desks can be unresponsive, unhelpful, rude or, worse, unreachable. Example: Last May, Nina Basu of Columbia used Travelocity to prepay for two nights at the Ramada Inn in White River Junction, Vt. En route, she called the hotel and learned that it had changed ownership and name -- to the Regency. A desk clerk told her they had no record of her reservation and no rooms. She then called Travelocity, which offered her lodging in Boston and other far-off locales before eventually finding her a room at the original hotel. But after the first night, she was locked out by hotel management and had to talk her way back into the room. The desk clerk said she had paid for only one night, even though she had prepaid Travelocity for two. Basu faults both the Regency and Travelocity for not dealing with her problem promptly, and "poor customer service" in general. Although Travelocity declined to comment on the specifics of Basu's case, Josh Feuerstein, vice president for the site's hotels, said the agency's "customer-service reps are especially trained to handle problems. We encourage customers with problems to contact them." Basu said she did just that. And though she got her room, it wasn't until nine weeks, eight calls and several e-mails later that she received a response to her complaints. Although she was technically not owed a refund, Travelocity granted one. "What I really wanted was an apology," she said. "And I still haven't gotten one. That makes me reluctant to deal with them anytime soon." The Solution: For urgent assistance (e.g., you arrive at 10 p.m. and find the hotel has no room), call the Web service's help desk. (For phone numbers, hours and e-mail and mailing addresses, see Page P7). Unfortunately, in many instances the person working the service desk does little more than repeat vague company positions -- and sometimes it takes a while to reach someone. If the first operator (or desk clerk) is not responsive, ask for a supervisor. "People should not be shy about pushing their cases," advises Quikbook's Vastola. Otherwise, the agencies encourage customers to send questions or problems by e-mail. Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity promise responses within about four hours any time of the day or night. Lodging.com says it will get back to you "as soon as possible." Hotels.com doesn't indicate how long it will take. Customers should write to the online agency and file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. Web sites such as www.bizrate.com, www.complaints.com and www.epinions.com offer venues to post complaints about Internet businesses. Simply reading the postings might help you learn from others' mistakes. A last-ditch option for dissatisfied guests is to sue in small-claims court, said Perkins, the consumer rights advocate. "It may turn out to be more time-consuming and cause more heartache than it's worth," he said. "But it's the only legal recourse I know of open to those unable to come to terms with the agency or the hotel." Properties/Rooms The Problem: The amenities of the room you booked online, and the hotel itself, are substandard. Example: When Erin Feuillet of Damascus and a friend arrived at the North Beach Days Inn in Miami last New Year's, she was shocked. "It smelled of mold, the carpet was dirty and the lock didn't work right," she said. "It was nothing like what I expected when I booked on the company's Web site." A call to the Days Inn customer service line was not helpful. "They told us that the problem had to be resolved with the hotel's management." But there were no other rooms available at the hotel or any others in the area in her price range. "We just had to put up with it and stayed in the room as little as possible." A couple of weeks later, hotel management sent her a certificate for a two-night stay at a Days Inn resort. She doubts she'll accept the offer. Days Inn spokesman Emanuel Naim declined to comment on Feuillet's case except to say, "We're sorry that it happened." He explained that inspectors visit Days Inn properties four times a year and recommend improvements if they're needed. The Solution: If you don't like the room you're assigned, request another one. Pronto. And it never hurts to have a backup hotel in mind, particularly for long trips. Naim said dissatisfied Days Inn customers should bypass the front desk and appeal to the property manager. If that doesn't result in a satisfactory change, they should call the chain's customer service line and, finally, the president's line, a special service that addresses serious complaints. Cendant Corp., which owns Days Inn and other chains, is one of the few companies with special staff designated for dealing with hard-to-resolve cases. Spokesmen for the online agencies said customer complaints are passed on to hotels. "If customers consistently complain about a property, we will take it off the site," said Orbitz's Weinsheimer. Travelocity and Expedia have similar policies. Still, it's best to do some research before jumping on the latest Web "hot deal." Read the description of the property thoroughly. See whether a pool, health club or restaurant are on-site and what other attractions are nearby. Peruse the pictures, too, but be wary -- photographed the right way, nearly anything can look good. Also, the rating systems used by most of the online agencies can be helpful. (Travelocity, for example, uses AAA ratings and in-house inspectors for some properties and also publishes guest reviews of some of its hotels.) Calling the hotel to find out if there is construction going on might spare you lost sleep after arriving. Secondary sources are usually more objective. Start with guidebooks; the AAA and Mobil guides, which inspect many properties and rate them, are good resources. Fodor's, Frommer's and Lonely Planet often have reliable hotel reviews, too. Check Web sites such as Tripadvisor.com and HotelShark.com, which offer independent reviews by former guests (see box, Page P6). Not surprisingly, Ken Marshall, president of HotelShark, believes that online sites like his are the best places to check. "Not only do they give reports from people who have stayed in the hotels," he said, "but the information is usually much more up-to-date than that in the print guidebooks." Rates The Problem: After booking, customers sometimes find they could have snagged a cheaper room at the same property from another Web site or directly from the hotel. Example: Hotels.com is offering queen suites at the Fitzpatrick Chicago Hotel in early November for $179 a night. But when I called the hotel's toll-free number last week, an operator offered a rate of $159 for the same room. Such discrepancies are common. On Bizrate.com, six out of 22 reviewers of Hotels.com gave the firm a negative rating, mostly because they found cheaper rates by contacting the hotels or other Web sites. Readers have voiced similar complaints about other online agencies. "We try to negotiate the lowest possible rate with hotels," said Hotels.com's Diener. "But hotel room prices change constantly, sometimes several times in the course of a day. We cannot keep up with all of them." The Solution: A number of online reservations services offer guarantees that they have the lowest rate available -- and will pay the difference if you can prove them wrong. "Usually the hotel rates offered by the different agencies don't differ that much," says Jones of OneTravel. "But if you find a better one, let your agency know and get them to match it." According to Hotel.com's "lowest guaranteed-rate policy," for example, if patrons find a cheaper rate on the Web for the same property within 24 hours of making a reservation, they'll be refunded the difference. Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz offer a similar deal. Unfortunately, if you find a better rate outside the 24-hour window or through another source such as the hotel's 800 number, you're stuck with the original rate. Always comparison shop before booking. Check directly with the hotel and ask for specials or the cheapest available room. If the hotel is a chain, use both its toll-free number and Web site. Got chutzpah? Connect with a hotel manager or other person of authority and bargain. The site www.biddingfortravel.com, in which travelers say how much they paid for rooms on Priceline, offers a rough guide of how low a hotel might go. Details: Where to Turn When Booking Online ONLINE DISCOUNTERS: Sometimes simply finding the customer service numbers, e-mail addresses and snail-mail addresses for the major online hotel discounters is half the battle. We've ferreted out the information for many of the industry's biggest players and included the hours of operation for each service desk. (Note: Many sites offer a spot on their home pages where you can click to e-mail the customer service department. The agencies without street addresses told us that, as Web-based businesses, they have no mail contact for customer service.) • Hotels.com Service desk: 800-219-4606 (8 a.m.-1 a.m. daily), 800-364-0291 (1 a.m.-8 a.m. daily) E-mail: Mailing address: 10440 N. Central Expressway Suite 400, Dallas, Tex. 75231 • Expedia.com Service desk: 800-397-3342 (24/7) E-mail: (you'll get a response with a link to the site's feedback form) Mailing address: N/A • Travelocity.com Service desk: 888-709-5983 (24/7) E-mail: Mailing address: 8750 Tesoro Dr., Suite 100 San Antonio, Tex. 78217 • Orbitz.com Service desk: 888-656-4546 (24/7) E-mail: Mailing address: N/A • Travelweb.com Service desk: 866-437-8131 (24/7{rcub} E-mail: Mailing address: N/A • Quikbook.com Service desk: 800-789-9887 (Monday-Friday 9 a.m- 8 p.m., Saturday-Sunday 10 a.m.-6 p.m.) E-mail: Mailing address: 381 Park Ave. S. New York, N.Y. 10016 • PlacesToStay.com Service desk: 866-224-9765 (24/7) E-mail: Mailing address: WorldRes Inc. 1510 Fashion Island Blvd., Suite 100 San Mateo, Calif. 94404 • Lodging.com Service desk: 888-563-4464 (daily 8 a.m.-11:30 p.m.) E-mail: Mailing address: 4805 N. 30th St., Suite 103 Colorado Springs, Colo. 80919 • Hotwire.com Service desk: 866-468-9473 (24/7) E-mail: Mailing address: N/A • Priceline.com Service desk: 800-774-2354 (24/7) E-mail: Mailing address: N/A HOTEL CHAINS: For links to the major chains, check www.hotelstravel.com, an online directory of hotel and other travel-related Web sites. WHERE TO COMPLAIN: • Better Business Bureau. To report a problem, call 703-276-0100 and find the phone number of your local branch, or go to www.bbbonline.org. • Several Web sites act as trading posts where consumers can offer their views on Internet booking agencies. These include www.bizrate.com, www.complaints.com and www.epinions.com. -- Gary Lee Web Sites That Let Hotel Guests Tell All Who you gonna trust? In an online world where hotels pay for placement on travel booking sites and ad copy can be difficult to discern from editorial reviews, it's hard to know where to turn. That's why I go straight to the source: reviews from fellow travelers. Online guidebooks, such as Frommers.com, can be helpful, but there's no substitute for no-holds-barred comments from road warriors themselves. Web sites devoted to consumer reviews provide frank assessments, sometimes with dozens of critiques for a single hotel. Travelers' reviews appear on advice sites (TripAdvisor.com), general consumer sites (Epinions.com), even a major booking site (Travelocity.com). Their critiques can help you get past the glowing descriptions hotels write for themselves and go beyond the properties that surface at the top of travel booking sites because they pay to show up first. A word of caution, though: Travelers appear most motivated to write after a bad experience. Perhaps it's a way to get back at the hotel or just a method of blowing off steam. So don't base choices on one review -- look for patterns. And beware of reviews that sound like ad copy; those may be written by a PR staffer posing as a consumer. But overall I've found the vast majority of reviews to be genuine and fair, as well as a valuable tool for making informed choices about where to stay. Among the options: • TripAdvisor.com. Launched three years ago as a collection of destination advice, TripAdvisor now specializes in consumer reviews of hotels, resorts, inns and packages. More than 90,000 hotels are listed, and popular properties have 60 or more consumer reviews. Some hotels can be booked via TripAdvisor's new QuickCheck system (note: QuickCheck might not work if your computer blocks pop-up windows). Using a combination of editorial and consumer reviews, the site ranks hotels according to popularity. TripAdvisor CEO Steve Kaufer says rankings are independent of commission agreements. "In some cities, the top hotel can't be booked from our site, so we can't make any money on that," he said. The site sells sponsored links for hotels, airfares and packages, but these are clearly marked. With so much going on, navigating the site can be confusing, but it's worth the effort. Sample review for the Drake in Chicago: "The hotel staff were attentive, friendly and were able to satisfy my multiple requests. I'm not sure why others have found fault with the Drake -- perhaps they like brand new hotels where all the rooms look alike. I enjoyed my stay tremendously and will return again and again." • Travelocity.com. As a top booking site, Travelocity is to be commended for enabling its customers to post frank and sometimes scathing hotel reviews. To find reviews, select "Hotels," then choose a city. A list of hotels will be displayed with a link to "Traveler Reviews." Each reviewer rates hotels with one to five smiley faces, but much more valuable are the comments. Here's one for New York's Grand Hyatt: "This place is awful. Wallpaper is peeling off, bums outside the door, linens and towels that look like they came from a shelter." A few other reviewers echoed these sentiments, but one traveler wrote: "After reading the reviews I was very apprehensive about this hotel. I found the rooms clean and the size sufficient. The staff was very friendly and helpful." • Epinions.com. Though this isn't primarily a travel site, Epinions has thousands of reviews for hotels in the United States and abroad. Put a city name in the search box and select "Hotels and Travel." After you choose a hotel, click "Read Reviews." Most give each hotel a star ranking from one to five and rate the rooms, service and location. Above the text descriptions are lines of pros and cons. To read the full description, click "Read more" -- some reviews make Russian novelists seem concise by comparison. I found 150 hotel listings for Las Vegas. Here's one guest's take on the Bellagio: "The service at the Bellagio came nowhere near the Four Seasons. It ranged anywhere from friendly, to amateurish, to laughable, to downright rude -- particularly in the casino!" • Fodors.com. This online guidebook includes consumer reviews alongside its hotel and restaurant listings. From the home page, select "Hotels" and choose a city; you'll get a page of listings with editorial advice from Fodor's. To see what consumers think, click "User Rating ." Travelers rank hotels on a scale from one to five with grades for the room, atmosphere, service and value. The site seems to attract a knowledgeable and upscale clientele who appreciate service. Searching for a room in Paris, I found comments endorsing the Artus Hotel, with several reviewers praising the service and location. Here's one: "The staff (everyone, but especially Sanjay) was fabulous and incredibly helpful. For our last evening in Paris, Sanjay pulled strings to get us dinner reservations at a restaurant we wanted to try." • HotelShark.com. Devoted exclusively to hotel reviews and boasting an easy-to-use design, HotelShark seemed promising when it launched a couple of years ago. But it's yet to reach a critical mass -- many hotels have just one or two reviews and some major properties aren't listed. Without a selection of reviews, it's impossible to find patterns. In Atlanta, for example, only five hotels are reviewed. Here's an excerpt from one -- in fact it's the only one -- for the W Atlanta: "Away from the maddening crowd at Perimeter Center. But the coolest hotel in town." • WhereToStay.com: Covering hotels in the Caribbean, Bermuda and Hawaii, WhereToStay features consumer reviews but only for a fraction of the properties listed. To find reviews, select an island with the "Select Location" menu and check the "Reader's Rating" column. If a hotel is rated, you can click "Read" to see consumer reviews. Here's a sample review for the Crystal Cove in St. Thomas: "The unit was older and in need of painting, but in spite of this our needs were met. I want to thank Alice, the manager of the property, for assisting our every need with a smile and immediate action to make our stay comfortable." • Online forums. Discussion groups allow you to ask advice about places to stay. For example, some forums at Flyertalk.com and LonelyPlanet.com (click the Thorn Tree link) discuss hotels and offer tips from fellow travelers. Usenet groups are another excellent source; to peruse these forums, go to www.groups.google.com and enter a search term such as "New Orleans hotel." Read through the postings before asking for recommendations. These forums are based on participation, so when you get back from your next trip, pick a forum and let the world know what you think. Michael Shapiro, a frequent contributor to the Travel section, is a travel columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle and author of "Internet Travel Planner." -- Michael Shapiro © 2003 The Washington Post Company |
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Booking Hotels Online (How to Avoid the Pitfalls)
WELL worth the reading time
"Becca" wrote in message ... This article was in the Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2003Oct24.html washingtonpost.com When Hotel Sites Don't Click It seems so easy: Log on, find a deal, book. But things can go awry with online agencies. We look at the pitfalls, and how to avoid them. By Gary Lee Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, October 26, 2003; Page P01 While checking the Web for a Miami hotel last April, David Manero of Hyattsville found an irresistible deal: a $100 room at the Breakwater in South Beach offered by the Hotel Distribution Network, a discount reservations agency. That was $42 off the usual starting rate. Manero reserved four nights and prepaid with a credit card. But when he and his family arrived in August, the property had no vacant rooms and was no longer affiliated with HDN, which is based in Sanford, Fla. Manero couldn't reach an HDN operator, either, leaving him on his own to find another hotel. Two months, a dozen calls and countless e-mails later, he's still waiting for an explanation. For frequent patrons of online hotel-booking services, Manero's saga may have a familiar ring. In recent weeks, the Travel section has received correspondence from disgruntled customers of many major Internet hotel and travel booking sites (Hotels.com, Expedia.com, Travelocity.com, Quikbook.com, Orbitz.com, etc.); the sites of chains such as Days Inn and Starwood Hotels and Resorts; and some of the smaller agencies such as HDN. The complaints range from misplaced reservations to finding out they could have gotten a cheaper rate for the same hotel elsewhere. "More and more you can get some fantastic deals for rooms on the Web," said Bob Jones, a consumer advocate featured on OneTravel.com, a discount Web site. "But you have to be careful or else you could find yourself out of a lot of money with little recourse." Attempts to reach customer service personnel -- if you can even find the phone number in the online maze -- often lead to a labyrinth of recorded greetings, unhelpful form letters and ill-informed agents. When I called HDN to ask about Manero's case, I was put on hold. "Your call is important to us," a voice said at two-minute intervals. "There are four calls ahead of you." After 40 minutes, I gave up. Frequently offering discounts of 50 percent or more off regular rates, Internet hotel agencies can be a boon for travelers. And their popularity is growing: Forrester Research, a Cambridge, Mass., consulting firm, predicts that U.S. hotels will get roughly 15 percent of their revenue from online bookings in 2004, up from about 8 percent this year. As a frequent user of Internet booking agencies, I hit snags regularly. A few months ago, I reserved a room at New York's Edison Hotel with Hotels.com, one of the largest online discounters, but when I arrived the staff had no record of my reservation. After two calls to the agency, the hotel gave me a room for the price that Hotels.com had promised. More recently, I prepaid for a room at the Monaco in Denver with Priceline.com, but when I checked out, the hotel insisted I pay it directly. (Priceline later refunded my account.) Even with the most reliable companies, things don't always run smoothly. When I wanted to add a couple of days to my stay at a Miami hotel reserved through Quikbook, it was impossible to get a live operator on a Sunday afternoon. I ended up extending directly with the hotel -- at a higher rate. (Quikbook has recently added operators on weekends.) Quikbook President Ray Vastola, who says his agency rarely receives complaints, blames technology for many of the snafus other companies experience. "With millions of transactions taking place every day between agencies and hotels that operate on different [reservations] systems," he said, "some things are going to fall through the cracks." Joe McInerney, president of the American Hotel & Lodging Association in Washington, takes a more critical view. "These problems occur because most third-party hotel booking sites are in the business of selling rooms but are not well trained in hospitality or service," he said. "They are not concerned about keeping the customer satisfied." The sheer volume of rooms booked also comes into play. Although better known for selling airline tickets, Expedia and Travelocity, for example, do a whopping business in hotel reservations. Expedia says it booked more than 11 million rooms in 2002, more than any other Web agency. For its part, Travelweb.com, which launched this summer and is partly owned by several major U.S. hotel chains, wants to lure customers away from the third-party agencies. The pitch: Patrons won't experience lost reservations and other problems because the site is connected directly to the chains' booking systems, thus eliminating the middleman -- the online discounters who must transfer their clients' reservations to the hotels. Is it working? "I think it's too early to say," said Ed Perkins, an Oregon consumer travel advocate formerly with Consumer Reports Travel Letter. Whatever the process, booking online -- while often rewarding -- can be a risky endeavour. Here are some of the common problems and suggested solutions or ways to avoid them. Refunds The Problem: Receiving a refund can be difficult. Agencies tie up the process in red tape, often taking two months or longer to reimburse . Example: Manero, in his dealings with HDN, called and e-mailed the company several times after returning from his Miami trip but couldn't connect with its customer service department. I made two calls to HDN but got recordings routing me to voice mail. Two e-mails went unanswered. Eventually, Manero asked his credit card company, American Express, to intervene. He later received a letter from HDN saying a refund would be posted to his credit card. After three weeks, it arrived. Although the larger agencies declined to disclose how often refunds are requested, Michael Zaletel, president of i4vegas.com, which books Vegas resorts, said 10 to 12 percent of its customers ask for refunds. In most instances, the requests are the result of changes in travel plans, Zaletel said. Manero's case, in which no hotel room was provided, is just one of several instances in which travelers should be eligible for refunds. Others include: . Major problems with the room or service. . Cancellation of prepaid reservations made within an established time frame. . Overcharges or double-billing to a credit card. . When travel is impossible because of a hurricane or other natural disaster. Kurt Weinsheimer, vice president of hotels for Orbitz, puts it bluntly. "Hotel sites work somewhat like airlines," he said. "The deeper discount you get, the harder it is to get a refund." The Solution: Spokespeople for the major reservations sites advise customers to keep printouts of the confirmation number and all transactions, as well as familiarize themselves with the refund policies of the agency and hotel where they reserve. This is key, as eligibility requirements for refunds differ among companies, room categories and particular deals. For instance, once rooms are booked on Priceline.com and Hotwire.com, two reverse-auction travel sites, no refunds are granted. On Orbitz, some rooms are sold at special "Orbitz Saver" rates, significant discounts the company negotiates. You must pay in full at the time of booking, and to receive a full refund (minus a $25 cancellation fee), you must cancel at least 72 hours in advance. Travelers canceling less than 72 hours before arrival may qualify for partial refunds. Expedia, Travelocity and other agencies offer comparable special deals, with similar policies. By comparison, for non-deep-discounted rooms, travelers usually must cancel within 24 hours before arrival to get a refund, though you may be subject to a cancellation fee. Hotels.com charges $25 for all cancellations, for example, while Quikbook charges $10 for cancellations of prepaid rooms -- and nothing if you cancel in time for a room that wasn't prepaid. If a refund is due, go after it promptly, providing all supporting documents. Even in instances where the refund requirements are not fully met, ask for one. (Bob Diener, president of Hotels.com, said that in some extraordinary circumstances, such as a death or sickness, refund restrictions can be waived.) OneTravel's Jones recommends that travelers concerned about recouping their money should consider travel insurance. "It's important to be aware of the circumstances under which the insurance company will help you get a refund," he said. "But if you qualify, they will save you from a major headache." In all cases, customers should pin down customer service agents on how long it should take for a refund. If it does not come through by that date, contact the credit card company used for the reservation, which can do much of the legwork. Customer Service The Problem: Customer service staff at online agencies and hotel front desks can be unresponsive, unhelpful, rude or, worse, unreachable. Example: Last May, Nina Basu of Columbia used Travelocity to prepay for two nights at the Ramada Inn in White River Junction, Vt. En route, she called the hotel and learned that it had changed ownership and name -- to the Regency. A desk clerk told her they had no record of her reservation and no rooms. She then called Travelocity, which offered her lodging in Boston and other far-off locales before eventually finding her a room at the original hotel. But after the first night, she was locked out by hotel management and had to talk her way back into the room. The desk clerk said she had paid for only one night, even though she had prepaid Travelocity for two. Basu faults both the Regency and Travelocity for not dealing with her problem promptly, and "poor customer service" in general. Although Travelocity declined to comment on the specifics of Basu's case, Josh Feuerstein, vice president for the site's hotels, said the agency's "customer-service reps are especially trained to handle problems. We encourage customers with problems to contact them." Basu said she did just that. And though she got her room, it wasn't until nine weeks, eight calls and several e-mails later that she received a response to her complaints. Although she was technically not owed a refund, Travelocity granted one. "What I really wanted was an apology," she said. "And I still haven't gotten one. That makes me reluctant to deal with them anytime soon." The Solution: For urgent assistance (e.g., you arrive at 10 p.m. and find the hotel has no room), call the Web service's help desk. (For phone numbers, hours and e-mail and mailing addresses, see Page P7). Unfortunately, in many instances the person working the service desk does little more than repeat vague company positions -- and sometimes it takes a while to reach someone. If the first operator (or desk clerk) is not responsive, ask for a supervisor. "People should not be shy about pushing their cases," advises Quikbook's Vastola. Otherwise, the agencies encourage customers to send questions or problems by e-mail. Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity promise responses within about four hours any time of the day or night. Lodging.com says it will get back to you "as soon as possible." Hotels.com doesn't indicate how long it will take. Customers should write to the online agency and file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. Web sites such as www.bizrate.com, www.complaints.com and www.epinions.com offer venues to post complaints about Internet businesses. Simply reading the postings might help you learn from others' mistakes. A last-ditch option for dissatisfied guests is to sue in small-claims court, said Perkins, the consumer rights advocate. "It may turn out to be more time-consuming and cause more heartache than it's worth," he said. "But it's the only legal recourse I know of open to those unable to come to terms with the agency or the hotel." Properties/Rooms The Problem: The amenities of the room you booked online, and the hotel itself, are substandard. Example: When Erin Feuillet of Damascus and a friend arrived at the North Beach Days Inn in Miami last New Year's, she was shocked. "It smelled of mold, the carpet was dirty and the lock didn't work right," she said. "It was nothing like what I expected when I booked on the company's Web site." A call to the Days Inn customer service line was not helpful. "They told us that the problem had to be resolved with the hotel's management." But there were no other rooms available at the hotel or any others in the area in her price range. "We just had to put up with it and stayed in the room as little as possible." A couple of weeks later, hotel management sent her a certificate for a two-night stay at a Days Inn resort. She doubts she'll accept the offer. Days Inn spokesman Emanuel Naim declined to comment on Feuillet's case except to say, "We're sorry that it happened." He explained that inspectors visit Days Inn properties four times a year and recommend improvements if they're needed. The Solution: If you don't like the room you're assigned, request another one. Pronto. And it never hurts to have a backup hotel in mind, particularly for long trips. Naim said dissatisfied Days Inn customers should bypass the front desk and appeal to the property manager. If that doesn't result in a satisfactory change, they should call the chain's customer service line and, finally, the president's line, a special service that addresses serious complaints. Cendant Corp., which owns Days Inn and other chains, is one of the few companies with special staff designated for dealing with hard-to-resolve cases. Spokesmen for the online agencies said customer complaints are passed on to hotels. "If customers consistently complain about a property, we will take it off the site," said Orbitz's Weinsheimer. Travelocity and Expedia have similar policies. Still, it's best to do some research before jumping on the latest Web "hot deal." Read the description of the property thoroughly. See whether a pool, health club or restaurant are on-site and what other attractions are nearby. Peruse the pictures, too, but be wary -- photographed the right way, nearly anything can look good. Also, the rating systems used by most of the online agencies can be helpful. (Travelocity, for example, uses AAA ratings and in-house inspectors for some properties and also publishes guest reviews of some of its hotels.) Calling the hotel to find out if there is construction going on might spare you lost sleep after arriving. Secondary sources are usually more objective. Start with guidebooks; the AAA and Mobil guides, which inspect many properties and rate them, are good resources. Fodor's, Frommer's and Lonely Planet often have reliable hotel reviews, too. Check Web sites such as Tripadvisor.com and HotelShark.com, which offer independent reviews by former guests (see box, Page P6). Not surprisingly, Ken Marshall, president of HotelShark, believes that online sites like his are the best places to check. "Not only do they give reports from people who have stayed in the hotels," he said, "but the information is usually much more up-to-date than that in the print guidebooks." Rates The Problem: After booking, customers sometimes find they could have snagged a cheaper room at the same property from another Web site or directly from the hotel. Example: Hotels.com is offering queen suites at the Fitzpatrick Chicago Hotel in early November for $179 a night. But when I called the hotel's toll-free number last week, an operator offered a rate of $159 for the same room. Such discrepancies are common. On Bizrate.com, six out of 22 reviewers of Hotels.com gave the firm a negative rating, mostly because they found cheaper rates by contacting the hotels or other Web sites. Readers have voiced similar complaints about other online agencies. "We try to negotiate the lowest possible rate with hotels," said Hotels.com's Diener. "But hotel room prices change constantly, sometimes several times in the course of a day. We cannot keep up with all of them." The Solution: A number of online reservations services offer guarantees that they have the lowest rate available -- and will pay the difference if you can prove them wrong. "Usually the hotel rates offered by the different agencies don't differ that much," says Jones of OneTravel. "But if you find a better one, let your agency know and get them to match it." According to Hotel.com's "lowest guaranteed-rate policy," for example, if patrons find a cheaper rate on the Web for the same property within 24 hours of making a reservation, they'll be refunded the difference. Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz offer a similar deal. Unfortunately, if you find a better rate outside the 24-hour window or through another source such as the hotel's 800 number, you're stuck with the original rate. Always comparison shop before booking. Check directly with the hotel and ask for specials or the cheapest available room. If the hotel is a chain, use both its toll-free number and Web site. Got chutzpah? Connect with a hotel manager or other person of authority and bargain. The site www.biddingfortravel.com, in which travelers say how much they paid for rooms on Priceline, offers a rough guide of how low a hotel might go. Details: Where to Turn When Booking Online ONLINE DISCOUNTERS: Sometimes simply finding the customer service numbers, e-mail addresses and snail-mail addresses for the major online hotel discounters is half the battle. We've ferreted out the information for many of the industry's biggest players and included the hours of operation for each service desk. (Note: Many sites offer a spot on their home pages where you can click to e-mail the customer service department. The agencies without street addresses told us that, as Web-based businesses, they have no mail contact for customer service.) . Hotels.com Service desk: 800-219-4606 (8 a.m.-1 a.m. daily), 800-364-0291 (1 a.m.-8 a.m. daily) E-mail: Mailing address: 10440 N. Central Expressway Suite 400, Dallas, Tex. 75231 . Expedia.com Service desk: 800-397-3342 (24/7) E-mail: (you'll get a response with a link to the site's feedback form) Mailing address: N/A . Travelocity.com Service desk: 888-709-5983 (24/7) E-mail: Mailing address: 8750 Tesoro Dr., Suite 100 San Antonio, Tex. 78217 . Orbitz.com Service desk: 888-656-4546 (24/7) E-mail: Mailing address: N/A . Travelweb.com Service desk: 866-437-8131 (24/7{rcub} E-mail: Mailing address: N/A . Quikbook.com Service desk: 800-789-9887 (Monday-Friday 9 a.m- 8 p.m., Saturday-Sunday 10 a.m.-6 p.m.) E-mail: Mailing address: 381 Park Ave. S. New York, N.Y. 10016 . PlacesToStay.com Service desk: 866-224-9765 (24/7) E-mail: Mailing address: WorldRes Inc. 1510 Fashion Island Blvd., Suite 100 San Mateo, Calif. 94404 . Lodging.com Service desk: 888-563-4464 (daily 8 a.m.-11:30 p.m.) E-mail: Mailing address: 4805 N. 30th St., Suite 103 Colorado Springs, Colo. 80919 . Hotwire.com Service desk: 866-468-9473 (24/7) E-mail: Mailing address: N/A . Priceline.com Service desk: 800-774-2354 (24/7) E-mail: Mailing address: N/A HOTEL CHAINS: For links to the major chains, check www.hotelstravel.com, an online directory of hotel and other travel-related Web sites. WHERE TO COMPLAIN: . Better Business Bureau. To report a problem, call 703-276-0100 and find the phone number of your local branch, or go to www.bbbonline.org. . Several Web sites act as trading posts where consumers can offer their views on Internet booking agencies. These include www.bizrate.com, www.complaints.com and www.epinions.com. -- Gary Lee Web Sites That Let Hotel Guests Tell All Who you gonna trust? In an online world where hotels pay for placement on travel booking sites and ad copy can be difficult to discern from editorial reviews, it's hard to know where to turn. That's why I go straight to the source: reviews from fellow travelers. Online guidebooks, such as Frommers.com, can be helpful, but there's no substitute for no-holds-barred comments from road warriors themselves. Web sites devoted to consumer reviews provide frank assessments, sometimes with dozens of critiques for a single hotel. Travelers' reviews appear on advice sites (TripAdvisor.com), general consumer sites (Epinions.com), even a major booking site (Travelocity.com). Their critiques can help you get past the glowing descriptions hotels write for themselves and go beyond the properties that surface at the top of travel booking sites because they pay to show up first. A word of caution, though: Travelers appear most motivated to write after a bad experience. Perhaps it's a way to get back at the hotel or just a method of blowing off steam. So don't base choices on one review -- look for patterns. And beware of reviews that sound like ad copy; those may be written by a PR staffer posing as a consumer. But overall I've found the vast majority of reviews to be genuine and fair, as well as a valuable tool for making informed choices about where to stay. Among the options: . TripAdvisor.com. Launched three years ago as a collection of destination advice, TripAdvisor now specializes in consumer reviews of hotels, resorts, inns and packages. More than 90,000 hotels are listed, and popular properties have 60 or more consumer reviews. Some hotels can be booked via TripAdvisor's new QuickCheck system (note: QuickCheck might not work if your computer blocks pop-up windows). Using a combination of editorial and consumer reviews, the site ranks hotels according to popularity. TripAdvisor CEO Steve Kaufer says rankings are independent of commission agreements. "In some cities, the top hotel can't be booked from our site, so we can't make any money on that," he said. The site sells sponsored links for hotels, airfares and packages, but these are clearly marked. With so much going on, navigating the site can be confusing, but it's worth the effort. Sample review for the Drake in Chicago: "The hotel staff were attentive, friendly and were able to satisfy my multiple requests. I'm not sure why others have found fault with the Drake -- perhaps they like brand new hotels where all the rooms look alike. I enjoyed my stay tremendously and will return again and again." . Travelocity.com. As a top booking site, Travelocity is to be commended for enabling its customers to post frank and sometimes scathing hotel reviews. To find reviews, select "Hotels," then choose a city. A list of hotels will be displayed with a link to "Traveler Reviews." Each reviewer rates hotels with one to five smiley faces, but much more valuable are the comments. Here's one for New York's Grand Hyatt: "This place is awful. Wallpaper is peeling off, bums outside the door, linens and towels that look like they came from a shelter." A few other reviewers echoed these sentiments, but one traveler wrote: "After reading the reviews I was very apprehensive about this hotel. I found the rooms clean and the size sufficient. The staff was very friendly and helpful." . Epinions.com. Though this isn't primarily a travel site, Epinions has thousands of reviews for hotels in the United States and abroad. Put a city name in the search box and select "Hotels and Travel." After you choose a hotel, click "Read Reviews." Most give each hotel a star ranking from one to five and rate the rooms, service and location. Above the text descriptions are lines of pros and cons. To read the full description, click "Read more" -- some reviews make Russian novelists seem concise by comparison. I found 150 hotel listings for Las Vegas. Here's one guest's take on the Bellagio: "The service at the Bellagio came nowhere near the Four Seasons. It ranged anywhere from friendly, to amateurish, to laughable, to downright rude -- particularly in the casino!" . Fodors.com. This online guidebook includes consumer reviews alongside its hotel and restaurant listings. From the home page, select "Hotels" and choose a city; you'll get a page of listings with editorial advice from Fodor's. To see what consumers think, click "User Rating ." Travelers rank hotels on a scale from one to five with grades for the room, atmosphere, service and value. The site seems to attract a knowledgeable and upscale clientele who appreciate service. Searching for a room in Paris, I found comments endorsing the Artus Hotel, with several reviewers praising the service and location. Here's one: "The staff (everyone, but especially Sanjay) was fabulous and incredibly helpful. For our last evening in Paris, Sanjay pulled strings to get us dinner reservations at a restaurant we wanted to try." . HotelShark.com. Devoted exclusively to hotel reviews and boasting an easy-to-use design, HotelShark seemed promising when it launched a couple of years ago. But it's yet to reach a critical mass -- many hotels have just one or two reviews and some major properties aren't listed. Without a selection of reviews, it's impossible to find patterns. In Atlanta, for example, only five hotels are reviewed. Here's an excerpt from one -- in fact it's the only one -- for the W Atlanta: "Away from the maddening crowd at Perimeter Center. But the coolest hotel in town." . WhereToStay.com: Covering hotels in the Caribbean, Bermuda and Hawaii, WhereToStay features consumer reviews but only for a fraction of the properties listed. To find reviews, select an island with the "Select Location" menu and check the "Reader's Rating" column. If a hotel is rated, you can click "Read" to see consumer reviews. Here's a sample review for the Crystal Cove in St. Thomas: "The unit was older and in need of painting, but in spite of this our needs were met. I want to thank Alice, the manager of the property, for assisting our every need with a smile and immediate action to make our stay comfortable." . Online forums. Discussion groups allow you to ask advice about places to stay. For example, some forums at Flyertalk.com and LonelyPlanet.com (click the Thorn Tree link) discuss hotels and offer tips from fellow travelers. Usenet groups are another excellent source; to peruse these forums, go to www.groups.google.com and enter a search term such as "New Orleans hotel." Read through the postings before asking for recommendations. These forums are based on participation, so when you get back from your next trip, pick a forum and let the world know what you think. Michael Shapiro, a frequent contributor to the Travel section, is a travel columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle and author of "Internet Travel Planner." -- Michael Shapiro © 2003 The Washington Post Company |
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Booking Hotels Online (How to Avoid the Pitfalls)
priceline hotels sometimes have a hidden extra charge to park 12-20
bucks a night or more |
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Booking Hotels Online (How to Avoid the Pitfalls)
In article ,
steve wrote: priceline hotels sometimes have a hidden extra charge to park 12-20 bucks a night or more That is nothing specific to Priceline. Hotels are not motels. Hotels in general don't usually include parking. -- Charles |
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Booking Hotels Online (How to Avoid the Pitfalls)
Charles wrote:
In article , steve wrote: priceline hotels sometimes have a hidden extra charge to park 12-20 bucks a night or more That is nothing specific to Priceline. Hotels are not motels. Hotels in general don't usually include parking. What's really funny Charles is that you can now pay more for hotel parking than for your room (e.g., all those folks who booked the Miami Hyatt at $27/day). Wouldn't it be cool if priceline let you bid on hotel parking, airport parking, etc? Howie |
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Booking Hotels Online (How to Avoid the Pitfalls)
On Mon, 01 Dec 2003 21:21:53 -0500, Charles
wrote: That is nothing specific to Priceline. Hotels are not motels. Hotels in general don't usually include parking. Hi Charles, You are correct. Last Monday I was at the Ritz Carlton in Marina del Rey. The parking was $23 a night for hotel guests. You would think for the minimum hotel room rate of $329 they could have thrown in parking. g Best regards, Ray LIGHTHOUSE TRAVEL 800-719-9917 or 805-566-3905 http://www.lighthousetravel.com |
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Booking Hotels Online (How to Avoid the Pitfalls)
It used to be the exception, not the rule that a Hotel would charge for parking.
Now it is as seen as another revenue stream. Usually it is the "Prestige" Hotels and those in high density cities that charge for parking and anything else they can think of. Cal Ford http://www.lidodeckcruises.com 800-511-4417 In article , Charles says... In article , steve wrote: priceline hotels sometimes have a hidden extra charge to park 12-20 bucks a night or more That is nothing specific to Priceline. Hotels are not motels. Hotels in general don't usually include parking. -- Charles |
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