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Unnatural disaster: What to do when your hotel
doesn’t have room
July 14, 2012

The deadly storms that left
large swaths of the East Coast without power just before the Fourth of July holiday provided an
uncomfortable lesson to hotel guests like Ken White: Always call to confirm your reservation — especially
when the place you’re visiting is reeling from a natural disaster.

White lives in Charlottesville, Va., an area that was hit hard by the
hurricane-force winds. Many residents were struggling to stay cool
in record-breaking heat, and checking into an air-conditioned hotel
nearby was a popular solution.

Maybe a little too popular.

“I made reservations at the Hilton Garden Inn for Sunday and
Monday night,” says White, a college marketing professor. “My
credit card was charged, and I was given a confirmation number
by Expedia.”

But when he tried to pick up his room key on Sunday, a hotel
representative said that White didn’t have a reservation and turned
him away. The Hilton, like all the other hotels in the area, was
fully booked.

Getting to the bottom of White’s reservation problem was only slightly easier than finding a hotel room in
Charlottesville after a power outage, it turns out. For starters, White sent me a complaint and then vanished.
Repeated phone calls and e-mails to him went unanswered, which can happen during a popular vacation
week — or when portions of Charlottesville remain without electricity for more than a week.

An Expedia spokeswoman said that the online travel agency wouldn’t comment on White’s case unless I
provided a confirmation number. I contacted Hilton for a statement, and it, too, refused to say anything at
the corporate level, deferring instead to the hotel White had tried to stay in, which it said is a franchise
property.

Finally, I reached Eric Pfister, the general manager at the Hilton Garden Inn in Charlottesville. He
confirmed the details of White’s story. Pfister said that on Saturday, June 30, in the wake of the massive
thunderstorms, his 124-room hotel quickly sold out.

The Hilton Garden Inn connects to Expedia through an electronic
reservations system, and it also receives faxes from the online
travel agency as a backup. Hilton’s system was showing the
property as fully booked for Sunday and Monday night, but for
some reason, Expedia didn’t get the message. It continued to
confirm reservations and send backup faxes, which were piling up

fast.

“It was a bad situation,” Pfister says.

Hilton tried to contact Expedia, asking it to stop accepting new
reservations. Eventually it did, but the hotel had to turn away nine
guests the next day, including White.

It’s unclear whether this was an isolated problem or whether other
Hilton properties working with Expedia were affected by the
reservations system glitch. With this new information from Hilton,
I again asked Expedia whether it could help me understand how these surplus reservations happened. It
declined to comment.

When a hotel can’t accommodate a guest because it’s overbooked, the standard industry practice is to send
that person to a comparable hotel and to pay for the first night’s reservation. That would have happened to
White and the other displaced customers, except that there were no available rooms in the region.

In such cases, a hotel’s options are limited, says Stephen Barth, a professor of hospitality law at the
University of Houston and founder of the Web site HospitalityLawyer.com. A property can still
accommodate a guest by setting up a rollaway bed in the lobby, which sometimes happens during a natural
disaster. It can also rent rooms in eight-hour shifts, giving guests a chance to freshen up, or it can allow
them to use the showers at the pool.

“Overbookings like this tend to happen at large events, like the Super Bowl or Formula 1,” Barth says.
“They’re usually caused by guests overstaying their reservations, but they can also happen after a natural
disaster, like a hurricane on an island with a limited number of hotel rooms.”

The best way to avoid being turned away, he says, is to take a couple of preventive measures. White could
have sidestepped the situation by booking directly through the Hilton Web site or by calling its reservations
number. (White’s confirmation contained an Expedia confirmation but didn’t have a corresponding
confirmation from Hilton, according to Pfister.)

Also, Barth says, “always contact the hotel and confirm the reservation.” That’s particularly important when
you’re booking through a third party, such as an online travel agency. When your stay falls during a major
event — a college homecoming, a large convention or even a big storm, all of which can affect hotel
occupancy rates — double-checking is a must.

Had White called the Hilton Garden Inn, he would have known that he didn’t have a room, and he could
have phoned Expedia to re-book him elsewhere or made other plans.

Making matters worse, the hotel doesn’t even know which customers were turned away. Pfister says that
Expedia didn’t give it the guests’ names, so he’s unable to contact them to apologize and make it right.
Which is exactly what he says he wants to do.

“We feel bad,” he says. “We don’t like to turn guests away.”

Pfister says he hopes that White and the others who didn’t have a place to sleep on Sunday night will
contact him directly. He promises that he’ll do whatever he can to make it up to them.

Who's responsible for Ken White's failed hotel stay?
The Hilton Garden Inn

Expedia

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Showing 40 of 46 comments Sort by oldest first

lost_in_travel

Tough situation - but it sounds like the Hilton Garden Inn wants to apologize
for a situation they really did not create. At least Ken White had a home to
go back to - albeit with no electricity.

I hope only nine people respond to Pfister, it would really say something
about scam artists if many more reply.

By the way, what happened to the Expedia credit card charge - was it
refunded by Expedia?

1 day ago 1 Like Like Reply

Christopher Elliott, Consumer advocate and journalist.

Expedia refuses to comment. I tried repeatedly to get it to talk. I'm a
little disappointed by its refusal to say anything about this issue.

1 day ago in reply to lost_in_travel 3 Likes Like Reply

LadyLightTravel

I would say that the refusal to talk is a statement unto itself,
don't you think? A reputable TA would at least issue a
statement saying "we're investigating."

1 day ago in reply to Christopher Elliott Like Reply
2 Likes

rgoltsch

Expedia has always tried to make us think that they are a travel agency.
Situations like this prove that they are not. A real travel agency would have
been there with the client making things right and finding them something,
somewhere to sleep.Sites like Expedia want to charge customers money for a
service...and when things go wrong, don't back up that service promise with
real assistance.

Over and over again we hear from writers such as Chris telling us to confirm
our reservation with the actual provider....doing the legwork a travel agent
would do for us.

And for the record, I am an experienced business traveler......not a travel agent

1 day ago 6 Likes Like Reply

TonyA_says

Expedia, Travelocity and other OTA sites are D-I-Y (do it yourself)
travel sites; while a professional travel agent would do the legwork for
you (so they may charge a fee).

1 day ago in reply to rgoltsch Like Reply

Susan Fox

I'm done using any of those third party sites and do my bookings now directly
with the airline, hotels and car rental agencies. Expedia's non-response in this
case just confirms the wisdom of doing so.


Wayne Dayton

This is the 110th reason why nobody should book with Expedia. Their refusal
to comment says all we need to know about their incompetence, negligence,
corporate greed, and unethical business culture. Dara Khosrowshahi, shame
on you. You exemplify the sanctimonius, customer-be-damned attitude of your
mentor, Bill Gates. Why hasn't he responded, perhaps crying because the way
TD Canada Trust has been the closing the accounts of his compatriots? Now
you know how being treated like crap is like, Dara, you're getting a taste of
your own medicine. Hilton is standing up to the plate on this one, Expedia and
the Gates New World Order needs to be taught the sternest of marketplace
lessons...a radical shift in booking patterns leading to Chapter 11.


Michael__K

It's remarkable to me that in 2012 OTA's are sending hotels reservations by
paper faxes. If multiple OTA's are faxing these reservations in parallel, what
mechanism is there to prevent overbookings?

I've had similar experiences a few times checking in with a Priceline
reservation and being told that the hotel had no record of it. In each case,
Priceline told me the reservation was faxed to the hotel. I always got a room
eventually. Not always at the original hotel, but I did get the first night free
whenever I was walked. It was nonetheless an unwelcome 30 to 90 minute
hassle (between time spent on hold with Priceline and time spent waiting for
Priceline and the hotel to get on the same page).

1 day ago Like Reply


I was shocked by the paper fax detail, too.

1 day ago in reply to Michael__K 1 Like Like Reply

bodega3

Inventory on OTA's IS NOT live. Between the time they sell
the rate, in a situation like a disaster where local are looking
for accommodation, the lax in time can affect your
confirmation. Just like when you book your air and get a
message back.

I know for fact, that in disaster situations, most hotels give
huge discounts to locals. Why the heck a local wouldn't call
the hotel directly raises huge questions for me.

1 day ago in reply to Christopher Elliott Like Reply
2 Likes

Carver Clark Farrow II

What question does it raise?

23 hours ago in reply to bodega3 Like Reply

bodega3

The main one is why would he go to a OTA
for a local hotel before calling the hotel during
a disaster situation? Hurricane winds knock
power out, messages don't get through. Hotels
offer discounted rates at time like these, but
not online as you need to be a local to get
them. Online and calling the toll free number
doesn't get the hotel the confirmation number
right away. They don't see the reservation,
they sell out the rooms due to front desk
demands.

19 hours ago Like Reply
in reply to Carver Clark
Farrow II


Why would he know any of that?

1 hour ago Like Reply
in reply to bodega3

Michael__K

Why does a hotel enter into an agreement that allows
an OTA to fax it reservation after reservation without
confirmation or controls to ensure availability?

Especially in the case of Priceline, where customers
placing opaque bids often have to check back later for
the outcome. If an automated channel exists for
verifying live inventory, then I see no reason why this
step wouldn't be taken during that wait.

I've had several experiences which demonstrate that
this problem is not limited to disaster situations.

If as TonyA_says suggests, the OTA acquires it's
own dedicated inventory from the hotel, then it seems
the hotel carries some responsibility. If the hotel
decides to revoke the OTA's dedicated inventory and
re-assign it to others -- without first reaching the OTA
and ensuring that this dedicated inventory is taken
offline from the OTA's systems -- then more snafus
like the OP's are a predictable outcome.

10 hours ago in reply to bodega3 Like Reply

TonyA_says

michael, it depends on the terms of the
agreement. We do not know what that
property signed with Expedia. However, the
manager said they told Expedia to stop
booking. So something is wrong with
Expedia's process. Too asynchronous.

in reply to Michael__K

MarkKelling

Yet another reason to book directly instead of through some internet
consolidator.

If I was attempting to get a hotel room or rental car in an area that was in the
middle of a natural disaster, I sure would have called them directly to verify
that not only they got my request but that they would also be able to fill my
request. Every time there is a hurricane threat to Houston (where I travel to a
lot) everyone rents a car and leaves town (or the rental companies move their
vehicles to a safer location) and it is a couple weeks before the rental car
inventory gets back to normal. This means there are not always cars for those
wanting them. Same with hotel rooms (well, the hotels aren't moving the
rooms elsewhere, but they are occupied by people who can't get back home).

I can't believe that reservations are still faxed to hotels that are part of a major
chain or part of any online reservation system. I thought everyone would book
electronically these days removing the need for any papers to change hands.
It is easy to see how a hotel could get overbooked in this situation. They
might only have a dozen rooms available, but receive 30 - 40 faxed
reservation requests from agencies resulting in a lot of disappointed arriving
guests especially when the booking agent never lets them know no actual
confirmation from the property was provided.


y_p_w

I don't know about paper FAXes. Those are rather antiquated. A lot
of companies are moving to fully electronic imaging sent via FAX.
My computers have FAX capabilities to send and electronic document
via FAX protocol. No paper is actually scanned, and even if printed
after receipt the copy is nice and sharp without those funky aliasing
artifacts from scanning a real piece of paper. Most large corporate
FAX systems are dumped into data storage rather than paper. They
don't have to worry about running out of paper and the electronic
storage makes for a very good archive.

I do remember arriving once at a hotel that I got via Priceline. Their
computer systems were malfunctioning and they couldn't bring
anything up. However, I saw that they had a paper file, and the desk
clerk said that they updated it with individual printouts for open
reservations every hour. I think they also checked for cancelled
reservations and marked those in the file too. He pulled out my
reservation file and had me sign it directly. I think that's normally
what they do.

I could imagine a combination of electronic bookings that aren't being
properly transmitted due to down systems, in combination with walk-
up customers could make things interesting if it gets overbooked.

1 day ago in reply to MarkKelling 1 Like Like Reply

MarkKelling

When I said "papers" I meant the documents that were faxed
whether they were physical pages or the electronic form. And
yes, most faxes these days are dumped into electronic storage
so there is no actual paper involved.

Still, someone on the receiving end has to know to look for
those faxes and enter them into their reservation system which
is still a manual process even if all it takes is a couple clicks
of the computer mouse.

Any system that is not integrated, automatic, and fully

electronic requiring a person to do something within the
process flow is open to failure.

1 day ago in reply to y_p_w Like Reply

MarkieA

Question about a comment you made, Chris. You said that, sometimes during
natural disasters, hotels will book rooms for 8 hours at a time. I'm curious, in
your experience, do they charge 1/3 of the daily rate when they do this? Or do
they tend to take advantage of the situation and charge the full daily rate - or
more?

1 day ago Like Reply


I didn't get into that in the story. From my personal experience, the
room rate would be adjusted based on the length of your stay. I once
checked into a hotel at 2 a.m. after a long flight and checked out the
next morning at 8 a.m., and was charged a half-day rate.

1 day ago in reply to MarkieA 1 Like Like Reply

Raven_Altosk

So did Scampedia give him his money back?

I'm confused...the article says his card was charged...but...what happened to
that money?

Just another reason to avoid third party sites...especially when they refuse to
answer questions about their issues. Doesn't give the consumers a warm and
fuzzy feeling.


TonyA_says

LOL, Scampedia !!!

1 day ago in reply to Raven_Altosk 1 Like Like Reply

TonyA_says

Seriously though ... Re: “My credit card was charged, and I was given
a confirmation number by Expedia.”

This is what makes this smell a bit like a fraud. If some takes my
money, I expect a room.

1 day ago in reply to Raven_Altosk 1 Like Like Reply


Doesn't sound like fraud to me, more likely just incompetence
stemming from a antiquated system, i.e. paper faxes

23 hours ago in reply to TonyA_says Like Reply


Expedia won't say, and I haven't been able to reach the guest. I've left
numerous voice mails and sent him several emails. I think he's either
on vacation or still without power.

1 day ago in reply to Raven_Altosk Like Reply

AAmerican1

Another example IMO why it is better to deal with either the hotel website or
directly with the property than using third party consolidators.


andrelot

Dealing with the hotel website? Probably. Dealing by phone? No way.
Phone reservations are the worst possible, there are no confirmation of
receipt whatsoever.

1 day ago in reply to AAmerican1 Like Reply

y_p_w

All depends. I remember booking a room while on the road
via the Holiday hotel 800 number. The operator asked for my
email address so I could receive confirmation if I got to a
place with internet access and for my permanent records. To
this day I still have the email with confirmation number and
rate.

It was odd though. The operator offered me a voucher for $20
dining credit for an additional $8, and I took it. It seemed to
make sense to me. When I arrived, the desk clerk said the deal
wasn't good, but to make it up to me I just got the voucher for
free. Personally I thought that just sticking to the deal would
have made for sense for the hotel, but I just rolled with it.

1 day ago in reply to andrelot 1 Like Like Reply

AAmerican1

Really?

I have email confirmations from 3 hotels I made reservations
with for this month & August. All were made direct with hotel
property by phone.

1 day ago in reply to andrelot 1 Like Like Reply

Jeff Shelby

Had a very similar situation occur last summer in Austin with Hotels.com. Got
to the property I'd booked and they were full, they'd tried to contact
Hotels.com to let them know (two other families were in same situation), etc.

The difference was that Hotels.com was fabulous. Took about fifteen minutes
on the phone, but they were incredibly apologetic, moved us about five
minutes away to another hotel, which was an upgrade from original hotel, and
sent me a $100 voucher that was good for a year. A customer service rep also
followed up about two days later to again apologize and make sure that
everything had worked out.

I'm not a huge fan of third party booking sites - I'd used it on a lark for that
trip - but I was impressed by their response to the problem. It's incredibly
frustrating to see Expedia run and hide.


TonyA_says

There is NO DIFFERENCE. Hotels.com is an Expedia brand and
owned company. :-)

1 day ago in reply to Jeff Shelby 2 Likes Like Reply


Surprising, companies within the same hotel brand can be
very different. I mean Marriott owns/manages both the Ritz-
Carlton and the Fairfield Hotels


jerryatric

Lives in the same city yet goes through Expedia. How much did he save?
Probably only a couple of $ - if that. AGAIN I always go direct, & check out
online companies as well. In most cases the savings difference is not worth the
hassle & I end up booking direct. I get the name of the person, confirmation
number & almost have never had a problem. I do the same with car rentals &
airlines. And if there is a problem explaining it to the front desk in a precise,
friendly manner gets it cleared up in a hurry
Doing business with any of these online agencies is not worth it.


bodega3

He probably didn't save. Local hotels often give huge discounts to
locals during disaster situations. People who rely on the internet are
lemmings.

1 day ago in reply to jerryatric Like Reply

TonyA_says

Lives in the same city yet goes through Expedia - EXACTLY !!!
Charlottesville ain't that big. It is a pretty university [of Virginia]
town.
He must have gone for the cheaper PRE-PAID non-refundable rate
offered by Expedia.

1 day ago in reply to jerryatric 1 Like Like Reply


Help me out. I've never used Expedia. What's the difference
between a local using Expedia and a non-local?


TonyA_says

he could have made a local call or swing by the hotel.
that is a small town.

in reply to Carver Clark Farrow II


But why would he? If the computer system
accepts the reservation what would put him on
notice that it wasn't a done deal? Why drive
across town when you believe, albeit
erroneously, that you have a confirmation.

1 hour ago Like Reply
in reply to TonyA_says

bodega3

Expedia will not have a local rate listed. Many hotels
give locals discounts, but you have to contact the hotel
directly to get it and show an ID at time of checkin.

in reply to Carver Clark Farrow II

TonyA_says

Christopher Elliott
Perhaps there is something more to this story and it might be important to
readers of your site.
The Hilton Garden Inn at Charlottesville,VA is an Expedia Special Rate (ESR)
property . That means the hotel participates in Expedia's Net Rate program,
where it gives Expedia a deeply discounted net price (a big percentage off the
Best Available Rate) and then Expedia marks it up when it sells to the public.
You can see from the attached pic that Expedia sells a discounted rate for this
hotel, however that rate is prepaid.

So now the $64K question is what about room inventory allocation ???
I suppose that as part of the contract with Expedia, the hotel would allocate a
certain amount of rooms for Expedia.

Normally room reservations are sent to the hotel via a GDS. The hotel's
reservation system can easily display room availability and (automatically)
confirm reservations. Expedia also offers an alternative way for hotels to hook
up with them using Expedia Quick Connect. In their Best Practices section,
they state:

If Expedia QuickConnect® functionality is down, bookings will
revert to fax or email and availability and rates can be manually
updated on the Extranet until the issue is corrected.

But what happens when there is a power [or network] blackout and the hotel's
reservation system is down? Can Expedia keep on selling prepaid rooms
assuming they have a "guaranteed" room allocation from the hotel? Assuming
Expedia keeps on sending faxes, isn't that one-way communication and still
requires some acknowledgment from the hotel that rooms are still available? If
that is the case, then what exactly are customers pre-paying Expedia for, if
they can't be sure they have a room?

Did Expedia return the OP's money?


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But why would he? If the computer system accepts the reservation what would
put him on notice that it wasn't a done deal? Why drive across town when you
believe, albeit erroneously, that you have a...

Unnatural disaster: What to do when your hotel doesn’t have room · 1 hour ago


Why would he know any of that?

Unnatural disaster: What to do when your hotel doesn’t have room · 1 hour ago

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HospitalityLawyer.com | Christopher Elliott Article | What To Do When Your Hotel Doesn't Have Room - Stephen Barth