Because this happened yet again, I feel compelled to write a post on a subject I have written on before. Not the least of which my whole Travel Tips and Advice book was written to provide this same advice. It is unfortunate that the people who NEED to read this are likely never going to. Hopefully, you will be one who doesn't make this same mistake.
I have often lamented the fact that some who travel do not print out the details of their trip and they land at the airport and start calling arounf trying to figure out which hotel they made a reservation at. Recently, I received a call from our sister hotel (same franchise) asking if I had a room for "Monroe". I said no but we had a room at an agreeable rate available so they sent the party BACK to the airport on their shuttle so the party could get OUR shuttle.
When they arrived, they insisted they had a reservation but I commented only in the sense that the other hotel had called and asked if we 1) had their reservation and 2) had a room available. It turned out that they had called 'some' number (they thought it was ours) from the airport, had reserved a room at the identical rate I had quoted and had provided a credit card number. They even had a name - Mike, who had told them he wasn't actually at the hotel but would make the reservation.
Needless to say, my name isn't Mike and even though the rate was the same, they had not made a reservation with either me or our central reservation system. (I checked) Plus, the 9 digit 'confirmation' number they had been provided was not one of our confirmation numbers for ANY hotel in our chain. They knew if they stayed with us they would be charged as a no-show somewhere else, so in the end (after 15 minutes of trying to help them) they decided to wait 25 minutes for a shuttle back to the airport and then wanted to try to determine who they had called and whether they had a reservation somewhere.
Overall, because they did not take good notes to know who they had called in the beginning, they spent almost an hour going to the (first) wrong hotel and perhaps another 45 minutes going back to the airport to then come to the second wrong hotel (ours). Now they were facing another 30 minutes just to return to square one and of course there is no telling whether they ever figured out where they were going.
As I have often advised, most mistakes made in the world of travel happen because people are too pre-occupied trying to do too many things. So it is important to write ALL the details down when facing such a situation, details like hotel name and address at the least. Had the 'Monroes' done so, they likely would have been in bed instead of sitting outside our hotel waiting to head back to the airport for a still unknown destination, which at best would require another wait for a shuttle. I'm not sure about you, but I would be furious having spent 2 hours wandering around only to end up with a undetermined outcome. But then, I know to take good notes!
Comments