Dealing with the hotel and priceline

[ditchdj]

All right, so I had to go back to Michigan to get my daughter from my mother's house. Since she is pulling her shit my wife and I decide to book a hotel (of course it has to have a pool for her). So anyway we book one at priceline.com. We get there Saturday evening on July 22nd to find a big sign on the door saying the pool is out of order "until further notice". My wife's pissed about it since the website said it had a pool. My wife mentions it to the clerk and the clerk cheerfully says she can cancel the reservation and directs us to the Comfort Inn down the street that has a pool. She writes down a cancellation number for us. We ask if the money was already taken out of our account would it be returned. She says it's no problem and that it'll be returned in 2 to 3 days. I'm thinking "This is going strangely smoothly." With most businesses today trying to squeeze as much money as they can out of everyone I cant picture a hotel clerk so cheerfully willing, without us asking her to do it first, refund our reservation like that. Sure enough, my suspicions were confirmed when:

a. My money was NOT refunded
b. A call to the hotel ended with the clerk telling me only the manager can handle refunds (and of course she's not there til tomorrow)
c. A reply to an email to priceline.com tells me there's still a valid reservation :confused:

So anyway priceline.com emailed me to tell me to call them. I did and they said they have to investigate it and confirm everything and that I'd receive a reply in 2 to 3 days. So did I do everything right or is there something else I should do for now???

[PuckishOne]

You're doing everything right so far as I can tell, ditchdj. Not sure what the deal was with the abnormally easy first "cancellation" - sounds like that hotel's got some kind of communication issues.

My only advice is to be vigilant - if Priceline doesn't call you back within their deadline, call them and make sure things are being settled. Also contact your bank, tell them what's going on, and be sure to follow up with them as well. Unfortunately, the ball is greatly in your court at this point. :(

Bummer about the whole thing, too, by the way. Hope the rest of the trip went better than that.

[ladodger34]

My only advice is to be vigilant - if Priceline doesn't call you back within their deadline, call them and make sure things are being settled. Also contact your bank, tell them what's going on, and be sure to follow up with them as well. Unfortunately, the ball is greatly in your court at this point. :(


Contact your bank or CC company as soon as you can. If the priceline or the hotel is balking about the refund, starting a claim process usually lights a fire under someone's behind.

[ditchdj]

Contact your bank or CC company as soon as you can. If the priceline or the hotel is balking about the refund, starting a claim process usually lights a fire under someone's behind.

Good point. I'm gonna be going to the credit union either tomorrow or Friday to tell them about what is going on.

[mircea12345]

the reality is with CC disputes in a hotel that the Third Party site (Priceline) is the one charging you. They will not back off the charge until the hotel agrees to not bill them. Go check the language on the website for that hotel. if it claims all amenities are available upon request, and that all things are not guaranteed, there is a good chance they will not give you any money back. I know as I ama Reservations Manager in my home town, and the owners are sometimes pricks about this. I suggest calling the Hotel directly, and if it is a large chain hotel (Holiday Inn, Best Western etc) then find out their corporate complaint number and the central company will put direct pressure on the local hotel, and usually they relent and give the refund more times than not.