Believe the computer over the person

[bhskittykatt]

So quick bit of background, our website advertises "Balcony" rooms. The caveat is that in our system, these rooms have a balcony or a first-floor patio. We've tried to work with the powers-that-be in charge of our online reservations to get this wording changed but for some reason it's taking forever.

So we have a walk-in guest wanting a waterview balcony room. We are all out of balconies but we have some of the patios available.

SC: "But your website says you have balconies!"
Supervisor: "Unfortunately our website is worded wrong. It lists some of our patio rooms as balconies."
SC: "it says right here I can book a balcony!"
S: "I'm sorry but I don't have any until Monday."
SC: "I'm just going to book this online then and see what happens!"

So SC flounced off to book the room on her phone. Five minutes later she's back.

SC: "See? I booked it and it says I paid!"
[Note: it does not say she paid; the CC just holds the reservation but it isn't charged]
S: "Okay, it just takes a few minutes for it to show in my system."
SC: "I have it here!" *shoves phone in Super's face* "Here is my reservation!"
S: "Yes, but it takes a couple minutes before it loads in our system."
SC: "It's right here!" *keeps waving phone in front of Super's face*

Lather rinse and repeat for the two minutes it takes for the reservation to pop up on our end. At which point she didn't want to hand her CC over because she thought she had paid (even though if she read the fine print, she'd see that we need the CC in hand at check-in).

When the reservation came through, she inevitably was assigned a patio room because woman we told you we were out of balcony rooms!

Ultimately we had one partial-view balcony left; she went and looked at it and came back and complained that it had two queen beds instead of one queen and that the view wasn't that good (because it's a partial view like we told her), so she suffered her patio room.

Yes, it sucks that our website is wrong and that no one has fixed it yet, but seriously, when we tell you the website is wrong, we tell you exactly what we have left, why would you believe the website over us?

[Arcus]

Because it's on the internet and the internet can not lie.

[Ledomar]

Believe the computer? OF COURSE I WILL. It tells me what I want to hear. Not like the filthy subspecies of humans that work the front lines. They just want to tell us no. They don't know what they're talking about. /end sarcasm

[WishfulSpirit]

Similar problem at my Denver Elongated Hexagon Inn (if anyone is visiting, or lives in the area, come see me at the Brook of Prunus avium location). Our King Study rooms (they are bigger than standard rooms but smaller than suites) used to have pull-out couches. Now they don't. But the third party websites haven't updated that info yet. The response of some guests to learning that their two year old will have to either share the king-size bed or use a roll-away is approximately this:

[raudf]

Please tell me there is justice in the world and she believes there really is a Nigerian prince who needs help transferring funds out of the country. I mean, if you're going to believe the internets over the kindly meaning people who are paid to try and help you..

[wolfie]

Our King Study rooms (they are bigger than standard rooms but smaller than suites) used to have pull-out couches. Now they don't. But the third party websites haven't updated that info yet.

This means that the third-party websites are misrepresenting your property. At a minimum, you're going to get some pissed-off SCs who were counting on the extra sleeping capacity. At worst, you could be on the receiving end of some lawsuits. Sounds like time to give the third-party guys a SHORT deadline to correct their listings for your property, and if they don't meet it, to give them an availability of zero on those rooms.

[evilhomer]

I'm pretty sure that most websites cover their ass with some kind of caveat stating that all information must be verified. If I'm on the property and someone is telling me what is what, I'm going to believe that person, I might be pissed to have received some misinformation, but I'm not going to think they're an idiot who doesn't know anything.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Believe the computer? OF COURSE I WILL. It tells me what I want to hear. Not like the filthy subspecies of humans that work the front lines. They just want to tell us no. They don't know what they're talking about. /end sarcasm

Trust Our Friend The Computer. Your Friend The Computer Will Not Lie To You. Anyone Who Insists That Friend Computer Is Lying Is Traitor Mutant Commie Scum And Should Be Disintegrated On Sight.