Third party websites.

[purple]

For people who work in hotels I don't think I even need to explain how much I hate third party websites.

1. We can't change bookings made through them. You need to contact the site you made your reservation through. We can change little things but not dates or cancel the booking.

2. To the lady who checked in just recently you booked a room with 1 queen bed. I am working with you to offer a solution but don't question how one queen is ment to sleep 3, you chose it not me. Our website wouldn't let you book a double room with 3 people but whatever one you used did.

3. Our parking isn't gaurented, our WiFi is ridiculously priced. We tell the websites this yet a certain one lists our parking as free and makes no mention of it being limited.

[Slave to the Phone]

We don't stay in motels often. We do look for deals online. Thanks to what I've learned here, on those rare occasions that we do stay in a motel, we look up motels online, pick the one that seems to be where we want at the price we want, then we call the motel and talk to a person.

I know that its a bit of a bother for the clerk who is booking us, but we always seem to magically get a wonderful room with what we wanted.

[bhskittykatt]

We don't stay in motels often. We do look for deals online. Thanks to what I've learned here, on those rare occasions that we do stay in a motel, we look up motels online, pick the one that seems to be where we want at the price we want, then we call the motel and talk to a person.

I always rate-match as long as I can verify the deal online. Because when they book directly with us, we don't have to pay that third party commission.

But yeah, third parties suck. I once had a guest who used one of those "mystery deal" sites where you book in a geographic area and don't know the exact area until after you book. He put in [geographic area] and it was sold out so it showed the next closest one (ours), which is on the other side of an international boundary. Now the guest should have paid closer attention, but when I went to copy what he did I can see how he got mixed up. He didn't have the documentation to cross the line, and the third party wouldn't cancel it even though he called them within minutes of booking. So he called me very upset b/c it was like $300 he was out. And of course, there's literally nothing I can do about it; the third party has his money not me, so my hands were tied.

[WishfulSpirit]

Today we had a guest that had changed her reservation through OrbiHotelPricePedia but they hadn't sent the change all the way to us. My manager was somehow able to check on it (I have no idea how) and we got the reservation fixed but that was a pain. Had I been there by myself there would have been nothing I could have done beyond charging her for a night as a walk-in and yelling at OrbiHotelPricePedia in the morning.

One thing though: where I work (the elongaged hexigon inn, which is a part of the chain owned by the parents of a certain blonde bimbo), we are not supposed to take bookings over the phone unless they're for starting that night. We have ONE desk agent on at a time. Said person has to handle pretty much ALL guest requests, complaints, issues and what-have-yous. We DO NOT have time to take a booking over the phone, especially when half the people who call (though I'm sure not anyone on here) apparently has to give us their life story before telling us what dates and type of room they need.

Call the hotel and ask about rates, ask all the questions about local attractions and parking and wifi and whatever else you want, but book online if you don't want to talk to Apu. I have no choice but to send you to the central call center in India. You don't like it, I don't like it, but A. almighty corporate says that is policy and B. my priority is dealing with the water coming from the light fixture in 309 ( ). Believe me everyone will be happier if you click those happy buttons on the website.

[skeptic53]

Booked a hotel via one of the online services in Washington DC 9 years ago. Arrived at the desk, no reservation. Panic was setting in, then the clerk said "Someone named Skeptic53 has not yet checked in" The service had given my email as the name for the reservation...

[workerbee222]

I had one third party booking that went fine.

I had another one that went badly, as in, there was no room in my name, or any variation or mis-spelling of my name that the desk clerk and I could come up with. He had a room anyway, and he matched the price anyway. I got home, contacted Credit Card Company and filed a complaint that Third Party did nothing, and therefore deserved nothing. Guess who hired a collection agency to come after me for the money for a room it didn't reserve?