First time I heard of cheapostay.com and I'm not impressed

[Mr Hero]

Last night when I started my shift, the coworker I was relieving was helping someone from out of state figure out a way for them to pay for her daughter who's already in town. It was finally decided that the guest's mother would book online. She used a reservation company called cheapohotels.com. It was booked right around 10pm.

10:15 comes around and the guest shows up. I inform her that I don't have the reservation yet, but it usually takes 15 minutes, so I'm not sure what's going on. She agrees to wait.

At 10:30 we decide to look into this. I decide to give the company a call. The automated system recognizes her reservation. I then opt to try and connect with a live person. And so I wait. And wait.

After an hour of waiting, guest gives up and we decide the best thing to do is she pays for the room off her card and we take care of the issue in the morning.

At around 2:30am I finally get a fax from them. It's not in our system yet and these things are usually done automatically. During the time I was on hold, I was talking to the guest and found out they charge a cancelation fee.

I seriously hope these guys don't charge her for canceling. She did not get what was promised. Not until 4 1/2 hours later anyway. So yeah, first I've heard of these people and hopefully the last.

[LillFilly]

I'm guessing you couldn't take a credit card over the phone from the guest's mother, or that you didn't have a hotel web site she could book on?

[Mr Hero]

No we can't take CC over the phone. We would have to fax them an authorization form which they would have to fill out and fax back. Just something in writing that tells us we can charge the card. We also require photocopies of the ID and CC.

[bainsidhe]

Well the guest will have proof she paid by another method for the same night and you can also (if you're allowed) provide a copy of the grossly-delayed faxed reservation. If you want, even scribble down that the website did not confirm the reservation in a timely manner and so the guest had to pay by a secondary method.

Even if this website tries to charge a cancellation fee, the mother can do a chargeback on the credit card. Not a perfect solution, but definitely a solution.

[Mr Hero]

I think what ended up happening is the guest needed another night so we were able to use the reservation she made for Sunday night to pay for last night.

[bhskittykatt]

I'd forward the issue to your manager. Have them talk to your company's sales dept. and let them know the issue you're having with the 3rd party vendor.

[Mr Hero]

Oh, I already did. My relief is a step below our GM in rank and I needed her help to figure out the best solution when I talked to her Monday morning.