My complaint:
I was left to sleep in my car a few blocks from the hotel that was holding funds amounting to 2 nights stays plus 3 nights of incidentals and I never reserved nor stayed a single night at the hotel. I went into the hotel to book a room for the night using my Choice rewards. I was having difficulties with the website. I explained I wanted to use points, she asked how many people, how many nights (1, 1) then asked for my card and ID. She took them and then handed me the paper agreeing to rate no pets no smoking. I did not sign because I said I was paying with points. She said she didn’t know how to do points so she had given me a 10% discount. I told her to refund my card and I would handle it some other way. She called her manager who told her how to do the cancellation and she handed me a paper. I went out to my car, called guest relations and they actually ended up booking me a room at another Choice hotel on points after adding some because I only had enough for a lesser hotel. All went well that night and it became necessary for me to stay a second night so I checked my bank to make sure I had adequate funds and found that I had 3 separate holds on my card and less than enough for a single room left available. I called reservations who were nice but could do nothing about the charges. He offered to make a reservation and said I could contact guest relations and he was sure they would get it take care of….so he started going through the standard speech that once the reservation was made that it could not be cancelled or refunded, blah blah. I stopped him because if they didn’t handle it, I wouldn’t have any money to get home. I told him I would prefer to clear up the situation and then make the reservation. So I then called guest relations…held for almost 30 minutes, explained what had happened held about 15 more minutes while they figured out what could be done and then was told, they couldn’t see the charges on their end so it was an issue for my bank. So I called my bank who could not release it because it had come from the hotel and had not been released by the hotel. I talked to the lady at the desk of the hotel I was at and she suggested I call the hotel directly because the hotel could release the charges. She assured me they could because her hotel can and they were also Comfort Suites. I actually went to the other hotel and the manager who had been called the night before was on duty. I explained what was happening, she told me they had done no charges, had submitted the cancellation and that I would simply have to wait for the release to be processed. I explained that there was not just the one hold but a second and she refused to listen until I showed her on my phone. She then took my phone and showed her “auditor” then she brought me a paper showing what she said were the charges they made and the reversals but nothing matched the monies being held. She also said she would ask the auditor to speed up the release but couldn’t promise anything and she also said that Choice couldn’t see what she saw regarding the charges so they were wrong to have told me it was released previously. So…I called guest relations back held for over 30 minutes, explained the situation again and explained that I really needed a room for that night because it was more that an 8 hour drive back home and I had no funds because of this situation. I was put on hold and then got disconnected. I called again, held about 20 minutes, had to tell my story again and then was told that all I could do was email the information to grdesk@choicehotels.com and wait for them to figure it out because she didn’t show any charges of any kind…I gave her the cancellation number from the paper and she said that was the wrong name so I went back into the hotel and the manager printed me the correct one..emailed all screen shots and documentation along with a digital “receipt” from the hotel in an amount that was still different from all of the other amounts that I had and waited….heard nothing, had to sleep in the car, still nothing, drove home yesterday, nothing…and today the charges were reversed but I’ve heard not one thing from Choice except to receive 2 “You are such a valued customer that we invite you to sign up for a Choice Privileges credit card” emails.
Suggested solution:
1.Apologize and never ever treat anyone else the way they treated me.
2. Credit me enough points for a comparable nights stay the next time I need a hotel.
3. Train personnel properly on how to handle situations they are unfamiliar with before acting.
4. Change policies or contract with service providers who can remedy situations immediately.