Very disappointing handling of a reservation
I booked a room directly through The Glen Hotel's website at approximately 9:00 AM on Sunday. I did not receive a confirmation, so I called the hotel three times that morning to make sure my reservation had actually been received. No one answered. I also checked my credit card and there was no charge.
Later that afternoon, while I was traveling, I finally received a confirmation from the hotel. By that point, because I had no confirmation and could not reach anyone, I had already booked another hotel.
At approximately 9:00 PM that evening, I called The Glen Hotel again to explain the situation and cancel the reservation. Once again, no one answered, so I left a voicemail clearly stating that I would not be staying and asking them to cancel the reservation.
The hotel subsequently charged my credit card anyway. When I contacted them, they refused to refund the charge under their non-refundable policy and accused me of simply "changing my mind."
That characterization is simply not accurate. I made multiple attempts to confirm the reservation before making other arrangements, and when the confirmation eventually arrived, I made another attempt to contact the hotel and cancel. At no point did I simply decide that I didn't want to stay there.
I understand that hotels have cancellation policies, including non-refundable rates. However, a non-refundable policy should not be used to dismiss a guest's repeated good-faith attempts to communicate with the hotel when the hotel provides no one available to answer the phone.
I realize The Glen Hotel is not staffed on Sunday evenings, but that makes it even more important that reservations and cancellations be handled in a way that allows guests to communicate with the hotel when problems arise.
The issue isn't the non-refundable policy. The issue is the lack of communication, the failure to respond to multiple calls, and then charging my card after I had clearly attempted to cancel and explained what had happened.
Based on this experience, I would be very cautious about booking a non-refundable rate at The Glen Hotel. A hotel's treatment of a customer when something goes wrong is just as important as how it treats them when everything goes right. read more
