Third Party Reservations

I believe I mentioned in a previous post that there are things called "Third Party Reservations." These are websites like Expedia and Travelocity in which you don't book with the hotel directly, but you book through the third party to book the hotel. They are stupid. I would suggest to NEVER use these booking agents. There's a possibility that nothing will go wrong and you will stay and leave like every other guest but if you use it enough, you will get screwed. I have plenty of stories where people have gotten screwed.

Here are a few things you need to know about these booking agents:
1. They take your money immediately.
2. You cannot cancel.
3. When you try to cancel, they will charge you a fee to do so.
4. No changes can be made to these reservations.
5. The hotel cannot see your credit card, the third party provides a "ghost card" that belongs to them and not you.

All of the following people have had issues with at least one of the above points.

Girls Weekend

It was summer. The time you take to go on vacation with the kids, or in this case WITHOUT the kids. The hotel was almost sold out. I had only one room left. These women came in looking to check in.

Working Girl: Last Name?
Woman: [Last Name]
Working Girl: Hmmm... I don't have you in my system. When did you make this reservation?
Woman: Months ago.

I did some checking for arrivals on not just that day but future dates. She was not arriving at the hotel at all but she was sure she was at the right hotel. I dug a little deeper and found that her reservation had been cancelled.

Woman: What? How can that be? I didn't cancel it.
Working Girl: The booking site cancelled it.

She picked up her cell phone immediately and called the booking agent. She found out that because she originally made the reservation for 2 adults when she changed it to add her other friend, they cancelled the reservation. They also informed her that her money was gone and she was not getting it back. She ended up getting the last room I had available therefore paying the booking agent and also paying us directly. She was pissed but it wasn't at me so I really didn't care.

The Architect

The hardest part about dealing with third party reservations is having to explain to people why there's nothing they can do about it. I was on the phone with a guy who needed to cancel his reservation made through Expedia. We told him he had to cancel with them. He called them and they called us asking us to cancel it. The problem is, we can't. The only people with access to cancelling a third party reservation is that third party, and they know it. So they will call us, ask us to cancel, we say no (because it is not possible to do so), then they tell the guest the hotel refuses to cancel it so that the guest will call us SCREAMING.

I had to explain this game to a guy who was trying to cancel his reservation. He was so upset that he was babbling the most nonsensical bullshit.

Man: Are you saying they are stealing my money?
Working Girl: Um, no. I'm saying that they know we can't cancel it but they ask us to do it anyway. The only way to cancel is through them.
Man: But I don't want you to charge me.
Working Girl: I have no way of charging you. They have your credit card number. We do not.
Man: This is ridiculous. They can't do this. They steal people's money. I am a leading architect at Facebook and I will tell everyone.
Working Girl: You're an architect where?
Man: At Facebook. Social Media is a hell of a thing and I will boycott them.

Then he hung up.

He is a leading architect at Facebook? What does that even mean? He didn't sound smart enough to know how to turn on a computer let alone develop software and be the "leading architect" at one of the biggest social media outlets in recent years.

Too Many Reservations

Recently my front desk agent was trying to check in a woman who made her reservation through a third party. When she came to check in her reservation wasn't there because she had JUST made it. She neglected to tell the FDA this point so instead she went online and made a new reservation. The problem is, the room type was not available for the entire week of her stay, so she made a new reservation for each day of the week. All of her reservations finally came in together...including the original reservation. She had six reservations. She only needed one.

The problem here is that she can't cancel same day reservations, nor can she cancel any reservation that has a check in date within 48 hours. The FDA advised her to cancel the reservations furthest away first but she was too tired to do so and tried the next day. At the end of it all she payed for 4 out of 6 of the reservations she had. She ended up paying over $900 for a $500 stay.

If you have the time to go online and book a reservation through a third party, you have time to make a reservation through the hotel directly. Don't let the commercials that say you can save over 50% fool you, you don't save that much money (the hotel chooses the discount, not the third party) and it will probably end up costing you more.