Complaint Review: Gateway Motel

I booked a room for a conference held at Skidmore college in October 2002 two months in advance with Gateway motel. The college designated this motel for their conference and told the attendees that they could use this motel since it was close and cheap.

Trusting this, I called Gateway motel to book a room for the conference. The motel said that for deposit purposes, they would charge me $50 on my credit card. I thought, well, that's what certain places have to do to guarantee a room just in case it gets full. However, circumstances led me to cancel the room a week after I booked the reservation. I called in to cancel, only to hear a disgruntled woman who claimed that the $50 dollar deposit is non-refundable!

I asked her, "did you ever tell me this before?" since she had never said anything like this when I booked the reservation. However, she claimed that she did. LIAR. I said, quietly, that I will just let her charge me if she wanted to, but to make things straight, she DID NOT tell me that the deposit is non-refundable and that I made a mistake in my case.

She yelled at me asking my last name and when I said it, she violently hung up. I called back to ask if she had gotten my last name, and she yelled "I cancelled your reservation!!" and hung up again. I contacted my credit card about this matter and found out that no accomodation hotels or motels can charge you for service that they did not perform. Therefore, the credit card company is disputing the charge.

I will report this to the BBB also, however, until then, DON'T EVER USE GATEWAY MOTEL EVEN IF IT IS CHEAP!!

R
NY, New York