Garry
Winchester,#2Consumer Suggestion
Wed, May 25, 2005
I fear that is what the desk guy at Ames, Iowa was drinking. My professional opinion is that this property was not attempting to pull a bait and switch in the classic sense, but was instead trying to avoid responsibility for its manager and/or owner's ignorance. I'd like to try explaining this situation from the motel's side of the picture, NOT to justify it, as this Inn clearly dropped the ball, but so that readers will be be better informed and be more effectively able to defend their interests if and when they encounter simular situations. As a whole, the lodging industry is in the midst of a prolounged shake down period with third party distribution channels such as external internet websites. Some descison makers are quite frankly overwhelmed by their options and oppertunities. These folks often don't understand how to properly set their rates for various third party channels, and they don't understand how changes in one sector of their rate matrix can impact other sectors, or they don't understand how to properly alter rates across a 12 month calendar, or they may simply forget to update rates at some little used venue until a busy wkend in peak season brings in a resv set at what was a slow winter rate from 2 yrs ago. So all of a sudden a desk employee is confronted with an odd rate which s/he doesn't recognize. Now, one of the eternal truths of management is that the more inept a manager is, the more difficult s/he is to work for, and often times the more rigid s/he is in respect to allowing his employees leway to use their judgement to solve problems. Instead the employee probably works under a rule "If those d**n reservations screw up again and send through a rate we don't offer (meaning a rate that occured through mgmt's ignorance of the interface, and is termed a 'screw up' by virtue of further mgmt ignorance) up the dang thing to our 'what it should be'. Given the horrid turnover among motel desk employees (200% + per yr) a lot of them don't even know better than to believe what the mgr says. Thus the desk person really believes that Expedia and the like are snake oil merchants, and actually think they're 'educating' the public when they give their little pitch about how the motel is gonna part company with them. Where education is needed is on the motel's end. This is not to say that there aren't glitches and sometimes improper rates are quoted but that is not the guest's problem. Ya see, motels can control who has interface access to their resv system. They also have controls over the rates abailable for sale to any external venue at anytime. The motels have ultimate control over the process, our opting to partner with any external service involves our signing off on an agreement to do A, B & C to maintain the rates we wish the third party to sell, and they agree to work within those parametors. If a third party booker finds a way to hack our system and sell an unauthorized rate, our problem is with the third party booker (and will be resolved in a court of law). It is not with the guest who was smart enough to sniff out an extreme bargain and jump on it. This is what you, as a guest need to keep in mind. MOST motels which are actually on top of their rates and distribution position will recognize an oddball quote for what it is, something that has slipped through the cracks and needs to be addressed by management, while the resv in question is honored (along with something being said to the gsts so they wont anticipate the same rate during future stays). If a clerk pitches a lower case fit over what "some internet service did to us" consider it a HUGE red flag that the mgmt is in way over its head. So, what to do: From the lobby call a)the guest assistance number of the chain in question, b)the third party resv service, and c)the customer service number for the credit card used to hold the room (explaining to them that you gtd a rm on your card at x rate and now the facility is trying to make you pay for its ignorance). You can expect that the problem will be properly resolved, the motel will be reminded of its obligations, and you will get the rate that was quoted to you. If for some reason the motel digs its feet in and refuses to bulge . . .you then have to ask yourself if it is the type of dump you want to stay in. Run like hell, find another motel, and advise you credit card company you have cxl'ed the resv based on refusal to honor the agreed upon rate. This way, in the event the bums try to bill you as a 'no-show', you will have already laid the groundwork for your cc ompany to deny the charge.