Hotel Change ( Overbooked )

JReacher1

Fosterdog wrote: »

I can see no reason for your attitude, that's after reading and re-reading the whole thread.

You have been given perfectly valid responses and been asked perfectly valid questions. You have been told to wait until the boys return to see what they want to do and whether they had any problems at the new hotel. Until they are back and you have the full story and can answer some of the perfectly reasonable questions already posed on here you are unlikely to get any other responses saying anything different.

You have chosen to post on a public forum asking complete strangers to give up their time to help you and then get snappy when you don't like the answers they give you.

The first response to the thread was poor. I think it got the whole thread off to a bad start!

WTFH

Matty007 wrote: »

WTFH again you are jumping the gun, the tripadvisor reference was offering an overview of the likely different standard of hotel as you can also have a link to booking prices, if I cared to be more specific I would have given the exact names, your hotels are not the ones and their reviews are unlikely on their own offer a case for refund.

Would you care to be more specific and tell us?

Matty007 wrote: »

I can however confirm that I have got a few quotes for both hotels for the same duration for next week, from booking.com and travelrepublik.com. and laterooms.com.

Their original and paid for hotel is coming back as £378.00 per room whilst their transferred hotel is coming back at £106.00 per room.

OK, given that I book into quite a few hotels every year (currently I've spent 27 weeks this year staying in hotels in various parts of Europe), then I know a little about how booking.com, etc work. If a hotel is almost full, the price goes up. If it's still got rooms, the price stays low. For a fairer comparison, you need to look at the rack rate.

Here's a real life example from me:
I have some meetings in Dublin in a couple of weeks. I'm flying in a day early and was planning to spend that day with my sister, stay in a hotel in the centre of town, then go out to one near the office for the following days. I'm paying €85 per night for the hotel near the office. The one in the centre was €160 as the best rate I could get.
The rack rate for both hotels is €180. Both are of similar quality. One has more rooms available than the other, so I can get a better deal staying there. Needless to say, I'm not paying €160 on the first night. I'll take a 20 minute ride out to the other hotel.

WTFH

aileth wrote: »

Need to read the t&cs. I used to work for a holiday booking company and we HAD to outbook to the same star rating or above. If the hotel cost more, no extra charge. If it cost less, they got the difference refunded. This isn't the same among many though.

Except he doesn't want to tell us the names of the hotels, just their rankings in trip advisor (although they aren't the same hotels that appear in the same ranking positions he said at the start).
We don't know whether they are the same star rating or not, and we don't know what the price of them would have been at the time.


That's part of the frustration of trying to help people on the internet - if they don't like the questions being asked or the help/advice being given, they turn round and are down right rude. I'm sure Matty is a nice person in the real world, but his attitude to me (and others) on this thread hasn't quite matched that.

tinkerbell28

WTFH wrote: »

Would you care to be more specific and tell us?



OK, given that I book into quite a few hotels every year (currently I've spent 27 weeks this year staying in hotels in various parts of Europe), then I know a little about how booking.com, etc work. If a hotel is almost full, the price goes up. If it's still got rooms, the price stays low. For a fairer comparison, you need to look at the rack rate.

Here's a real life example from me:
I have some meetings in Dublin in a couple of weeks. I'm flying in a day early and was planning to spend that day with my sister, stay in a hotel in the centre of town, then go out to one near the office for the following days. I'm paying €85 per night for the hotel near the office. The one in the centre was €160 as the best rate I could get.
The rack rate for both hotels is €180. Both are of similar quality. One has more rooms available than the other, so I can get a better deal staying there. Needless to say, I'm not paying €160 on the first night. I'll take a 20 minute ride out to the other hotel.

This is exactly it. You can't compare hotels like that.

For example I'm staying in a hotel next week with rack rate of £400 per night, give or take.

Sometimes, if you book early enough or late enough and the rooms aren't filling. You can get in for around £160. The hotel is near fully booked, so the rack rate applies now.

It doesn't mean if you get it for £160 it's a poorer hotel than the top of the range 5* around the corner, as all hotels do it.

Matty007

tinkerbell28 wrote: »

This is exactly it. You can't compare hotels like that.

For example I'm staying in a hotel next week with rack rate of £400 per night, give or take.

Sometimes, if you book early enough or late enough and the rooms aren't filling. You can get in for around £160. The hotel is near fully booked, so the rack rate applies now.

It doesn't mean if you get it for £160 it's a poorer hotel than the top of the range 5* around the corner, as all hotels do it.

WTFH and your's are very valid points and something I could expect the hotels to argue against any claim.

I will need to ascertain if an ongoing price differential is enough to prove my position.

pops5588

Matty007 wrote: »

WTFH and your's are very valid points and something I could expect the hotels to argue against any claim.

I will need to ascertain if an ongoing price differential is enough to prove my position.

Though surely, and fundamentally, it is your son's position and not yours? If your son comes back and wants to complain then this is absolutely relevant. But he may not, in which case I strongly doubt anyone would entertain your position.

paddyrg

Hotel pricing is an almost pure free market! Hotel nights are perishable, much like raw chicken - has to be sold by a certain date or its worthless. Hotel management want to maximise the yield from the overall hotel, and so set rack rates, promotion rates etc., according to the days bookings and events. One week may have a local event which means bookings are high, another night not. Alternatively, rooms may be selling slowly so are offered through the discounters.

Don't put to much store on the rack rates, I've stayed at hotels through the discounters that were clearly never going to get closer to their rack rates, small, unclean, poorly maintained, but had rack process somewhere North of the Dorchester.

Just to compound things, not all rooms are equal, even within a price class. Date of refurb, distance from the lift, views, extras, room layout, etc are all factors you can't judge on price alone, only from being on the ground in person! It may well be that the boys actually have better rooms than they would otherwise!

The time to make the protest is right now, whilst there is a chance of it being put right. Massively harder once they're back here having accepted everything along the way.

WTFH

paddyrg wrote: »

The time to make the protest is right now, whilst there is a chance of it being put right. Massively harder one they're back here having accepted everything along the way.

Except they aren't the ones making the protest, or wanting to - it's Matty who is doing all this!
They aren't protesting - he is
They haven't made a complaint about the hotel they were put in - he is
They know what the hotel is like that they are satying in - he doesn't.
They are the ones who booked & paid for it - he didn't
They aren't complaining about poor treatment - he is
They aren't saying it's a worse hotel - he is

How can you protest about something, if there's nothing for you to protest about?

duchy

Matty007 wrote: »

Thank you for your family advice, however I prefer to seek consumer advice that I may share with my Son if I feel it appropriate to his situation.

Why on earth does a graduate need his Mummy to research for him ?
Did he actually ask you to....I can't imagine why an educated adult wouldn't be able to do it for themselves.

Ooops seems Matty is male...replace Mummy with Daddy above

Matty007

pops5588 wrote: »

Though surely, and fundamentally, it is your son's position and not yours? If your son comes back and wants to complain then this is absolutely relevant. But he may not, in which case I strongly doubt anyone would entertain your position.

Everything is fundamentally the position of the person or persons that feel they have incurred some level of grievance.

It shouldn't then follow that you wouldnt advise or offer support to those that might not otherwise complain, even more-so if its a family member.