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Radisson Blu Hotel, Birmingham
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leithia29_2
Posts: 54 Forumite
This is a warning mixed with a bit of a vent.
I was in Birmingham on a course on Wendesday 12th, due to travel home to the North West via train. I'm sure, like many, my travel plans were disrupted that evening and I ended up back at New Street (with the rest of the North West delegates), with no way of getting home any time soon. We decided to stay overnight instead of facing the hassle. At 5:30 I called Radisson Blu in Birmingham and reserved 7 rooms, providing my card details. Ironically I was read the cancellation policy.
My colleagues and I went to dinner, safe in the knowledge we had somewhere to stay. Upon arriving at the hotel at 11:30, only 3 rooms were provided to us (out of the 7 total booked). The hotel had overbooked on a night with known poor weather conditions when many would be looking for rooms. I understand generic overbooking, but on a night like this it was really disappointing that their ethics allowed for it, even when rooms had been reserved with payment details. The night manager was a total idiot, walking off in the middle of conversations, refusing to give us an explanation of how this had happened, refusing to believe it was the hotels fault, even contradicting himself and telling me it was my error and I'd only reserved 3 rooms when he had already said "myname, 7 rooms?".
It took 90 minutes for this hotel to provide rooms for my colleagues in other hotels. This only happened after I became rude and refused to leave the reception area until my colleagues were found accommodation. There were two other groups in the queue behind us, I hope they found somewhere to stay.
The warning is this, Radisson Blu overbooked on a night where public transport failed and you can't trust this hotel to hold up their end of a contract without being firm. Lesson learnt, check in early, even when you've reserved, and don't expect service from a hotel when they see the ££ lighting up.
I was in Birmingham on a course on Wendesday 12th, due to travel home to the North West via train. I'm sure, like many, my travel plans were disrupted that evening and I ended up back at New Street (with the rest of the North West delegates), with no way of getting home any time soon. We decided to stay overnight instead of facing the hassle. At 5:30 I called Radisson Blu in Birmingham and reserved 7 rooms, providing my card details. Ironically I was read the cancellation policy.
My colleagues and I went to dinner, safe in the knowledge we had somewhere to stay. Upon arriving at the hotel at 11:30, only 3 rooms were provided to us (out of the 7 total booked). The hotel had overbooked on a night with known poor weather conditions when many would be looking for rooms. I understand generic overbooking, but on a night like this it was really disappointing that their ethics allowed for it, even when rooms had been reserved with payment details. The night manager was a total idiot, walking off in the middle of conversations, refusing to give us an explanation of how this had happened, refusing to believe it was the hotels fault, even contradicting himself and telling me it was my error and I'd only reserved 3 rooms when he had already said "myname, 7 rooms?".
It took 90 minutes for this hotel to provide rooms for my colleagues in other hotels. This only happened after I became rude and refused to leave the reception area until my colleagues were found accommodation. There were two other groups in the queue behind us, I hope they found somewhere to stay.
The warning is this, Radisson Blu overbooked on a night where public transport failed and you can't trust this hotel to hold up their end of a contract without being firm. Lesson learnt, check in early, even when you've reserved, and don't expect service from a hotel when they see the ££ lighting up.
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Comments
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Very annoying but overbooking is standard across the travel industry. I expect they would justify it on the basis that the poor weather would also result in many no shows. Glad to hear you all found somewhere to stay in the end.0
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