Hotel prebooked and prepaid, turned away as no rooms on arrival.

usignuolo

Friends of mine recently went to Newark and Leeds where they had prebooked and prepaid for rooms, in one case at a Travelodge (Leeds) and in another at the local Ibis (Newark.)

On arrival they were turned away and told that the hotel was fully booked and their rooms were not available as they had been sold to someone else. What is the legal position when this happens?

elsien

I'm pretty sure that this is in Travelodge terms and conditions, and that they have a standard practice of overbooking as quite often people don't turn up and they don't want empty rooms. My understanding is that they're meant to find you another room in another Travelodge, but that sometimes this is too far away to be of practical use.


From their site FAQ "On rare occasions, it may become necessary for us to outbook you and find you suitable alternative accommodation in the local area or offer to refund the room. In this instance, unless the reason for needing to outbook you is beyond our reasonable control, we will offer you compensation for the inconvenience. For full details of our outbooking policy please see our terms and conditions."


It's one reason I prefer premier inn to Travelodge.
What were your friends offered as an alternative?

elsien

Here you go, for the full details. Ibis is probably similar.
Relocation

1. Travelodge operates a relocation policy (for more details on relocation policy click here). If a room is unavailable on arrival (except due to an event beyond our reasonable control, (see section 11.2)) then, we will either:
   • provide a room in another Travelodge hotel and pay the reasonable cost of transport to that alternative hotel or any applicable car park; OR
   • at your request, or, if in our reasonable opinion there is no suitable alternative hotel accommodation available, cancel your Booking and refund you any money you have paid in advance for the unavailable room(s) including related extras.
   • If you are due to pay on arrival at the hotel we will take payment for the cost of the booking and any prepaid extras. As outlined above any additional costs over and above the original cost of the booking will be covered by Travelodge. I.e. difference in room rates, reasonable transport costs, car park charges.

sickparrot

It may say that in their T&C but I wouldn't expect it to actually happen.

Way to make sure I'll never use Travelodge again.

usignuolo

If you book into a Travelodge (having come by car) you do not want to be put up in another one some distance away. Offering a taxi to take you there is no use if you have a car.

More to the point, you have a contract with them having prebooked and prepaid and if you choose not to use your room, having prepaid, surely that is up to you?. Travelodge are not losing money by it if you have paid in advance..

Anyone care to comment on the legal status of taking your money in advance and then reletting your room?

elsien

The OP isn't the first on here to have had a problem and probably won't be the last. This covers the debate about reasonable terms.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3904601


I suppose it depends on where you're booking and if there are any big events on at the time that affect whether you're offered an alternative and how far away it is. Not a chance I'd particularly want to take. I didn't realise other chains did it as well though - will be checking the T&C's more carefully from here on in. And if you don't like them, don't book with them.


OP - whilst understanding their annoyance, surely having a car would make it easier - you just drive to the alternative and get them to pay any parking? I don't see that particular aspect as being a major issue.

usignuolo

Travelodge friends transferred to Premier Inn. Ibis friends were just told no room and given refund.

POPPYOSCAR

This is awful.

After possibly having a long drive and being tired out ,you then could face having to travel on somewhere else or start finding alternative accommodation.

Do not think I will be booking with them in a hurry!

getmore4less

No idea if it helps but it is free and seeing the meber No on a booking may have someone else bumped

Join the members clubs for the bigger chains.
IHG for the holiday inns, intercontintal...
http://www.ihg.com/hotels/gb/en/reservation
Accor for ibis, mecure, novotel...
http://www.accorhotels.com/gb/united-kingdom/index.shtml

usignuolo

I have now had a look at earlier posts on the subject here and also on the web and it happens a lot. A number of responders say things like well no hotel wants empty rooms. I think they have misunderstood what is happening here. Of course no hotel wants unsold rooms and often you do not hand over your credit card until you arrive at a hotel, so if you arrive late then the hotel may well have been concerned you would be a no show and therefore a no pay so let the room.

That is not what happens at TL. You have to pay online with your credit card in advance and on the understanding it is not refundable. If you do not turn up you lose your payment. If you do not show I should have thought in many ways this was ideal for the hotel, an empty unused room (no housekeeping, linen to change) fully paid for overnight.

More sinisterly reading through all the occurrences of bumping, I got the impression that at some TLs there was a policy to fill the rooms by a certain time each day if possible, and worry about the prebookeds later when the would be occupants turned up. Hopefully some would not.

As for saying it is ok to give you a booking at another TL which car drivers will need to drive to or be parted from their cars, in many of the cases I have read this can be 20 or even 30 miles away and if you have had a long drive to a prebooked prepaid hotel room, the last thing you want is to drive another 20-30 miles out of your way to some last minute alternative accommodation.

In one horrendous TL case reported on MSE, one guy had driven 150 miles and had a prepaid room complete with confirmation text from TL confirming the room for the night, only to be bounced on arrival to somewhere insecure (inner city when he had chosen a more remote one because he had a valuable cargo) and then had to drive over 20 miles to get there.