Bad HOTEL carma

Several months ago, I made reservations at one of the Monterey Days Inn hotels for April 27 & 28 for the Big Sur Marathon, which packs the town yearly so there is no shortage of people in need of rooms.

I made my reservations online.

My team could not make the marathon this year so I tried to cancel my reservations this weekend - a MONTH ahead of time.

I was told I had to go online to do so and was given an 800 number.

The Days Inn rep on the phone told me I could NOT cancel my reservations as it was booked under an online premier pricing strata.

She stated repeatedly that I had "clicked the boxes" that clearly state the company's cancellation policy. I do recall clicking a box about terms and conditions, but I thought the box of single-spaced gobbldeygook was the standard, 48 hour deal.

(I double checked today and first, the policy is totally random and SECOND and more importantly, there are two cancellation policies listed on the page. Very sneaky!)

Apparently, if you book online and get a good price (which you can only get online and are DIRECTED to do by the hotel folks themselves) you're screwed if you can't make the trip.

I asked if the room would for SURE be empty or would it be resold. The rep said that was up to the hotelier (franchisee). I said, so if they can resell the room, then I am, in fact, cancelling my reservations and you can't charge me for a room that's sold to someone else.

Nope. "You clicked the boxes." She said.

Just because you have a policy, doesn't make it right, or legal, I said.

"Have a good day," she said.

I'm still astounded!

Reserving stuff online is helpful to consumers, yes, but it's also a huge benefit to companies since they don't have to PAY people to staff reservation phones. And they will only give deals online as a way to ENCOURAGE us to use that service.

It's amazing this company is so money grubbing it would then screw the customer like this!

By the way, Days Inn is owned by Wyndham Worldwide, which also owns Travelodge, Super8, Knights Stay, Howard Johnson, Ramada, and Winngate inns.

I couldn't find emails for customer service people at Days Inn or the Wyndham parent company. But I did find these for Wyndham investor relations:
margo.happer@wynhamworldwide.com
and
james.ryan@wyndhamworldwide.com

I sent them a note and I'll see if I get anything back. Otherwise, I guess I'll put a complaint on http://www.thesqueakywheel.com

I'll let you know.