Annoyed with hotel

LadyE

Hey all,

I'm so annoyed! A friend enquired about booking a room in our hotel on our wedding day ( saturday in peak season) and was told that the hotel didn't do single nights. It's two or 3 nights only.

I called the hotel to see what the story is and they confirmed that this is the case!

They didn't tell us this at time of booking out wedding, when we questioned why they didn't tell us we got a "well you didn't ask" response back. Customer service here is shocking. It's not a small wedding and I just feel sick of the cost of two nights in the hotel will impose on our guests when they haven't the choice.

I feel completely duped here. The only people who can book single nights are the 15 people who can get the reduced wedding rate.

Has anyone come across this??

whiskeyman

I've come across variances of this alright, but moreso where the wedding party are taking over the whole hotel / estate which is usually fair enough.

Does the hotel have a policy of doing this on other weekends, and not just for your wedding?
It would be a bit much if they are specifically targeting your wedding for this.
However, if it's they're standard policy during the peak season. I'm surprised they never were up front about it.
Do you have a contract with them?

MrWalsh

Have you booked out the whole hotel?

Are there B&Bs, other hotels nearby - if so would you consider doing a block book and getting people a deal with them?

If someone wasnt attending the wedding would they be able to book that Saturday night only in the hotel?

LadyE

No we haven't blocked booked anything. We haven't given a list of names of anything yet.

my oh is going through our contract today but I'm pretty sure it doesn't mention it.

There's only 2 hotels in the town, both owned by the same crowd so no other options if this is their stance.

tbh I would never have booked this hotel had I known. It's not fair on the guests.

Ascii

Happened me last October 12 months. Rang a well known hotel in the south to books one nights accomm for a friends wedding. Was told as it was the bank holiday weekend that I could only have two nights (sat + sun). Told her no thanks, only needed one night.
went onto a certain generic hotel booking website. Booked one deluxe room for one night on this website for less than half the price of what I was quoted for 2 nights in a basic room when booked directly with the hotel. Breakfast included on the website option.
Rang the hotel an hour later to confirm that my booking was made for one night (and also to gloat) and it was.

Moral of story. Try booking websites, there are a good few of them out there.

LadyE

I've tried hotels.ie and it's saying one night is unavailable

I'll try others though.

MrWalsh

LadyE wrote: »

There's only 2 hotels in the town, both owned by the same crowd so no other options if this is their stance.

There must be B&Bs?

Alternatively you could lay on a bus to get your guests to a hotel in the next town - its be cheaper than them all having to pay for an extra night.

Pretty sharp practice by the hotel tbh. Do try the booking website idea though.

Milly33

That is horrible what a bunch of muppets.. You should should ring making an enquiry to see if this is normal policy just pretend to be a customer. or get a friend to do it and see what they say..

If it is not in the contact I would be more than annoyed with them and you would have ever right to be... Shame shame on them

lazygal

As others have said, there must be some BandBs locally? We have often stayed in them after a wedding as the hotel was full and/or too expensive. As a guest, there is no way I'd sign up for three nights accomodation in a hotel just because I was going to a wedding. I'd either look into a BandB or one of us would stay off the drinks and drive to other accomodation or head home.

LadyE

lazygal wrote: »

As others have said, there must be some BandBs locally? We have often stayed in them after a wedding as the hotel was full and/or too expensive. As a guest, there is no way I'd sign up for three nights accomodation in a hotel just because I was going to a wedding. I'd either look into a BandB or one of us would stay off the drinks and drive to other accomodation or head home.

there is one b and b locally, for about 8 people.

We checked the local sister hotel and yiu can book one night there so that's something. We have spoken to the wedding planner and don't think they will budge on this. It's just that we feel misled and shafted...We are giving the hotel alot of money and I feel that they are taking advantage of our guests.

MrWalsh

Well you are being shafted. They know that you probably can't rebook at this stage, even if you could you'd lose deposits, so they have you by the short and curliest.

But there must be another option in the next town or within a 50 mile radius that you could lay on a bus for?

LadyE

Yeah there is mrwalsh, at least that's something.

There were various reasons we picked this hotel, mainly the family friendly facilities they have in the hotel so the guests won't get the use of those the next day. Plus I don't want to split the party but I guess we won't have much choice now..its just hassle that we don't want.

bren2002

So name and shame. If its all true you can't be accused of libel.

alchemist33

Is it too late to change hotel, OP? (I presume it is if friends are ringing them)
You're entitled to be very angry. They know damn well most guests will only want one night and should have told you when booking. If you can't change and are stuck, bussing people seems the best option.
However this seems the sort of issue a local radio station would love to deal with. If you're both feeling ballsy enough, you could mention this to the hotel.

Kalimah

Funnily enough the same thing happened to me trying to book a hotel in the west in 1998. We only wanted one night. It was March by the way and not a bank holiday either. We couldn't afford two nights so booked a B & B. Every time I hear an ad for the same hotel with presumably the smug owner doing the voice over , I think of it! Kind of always wished they'd go out of business so I could say no wonder

MrWalsh

alchemist33 wrote: »

However this seems the sort of issue a local radio station would love to deal with. If you're both feeling ballsy enough, you could mention this to the hotel.

Id out them on their social media, facebook, twitter etc...

LadyE

We are going to speak to the reservation manager tomorrow to see can he do something...If he doesn't help then ill name and shame.

It's a relatively new hotel..maybe 8 years but is popular for weddings..Ive been searching forums but can't find any complaints from brides with the same issue!

MrWalsh

When is the wedding? Could you rebook somewhere else? Because if it was theoretically possible I would simply tell them that they either allow guests to book one night or they lose the entire wedding.

LadyE

Wedding isn't until next year, so we could book somewhere else.

I think that's how we are going to go. My oh is unhappier about all this than I am and he wants to cancel If they can't come to a compromise.

its just such a shame, we do like the hotel, it's one of 2 hotels in himself hometown (the other being owned by the same crowd) lots to do for the children and we got a great package. But look, if we have to cancel, we have to cancel.

MrWalsh

Well if its possible for you to rebook then you are in a very strong negotiating position.

Dumb policy of the hotel - talk about putting customers off!

Frigga_92

I would post this all over their social media and if they are unwilling to budge then it's time to start looking at cancelling and rebooking somewhere else. Make sure they know you are deadly serious about them losing your business. You should start ringing around other hotels and look for prices etc.

Redser87

LadyE wrote: »

It's a relatively new hotel..maybe 8 years but is popular for weddings..Ive been searching forums but can't find any complaints from brides with the same issue!

It's possible that the reason for this is that the two main Irish wedding forums don't allow users to name and shame. Often you will see things like 'terrible experience with a hotel in X town, PM me for more details'. Suppliers pay a fee to those websites to advertise on them so complaints where a supplier is named rarely get through.
Dunno what the position is on Boards, can you name and shame here?? Mods feel free to delete that question if it's not a Boards policy!
Definitely go all over social media with it. You still have the benefit of time so stick to your guns and see what other places can do for you. Your bargaining position will be even stronger if you have a similar or better offer in writing from a competitor.

lazygal

Kalimah wrote: »

Funnily enough the same thing happened to me trying to book a hotel in the west in 1998. We only wanted one night. It was March by the way and not a bank holiday either. We couldn't afford two nights so booked a B & B. Every time I hear an ad for the same hotel with presumably the smug owner doing the voice over , I think of it! Kind of always wished they'd go out of business so I could say no wonder

Is the password cheers by any chance?

Kalimah

Got it in one!

Toots

Redser87 wrote: »

It's possible that the reason for this is that the two main Irish wedding forums don't allow users to name and shame. Often you will see things like 'terrible experience with a hotel in X town, PM me for more details'. Suppliers pay a fee to those websites to advertise on them so complaints where a supplier is named rarely get through.
Dunno what the position is on Boards, can you name and shame here?? Mods feel free to delete that question if it's not a Boards policy!
Definitely go all over social media with it. You still have the benefit of time so stick to your guns and see what other places can do for you. Your bargaining position will be even stronger if you have a similar or better offer in writing from a competitor.

It's a bit of a grey area here, TBH. If someone is posting a genuine review of a place, then we're usually ok with it, although sometimes may have to delete a thread/posts if they had the potential to land Boards in legal hot water. In some situations, it's a case of 'he said, she said' so each one would be looked at individually. Companies pay to advertise on Boards (banners, offical rep accounts, etc) but Boards won't delete an unfavourable review purely because one of those suppliers requests it.

Toots

OP, have ye paid a deposit? I'm not sure what it says in your contract, but would you be prepared to walk away and potentially lose some or all of it?

Flippyfloppy

Toots wrote: »

OP, have ye paid a deposit? I'm not sure what it says in your contract, but would you be prepared to walk away and potentially lose some or all of it?

Should the accommodation rules not have to be listed on the contract though, seeing as they affect the guests attending the function? You could argue that this could counteract any retaining of a deposit imo.

LadyE

Redser87 wrote: »

It's possible that the reason for this is that the two main Irish wedding forums don't allow users to name and shame. Often you will see things like 'terrible experience with a hotel in X town, PM me for more details'. Suppliers pay a fee to those websites to advertise on them so complaints where a supplier is named rarely get through.
Dunno what the position is on Boards, can you name and shame here?? Mods feel free to delete that question if it's not a Boards policy!
Definitely go all over social media with it. You still have the benefit of time so stick to your guns and see what other places can do for you. Your bargaining position will be even stronger if you have a similar or better offer in writing from a competitor.

I actually didn't think of that, that forums don't allow hotels to be named.

sonners

Could you book an appointment to go in and check out the other hotel in the town. Go in there and explain that you are considering cancelling your current venue (without naming names) and wish to discuss holding your wedding there instead. I'd lay money on it that your current hotel will hear back that you are looking around at alternatives (this being Ireland and you say they are sister hotel). It would mean they take your threat to cancel alot more seriously.

Its a ****ty thing to happen though, even if they back down and you get your way any trust you had is now gone and If I was you I'd feel the need to double check every little thing from now on. the last thing you need is additional stress from the people you are paying to help alleviate some of your stress!

MrWalsh

OP said the other hotel in the town is owned by the same group.

Milly33

Did you have any luck trying to talk to them again

LadyE

Not yet. We have left our number and are waiting for a call back.

LadyE

Redser87 wrote: »

It's possible that the reason for this is that the two main Irish wedding forums don't allow users to name and shame. Often you will see things like 'terrible experience with a hotel in X town, PM me for more details'. Suppliers pay a fee to those websites to advertise on them so complaints where a supplier is named rarely get through.
Dunno what the position is on Boards, can you name and shame here?? Mods feel free to delete that question if it's not a Boards policy!
Definitely go all over social media with it. You still have the benefit of time so stick to your guns and see what other places can do for you. Your bargaining position will be even stronger if you have a similar or better offer in writing from a competitor.

would you believe, I posted on one of the wedding forums last night..I didn't start a thread, just asked the brides who got married in this hotel how they got around the two night accommodation rule...my post has been deleted. Arghhhhhhh!!! It's actually infuriating.

Milly33

Sneaky. I hate stuff like that. You should be able to leave a review good or bad or ask questions etc. If they cant handle bad press then perhaps they aren't worth it.. I emailed Barnabrow as I loved the look of the place but it has got some bad press and I have heard a few things from people etc. Emailed the lady there and said we were interested but worried about this and she never came back to us, I was like well that's ye off the list.

You should start putting anagrams of the hotels name up.. Tis in Ballyvorney is it, I was just thinking two hotels owned by the same people..

Bad form that they have not got back to you as a priority... Did you try and call and ask about booking a one night stay too, see what they say. If they did book it you could say when they do eventually come back that, you have managed to book a one night stay... Be all up in that haha

LadyE

No its not there milly

It's so annoying..We had the exact same experience with the royal marine, met with the wedding planner, got a quote..We were pretty happy with them but they never followed up..feck that! If you cant be enthusiastic before you get our money then we have an idea of how it will be after!

Milly33

Exactly it is a pet hate of mine, even having email addresses but not answer (no excuses for this).. A lot of them just don't care and that's it.. We had one catereer and lets say things changed etc and I had more or less said look we will go with you but we want to make sure you are happy to do it, he sent a one liner response back and I was like well now enough said, that was the end of him...

Someplaces just get too high and mighty

Dellnum

I can't believe that a hotel would require wedding guests to book 2 nights or get nothing. That is absolutely disgraceful, the cheek of them. I never heard tell of trying to book a hotel at any time of the year and being told that you have to book two nights or nothing at all. This must be a new thing. I would be absolutely raging if I had booked a wedding in a hotel and was landed with this. It is so embarrassing for you OP.

PhoenixParker

LadyE wrote: »

No its not there milly

It's so annoying..We had the exact same experience with the royal marine, met with the wedding planner, got a quote..We were pretty happy with them but they never followed up..feck that! If you cant be enthusiastic before you get our money then we have an idea of how it will be after!

Royal Marine Dun Laoghaire or the other one?
They've (Dun L) always been embarrassingly quick to get back to us.

You say you've got a block book of 15 rooms at a reduced wedding rate and those are for one night? Have you anything in the correspondence there? That seems like you're most likely avenue to me.

LadyE

Yeah dun laoghaire. We didn't go with them because of this.

We do have it in writing that we have a reduced room rate alright. But in a wedding of 200 guests then 16 rooms won't go far

Milly33

I can see the rooms not going far but then if there are other places close by then youll be fine just leave it with the guests

PhoenixParker

LadyE wrote: »

Yeah dun laoghaire. We didn't go with them because of this.

Weird. The Royal Marine have been ridiculously good about getting back to us. It's almost embarrassing because she never takes longer than 3 working hours to get back to me and I usually take about a week to get back to her. Maybe they've had a change in staff. Anyway, that's neither here nor there.

We do have it in writing that we have a reduced room rate alright. But in a wedding of 200 guests then 16 rooms won't go far

I was more thinking along the lines that since they booked the 16 rooms for one night at a special rate, and don't seem to have mentioned a two night rule at that stage there's a sort of implication that one night is bookable already in your contract. It's a definite point in time when the hotel should have raised a two night rule with you.

michellie

Dellnum wrote: »

It is so embarrassing for you OP.

I can't see why the OP should be embarrassed in any way at all?!

That is one of the most ridiculous rules I have ever heard. 2 nights?! Can someone explain the reasoning behind that?

Dellnum

michellie wrote: »

I can't see why the OP should be embarrassed in any way at all?!

That is one of the most ridiculous rules I have ever heard. 2 nights?! Can someone explain the reasoning behind that?

It is the OP's wedding and her guests want to stay in the hotel the night of the wedding and are being faced with this s.it, so naturally enough they will get in touch with her for an explanation, so hence the embarrassment

MrWalsh

michellie wrote: »

That is one of the most ridiculous rules I have ever heard. 2 nights?! Can someone explain the reasoning behind that?

The reasoning is that some people will book the two rooms rather than book no rooms and they are counting on making money off that - particularly if there is nowhere else nearby or nowhere else easily available.

Sligo1

Solution: usually hotels have a 48 hour cancellation policy. Get your 200 people to book the 2 nights of your wedding (book the hotel out). Get every single one of them to cancel their booking the 48hours before hand so they lose no money at all. Good luck to the hotel trying to fill 100 or whatever rooms in 2 days!!! They will lose a f*ck load of money and hopefully teach them a lesson for being money grabbing aholes.

They'll also at this stage probably be begging your guests to stay the one night as they will have no clientele booked in....

Sofiztikated

Dellnum wrote: »

I can't believe that a hotel would require wedding guests to book 2 nights or get nothing. That is absolutely disgraceful, the cheek of them. I never heard tell of trying to book a hotel at any time of the year and being told that you have to book two nights or nothing at all. This must be a new thing. I would be absolutely raging if I had booked a wedding in a hotel and was landed with this. It is so embarrassing for you OP.

michellie wrote: »

I can't see why the OP should be embarrassed in any way at all?!

That is one of the most ridiculous rules I have ever heard. 2 nights?! Can someone explain the reasoning behind that?

It's not a new practice, I'm working in hotels 15 years, and it's been in use for at least all of that.

It's called yield management. Everyone wants a Saturday. You want more occupancy on a Friday and/or Sunday. Sure, you risk losing someone that only wants a Saturday, but it leaves you with rooms for someone that wants to stay 2 nights, maximising your revenue.

Your best bet is to go in and see the coordinator. Don't go in half cocked, shouting and ranting. Calmly ask what the story is, and state that if you can't come to some agreement, you will have to pull the wedding. No hotel, especially a city hotel, wants to lose business.

LadyE

I remember being invited to a wedding a couple of years ago, the venue they were getting married in was 320 a night to stay in. It's so off putting, wedding gs are expensive enough for the guests without this amount of money just on accommodation. I did judge the bride and groom for imposing this on the guests. It's just not fair.

We went for the top package, we've booked a 6 course meal, plenty of alcohol for our guests. From the minute we got engaged we said straight off that we didn't want our guests to dread getting the invitation through the door because of financial reasons, we want our guests to be looked after as much as we can. And this whole thing just contradicts that.

Sligo1

Sofiztikated wrote: »

It's not a new practice, I'm working in hotels 15 years, and it's been in use for at least all of that.

It's called yield management. Everyone wants a Saturday. You want more occupancy on a Friday and/or Sunday. Sure, you risk losing someone that only wants a Saturday, but it leaves you with rooms for someone that wants to stay 2 nights, maximising your revenue.

Your best bet is to go in and see the coordinator. Don't go in half cocked, shouting and ranting. Calmly ask what the story is, and state that if you can't come to some agreement, you will have to pull the wedding. No hotel, especially a city hotel, wants to lose business.

I don't think the OP exactly minds this practice as such. I think it's more that tey didn't tell her about it when she booked them or signed the contract. If she was told this was their practice before she paid the deposit she couldve quite easily started looking elsewhere. Imo they have been quite deceitful.

runawaybishop

LadyE wrote: »

Hey all,

I'm so annoyed! A friend enquired about booking a room in our hotel on our wedding day ( saturday in peak season) and was told that the hotel didn't do single nights. It's two or 3 nights only.

I called the hotel to see what the story is and they confirmed that this is the case!

They didn't tell us this at time of booking out wedding, when we questioned why they didn't tell us we got a "well you didn't ask" response back. Customer service here is shocking. It's not a small wedding and I just feel sick of the cost of two nights in the hotel will impose on our guests when they haven't the choice.

I feel completely duped here. The only people who can book single nights are the 15 people who can get the reduced wedding rate.

Has anyone come across this??

This is extremely common on busy weekends. If the rooms do not get booked out its possible they may reduce to singles again but the fact that they went to 2 night stays indicates they have plenty of demand for the Saturday. The hotel aren't being underhanded by not telling you really, but its understandable that you are annoyed.

MrWalsh

I wonder if you could get enough people to book the 2 nights and then have them offer the unused night to the Simon community to house homeless people for a night?

LadyE

Hotel finally got in touch and is allowing our guests a one night stay! Horrrayyyyyy!