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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??

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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!

pwurple

LadyE wrote: »

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

Awesome, a discussion saved the day.

lolly28

Thats great!

Milly33

Yeahhh congrats LadyE phew!! Bet ye are delighted..

Great idea Sligo about the cancellaton policy very sneaky I like it

alchemist33

Maybe the hotel manageent read boards

LadyE

Thanks for the support everyone...It really kept me sane!

Ascii

FYIW was just checking randomly there on a generic hotel booking website and for the May and August BH weekends (and they don’t get any busier than the BH weekends) this year you could book 1 night in the hotel you’re going to…IMO proves they are being f***kers to your guests saying that they had to book 2 nights.
Great that they have backed down none the less. Keep an eye on things going forward and ensure that everything is agreed on paper. Don’t leave it to chance, you don’t want any more nasty surprises.
And the password is “enjoy your big day” :-)

runawaybishop

Ascii wrote: »

FYIW was just checking randomly there on a generic hotel booking website and for the May and August BH weekends (and they don’t get any busier than the BH weekends) this year you could book 1 night in the hotel you’re going to…IMO proves they are being f***kers to your guests saying that they had to book 2 nights.
Great that they have backed down none the less. Keep an eye on things going forward and ensure that everything is agreed on paper. Don’t leave it to chance, you don’t want any more nasty surprises.
And the password is “enjoy your big day” :-)

Its too early for hotels to be booked out for may/august. These things go purely on demand.