Football fans booked themselves a room at the Detroit Club hotel months ago for April 25 to be near the NFL draft. The room rate was $350 ($427.50 with taxes and fees) per night. The hotel cancelled their reservation, and told them if they wanted to stay the night they’d have to pay an $1,100 room rate.
The property didn’t claim there was any kind of mistake in the booking. They didn’t say they were regrettably oversold. First they just sent a cancellation ‘at the guest’s request’ (which wasn’t true). Now they aren’t even trying to offer a story for why they wouldn’t honor the booking at the price they’d advertised – other than that they now believe they can charge three times as much.
In an email exchange, Jani Miller asked to reinstate the reservation and was told her request could not be accommodated, but she was free to make another reservation. The catch: Rooms for the night of April 25 were going for $1,100 as of Wednesday, according to the club’s website.
Jani Miller called the club repeatedly, but never got through to the manager, Miller said.
Credit: Detroit Club
Credit: Detroit Club
Since the hotel acknowledges having rooms – they are still taking reservations – the 44-year Detroit Lions season ticket holders thinks they ought to honor the advertised price, which is an ordinary rate for the hotel.
The simple lesson here is that hotels do not always honor reservations. Sometimes they overbook and will walk you and sometimes they just decide they want more money than the price they quoted you:
- Last year before the Chiefs-Eagles game in Phoenix a local hotel claimed they were being sold (to themselves?) in order to dishonor reservations booked in advance at normal rates.
- Several years ago the Durham Hilton near Duke University took reservations at its regular rates failing to update its systems to charge more money during Duke graduation. When they realized they’d sold rooms at regular price, they unilaterally cancelled the bookings.
These weren’t mistake rates. These were regular price rooms. The hotel just realized they could make more money. The Hilton chain did nothing about it.
- Similarly there were numerous stories of hotels cancelling rooms all over Central Oregon for a solar eclipse, when travelers flocked there to experience the event.
While hotels usually honor their room rates, and honor bookings more often than Airbnb owners do, this isn’t an entirely uncommon situation.
This is common practice and, as you know, not illegal (unless a specific state may have restrictions against such cancellations). Happens all the time for sporting events, concerts, etc plus there are cases where a wealthy guest wants to block an entire floor (or the entire resort) and any one who had a reservation at that time had it cancelled. Just like guests can usually cancel up until a specific time (usually a couple of days before the stay) hotels can do likewise so never assume you have a guaranteed reservation.
Until there are laws preventing such cancellations they will happen. Even then there will have to be exceptions for things like remodeling, damages, etc that prevent someone from staying. BTW, if hotels can’t cancel expect to see guest rates be a lot more non-refundable. No free lunch people.
Much as I want to be outraged, I can’t.
Not much different than a customer who books, then cancels at the last minute because he found a better rate. Raising guilty hand.
Unfortunately, there are no hotel “guarantees” on price until X date.
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And this is when sites like TripAdvisor come in handy. Not illegal but the hotel should certainly get a badge of shame.
It’s just a reservation until you pay. Neither side has any legal obligation. If you prepaid then it’s a different story.
An AirBnb host did this to us. We’d planned a trip to Sundance, booked the room for a reasonable price, and then he cancelled it without warning and tripled his room rate.
Hope the trade off of money v karma was worth it for him. I sent him a handful of emails asking why he would do that, and did he not have any shame, but I bet he blocked me after the first one.
So I’m thinking that if I find myself in this situation with a major event reservation I should pre-pay it and take my chances. Seems like that would be harder to mess with, although not impossible.
It isn’t illegal tho’ I wonder what the confirmations say. I know that the Events Industry Council, founded in the ’40s as the Convention Liaison Council, was formed partly to deal with legality of hotel confirmations.
Then I wondered about the hotel-in-a-club’s code of ethics. Without digging too deeply, the Club Managers Assn. of MI popped up in the search for this property. Their code of ethics is here https://www.gmcma.cc/Chapter_Info/Code_of_Ethics and like many codes, appears aspirational not enforceable.
For those saying that it is the same as booking a room that one can cancel a day or two in advance, I would disagree as one usually pays a higher rate for a cancellable reservation vs. a non-cancellable one. Think of it as an airline ticket: you have the lowest fare tickets with restrictions and then you have the higher prices / fully refundable fare.
Ever tried making hotel reservations in advance for a Formula 1 event? This happens constantly.
That happened to me with Booking.com where the host realized that I booked during Sinulog in Cebu, Philippines, which is a big celebration. They emailed me asking for more money. I complained to booking.com, the listing was removed and my reservation was cancelled.
Any cancellation fees should go both ways. Any deposits returned for the hotel cancelling the reservation should include 25% per year to cover credit card fees.
That’s bullshit. I presume since you didn’t mention any suggested recourse that the customer can’t take any legal action, which would be my preferred option.
Name and shame. I travel to Detroit somewhat often. I will never consider a reservation at this property. Screw em.