How hotels are “surviving” the recession–Portola Hotel, Monterey, CA

So, this is an experiment in how well the Web works.

How are hotels engaging in dubious practices to try and eek out money from their “guests”? By having onerous “cancellation” terms that appear to apply to “changes” in reservations as well as out right “cancellations”.

The Portola Hotel in Monterey, CA is guilty of this practice. I’ve had a change of plans for a conference I’m attending in the hotel. I needed to change my reservation from 4 nights to 3 nights. So I called up today to make the change. Originally I was told I was going to forfeit my entire deposit of $185 (one night, don’t get me started about forcing a deposit, that should have been a clue). Why? Because “changing” my reservation to remove one night, appears to mean that I’m “canceling” my reservation. No, I’m “changing” it, not “canceling” it. If I was canceling it, I wouldn’t be staying there at all.

For good or bad, I spoke with a supervisor who generously offered to “only” charge me $95. Gee, thanks. Also known as how to provide an outstanding customer experience. That experience starts before I get there.

The hotel better be the best damn hotel I’ve ever stayed in, or this policy will keep me from staying there ever again–I hope the $95 was worth it. (And if my Web experiment works, any number of folks will read this and think twice before staying there.)

I guess I’ll definitely be filling out the guest survey card, and also the conference evaluation forms asking them never to return to this particular hotel, nor allow the hotel to set such wacky terms.