Concern re hotel which renegs on confirmed booking
 

..had reservations at Hotel Saint Louis Marais which were made for me by friends in Paris in October. They sent confirmation and I sent a Visa number and the hotel reconfirmed a twin rm for 2 nights at the beginning of our stay and 1 night at the end about 2 weeks before our trip. The first 2 night were great; however arrived back at the end of the trip and no room. They said they had realized their mistake and booked me in another small hotel that they owned in a rather bleak area of the 9th. They did pay for the cab and said they would throw in a free breakfast (in fact they tried to charge me the same for a room that was 16 euros less and the difference was the "free" breakfast...I did catch that by reading the posted rate!) I was very inconvenienced as was visiting friends but not a tragedy as I was travelling with someone else and the deserted street was fine as I wasnt alone. It might have really upset other travellers though who were alone or who had never lived in Paris (I did as a student). Is just writing a blast on tripadvisor enough? I dont think it was a clerical error as I had even left luggage and my french is at a level that I can work in that language. I also had a copy of the confirmation with me. What do you think?

Hi tb,

A. Did you charge the hotel bill? If so call your CC, if you think you were overcharged.

B. Send in a report to tripadvisor.

C. Chalk it up to experience. It could have been worse.

It doesn't appear you paid more than you had too for that other room unless I misunderstood. It seems like you had caught on to what they wanted to charge you and resolved it there.
I have read alot of comments concerning your problem about denying confirmed reservations. It happens quite alot it seems. You can and should write your comments on tripadvisor.com. But nothing else really you can do now I don't think.

..to clarify, the first night was prepaid by credit card months before. I am not complaining about overcharging. I am complaining about a hotel with whom I book and prepay the first night and does not honor the contract..yes i think it is just one for experience but i dont know how we can help others not to have thios problem except by "word of mouth" ie tripadvisor and this forum.

That's it tb. You let the world know, as you are doing.

It's a nasty thing to have happen to you. I'm glad to hear that the hotel you had the problem with admitted their mistake and found you another place to stay, although the rest of your

We had a similar experience at a hotel (La Bégude St-Pierre) near the Pont du Gard. We had guaranteed the reservation with our credit card AND a deposit of half the first night, but when we arrived the receptionist could find no record of our reservation. She was new and nice but didn't have a clue about what to do, and the chef-owner wasn't in that day to help. So we ended up at a much more pricey hotel in the area and had to return to La Bégude the next day to talk to the head clerk. She was in a bad mood and took some convincing to look through the c/c card receipts for the month when we paid the deposit. After she finally found it, she didn't even offer to refund the amount--I had to really twist her arm to get our money back.

On our return home I wrote to the chef-owner but never received a reply.

You can blab on and on at Trip Advisor as long as you give a good REASON why you are posting a negative review (so often we read things such as "the service was bad" whatever THAT means) and you can get satisfaction from your credit card issuer for "goods/services paid for but not delivered"....

That has happened to me more times than I can count...all in the US. Hotels are notorious for overbooking... bet they would charge if I didn't show, but they don't always hold rooms. Chalk it up to experience! At least they had a place for you to stay.

Anne

>...bet they would charge if I didn't show, but they don't always hold rooms.<

Darn right. This happened to me once. I told the hotel (a large chain) that since they would charge me if I were a no-show that they should pay me for not having a room.

I wrote AMEX and the chain. I got a credit for one night's stay.