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HELP! Leaving for London tomorrow to stay at Renaissance Chancery and being told that t's their policy that reservations are not guaranteed!!!

HELP! Leaving for London tomorrow to stay at Renaissance Chancery and being told that t's their policy that reservations are not guaranteed!!!

Old Aug 16th, 2006, 08:12 PM
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bonzhoor
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HELP! Leaving for London tomorrow to stay at Renaissance Chancery and being told that t's their policy that reservations are not guaranteed!!!

I am in a panic right now...on hold with Customer Relations at Rennaisance Hotels. I booked a room at the Rennaisance Chancery a month ago for a room that has 2 double beds and specified 4 people. I received a confirmation e-mail for my reservation with all my requests.

I am in the process of putting all my confirmations together and just called them to make sure and I was told by customer service that my booking only reflected 3 guests although my confirmation shows 4 so instead of going back and forth disagreeing about what I see and what she sees, she suggested talking to customer relations.

The person I spoke with at this department then told me that the room is not even guaranteed because if they oversold, I am not guaranteed I would have a room so I questioned why they would take a reservation that was not available, specially since I scheduled a month ahead(ok, I know, not it's not way ahead of time but it's not a last minute offer). He then proceeded to tell me that that's standard practice. For instance, a customer decides to extend their stay, people who then come in with their reservations will not be able to get it because people decided to stay longer.

I asked why they would allow this since they already have commitments to people that have made reservtions and he said"Oh, we can't ask our customers to leave" and just reiterated that this was standard practice.
Has anyone heard of this, with Renaissance Hotels?

During this whole time my voice remained calm and I just asked to speak with a manager although was already hyperventilating while I was on hold.

The manager then got back with me and told me that all the rooms with 2 doubles are sold out and they might just have kings. So I reiterated that there are 4 people in the party and would have no choice but just have a rollaway, she then proceeded to tell me that she doesn't understand how I could have made this reservation with 4 people because the system won't allow it but I explained again that I do have the confirmation in front of me and I was able to go through the whole transacation with no problems. Prior to even booking online, I spoke to one of their agents to confirm this which she did. I mentioned that this was actually why we decided to go with Renaissance chancery because it could accomodate all 4 of us in our budget.

She offered to call, thankfuly but kept insisting that there might not be anything they could do about the 2 double beds and by this time, after being scared witless of not even having a room said I would be open to a rollaway (my daughter really co-sleeps with us anyway but always get a bed for her because it seems like that is reqired in hotels in Europe so I mentioned this to her too that I don't have a problem with my daughter co-sleeping with us but just don't want to violate requirements.

She called the chancery and was basically told that all the rooms with doubles are gone and all rollaways are used up but that the person will note that there's 4 people and they'll try to see what they can do to accomodate us.

Have people heard about this policy - that nothing is really guaranteed(I'm not talking about just the bed and the smoking/non-smoking room requests, but of the room itself) and has anyone had this experience with the Chancery and what was your experience, and this late in the game, what are my options? I am confused because the woman was saying that we will have a room, it's just not guaranteed.
 
Old Aug 16th, 2006, 08:34 PM
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Hi

Any establishment that cannot guarantee your booking should be avoided. Let's face it - they stuffed up your booking and haven't got the decency to fix it! Quite a few Fodorites recommend Priceline for London - you might give them a try.

Good luck.
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Old Aug 16th, 2006, 09:17 PM
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If you use Priceline, though, for London, you are pretty well assured of getting a double-occupancy only room. If you're willing to get two rooms, you would likely save a lot.
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Old Aug 16th, 2006, 09:35 PM
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I considered priceline initially, specially because I heard you could get very good deals with them but read several posts here that if there's several of you in your party, it is not a good idea as you won't know if you're all going to be in the same hotel. I read that this works really well only for one or two travelers. The reason I decided on the Chancery was aside from the rave reviews here and in TA, it also could accomodate 4 in a room which I also verified with the customer service center. Thank you though for suggesting it.
 
Old Aug 16th, 2006, 09:43 PM
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If you bid for two rooms at the same time (in the same bid), you always get the same hotel. If you make two separate bids, you might get two separate hotels.
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Old Aug 16th, 2006, 10:06 PM
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I've never heard of a hotel that will not guarantee your reservation. It might be standard at Rennaisance but certainly not throughout the industry.

Sometimes any hotel can make an error of overbooking, but that's a different issue.
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Old Aug 16th, 2006, 10:12 PM
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I've never heard of a hotel not guaranteeing a reservation. Sometimes they will require a credit card number to hold the room if you are arriving late. It's true that it can be difficult to find two double beds in London. We have often taken two rooms with our children in London, or (better) an apartment.

I don't know how much you are paying for the room, but I would check on www.laterooms.com to see if you can get something better. I'm not sure I would want to stay at that hotel after their response!
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Old Aug 16th, 2006, 10:57 PM
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I have stayed at this hotel, I would call the hotel directly and speak with reservations. They were very accomodating about connecting rooms last summer. FYI, these are not american hotel rooms, and 4 people in a double room is going to be cramped.

If you have a written confirmation from the hotel, I would send it to the hotel directly and speak with them.
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Old Aug 16th, 2006, 11:06 PM
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g2g - thank you for your reassurance. from my understanding, the room i booked is not a double room, it is a room that will have 2 double beds or a king sized bed in which case we would require a rollaway. i did put in a request to have 2 double beds(and this part I know is not a guaranteed) but to e told that 1) their record shows only 3 people, 2) "i don't know how you could have gone through the booking because the max is 3 in the room(this is the US customer service center) and 3) we can't even guarantee you any room because it is so full right now is quite worrisome.

I will call them.
 
Old Aug 17th, 2006, 12:53 AM
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When you go to the Marriottn website and attempt to book the Chancery Court the rooms which come up very SPECIFICALLY say "max 2 people" or "max 2 adults."

However, if you have, IN WRITING, a confirmation which shows 4 people then the hotel will have to make good on it some way, somehow.

GET THERE EARLY in the day of check-in, if possible.
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Old Aug 17th, 2006, 02:35 AM
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Hi B,

I also suggest calling the hotel directly.

It is not at all standard practice not to guarantee a reservation.

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Old Aug 17th, 2006, 03:06 AM
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I was told by a staff member when my prepaid flat at Chelsea Cloisters was not available that if guests stay longer than their bookings, the establishment has no recourse so the incoming customer is out of luck.

And this reservation was prepaid in full months ahead of time. Good luck.
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Old Aug 17th, 2006, 04:44 AM
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I have also been told by several hotels that, if a pre-existing guest extends their stay, they may need to bump incoming guests -- they 'walk' them, which means finding them a comparable room at another hotel. The usual compensation for 'walking' (in the US, at least) is paying for the first night's stay at the other hotel. The new hotels price and quality should be comparable.

If the Chancery is full, they should be able to 'walk' you to another hotel room that can accomodate your confirmed number of guests (4).
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Old Aug 17th, 2006, 05:02 AM
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All hotels are subject to being oversold. So are airlines. They overbook on purpose knowing that some people will cancel, be "no shows" etc. In my 22 years of traveling extensively for business and leisure it has happened to me three or four times that I arrived at a hotel with a confirmed reservation and was what they call "walked" to another hotel. This usually means complementary transportation to the other hotel, and a complementary stay at the other hotel, but a lot of inconvenience for not being able to stay at the original hotel. It happens. It can happen anywhere. It is not unique to this hotel. Not that it makes you feel any better. My point is it can happen anytime you travel whether you realized it or not. What really counts is what the hotel will do when it happens, take you in limo, give you a suite, free breakfast, whatever. What you really need to ask the hotel is what exactly will happen if you arrive and they cannot meet the terms of your confirmed reservation. And get that in writing too.
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Old Aug 17th, 2006, 05:05 AM
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I know that hotels sometimes say they cannot guarantee bed arrangements or smoking preference (which is frightening enough), but not guaranteeing you a room?! No, that's ridiculous. If you don't get this straightened out, I'm sure not going to book with them - and they were on my short list of places for my upcoming trip!
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Old Aug 17th, 2006, 05:26 AM
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My family and I are staying at the Jurys Inn Islington in December, and most of their rooms can accomodate 4 people (2 double beds). My 3 daughters are staying in one room and my husband and I in another. Do some investigating and call some other hotels. I would not chance getting to London and not having a room available.
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Old Aug 17th, 2006, 05:32 AM
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ditto Laurie Ann

At large hotels, a late arrival has gotten me the nicest suites - when staying only 1 night when the hotel is fully booked or overbooked.

Any hotel, anywhere will have to walk a customer with a confirmed reservation if other guests do not check-out as planned per their reservations. It's against the law to kick someone out once they are in the room.

The big problem here is trying to get a room that will hold 4 guests. However you got a confirmation for 3 in a double is a still unanswered question, but 4 in a double room? Probably isn't going to happen.

If you haven't left yet, try booking 2 Pricelice rooms. Go to www.betterbidding.com for info on map areas and approx $ to bid.
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Old Aug 17th, 2006, 05:36 AM
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bonzhoor
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Thank you so much fellow fodorites - got on the phone to the hotel directly after sleeping restlessly for only 2 hours with worry about this and the woman I spoke with actually showed what i've been saying all along, that it was booked for 4 people in 1 room(it is for a suite type room and therefore larger which was why I didn't hesitate just getting 1 room) and that they actually might be able to accomodate the 2 double and non-smoking request because the hotel has a lot of empty rooms - quite different from what the the "customer care" supervisor who told me that the Chancery was so busy right now filled with conventioneers and all double/double and non-smoking and rollaway beds were taken??!??!

I read the rest of your advise after I made the call and now know that it's best to really just get in touch with the hotel directly - it seems that you get better service at the hotel than at the place actually called "customer service"
 
Old Aug 17th, 2006, 05:40 AM
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Glad it worked out. Yes, it is always better to get things confirmed by someone at the hotel itself (and get the name of the person you spoke with) than the toll free numbers.

"Sold out" hotels per the reservation center often still have rooms available when you call the hotel directly. As it should be - the hotel manager or management are the ones that really know the status of the house - and can rearrange room assignments, etc. to work out problems.

Have a GREAT time in London.
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Old Aug 17th, 2006, 06:10 AM
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I, too, am booked for the Chancery Court arriving this weekend. Your title put me in a panic!! I am using Marriott points for part of the stay so they would have had to do some major accomodating if they bumped me. I booked two rooms for 4 and am still getting confirmation that they do not have the two bed room I requested. It won't be a big problem for us if we only get kings.
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