Hello
I am currently in a hotel in Germany --
We were here for 4 days in Darmstadt than went to Hannover and returned for another 4 days.

The first part of our trip - our flight from the US was continuously delayed and than finally cancelled. I informed the hotel by emailing and calling multiple times. They called me back and said we would not be charged. I explained the new flight out of toronto will arrive 6 am and we will get to hotel by 8 am... would that be ok? I asked - yes no problem, can I check in than?, yes, will I be charged? No.

We got to the hotel and prior to checking in I asked if the rooms were ready- yes they are, will we be charged for checking in early? NO

we went up to our rooms and slept as it was 4 am our time.

upon checking out a few days later - I said i stayed here Thursday - Sunday --- and the girl at the counter says yes but because you checked in prior to 10 am - you were charged for Wed. as well (thats $350 Euros for 2 rooms). I said you told me we wouldn't be charged. She than responds. Your relative okayed it. I went to my relative and asked. He said No I told them you must contact them and ask them if they want to pay the early check in fee.

my 80 year old uncle and aunt were standing there so my husband said do not argue with them. lets just pay it and leave before your relatives get upset. so WE did .

now coming back to this hotel we had it booked for Wed to Sunday (this week) after our Hannover travel. They said call us and let us know if you don't need Wed night. We called them on Tuesday night and informed them that we would be returning on Thursday. We arrived in the hotel to check in and they again charged us for Wed night. This time I said NO --- and tried to defend myself. They repeated we do not have a recored of your call. you must have a name of someone you spoke to or we have to charge you for wed night.

I have tried to talk to the manage several times. she keeps arguing with me and telling me that she will check in to it and contact me and she has not done this. i keep having to chase her and she does not respond. They are charging us another unethical $340 Euro.

I do not know what to do. We are both seasoned travelers (new to Europe though) , also both professionals, and usually don't complain. But this is ridiculous and i feel very trapped and upset. Please let me know if you have any suggestions on how I can fix this situation.

Thank you so much. I check out in 24 hours.
p.s so sorry about quick typing and all the typos.

Please name the hotel so we all know to avoid it and tell them you'll go on travel chat rooms and complain, etc. You could contact your credit card company and contest the charges - they will then perhaps intermediate between you and hotel.

If I understood it correctly, you cancelled the Wednesday night and informed the hotel you would arrive on the Thursday, but you only informed them of that on the Tuesday night prior to arrival. What is the cancellation policy of the hotel? Some state 6pm day of arrival (local hotel time), others have a 24 hour prior to arrival policy. Did you take a note of the name of the person who said you would not be charged a cancellation fee (usually one nights rate.)

<<we went up to our rooms and slept as it was 4 am our time. >> What is your time? It's not Toronto time as 4am Toronto time is 10am CET time. Did you get the confirmation of the previous night being free of charge, in writing? Normally if you check in to a hotel room early in the morning, the room is booked from the previous evening.

Sorry to hear that you have to deal with this.
But unless you can resolve this matter with the hotel in whatever way, I doubt you will have a case.
You have your bookings/ reservations/ confirmations with the terms you agreed to. You may want to check this with re. to cancellation periods and early check-in fees.
If those early check-in fees are the same as the actual room rate, I find that both unusual and steep.
Normally, early check-in or late check-out come with a fee of 20-30%, or it is not possible at all. Or you pay nothing when you're lucky and the room is already ready in the early morning.

Then you have a lot of "I said, he said, she said". None of that can be verified by anyone.

Maybe you had issues communicating, maybe their English wasn't the best and they meant A but said B and you understood C.
Maybe the employee who promised you not to charge one night overstepped his or her competence and the hotel manager wants to cover that up and lies on purpose.
Even if you had taken the name of the employee you talked to on the phone, what does that prove? You say Emily said yes, Emily says she said no.

I think the only thing one can take away from this is that phone calls are by far the worst option when it comes to items that are relevant, costly and/or change an existing contract.

Whenever you call or email a hotel to try to make changes in a reservation, insist on getting an email back to confirm what they have said to you, and make sure you have that email with you.

Well you seem to have got all your confirmations verbally and you even agreed with them to their face when you wanted to save face with your relatives.

So, having arrived in this situation I would walk downstairs and find the manager, ask to go to her office, lay out each of the facts based around her time scales (no one cares what time it was in your country) and see if you can negotiate an deal. If that feels too tough then swallow the bill.

In future
1) read their terms and conditions
2) get changes in writing/email and take access to those docs with you.
3) don't agree and then disagree

I'm a bit confused by "we are both professionals" what does that mean? You get paid to do a job? What relevence is that to a mucked up contract. Not complaining is not got to help you here, you need to negotiate. Good luck, smile, be nice and try and see it from their point of view and see what you can get.

read bilboburglers' post - then read it again.

Try to (nicely) negotiate a compromise / maybe reduction in the charge. If unsiccessful . . . chalk it up to a learning experience to get EVERYTHING in writing. You have enough on your plate with your son/wheelchair/relatives without getting into a snit with the hotel.

They might cut you a deal - or they might not. Not much you can do if they don't.

Seems yes bilbo has it - I think a difference may be if the hotel was full those nights or not - did they really lose income from the snafu. But yes not worth pursuing except as bilbo suggests.

>>I think a difference may be if the hotel was full those nights or not - did they really lose income <<

I seriously doubt that will factor in the hotel's calculation/response.

I do too but it should - if rooms were empty simply gouging - if not they have a legitimate stance lacking proof of cancellation.

They are not gouging any more than they are gouging to charge anyone their fee that night. Especially since there even was a stayed early checkin fee that was inquired about and discussed, I wonder if there is a language issue here and the first conversation was misunderstood what the relatives said. The story is a little confusing becuase it is stated that you discussed it with the clerk and they said you wouldn't be charged, and then there is the mention of a second conversation with a relative, not you, why would they even be asked if it were already settled.

This sounds very frustrating, puts some of my minor problems in perspective but I agree with janis and cowboy, I bet there is nothing you can do. I also would check the cancellation/change policy as to hours. Some places require 48 hrs or more. I also never would have done the second thing after the first experience at the exact same hotel.

And as a tip, I ALWAYS do changes of plans with email, not by phone and if I have to do it by phone, I also insist they email me with the confirmation/agreement of our changes. In this day and age with the ubiquity of email, there is really no reason not to do that. Now that wouldn't apply to the first time when you were there in person, though. but I bet it's a language issue.

I agree with the try to negotiate tactic, otherwise, I don't really know what you can do.

Sorry you had to deal with these blips in your planned travel. Not to pile on, but why would you expect a hotel to make an accommodation for a flight delay over which it has no control? Unless you are a regular client who spends huge amounts with the property/chain, it's not likely to happen. Also, almost all properties have a stated policy on cancellation/changes. Did your call on Tuesday to cancel the Wednesday rez fall within their policy?
And, it must be said, this is why there is travel insurance. Is there a chance your credit card provides that?

HI everyone I followed your advice, I walked down to the manager and talked to her .. She repeatedly told me she would contact me back after she researched and Never did. I was very nice and tried to logically explain everything. I showed her my emails and explained they called us with answers and never would email me back. I tried my best to get things in writing but they always verbally called me back with broken english. 3 days went by and she never contacted us. every day she said Ill call you later. so finally I went down with my husband, after she said we have no recored of your call to cancel. My husband said how do you record, is it recording the call or writing the name. She said we do not keep records of calls or names. My husband raised his voice a little and she said well the reason i haven't gotten back to you is because our general manager is not here and will come later on in the week. My husband asked who is in his place she said no one. My husband said you charged us $400 Euros for checking in at 8:45 am and now say if we had waited till 10 am- There would be no charge. my wife repeatedly explained to you our flight was changed and asked if we would be charged for checking in early and your receptionist said no -right to our face at check in. Despite this We agreed to pay this $400 Euro to you for the 1 hour and 15 min early check in fee.
But to accuse us of lying and not canceling the second reservation and charging us for the night AGAIN is not acceptable. I told her they are unethically charging us $400 Euros Twice. We agreed to once despite their telling us there will be no charge, but we will not accept the second time being charged and accusing us of not calling. So after all this , when my husband raised his voice a little (which we never do) she said ok, you will not be charged, I don't need to talk to the general manager.
It was very uncomfortable as it was out of character for my husband and I to fight for this. But I felt like they were taking advantage of us.

Now we are in Paris and got ripped off here too with a so called taxi at the train station (( a man came up to us and said he was security and we should take the taxi across the street because we have a wheelchair. i told my husband this looks fishy, he said, the man says he is security. Anyways we went with this man and got in his car.... he charged us $120 Euros to the hotel and we later found out its about $10 Euros from the train station to the hotel. (

Thanks sooo much for all your help .. learned a lot the hard way on this trip.

That wasn't getting "ripped off" that was falling for a typical taxi scam. Sorry you are learning things like this the hard (and expensive!) way.

What's the name of that hotel? A chain or family-run, etc.

Assuming you used a credit card, you should immediately dispoute the hotel charges. This will temporarily deduct the charges from your account. Having owned a hotel in the past, I know that such chargeback requests can have a negative impact on the hotel's credit card rate (the fees the hotel pays for accepting credit cards), and they require them to be responsive in a timely fashion. They may simply concede rather than provide documentation. If they ignore the requests from the credit card company or fail to provide complete documentation, you will receive the appropriate credit. Sorry, I cannot offer any help for a ripoff taxi driver.

I am so sorry for the taxi thing. It is easy when you are traveling to go for something like that because you do not want to argue or look as if you do not trust someone. Similar things have happened to us, mostly because DH too often accepts strangers as friends. Now, I refuse to get into any vehicle unless I know the correct cost and see the proper license. Everything with hotels is in writing, etc. I do not mind walking away! However, in the Great scheme of life, it is not worth too much time thinking about it later. Just so you learn from it. There will be good things to compensate for the bad. Hope the rest if your trip is wonderful!

Yes who needs aggravations like that on any trip especially with your hoeric IMO having to care for your son - bravo and seeming to care what he also would like it much different than others with kids here and have them going to a litany of art museums and stuff - he has some great suggestions.

Lilly, well done and well done with your husband. Sometimes a little raised voice clarifies in the other's mind that this is serious. Sorry it happens on this holiday.

Taxi, what to say. That is unlikely in most western European cities but Paris is one where it could happen. I used to be a Buying Professional ;-) and "knowledge is power" was our mantra.

Have you got a travel guide book like the Rough Guide to France, it gives a view of what to do and loads of pricing information. Always worth reading up on destinations which you are un-familiar with.

Folks, they have already moved on. Now they need URGENT help in Paris.