I am a VERY frequent travler for both business and pleasure and this has never happened to me but . . . even if I am confirmed for late arrival and it is gettting toward midnight and I am still miles away, i make that telephone call and confirm again maybe even give an ETA, which is proabably what should have been done. Not to get on you, but sometimes you have to go that extra mile and I am kind of shocked that driving all that way you didn't make the call when you saw it was getting late. Anyway, it did happen ans you are entitled to compensation. "Normal" compensation for non-egregious brehavior of this type would be either the amount of money which would have been spent on the stay, any out of pocket you incurred if you had to stay somewhere else, or a two-night comp at another hotel. Realize though this would proabably be a hotel of EQUAL value. If for instance this hotel was $80/night you will probably reeive a comp certificate for $160 to use at the Mariott property of your choice. My guess is the hotel in london is probably at least $160/night (London exttremely expensive) therefore it would only entitle you to one free night there. Take what you can get if this was a lesser known chain you proabably would get NOTHING. I definitely wouldn't write a letter to the Better Business Bureau over such a small thing.

JS, <BR> <BR>I only suggested a good will gesture when....The hotel was able to rebook the room to someone else. <BR> <BR>Let's face it, when they SOLD the room to someone else the hotel was no longer making it available for the person that guaranteed the reservation. <BR> <BR>You are right it is a 2 way agreement...if they expect me to pay for a no show( which is only fair)...they should hold that room for me all night since I paid for it. <BR> <BR>I too call if I'm going to be late ..so they will hold my room. My point is..that I shouldn't have to call if I Guaranteed payment..since the hotel is being paid anyway for the room. <BR> <BR>I can't see any reason why a hotel should accept double payment for the same room.

John, <BR>Here's a story that is only vaguely relevant, but such the opposite of your experience that I can't resist telling it. <BR> <BR>We got to our Marriott somewhere in SC and they had given away our room. So they drove us to another Marriott, told us the room was on the house, and gave <BR>us a voucher for two free nights at the first Marriott for use within the year. <BR> <BR>Never expecting to be back in SC, we tossed the vouchers after about 8 months. Then, lo and behold, we found ourselves heading back to SC. <BR> <BR>But we couldn't quite remember what hotel had offered us the vouchers. So <BR>we called the Omni and they said, it's okay if you don't still have the vouchers -- you can still have the free nights with us. And so we took them. <BR> <BR>Six months later something reminded us that it had actually been the Marriot that had made the offer! But our hearts have belonged to the Omni ever since. <BR> <BR>Sorry to get off the track here. Hadn't thought of this incident in years, but <BR>your post reminded me that sometimes people in the hotel business can be very nice.

Hi John, I manage an Inn in Homer, AK. The credit card companies have policies on confirming reservations, so it might be a good idea to call the one you used and ask if they can help you. Even though you didn't prepay for the room, the hotel must follow their guidelines if they accept credit cards.

That two-way obligation is the crux of this matter. If the hotel is in possession of your credit-card number and you gave it expecting to be charged if you didn't show, then what you had was in effect a verbal contract made into a written contract with the print-out of the reservation. <BR> <BR>By all means check with the credit-card company, but not just the first agent who answers the phone, since they'll be confused if they can't find a record of a charge and will want you to go away so they don't have to worry about it. You need to report this to someone in the supervisory or policy-making level of things. <BR> <BR>And "abe," this isn't a "small thing" -- the contract was breached and the consumer was seriously inconvenienced. Just because no money was retained by the Macon, Ga., Marriott doesn't mean this wasn't "bad business." Why not check out the BBB?