So, Michael and I needed a little away time and we both like to swim. I suggested that we go to a local motel with a swimming pool and a hot tub. There we alternate carelessly through the hot tub, the swimming pool, napping and eating. Since we are staying two nights, We could swim on Friday night, swim all day saturday, and swim Sunday morning before checking out. "Is that prudent?" We asked ourselves. "Yes, We can afford a couple of nights at a hotel. We never had a honeymoon, and we've been putting everything into the store for 6 months non stop. It is time for a well deserved break."
I began to look on line through the TRAVELOCITY website. We found one that we could afford that had the hot tub and pool. Excitedly, we made our reservations. We made sure to ask "Is there an indoor swimming pool?" Originally we asked for just one nights stay, but called back and asked for another night too so that we could swim as stated above.
We drive forty minutes to Marysville, Ohio to our hotel. Only our hotel doesn't appear to exist. "Maybe this one is it" We say, pointing to the hotel that has every single door open, Three or Four construction type vehicles, hoses coming out of everywhere. "This can't be it."
Michael goes in. I wait in the truck. He comes back out and says, " I have good news and I have bad news. This *is* the hotel but they say our reservations were cancelled. It smells like cigarette smoke, is filthy, and the pool is under rennovations (not yet constructed).
We aren't happy, but hopefully Travelocity will be of some help. We called, while sitting in the parking lot of our destination and gave them our information.
We get someone in India with a name like "Shane" and he has an accent so thick we can barely understand him. Not to mention that he constantly interrupts us and puts us on hold . I told him that we need them to find us another hotel in Marysville that has a pool... Switch our reservations.
He says that they can't do that. He can give us a *refund* Which will take up to 14 days, and book *another* reservation with us.
I told him that was not acceptable. We were already at our destination, they had made two errors so far ( cancelled plans, and no pool ) So they really needed to do as their slogan says, "Guarantee your price and your experience."
He began searching for hotels for us to stay at, but he kept saying "Parkersburg." I kept telling him. "Marysville."
"Our system says that is Parkersburg."
"I am quite certain we are not in Parkersburg." We had just driven there and there were no signs saying that Parkersburg was anywhere near. (Having just now performed a search on directions from Marysville, Ohio to Parkersburg, WEST VIRGINIA, We find that it is 2 hours and 48 minutes away.)
I ask to speak with a supervisor. He continues to try and help me, and it is just a repetition of the above.
" We aren't in Parkersburg, Look at your own website, Look out our reservations, it clearly states that our location and that the address of the non existent hotel is MARYSVILLE"
I ask for a supervisor again and again, until finally he agrees and I get put on hold for FORTY MINUTES.
During that forty minute wait, I called them using my cell phone and tell them that I need to speak with a supervisor immediately, that I've been on hold for a very long time. After holding for another twenty minutes, The first line finally gets a supervisor and I start to tell him about the horror that is happening. I told him that we are on our way back to Columbus, because we got tired of waiting and that the last thing we wanted was to stay in our vehicle at night in a parking lot forty minutes away from home.
He began to try and find us hotels in the area. All of them were booked, or didn't have a swimming pool. We got smart this time. If he suggested a place, we called it first. Usually, it didn't have a pool (our whole reason for doing this) Or it didn't have an INDOOR POOL. I told him that I found it very disappointing that they weren't of more service. That if we wanted to pay a separate company to just make reservations any old place, that we could do that ourselves. We just want a room in a place that has an indoor pool for the weekend at no additional charge to us.
Finally, I suggest a hotel nearby that I KNOW has a pool because it has an indoor waterpark. He books us a suite there. He says it's a king size suite with a king bed and a pair of bunk beds. We don't have kids. No one is staying with us. We don't need bunk beds, but we decided to let it go. A bed is a bed, is a bed. A reservation.. is a reservation... is a reservation. Waterpark is definitely an upgrade, we warily are excited about our weekend again.
We call the hotel just to make sure. Yes, they have our arrangements. We are relieved and excited. Maybe we can get to enjoying our weekend again. We check in, we take our bags to our room and decide that we are going to go look at the waterpark. We find out that the waterpark is additional... 25.00 per person per day. We talk to the front desk, they give us a two for one deal for the next day. We agree that at least one whole day at the waterpark should be ok and at this point we have to compromise.
We wake up Saturday morning and check our on line banking account and the hotel has charged us an additional 300+ dollar IN ADDITION to our rate that we already paid travelocity. We call Travelocity and ask them to take care of this and suprisingly, the first person can help me and calls the hotel and says that we are all taken care of. That Travelocity will pick up the charges. That the additional charges should be dropped off within the hour. We decide not to take travelocity's word for it. We go downstairs to the lobby and ask. The front desk assured us that we would be taken care of by Travelocity.
We are somewhat relieved. But, now we are wary for the rest of the day. So much for carefree weekend relaxing and enjoying ourselves. We try to make the most of it.
The next morning. I wake up to two invoices under my hotel door. We are getting charged *still* IN ADDITION to our original reserved price.
If you want to do half the work for Travelocity and fight for your 'deal' while you are on vacation then maybe that's ok. But I am posting this so that my friends, and hopefully whoever they talk to, can be prevented such a problem.