"Rules/Rights" regarding rooms

[undertheradar]

The reason ANY hotel will not confirm a specific room is that rooms are rented 365 days per year. Plumbing breaks, people hold parties, bedding is destroyed, fires occur, etc. It is impossible to promise a specific room. Most hotels will take requests, but they cannot guarantee them. In fact, the cruise lines are the only industry that operate on specific accommodations. If a hotel is 100% booked and guests want to extend, it is at the discretion of hotel management. Those guests that refuse to leave should get to experience "walking" a guest when they arrive to check in after travelling all day. The industry norm when I worked in it, was to pay for a room for the arriving guest, pay for dinner, pay for phone calls and if they were frequent guests they may be due cash as well. I experienced a night where we "walked" 7 guest rooms and also had to provide transportation for 5 of them(all arrived individually). It does get very costly.

 

[diskids2]

Hi All, Sorry I haven't replied. We've been in the dark for a while.

I had the chance to look up the law and since I started this, I figured I should do the research. It is indeed true, that you cannot be evicted from a room or a variety of reasons and the hotel can charge you the rack rate.

I had a few emails asking me to clarify a few things: (1)I'm not told this at check in. I'm told this when I make the reservation. (2) I have been asked to change my room when I made back to back reservations, only once out of three times and WDW was very helpful in making it easy to move. (3) I ask to block a certain room when I make a reservation, if we like the room and the location at the hotel. 9/10 times I get the block. If I do not get it , it is usually because of a larger event going on and it is correct I would not want to be in the middle of a convention or someone's wedding party. (Meaning that those folks should get the rooms closer to one another.) If this is the case, I'm told at booking and we figure something else out. (4) I have had a blocked room and did not get that room at check in because of one reason or another and a perfectly great room has been assigned to me. (5) I still think I have a right to ask why my request is being denied.

Someone asked me in an email why I asked this question. It was simply because I wanted to know if anyone had heard of the law.

Thanks for all the input!

 

[Pinnie]

As a former "landlord" I have had to do an evicition once in my past. I was told by my lawyer in passing that the same rules appolied to a hotel up here in MI as they do to "rental property". In effect, what you are doing when booking a room is "renting" the room for a set period of time. Just like my tennants, if you decide to "overstay" your paid period, the landlord (or hotel owner) would have to go through an "eviction process" which can take up to 60 days.

It is not a question of what is "legal" I guess it is a question of what is "the right thing to do".

And I am NO longer a "landlord".

pin

 

[Janet2k]

This is an interesting subject. On one of my WDW vacations, my little girl got very, very ill during our last night (high fever, vomiting, etc.). I was in a panic, as we were set to fly home to the West Coast the very next morning. I figured I would have a hard time changing four airline tickets at the last minute, so I called the airline first (about 1:00 AM). I must say that American Airlines couldn't have been nicer to me had they tried -- I was able to push all four airline tickets out by a day or two without any problems at all (the American Airlines ticket agent was very kind). Plus, I did not have to pay the usual re-ticketing charges for two of those tickets (I attribute that to the ticket agent).

I next called the Front Desk of my WDW resort and asked if I could extend my stay by one day due to a very sick little girl (I briefly explained how ill she was). I thought my request would be an easy one to grant, this was Disney after all, and I had vacationed there many times before. Boy, was I ever wrong. The Front Desk CM told me point blank that I must vacate my room by 11:00 AM, end of story. I was shocked. I then had to beg her to see if she could find me a room somewhere, anywhere on-property (and believe me, I had to really beg). The CM told me that all of the WDW resorts were at 100% occupancy and she could do nothing for me, end of story. I asked her if she could please contact the resort manager on duty to see if they could find me a room since my little girl was too sick to travel. The CM stated that the manager on duty wasn't in presently but she would leave a message for him/her with my request. I hung up the phone and cried, and then waited for a phone call. About an hour and a half went by before my telephone rang. I can’t remember who called me but they told me that they had found a room for me, but I would have to switch resorts in the morning. I was thrilled. I should note that nothing was mentioned in regards to what my new hotel charge would be (and I didn’t think to ask). But you folks have already stated in this thread what I wound up being charged – Rack Rate (and it was Peak Season, too, ouch!).

 

[skiwee1]

Originally posted by Janet2k
This is an interesting subject. On one of my WDW vacations, my little girl got very, very ill during our last night (high fever, vomiting, etc.). I was in a panic, as we were set to fly home to the West Coast the very next morning. I figured I would have a hard time changing four airline tickets at the last minute, so I called the airline first (about 1:00 AM). I must say that American Airlines couldn't have been nicer to me had they tried -- I was able to push all four airline tickets out by a day or two without any problems at all (the American Airlines ticket agent was very kind). Plus, I did not have to pay the usual re-ticketing charges for two of those tickets (I attribute that to the ticket agent).

I next called the Front Desk of my WDW resort and asked if I could extend my stay by one day due to a very sick little girl (I briefly explained how ill she was). I thought my request would be an easy one to grant, this was Disney after all, and I had vacationed there many times before. Boy, was I ever wrong. The Front Desk CM told me point blank that I must vacate my room by 11:00 AM, end of story. I was shocked. I then had to beg her to see if she could find me a room somewhere, anywhere on-property (and believe me, I had to really beg). The CM told me that all of the WDW resorts were at 100% occupancy and she could do nothing for me, end of story. I asked her if she could please contact the resort manager on duty to see if they could find me a room since my little girl was too sick to travel. The CM stated that the manager on duty wasn't in presently but she would leave a message for him/her with my request. I hung up the phone and cried, and then waited for a phone call. About an hour and a half went by before my telephone rang. I can’t remember who called me but they told me that they had found a room for me, but I would have to switch resorts in the morning. I was thrilled. I should note that nothing was mentioned in regards to what my new hotel charge would be (and I didn’t think to ask). But you folks have already stated in this thread what I wound up being charged – Rack Rate (and it was Peak Season, too, ouch!).

Wow! Sorry to hear that! I stayed at the Poly in May when my DD fell ill in the middle of our vacation. Since she was only laid up sick for a couple of days our vacation wasn't too affected by it. Even still I called the front desk and asked if I could add another day and if it were possible to get my postcard rate too. She said she could do the extra day but couldn't do the postcard but she would hook me up with CRO and do it through them. She connected me and CRO said no problem. CRO then said she was going to speak to the front desk again to approve it and also make sure we are to stay in our same room. She did and front desk called me back and said I didn't have to recheck in. All I had to do was get new keys and a parking pass for that last extra day as mine would expire then. All I did was go down there a couple of days later and pick them up. I'm sure it could have been a different story if the place was booked though.

 

[DisneyChick02]

Unfortunately, when the resorts are full, keeping ANYONE at the resort beyond their length of stay is almost out of the question. To the poster who had a hard time getting a room, I'm glad you could- sometimes you really can't get an answer up front, so most likely the cast member was telling you the truth (even if the way she told you wasn't the best). Oftentimes in extreme circumstances and when a resort is sold out, it can take upwards of an hour to try and play "musical rooms" to get everyone accomodated, including the guest with an extreme situation. Glad it worked out for you.

As another poster mentioned, to anyone who would insist on staying when there is not room to keep you there, I'd like you to please tell the next guest who's coming in that you no longer have a room for them (in hotel terms "walking" the guest)- trust me, having luggage thrown at you and someone screaming two inches from your face is fantastic!!!

All kidding aside, in cases of extreme *national* situations (such as the Northeast power outage recently, not you or a family member getting sick) there is a policy at WDW- and I would guess other hotels outside of WDW as well- that will accomodate a guest for at another night at not charge at their current resort or another WDW resort if their current resort will be unavailable. In most cases you must show proof of your flight plans being cancelled or what not. When word got around about the policy being in effect for the power outage, we got multiple calls asking for upwards of 5 "free"nights regardless.....sorry folks, doesn't work that way! So I'm guessing that policy might pull into that whole law bit....don't know for sure, but that would make sense. I would personally chalk it up to good guest service!!

 

[Pammy_from_WI]

I can tell you my first hand experience with this matter.

Last year on our 3 week tour of the southeast we had ressies for several hotels down south. FL, GA, IN, KY, TN, NC, and SC. I can state for fact that in FL and SC/NC that if someone is in a room and chooses not to vacate on their departure date the hotel CAN NOT force them to leave, yes, folks this includes hotels in our favorite place on earth. We had our ressies 4 months prior to our big trip and were turned away in FL and SC/NC because the previous folks refused to leave and the hotel was full.

I had never in my life heard of such a thing, but the three times this happened, twice in FL and once in SC/NC, they quoted the law to us, after I complained about the fact we had a ressie from several months back. Lets just say finding a decent hotel, in June, in a major tourist town is not that easy.

Would I do this to another family coming in heck no! But I've got my fingers crossed we don't have to move rooms at the AKL because of our split ressis.

I personally think it's a lousy law, but I guess I can understand it. It just makes it tough on people that are coming in and expecting a room, to find there is none.

Pam

 

[jgates]

Pammy, please tell me they at least helped you find other reservations!

We only had this battle once. Our motel double booked for a special event. They tried to get us to move 35 minutes away to another hotel they had in their small chain. We refused. One of our friends was willing (I think at the time one of my kids was very small so hauling everything wasn't as easy as now) and they did provide them the room at the other location free of charge (3 NIGHTS!!). In retrospect I now say the extra cash from the free room was probably smarter but not changing was mentally easier!

Another time at a hockey tourney, our motel overbooked - I knew our ressies were set because there were tons of open rooms when I booked the whole team in - I did it early! However, one of our families got there VERY late that night. By which time the hotel figured out they screwed up big time. They moved them to the Super 8, didn't pay for the full room but did cover part of the cost, let them still use the pool there and they could even come back for the continental breakfast if they wanted (I think they just ate at the Super 8). They were very helpful to the family that was bumped - and the other motel was approximately half a block away so it wasn't a big deal!

 

[Pammy_from_WI]

jgates - Here's what happened:

One place was so kind to offer us a handicapped room with one double bed and there were four of us! You should have heard my convo with that dingbat behind the desk. She didn't find anything wrong with this offer. LOL She then offered extra blankets and pillows so two could sleep on the floor. Let's just say I will NEVER stay at that brand of hotels again and this wasn't a cheap place either! No help finding a room from them. Called On-Star!

The second place did move us to a sister hotel, but would not comp us anything for THEIR mistake! But when we got to the sister hotel, the ladies behind the desk could not belive what happened. Basically we checked in at the first one and were paid up and given a room key and went to our room to find it already occupied. They decided to stay, but only told the maid and she didn't tell the front desk. So back to the front desk we went and told them, they didn't belive us that someone was in the room, had to walk down with them to show them, before they would refund our money. What a joke! So we moved to the sister hotel, but it was not owned by the same person, just shared the name. So they upgraded us to a two bedroom suite and only charged us $50 a night for our troubles. They also gave us coupons for breakfast at a local restaurant. They sure saved the day!

The third place pulled the same number as the second. Checked us in, gave us keys, sent us to our room and it was being used. Back down to the front desk, so sorry they said, gave us a new room and guess what? Yup, that room had people in it too. By this time I was ticked off.

Why in the heck to the desks give out keys to rooms that were used, without verifiying it is now empty? I thought it was a complete fluke the first time this happened to us, but after the third you start to wonder about the safety of the guests and the security that is in place.

Then they told us the hotel appeared to be over booked. We were not the only ones being told this, you should have heard the swearing that was going on at the desk. At least 5 other families that were expecting rooms were turned away. And we had to pay one nights deposit 90 days out to hold a room. Took over 45 min. just to get the credit. They could not offer any suggestions on where to go, just told us everything was booked within 20 miles. LIE!!!!! Just to dang lazy!!!! Thank goodness we have On-Star, they found us a room with no troubles.

I can tell you on this trip it was a hotel nightmare! We had a great time, but when I was booking the rooms I made sure I was booking rooms in nice neighborhoods, 4 star and above, and near to where we needed to be for activities. One place claimed to be a spa and on the website it looked beautiful, when we got there it was a heck hole. We had that happen more then once, but On-Star always found something better for us. I can also tell you that these rooms were all no less then $150 per night, some as high as $300. The third hotel on the list above was $299 per night plus tax. For those prices I EXPECT beter treatment and service, but man it was poor, poor, poor!

Now I only stay in places I have been to before or where I know someone that has. I also use several hotel review websites that have really helped. Live and learn!

Pam