A vent: cancelled hotel reservation, now higher rate

This is nothing more than a bit of a vent. I booked a room at the Coral Princess in Condado in March 2017 for our January 2018 cruise. Locked in a great price of $129/night.

In October, I received the expected cancellation from the hotel because of hurricane damage and housing FEMA/relief workers. I understand that completely, I really do...

But now the hotel is accepting January 2018 reservations again at a cost of $199/night, with a minimum 3-night stay. This is completely unacceptable. They are obviously able to house paying guests who aren't relief workers - but it would appear that they just want to ensure they can charge more.

Is there any sort of body that would be interested in hearing about this? Some sort of association or regulator of hotel operations??? I've booked three new hotel reservations since the hurricane, two of which have since been cancelled.

I'm completely sympathetic to hotels that are legitimately damaged and/or housing relief workers, but that doesn't appear to be the case here, at least not in January. If Coral Princess would just honour the reservation I made almost a year in advance, this process would be a lot less stressful.

Vent over.

I would be sure to also post this on Trip Advisor.

Keith

So your first reservation for Jan was canceled in October. Now the hotel is accepting new reservations besides housing relief workers in Jan? Did you get a direct call from the hotel with the new quote?

It seems that many national chain hotels are doing rolling cancelations even through Feb . Some others are indeed accepting some tourist reservations. The whole hotel scene is very fluid .

I would find another hotel, not a chain and call them direct.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

I would be sure to also post this on Trip Advisor.

 

Keith

TA is a wonderful ally. Social Media like FB might help also.

I’d call hotel and vent. You might also This stinks. I hope you have copies of your original booking and the subsequent cancellation. If it’s a chain call corporate hq.

TA is a wonderful ally. Social Media like FB might help also.

 

I’d call hotel and vent. You might also This stinks. I hope you have copies of your original booking and the subsequent cancellation. If it’s a chain call corporate hq.

Very good advice.

Keith

This is nothing more than a bit of a vent. I booked a room at the Coral Princess in Condado in March 2017 for our January 2018 cruise. Locked in a great price of $129/night.

 

In October, I received the expected cancellation from the hotel because of hurricane damage and housing FEMA/relief workers. I understand that completely, I really do...

 

But now the hotel is accepting January 2018 reservations again at a cost of $199/night, with a minimum 3-night stay. This is completely unacceptable. They are obviously able to house paying guests who aren't relief workers - but it would appear that they just want to ensure they can charge more.

 

Is there any sort of body that would be interested in hearing about this? Some sort of association or regulator of hotel operations??? I've booked three new hotel reservations since the hurricane, two of which have since been cancelled.

 

I'm completely sympathetic to hotels that are legitimately damaged and/or housing relief workers, but that doesn't appear to be the case here, at least not in January. If Coral Princess would just honour the reservation I made almost a year in advance, this process would be a lot less stressful.

 

Vent over.

Did you call/email the hotel manager asking them to reinstate your original reservation with the original pricing?

Hate to sound negative......but honestly, the Hotels do not really seem to care. They have FEMA.....they have panicked tourists with no place to stay. Yes, there are exceptions to this strategy, but from all I am reading, not so much so with way too many hotels in San Juan at this time.

I keep hearing about the need to spend tourist dollars to help out....and I know there is this need without a doubt....but the Hotels in San Juan are exhibiting behaviors that are less than commendable....and less than deserving of the tourism dollars.

It leaves a real sour taste, both now and for future visits........IMHO.

Just to play Devil's Advocate and put the shoe on the other foot, is there anyone on here that when given the opportunity to cancel a hotel reservation for $200 a night and replace it, with a similar or better hotel, for $50 a night would not do that? I know I would. So while I can understand why people would be upset about having their reservations cancelled just to be resold at a higher rate, it is a two-way street. I am not saying the hotels are right - in fact they are not - the ethical thing to do is to honor an agreement. But, from a business and profit perspective, I do understand it.

Just to play Devil's Advocate and put the shoe on the other foot, is there anyone on here that when given the opportunity to cancel a hotel reservation for $200 a night and replace it, with a similar or better hotel, for $50 a night would not do that? I know I would. So while I can understand why people would be upset about having their reservations cancelled just to be resold at a higher rate, it is a two-way street. I am not saying the hotels are right - in fact they are not - the ethical thing to do is to honor an agreement. But, from a business and profit perspective, I do understand it.

That’s not a very good way to run your business if you value your customers. Maybe the cruise lines should cancel all the reservations from guests that reserved early, at a lower rate, because they could charge more for it now.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Hate to sound negative......but honestly, the Hotels do not really seem to care. They have FEMA.....they have panicked tourists with no place to stay. Yes, there are exceptions to this strategy, but from all I am reading, not so much so with way too many hotels in San Juan at this time.

I keep hearing about the need to spend tourist dollars to help out....and I know there is this need without a doubt....but the Hotels in San Juan are exhibiting behaviors that are less than commendable....and less than deserving of the tourism dollars.

It leaves a real sour taste, both now and for future visits........IMHO.

From my limited experience it appears this is mostly coming from the chain hotels, the Marriots, and (especially) Hiltons etc. We always stay at Hiltons because my wife travels a ton for work and has loads of loyalty points but we've been knocked around a few reservations from them on our upcoming December trip, a few cancellations from their different hotels, without letting us know they were cancelled. So instead we are staying at a local place (Wave Hotel) before the cruise and a vrbo after the cruise. When I was looking around after getting bounced from the bigger places, the smaller non-chain places seemed much easier and better to work with. I'd rather spend where most of the money is going to stick around the island anyway.

From my limited experience it appears this is mostly coming from the chain hotels, the Marriots, and (especially) Hiltons etc. We always stay at Hiltons because my wife travels a ton for work and has loads of loyalty points but we've been knocked around a few reservations from them on our upcoming December trip, a few cancellations from their different hotels, without letting us know they were cancelled. So instead we are staying at a local place (Wave Hotel) before the cruise and a vrbo after the cruise. When I was looking around after getting bounced from the bigger places, the smaller non-chain places seemed much easier and better to work with. I'd rather spend where most of the money is going to stick around the island anyway.

You may want to check on The Wave hotel. My friend had her reservation cancelled and was told they were not accepting customers unitl 2018.

As for the rest of this thread. The hotel situation in PR is a mess. Nobody knows how to deal with 2 major hurricanes and the rebuilding of an entire island. There are thousands of workers that need places to stay. Contracts are made with companies for 'x' amount of time. Then new ones. The housing for these workers should take priority. If hotels are able to accept customers, I suspect the cost of having them has gone up. Unlike cruises, hotel room can be booked, cancelled and rebook at your control. I travel for a living and have booked out for several months at a time, watched the rates, and changed reservation when the rates drop. In addition I have had to pay higher rates as time goes by.

Try calling the hotel directly, or corporate office. If you are still not happy with the rate, then go else where.

Try Kayak I don’t know when in January you are going or for how many days but kayak has some good deals plus check on syber Monday also.

If you need a car Charlie car is a great company plus you catch their shuttle to the main location then chose the cruise drop off point. A free shuttle will pick you up within 10 mins to take you to the cruise ship.

Good luck.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

You must understand that hurricanes cause a lot of problems and many large financial losses. A hotel may lose a month or two of bookings while it is doing repairs and trying to get electricity and other utilities up and running. This can bankrupt many small businesses and certainly cause major losses for even large chains.

When back in business they have to sometimes increase prices for a while to make up some of their losses. This is not to make a windfall profit but just to recoup some of their losses.

As an example, after hurricane Katrina hit the New Orleans area, the local governments allowed all renters, even in homes not affected by the storm, to go a couple of months rent free without the landlords being able to evict them. Of course, the mortgage companies, taxing authorities and insurance companies kept charging the landlords during these months causing many to be at risk of losing their properties so as soon as possible they had to increase their rents to make up for their previous losses or risk foreclosure on their properties.

Many people were upset over their rent increases but in the event of a storm should the property owner lose everything he worked and saved for while the renter loses nothing?

Hurricanes do not discriminate, they affect everyone. Blame Mother Nature for your losses.

You may want to check on The Wave hotel. My friend had her reservation cancelled and was told they were not accepting customers unitl 2018.

 

.

Thanks. We do have a room booked at the Wave. We booked it after Coral Princess cancelled on us.

And to clarify, we haven't lost anything, we're not paying a higher rate. We're stating elsewhere. I was merely voicing disappontment that a hotel wasn't honouring a reservation and, in fact, not being completely honest about why they aren't honouring it.

I have a reservation at The wave for 1 december,I asked with email and they told me that the hotel is open.

That’s not a very good way to run your business if you value your customers. Maybe the cruise lines should cancel all the reservations from guests that reserved early, at a lower rate, because they could charge more for it now.

There is no doubt in my mind that the cruise lines would do exactly that if there was an extremely high-demand for cruise ships in a given area. In fact, some did when they cancelled all their reservations and used the ships to house recovery workers for St Thomas - don't remember exactly which ship(s) it was. But comparing cruise lines to hotels is apples to oranges since it is a very different business model.

The point is hotel customers enjoy the ability to make and cancel reservations up until the day of the reservation in some cases. So, it should not come as a surprise that when the hotel has the ability to rent all of it's rooms at the rack rate for several months at a time, that they would take it. And, yes, it will piss some of their customers off and they may lose some, but given the risk versus the reward, it is clearly worth it.

We had the Wave booked through Expedia from Dec 2 - 3 and received an e-mail yesterday that it was cancelled. We also had a reservation for two rooms with Tres Palmas that was also cancelled on us for Dec 10-11.

We had the Wave booked through Expedia from Dec 2 - 3 and received an e-mail yesterday that it was cancelled. We also had a reservation for two rooms with Tres Palmas that was also cancelled on us for Dec 10-11.

Oh no! Did they give a reason for the Wave cancellation? I talked to them 2 weeks ago and all sounded good.

Oh no! Did they give a reason for the Wave cancellation? I talked to them 2 weeks ago and all sounded good.

This is what I received:

"The Wave Hotel at Condado (12861974) has informed us they’re unable to accommodate your reservation as they will not be open due to an unforeseen event or natural disaster in their area."

We were booked Dec 2 - 3, 2017

This is what I received:

"The Wave Hotel at Condado (12861974) has informed us they’re unable to accommodate your reservation as they will not be open due to an unforeseen event or natural disaster in their area."

We were booked Dec 2 - 3, 2017

I can't belive....I have reservation Dec 1 but I don't have no email of cencellation from the Hotel...I'm very worried.