I made a reservation for 2 rooms in February for the evening of May 5 at the Mason Beach Inn in Santa Barbara, not knowing the rates and availability at other hotels. I found a more competitive rate at another hotel, and so I called back the hotel to cancel my reseration... Not thinking anymore about it since I did what I was supposed to do. Come the end of May, I find that my credit card has been charged for those rooms due to a "No Show." Of course I never showed up! I had called back that same day in February to say I was cancelling my reservation! The Mason Beach Inn is a small hotel, and they simply rely on guest name and dates of arrival/departure when making reservations. Hence, I was never given a reservation number, much less a cancellation number when I cancelled. And thus they claim that I never cancelled. I have spoken with the hotel manager, Nick, on numerous occasions. He claims that there is no possible way the hotel clerk may have forgotten to cancel my reservation when I called. And yet, on those occassions we have spoken, he has also expressed that he has been extremely understaffed and swamped. That makes for a pretty conducive environment for mistakes in bookkeeping. Furthermore, Nick claims that the Mason Beach Inn does contact their guests to verify and confirm reservations. I never, ever received any telephone call from the hotel regarding my reservation. The number, as written on the reservation sheet, was even a local Santa Barbara number. I would have been easily reached, and my telephone was fully equipped with voice mail. Yet, I was never notified by the Mason Beach Inn that any transaction on my credit card was taking place. I explained that to Nick, and he further stated that my reservation was for a weekend. So? He claimed that most people are out of town (which I wasn't) and not easily reached. That is a totally invalid assumption... The hotel assumes guest cannot be reached and will not be available! So they charge the credit card account anyway! Nick claims the hotel lost "a lot" of money because they held the rooms for me on a sold out weekend. How could they have lost money if it was a sold out weekend? I never needed those rooms because I had cancelled my reservation already and my family decided to be patrons at another hotel - of course we didn't show up! I know the Mason Beach Inn has an owner, Nancy Lin, and I have requested to contact her. However, I have always been rerouted back to Nick, and he claims any contact with her will have to be through him - though he is the one I am having difficulty with in resolving this issue! All in all, take your business elsewhere... The Mason Beach Inn in Santa Barbara is one big tangled mess you don't want to deal with.
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