Overall description.
In March a booking of the hotel “The Palm hotel and SPA” in Miami (3025 Miami Beach, FL, 33140, phone 1-305-534-0505, fax 1-305-908-3366) was made. The booking was made through the web-site www.orbitz.com. The hotel was in a five - star category at the “Orbitz” web-site. The booking required a full advance pre-paymemt which was made in amount of 1939,87 immediately upon booking. The check-in time indicated in the interneiary was Sat, May 8, 16.00. It was written in interniary that there should be an “Oceanfront” room provided. The “Orbitz” charges its customers for the booking service provided.
On 9th of May (12.30 am approximately) me and my wife Ekaterina arrived to the hotel at the front desk. The receptionist Mrs. Cheryl Hueston, a very nice person, has informed us that unfortunately they don’t have the Oceanfront room available and that she can only offer us a city-view room.
Additional details.
The vacation was a long-before planned honeymoon. The wedding party took place on 24th of April. So all the details were very important for me and for my wife as well. During the conversations with Mrs. Cheryl (again I want to stress that she was very nice to us) we have found out that their hotel have received a fax message from “Orbitz” where it was a request for reservation for “standart-standart-oceanfront” (it goes that way exactly in the fax message) room. As far as we were informed by Mrs. Cheryl the hotel basing on this information reserved a standard room for us and had sent the confirmation for the reservation of the standard room back to “Orbitz. Also when I asked for the fax with this confirmation I’ve noted that in this paper there is a sign “Do not disclose the base rate to the customer! ” From which I made a conslusion that “Orbitz” is also being paid by the hotels on its list. Also I should make a notice that “Orbitz: has a “lowest’-price guarantee” policy which in my undestanding implies that there are no price for the room cheaper than they offer.
Further develoment.
Immediately as we have found out that Mrs. Hueston was not able to solve the problem because their hotel had no oceanfront rooms available at all, we’ve started calling the “Orbitz” call-center to solve the problem. Mrs. Cheryl has cleary explained to the person at the call center that there is no possibility to give us the oceanfront room. Later during the converstion we have found out that the closest date when we can possibly have the oceanfront room would be not earlier than on Tuesday and the room with a king-size bed (which was a condition mentioned during the booking) would be available not earlier that on Thursday. It took the person in the call-center about 1,5 hours to finally find the following solution: they can “transfer” us to the different hotel for which we would have to pay by orselves and later on they would refund the amount charged for “The Palm hotel and SPA” back to my card. Here I need to mention that it took me about 10 minutes to find out the hotel with available rooms and that surely there was absolutely no problems to refund the trip back. So that this solution was so obvius and easy that I doubt why it took them 1,5 hours to find it. The other option was to stay at the hotel in a non-oceanfront room and get a difference in price for the rooms refunded. I’ve insisted that I was purchasing exactly what I wanted from the. And in case they are not able to deliver the service that they have promised it is up to them to pay the difference (if there is any) in the price of the hotels. Because it is not my fault.By the time we came to this two options it was already about 3 am in the morning. I’ve asked the person at the cll center to connect me to one of her superiors. It took some other 15 minutes and finally I was talking to some Mrs. Luna (she refused to tell me her last name referring to the company’s policy). The conclusion from our 30-minutes conversation with her was that it is either my fault or the fault of the hotel but in any case it’s between us and them - Orbitz is not liable for anything even though the Orbitz was the one to sell the trip. Then finally we left it as it is and went to the other hotel.
On 11th of May I've once again talked to the Orbitz customer support line. They have transferred me to the manager (even though I wasn't asking for) and she assured me that they would refund my purchase on their web-site fully.
Consequences. Economic or physical damage that resulted.
Direct expenses - I've had to pay for the taxi, and pay for the other hotel (surly about 1/3 more of the price because it was not an advance booking).
Moral damages - the first two days of the honeymoon honeymoon were totally ruined because of this story and of the necessity to find another accomodation.
My opinion.
(1) Orbitz is a company which lies on purpose to its clients presenting “The Palm hotel and SPA” as a five-star even though the workers of the hotel clearly defines it as a four-star facility.
(2) Orbitz is a company which acts like a travel agent charging for its services the clients and, probably, getting a kick-back comissions from the hotels. So Orbitz does not simly work as an information board.
(3) As soon as the Orbitz is a travel agent it should be liable for its actions ant it is up to this company to settle all the issues of the trip.
(4) Quality of the Orbitz services is very poor.
(5) The Orbitz (or at least its representatives) does not beleive that their company is liable for anything at all.
Questions to the lawer.
(1) Is there any kind of legislation that protects the righst of the consumers in US? Can this legislation be applied to the aforementioned case?
(2) Is the Orbiz a travel agent or simply an information board under the local legislation? If the Orbitz charges for its services does it make this company obliged to deliver the services?
(3) Is it possible to get the Orbitz bay the unexpected expenses which happed because of its default to provide the services?
(4) Is it possible to claim damages from Orbitz? What can be an approximate amount in such a case?
Yours sincerely,
Mikhail Aleksandrov
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