Several months ago I called our local Super 8 and reserved ablock of 15 rooms in anticipation of my upcoming wedding. The group block was reservedto start on 6/11/10 and go for three nights (6/11/10,6/12/10, and 6/13/10). Mywedding was on 6/13/10. When I called to book the reservation I gave the clerkmy name and contact information and offered a credit card to hold thereservation. However, the clerk assured me that since my father and grandmotherhad already made reservations that the block of rooms could simply be heldunder their names. The two rooms for my father and grandmother were originallyto begin on 6/10/10. However, my father later called to change their rooms tostart on 6/11/10 as well. Unfortunately, there was obviously some error at theSuper 8 and they thought that all 17 rooms were to be held for the night of6/10/10. Apparently they "lost" my contact information and only had ahome phone number for my dad (who was en route to Oregon). When I was finallymade aware of the situation on 6/11/10 (Super 8 found my Uncle's cell phonenumber and called him who then called me) I was told very abruptly by themanager, Mr. Patel, that I was being held responsible for 17 rooms that wereheld in error on the night of 6/10/10. He told me that the card used to bookthe reservations would be charged for the 17 unclaimed rooms as a "noshow" fee. He had already run the card (belonging to my father) for threerooms and it had declined further transactions so he then threatened that hewould charge the remainder of the rooms to my grandmother's card as she hadjust checked in and had given a credit card to be held on file. I explainedthat I was en route to my rehearsal and with a wedding and all that I would domy best to stop by and sort out what happened, but that he was in no way tocharge either my father or grandmother for any of those rooms as they had notauthorized those charges. On the two separate occasions within the next fewdays I stopped by the manager was not available on site. I learned later thathe only works 11:30 A.M. To 2:00 P.M. Which fairly limits the hours duringwhich a customer might contact him. On the second of these attempts at contacthis desk clerk offered to call him at home for me so I might speak with him. However, he refused to let me finish a sentence and kept repeating that thesituation was my fault and that they lost business because of it. He was incrediblyintimidating and rude and upon the end of the conversation his desk clerkapologized repeatedly and said that he is like that with all females. I thencontacted customer service for Super 8 and filed a complaint. The managerresponded via email re-stating again that it was a case of "no show"for the reservation and that he had the right to charge for those rooms. However, the first line of the email stated that the original reservation (forwhich, by the way, I never received any contract or documentation of) was for 3nights. Yet why would I reserve rooms for 3 nights leading up to my wedding andnot for my wedding night?! I again stated my case in an email reply which wascc'd to Super 8 headquarters and asked for documentation of related charges andgave the confirmation numbers for the change of the two rooms. After a week ofnot hearing any reply I again contacted customer service who told me that sinceit was a group booking they could not step in and that I needed to resolve itdirectly with the hotel. My father also checked with his bank who reportedcharges issued by the Super 8 (beyond my father's actual room charges) totalingover $1000.00 in the two days following the wedding. After doing some researchand reading reviews on tripadvisor.com I have found that this is not the firsttime this situation has occurred at this hotel (although previous ones involvedonly a single room). Additionally, my mother-in-law paid cash for her room, yether credit card that she gave to hold the room was also charged such that shepaid double for her room (this has also happened before as reported ontripadvisor.com). I have filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau aswell as the Consumer Protection Agency and if this does not resolve the matterI intend to take this individual and his hotel to small claims court. Bewarned - do not stay here!
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