ComplaintsforShip Harbor Inn

• Initial Complaint

  08/24/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Sales and Advertising Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  My husband and I are disabled and reserved a king *** room for our anniversary through Hotels.com with the Ship Harbor Inn in *********, ** for a room for one night on August 17, 2022. Shortly after booking the room we received a message from the Inn stating that they did not have a king *** room, only a queen. And that they would change the reservation to the queen, and if we didn't want it we could cancel it. We replied to their email and thanked them and told them we did not want the room. We expected that would take care of it. On 8/18 we were charged for the room $243. Even though we had replied to their email message cancelling it. Upon contacting the Inn and explaining our situation, we were told that apparently we were supposed to reply to their message in a different way. But there were no instructions in their message telling us how we were supposed to contact them to cancel it. We explained to them that both me and my husband are both disabled and we must have a king size *** due to our disabilities. We provided them a copy of our reply to their email stating we did not want the queen *** and to please cancel it. But it didn't matter. We are both older and we aren't very good with the internet. Had we been told how we were supposed to cancel the revised reservation we absolutely would have done so. We had to make a reservation elsewhere, so now we have had to pay for rooms at two hotels for the same night! We are on a fixed income and now we can't pay our bills. We saved up for months for our trip. And this was our 15th wedding anniversary. We had stayed at this inn for our first year wedding anniversary and thought it would be really sweet to be able to stay there again at our 15th. We are extremely disappointed and frustrated. We will never do business with them again.

  Business response

  09/19/2022

  The guest failed to cancel their reservation with the third party website. We informed them of unavailability and reserved a different room for them. They failed to respond to the message we sent. We held the room for them at a lower rate than initially booked since we did not receive a message from them. They did not show up for the reservation so the charges stand. 

  Customer response

  09/25/2022

   
  Complaint: 17764927
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  We made our reservation based on what was shown as being available. The hotel was unable to fulfill what was advertised. We clearly demonstrated that our intent was to cancel this booking by providing our our response to the managements email about not having what we had reserved. It is absolutely clear that we believed that we had told them we did not want the reservation. And we did it in a timely manner. It is very unfortunate that we tried to reply to their email message in the standard way. We did not know that we had to reply in a different way. Had the hotel said to not reply to their email, but to click on a different reply button because they would not receive our response, we absolutely would have done so. We had to make a different reservation because we could not stay in the accommodations that were actually available. The hotel should have communicated the process on how to reply properly. Their lack of clear instructions cost us hundreds of dollars that we do not have. We dont travel often and we dont use this kind of reservation system online. The hotel failed to provide us what was advertised. We should not have to pay for a room that we could not use due to our disabilities.They shouldnt be advertising accommodations that they cant provide. 

  Sincerely,
  
  *********************

  Business response

  09/28/2022

  ********************* made 3 reservations that week through a third party (Expedia.com) 

  Reservation #**********
  Reservation #**********
  Reservation #**********

  and cancelled two of them

  Reservation #**********

  Reservation #**********

  The two reservations she cancelled were never charged and no fees were assessed. The third reservation was held and the guest was informed at the time of booking that the requested room type was unavailable and a substitution was made. 

  "Unfortunately we are sold out of king rooms for the dates you selected. I have held a double queen with sea view for you and reduced the rate to $219 per night. If this does not suit your travel needs feel free to cancel and we can waive any associated fees. Sorry for any inconvenience.
  Ship Harbor Inn"

  The message was read at Sat, Aug 6 10:13 PM by the reservation holder. No Modifications were made to the reservation and no we had no further contact with the guest. 

  Customer response

  10/09/2022

   
  Complaint: 17764927
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  When we received the email message from the hotel about being unable to fulfill our requested reservation, I was on my phone. I have attached a screenshot of what the message looked like when I received it. As you can see from the screenshot, the email looked like it was directly from the hotel, and I could not see that there was a separate reply button, so I replied like I would to any email message that I received. Had there been any kind of message in their email letting me know to not reply to that email, or to be sure to click on a reply button that was outside of the email, I would have absolutely done so. The fact that there were two prior reservation attempts that were cancelled clearly demonstrates that we dont make reservations and just callously not show up. We made an honest attempt to cancel the modified reservation. A simple message letting us know to not reply to their email message would have changed this outcome. Instead it cost us over $260, which we do not have. We made a reservation at a different property for the same night that could accommodate our needs due to our disabilities. Our intent was clear. We acted on good faith. I had hoped the hotel would have done the same. 

  
  Sincerely,
  
  *********************

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