JEW Make the Call: Hotel Staff Goes MIA Edition
In late July, during our trip to British Columbia, we stayed in a small hotel in a very small town. The hotel itself was flawed, but okay. Kind of a basic place with very cheap furniture, but it was fairly large, had an excellent view, and was cheap considering it was high tourist season. I wasn't trying to cheap out here, but there was limited availability since I booked the trip only about 2 months in advance, so I was thrilled to get what I did.
We had 2 nights there. Unfortunately, three things made the stay less pleasant than expected:
1) Ben had a stomach virus, so we spent a lot of time in the room, since he didn't feel well enough to go out and do activities.
2) The two days were cloudy, so our great view was nonexistent.
3) They had planned construction in the office, which shared a common wall with us, which started at around 9am, and continued throughout the day, on both days. This was extremely noisy, and in fact shook the room at some points, when they were using heavy power tools!
Obviously #1 and #2 are not their fault. They can't control the weather, nor when my son gets sick. However, #3 was really annoying. There's no chance I would have stayed there if I knew this construction was planned. Furthermore, it was even worse for us because we were stuck in the room for most of the day (because of Ben), so we were going crazy with the hours construction noise and room/window vibrations.
When I checked out, I tried to ask for a reduction. I was willing to take something like 30% off. The person checking me out was very young and had no power. In fact, all of the on-site employees looked between 18-25. However, the girl called up the manager (or owner?), and explained my concern. The person on the other end said to tell me that I would get my ENTIRE STAY REFUNDED! I felt this was very generous, and was very impressed with their snap offer to comp the 2 nights.
Well... I got my credit card statement, and bad news: No refund. I had prepaid for the room, and there was never a credit BACK. I tried to call them, but they didn't answer the phone. This wasn't a surprise, as I could never reach them by phone at any point, even when I was booking the reservation and had a question. However, I did notice I got called back when I left messages. Well, I left a message about the lack of refund, and nobody called me back. Then I called a second time and left a second message. Again, no return call.
Then I tried e-mailing them, which was actually suggested on the voicemail greeting. No response. I tried e-mailing them from a different account (just in case my main e-mail was going to spam on their end). Again, no response. I tried calling back, and found their voicemail was now FULL!
So what the hell is going on?
It almost seems as if some problem has occurred there, and they simply shut down for the season. Maybe related to the construction? They are still at the tail end of summer tourist season, so this is an odd time for them to pack up and leave.
Now I am considering charging BACK on my credit card. However, part of me feels guilty about charging back the entire amount, as I don't really feel I deserve it. As I said, I was going to ask for 30%, but the manager told the employee that I was getting a full refund, so I accepted that obviously. There is also a small chance that the employee bullshitted me about the refund just to make me leave, but I would think that would cause more trouble than it's worth down the line. Also, I was standing right there when she made the call (but I couldn't hear it on the other end). It is a small family-owned place, and not a big corporate place. I wouldn't feel bad at all charging back the full amount to a big corporate place, but I do always feel a bit bad for the little guy in situations like this.
On the other hand, I was promised a full refund, and didn't get it. They also failed to inform me about the construction and giving me a chance to cancel, so that was fault on their end. So charging back that amount would not at all be unethical, especially given that they won't answer my messages or e-mails.
What would you do here?
JEW make the call!
