Novotel = No Hotel

On Saturday 28th 2006 I turned up at the Novotel in Manchester, expecting to check in quickly then relax in my room after a 3.5hr train journey. Only, things didn't happen as expected. Instead I was told my room had been cancelled and the hotel was now full. So now, apparently, I was expected to go out into the rain, with my case, and find another hotel.

I had booked online 48hrs before using Novotel's reservation page and received an email, subject heading 'Confirmation of Reservation', but things weren't quite what they seemed.

The following is the letter I sent to Novotel at their 'Comments' page. Please comment if you have had similar experiences.

Dear Novotel

Or should that be ‘No Hotel’, since I have just turned up at your hotel in Manchester to find my room had been cancelled.

The reason was that "my credit card had been declined"

Well, that certainly came as news to me standing in the reception of the hotel I thought I was staying in with a queue building up beside me.

I showed the Reception Manager my email confirmation. It’s subject line was, “Confirmation of reservation”. It said, "We are delighted to confirm your reservation".

'I'm sorry Sir', he said. 'That doesn't mean its reserved. We have to put your card through a different system and it was declined so we tried to contact you'.

"Tried??? So let’s assume they didn't contact me then since I'm here!"

"Well Sir, that's not our fault, we tried"

He then pointed to the part on my email where it said “The client’s credit card details are necessary”. Well, silly me – obviously having gone through your payment process online, handing over my credit card details then receiving an email saying, “We’re delighted to confirm your reservation” I should have known it didn’t actually mean anything of the sort.

So I pointed out to him the text right above that said “Hot Deals – no cancellation”. Of course, now I realise that’s, ‘No cancellation, for you’, since it appears Novotel can cancel whenever you like.

So, Novotel, please can you admit when you send an email to a customer with, "We are delighted to confirm your reservation", it actually doesn't mean a room is either a) confirmed or b) reserved????

I've just had to find myself another room, since your people were too busy to help me with that one small bit of service.

I would hope a hotel chain like yours, where I have stayed before, would offer to reimburse me the cost of new different hotel, or a complimentary night in another of their hotels, perhaps?

Otherwise I will happily spend some hours posting my story on as many hotel review websites as I can find before I get bored. Which will be some time yet since I'm far from finished right now.

Regards

Neil XXXXXXX

The email sent to me by No Hotel

Here is a copy of the "Confirmation of Reservation" sent to me by Novotel. Please note the difference between their definition of 'Confirmation' and Dictionary.com

SUBJECT : Confirmation of Reservation

Hello Mr. CARTWRIGHT,

We are delighted to confirm your reservation in the following hotel :

Novotel Manchester Centre

tel :(+44)161/2352200

21 Dickinson Street

M1 4LX MANCHESTER

United Kingdom

Warning: This confirmation e-mail has been automatically generated. Please do not use the sender's address shown to contact us about your reservation, as we will not be able to process it. If you wish to cancel, please log on to our site, go to "Cancellation" and enter the confirmation number specified in this e-mail. Reservation details :

Your confirmation number is xxx-xxxx.
You will be asked for this number if you want to change or cancel your reservation.

Concerning :

Date of your reservation: Oct 25, 2006 12:47 PM
Arriving: Oct 28, 2006
Leaving: Oct 30, 2006
For 2 night(s).
Hot deals - no change, no cancellation -see conditions - Standard Room (*1) for 1 adult(s)
Night of Oct 28, 2006 to Oct 29, 2006 Price per night	89.00 GBP
Night of Oct 29, 2006 to Oct 30, 2006 Price per night	55.00 GBP
Total from Oct 28, 2006 to Oct 30, 2006	144.00 GBP
Breakfast / person / day (available at extra charge) 12.50 GBP
Booked in the name of Mr. neil CARTWRIGHT

Taxes National taxes on F&B : from Jan 01, 2006 to Dec 31, 2006 included

Prices are shown per room, per night, unless otherwise indicated (package).
Only the price in the hotel's local currency is guaranteed.
Any price in a foreign currency is given as an indication and is not binding.

Thank you for your loyalty - we wish you an enjoyable stay.

The Accor Hotels reservation service.

*********************
Beware! Your confirmation number is your only proof of reservation.
For security reasons, this e-mail is sent to you for information purposes only.

To get further tourism information about your destination, click here.

Terms of sale
(*1) Hot deals - no change, no cancellation -see conditions Standard Room
Special terms :	The client's credit card details are necessary to qualify for this promotion. No change or cancellation may be made after booking. Upon booking, the client accepts to be charged the full price of the stay, this amount being non refundable in case of cancellation or change of dates of stay.
Cancellation delay	No change or cancellation may be made after booking.
Check in Policy	From 14:00 2PM LOCAL TIME
Check out Policy	ROOMS MUST BE VACATED BY MIDDDAY, 12:00 / MIDDAY
Children policy	Accommodation and breakfast are free of charge for 1 child under 14 years sharing parents' room.
----------------

A Response From Novotel

Dear Mr Cartwright,

Thank you for your email. I am sorry to hear of the problems you encountered at Novotel Manchester.

Please allow me some time to investigate the situation with the General Manager of the hotel, and I will come back to you as soon as possible.

Regards,

Loretta Hammond

Guest Relations, Accor UK and Ireland

* guestrelations.uk@accor.com

Accor UK & Ireland Hotels

255 Hammersmith Road, London, W6 8SJ, UK

No Response From NoHotel

After a week I didn't receive any more from NoHotel. Apparently it takes them this long to contact a manager of one of their hotels. So I sent this:

Dear Loretta
I have not heard from you and this matter is far from over. Does it really take you a week to check these things? Another sign, I suppose, of a hotel that doesn't care about it's customer...

You may like to see the negative reviews I am leaving on as many "Hotel Review" websites as possible.

This is the latest one I wrote on www.travelpost.com. I gave Novotel a 1 out of 10 review and told people to stay away. I have also left warnings to people on TripAdvisor.com and HotelChatter.com

TravelPost.com
"Don't use Novotel's online booking form and expect your room to be there when you show up. The confirmation you receive does NOT mean it is confirmed, as I found out when I showed up, only to be told my room had been cancelled and the hotel was now full!! Novotel's service was appalling and needs to be considered when booking this hotel.

Read my blog for more info : http://nohotel.blogspot.com

Regards
Neil

Hotel Review Websites

I've left appalling reviews of NoHotel on the following sites:

• Tripadvisor.com (read review here)
  
• HotelChatter.com
• TravelPost.com (read review here)

A Response From NoHotel

Received on November 7th (note how they even get the date wrong)

10 November 2006

Dear Mr Cartwright,

Thank you for your e-mail following your recent reservation with Novotel Manchester Centre. I was sorry to learn of the difficulties you experienced on this occasion. I have now had the opportunity to investigate the issue you raised with Iain Black, General Manager of the hotel.

I sincerely regret that you feel our terms and conditions are not clear. I understand that on this occasion your booking was made on our web site taking advantage of the ‘hot deal’ offer, which requires the clients credit card details to be provided. An extract of the conditions reads:

All reservations must be guaranteed with a credit card valid at the date of the start of your stay, unless otherwise specified.

We do indeed send a confirmation trusting that the booker has met the above conditions and provided a valid credit card. At no point are you guided through a payment process on line. Neither do these conditions state this is the case.

Mr Black assures me that hotel staff attempted to process your card on three occasions and it was declined each time. You were telephoned by the hotel twice, which you acknowledged when you arrived at the hotel. Unfortunately, as you failed to meet the stated conditions, your booking was subsequently released. Had staff been able to speak with you directly, you may have been able to provide alternative payment details, and your booking would have been retained.

I understand that in an attempt to assist you in this difficult situation, you were offered alternative accommodation and luggage storage at Novotel, and staff offered to contact the Ibis hotel on Portland Street on your behalf, though you declined each of these offers.

We feel that the terms and conditions shown to you at the time of booking are explicit and transparent, and I am sorry that you do not agree. We do of course regret that you were caused inconvenience on this occasion; however I am confident that hotel staff acted in accordance with our service standards.

Thank you once again for taking the time to bring this matter to my attention, as feedback from our guests is invaluable to our efforts to continually improve the quality of our services. I hope that we may welcome you back to Novotel in the future.

Yours sincerely,

Loretta Hammond

Guest Relations, Accor UK and Ireland

My Response To Their Response

Dear Loretta
Before I respond, you may like to read my latest review of your hotel on Hotel Chatter.
http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2006/11/6/164657/068/hotels/Hotel_Blog_Watch_The_No_Hotel_Blog

Next, what an absolute farce! Where do I begin...

Firstly, when I receive an email, subject heading "Confirmation of Reservation" and beginning with the sentence, "We are delighted to confirm your reservation" I assume, despite your small print, that you have run all the checks necessary to guarantee the card! I don't assume that the card will have to go through another check, which if there is a problem then I'll be phoned. Furthermore, since you're resorting to the 'You forgot to read the small print', excuse (as all companies like yours do), perhaps to be accurate in future the subject heading should be, 'Confirmation of reservation (but please read the small print since it is actually neither confirmed or reserved)'?

This brings me onto the next point. I absolutely did NOT acknowledge I received a call. In fact, I told your reception manager I had received neither a call or an email. Ask yourself this - why would I acknowledge I received a call telling me my room was cancelled if I was standing in your hotel reception - one seems to contradict the other, no?! There was certainly no voice mail. I'd also like to know when these calls were made to me?

Finally, yes, your reception manager did offer to phone the Ibis, which I did NOT decline. In fact, he called them whilst I was there. Guess what? They were full too!! At which point his offers of help stopped. Which now, given this fact, seems to make your manager's recollection of events look a little sketchy?

I'll tell you what this is about. Novotel's greed. The check-in time of the hotel is 2:00pm. I got there at 2:20pm. Given that no-one had spoken to me, or left a voice mail or email, then perhaps you could of held the room open for a couple of hours. But no. Because, for the 'risk' of losing £144 you decided to cancel my room and put someone else in there.

You say the terms are 'explicit and transparent'? Well, so is an email saying "We are delighted to confirm your reservation". Rather weakly, you prefer to point out one whilst ignoring the other.

The facts are these.

1. I used to your online booking facility, in good faith, to book a room and received an email saying "We are delighted to confirm your reservation"
2. You cancelled my room without giving me advance notice. Saying 'We tried to call' is not adequate.
   
3. I expect compensation and will continue my blog until you do the decent thing.

Regards
Neil