To think this is bloody daft of the hotel?

[JurassicPark101]

I’ve booked a hotel for Friday night until Monday morning. Unfortunately due to childcare issues I found out today that I won’t be able to get there until Saturday morning now. It’s all been prepaid for and as it’s less than 7 days before the booking it’s completely non-refundable and can’t be rearranged.

I’m not too fussed about it being non-refundable, totally understand they probably wouldn’t be able to fill the room again at short notice. Anyway, I phone the hotel to let them know that I do still want the booking but that I won’t be arriving until about 9.30ish on the Saturday rather than the Friday afternoon as originally planned. Receptionist on phone says ‘that’s fine, thanks for letting us know. Just so you know you’re welcome to use the facilities but your room won’t be available until check in at 3pm.” I reiterate that I’ve already paid for the room (and breakfast and dinner which I won’t be having either) from Friday so it should be available when I get there at 9.30. Again “sorry, no but we can’t allow early check in under any circumstances at the moment. We’re totally fully booked and the cleaners just can’t get the rooms ready before this.”

I ask to speak to someone else as I assume she’s possibly new or young or thick as mince. She passes me over to another woman but I hear her say “can you speak to this lady, she won’t understand why she can’t check in at 9.30am”. I explain the situation again. New lady replies with “I empathise with your situation but as we are fully booked we simply can’t allow you to check in nearly 6 hours early”. I tell her that it’s not 6 hours early, it’s 18 hours late. Im booked from the Friday night. I’m paying for the Friday night but I can’t get there until Saturday morning. I’ve paid £145 for a room, dinner and breakfast and none of it will be used. If I was arriving on time, I would be able to return to my room at 9.30am if I chose to do so. She tell me that I'm not arriving on time though so the room won’t be ready until 3pm .

I ask if there’s a manager that I can email, or a head office as this is just bonkers. She gives me an email address. I write a very calm, concise email explaining that I’ll be getting there at 9.30 the day after I’m due to arrive. I’ve just had an email back (from the reception again) telling me that my room will be ready at 3pm and they hope I enjoy my stay.

How do I resolve this? They’re all mad. Aren’t they? I’m not going crazy in thinking I should be allowed in the room when I get there am I? It should be ready for 3pm on Friday so will still be ready at 9.30 on Saturday, surely?

Look at Cape Cornwall club.
Lands end hotel.
The endsleigh (Devon)

And house of hackney

@JurassicPark101

terhou I’m not in Penzance .

I know. I quoted what you said about it.

terhou I didn’t say anything about Penzance. I was talking about the place I’m staying, that it is after Penzance. I was replying to another poster who asked if I was staying before or after Penzance.

@JurassicPark101

terhou I didn’t say anything about Penzance. I was talking about the place I’m staying, that it is after Penzance. I was replying to another poster who asked if I was staying before or after Penzance.

It’s like “Who’s on First.”

Hope you’ve managed to have a lovely break, OP, now that it’s all worked out.

Do let us know how check out goes and whether the staff look stumped

Go to their Twitter account and Tweet it. Either they refund the Friday night or they make the room available as per that booking.

FeministEndorsingWomensSpaces

Go to their Twitter account and Tweet it. Either they refund the Friday night or they make the room available as per that booking

Go to the original OP.
At the bottom, click on "See All".
You'll find that your (very late) advice is not needed!

Well done, OP. The hotel were CFs for trying to have it both ways. Glad it backfired onto them.

They have let your room
So they getting double money

Different hotels have different rules, I think that's what we can establish from the contributions by the different people with hotel experience. There is no universal way of dealing with something like this and at the end of the day there's no particular way a hotel SHOULD act.

In my old hotel, which sounds very similar to the hotel you're at, we'd of course let you check in at 9.30 no questions asked. We'd also ALWAYS sell rooms cheaper direct - booking agents take so much commission. So many hospitality workers are new and inexperienced this season and I think it's probably likely that they didn't understand fully. Not their fault, not yours either.

I wholeheartedly don't agree that you've 'outsmarted' the receptionists, I think you did what was necessary. I may be wrong but if it's a small 20 room hotel the rooms are actually not likely to be allocated on check-in, and are automatically allocated as soon as the booking was made. You would not cost the hotel more money if you didn't stay Friday night, you would save it (in comparison to you being there) because no one would eat the dinner, no one would turn the heating up etc. The only "lost revenue" is the lost double revenue that they would get if they resold the room. But like I said, I genuinely don't think that was their intention.

Anyway! I'm glad you sorted it, I hope you're having (or did have?) a lovely time away regardless. Don't have any recommendations as I don't know the area that well at all but I hope you can find somewhere else for next time!