To warn you that Travelodge routinely 'overbook'!!

[badger2005]

We had booked to see a show, and ages ago I also booked a travelodge so we'd be right next to the venue. When we turned up ready to book into our travelodge (about 5.45pm) we were told that they had had to move us into a different travelodge in another place - miles from the venue!
This wasn't because of any kind of emergency - they just overbook on purpose apparently and you just get booted out even if you have booked a room in advance.
When we got back home, travelodge sent me an email asking for feedback, and I asked if I could have a refund. That seems to me like the absolute minimum - I booked into a hotel and they reneged on the booking - surely I should get a refund?! But they just blanked me. I don't know if I can get a refund - I'm guessing I will just be talking to a computer about it forever if I try.

I've found out since that not all hotel chains do this. I'm NEVER booking Travelodge again. Just warning you all!

Also, the nature of true compensation is that, in an ideal world, it should never have to be paid. It should be as a result of an unforeseeable problem. Relying on planning to compensate people for an avoidable problem is devious and unethical.

When you say about 'over-compensating', I presume you're meaning in purely financial terms? Are people meant to be grateful if they get a luxury 5-star hotel in Swansea when they booked a basic place in Wigan, where their friends' wedding is taking place?

It being standard practice doesn't stop it from being breach of contract, unethical and of disproportionate impact on vulnerable customers. Saying it works 99% of the time when you are turfing out wheelchair users, etc often late at night is of little comfort to them.

Again, wrong poster. I said standard practice and someone else said the rest. I clarified in my experienced that we specifically did not overbook on accessible rooms.

The % I said was 0.0005%.

When you buy a seat on a plane, you aren't guaranteed to be taking off on that seat.

https://www.godsavethepoints.com/hotel-overbooking-walk-guide-reservation-guarantee/

This site here lists the major chains and their out booking policies. Just so you can be better informed.

But an awful lot of no shows aren't chargeable.

Plus their prices wouldn't increase 1%. Many hotels overbook by -5, so let's say they don't, and 6/100 rooms don't turn up, that's a 6% loss whereas it could have been a 1% loss. Times this by every single night across the year it happens. The prices would inflate massively!

Regardless, arguing with a former hotel manager on Mumsnet isn't going to change anything. You need to raise your complaint with the senior team for every hotel chain. So the folks who sit in head office and never have to actually see the disappointment on someone's faces when they are outbooked.

They can very easily explain the maths and why it does in fact help sustain their hotel.

What they won't tell you is how little they pay their staff, their illegal expectations, the fact that if 5 people no show one night, that'll be a waiter on breakfast service losing a shift and a housekeeper losing a shift at the very least because the staff are stretched to the absolute max. All the while they take home canny bonuses.

But let me tell you, there is enough demand for hotel rooms that a handful of people complaining won't make the slightest bit of difference.

We arrived at a Travelodge recently, booked in & went to our accessible room. We opened the door to find a man in the bed! The manager was very apologetic, transferred us to another room and refunded 50% of the cost paid ….. in the form of a Travelodge voucher. The guy had booked a late check out & we had booked an early check in and their system didn’t recognise this.

Can you request a change back on your credit card?

How convenient. So you only get compensation if you're prepared to stay there again.

A refund should be a refund. You know, actual money that you can spend somewhere else.

Thank you for this! I note that most hotels pay for your night's stay - i.e. they don't charge you if you have been outbooked. Also travel, and in some cases compensation. That all seems appropriate if this is something that hardly ever happens.
Just pointing out again that travelodge does not pay for your night's stay - you still have to pay for it! And when you complain, they literally ignore you. My guess is that whereas this is rare for some hotels, travelodge do it all the time, and can't afford to refund all of us outbooked guests.

And just to clarify, I think that no hotel should do this. Hotel people explaining why it makes financial sense - that doesn't mean that it is morally right, and I think that it should be legislated against. If you reserve a room and pay for it, then the room should be held for you.
I'm not sure how we have ended up in this world where we can just say 'everyone does it' as though that makes it okay! Everyone should stop doing it. I don't blame the businesses for doing it if it makes financial sense, but I do think there should be legislation to stop it.
And I did just want to warn you all about it. I'll be very wary of booking travelodge again, and in general I'd hesitate to book a hotel unless I had to (i.e. for work) unless I was happy to be moved around.

OP thank you. I am not sure I would ever book a travelodge for myself now but I will also warn my young adults kids never to do so. Thank you!

Many many rooms in many hotels are pay on arrival. So if someone doesn't turn up, then they've keyed in a card number for an account with no money in it, then the hotel loses a night's stay and cannot claim the no show fee for it.

You may want to spend some time reading the Ts and Cs for the chains you plan to use instead - Premier Inn for example says in theirs "we can change your hotel location at any time for any reason". I'd imagine all the chains have the same type of disclaimer in the Ts and Cs that you tick when you book.

There does appear to be a difference between hotels that say that, and Travelodge, which has a much heftier section saying that they practice Outboarding. Whether that reflects the frequency of it happening with Travelodges compared to other chains, or you could see it as Travelodge just being more up front about it, I don’t know.

Reading the Travelodge T&Cs they should be paying for any taxis required, so anyone who didn’t get that in the past was stiffed.

Okay, but I think that if you do pay in advance, then the room should be reserved!

We’ve been using TL for decades (PI too) and can honestly say this has never happened to us. You were very unlucky.

Did you pay in advance for your initial room? Did you then have to pay again at the second hotel?

They all say 'for whatever reason' none actually say we have a policy of overbooking which might mean you won't get your room. They are making it look like it will only happen if something really unforeseeable happens not that it will happen if they loose the gamble they staked with your booking and money. That's the problem.

I paid in advance for the initial room. Then they moved us into the alternative hotel, and we did not need to pay again. But I think that as the alternative hotel was not what I thought I was buying there should be some compensation/refund. Beyond transport (which they would have wanted to offer, but no taxis were available to take us in time), they wasted lots of our time - time that we had planned to spend having dinner and arriving at the show in good time!
I also think that they should not have overbooked. In particular - not if you pay in advance! There should be a way to actually reserve a room. This shouldn't be allowed.
The fact that they are treating the whole thing so casually and ignoring my email suggests to me that this is something that happens to people a lot and they can't have a 'outbooked customers get refunds' policy because there would be so many of us!

We have used Premier Inn for years often arriving very late and in high pressure locations. They have been 100% reliable. It has never ever happened to us or anybody else I know. Travel Lodge is a whole different scenario. After ranting about our experience others have appeared to experience similar. So what consumers should do is vote with their feet, read reviews and go for chains that manage it better or ideally don’t do it at all.

And why not limit the overbooking to only the number who haven't paid in advance and ensure those that they get a room. If the advances don't show they have the cash anyway, so revenue management is fine. But wait, it is of course more likely they paid less. So take the higher charges from arrivals paying on the day and reallocate those who you have had their money from and guaranteed revenue. But if the higher payers don't show then put in those that have already paid.
It is a scam that is being normalised through deception and use of euthanistic language.

It’s obvious that it’s standard practice so clearly you won’t be able to avoid it using chain hotels. But it does appear that some manage it better.

I’m curious. Can anyone who has worked for Premier Inn tell me - they don’t have any sort of membership which I assume helps keep prices down but is there any internal record of frequent/high spending customers anyway that would be prioritised in an overbooking scenario?

Most hotels do this. I've been bumped out a couple of times but on both occasions, I've been upgraded to a better hotel in the same area. Doesn't really bother me tbh.

If they wanted to move me further away, then I would ask them to pay for a taxi etc. And maybe some extra compensation for the inconvenience if it was quite a trek.

I absolutely believe this as we have had it happen at a small independent hotel. It’s likely less common than chains but it happens

That's because a clause in a contract that said "we can change the type and location of the services you have ordered at any time and for any reason and routinely will do this as a business strategy" would be an objectively unreasonable clause and would mean they would just lose any claim against them. By having a clause that is less explicit they are hoping that the interpretation will be more vague and less likely to lead to legal action.

What people need to understand is that businesses can put whatever t&cs in their contract that they like but that does not mean they are legally enforceable or override your consumer rights. A general test is that the clause has to be objectively reasonable to be enforceable. So, a hotel may well say that they are free to move you to another hotel miles away at the last minute late at night in their contract but they are still highly likely to be found to be breaching their duties under the consumer rights act as that can easily be seen as objectively not supplying their services with due care and skill.

In my case, if I'd have been paying my own money for my stay at the Travelodge that expected to shove me out to the outskirts of a town late at night and pay for my transport there I would have definitely launched a small claims action against them. As work were picking up the tag I just found another hotel nearby and booked in there and let work sort it out.

Overbooking is explicitly illegal in some jurisdictions (sadly not the UK but I do believe it is the case in South Africa) and so clearly some countries have recognised it as unacceptable business practice.