Hotel lost my children in booking

[Itsalwaysmeyaknow]

AIBU or should they apologise properly? Long I know but it has all the facts…
as a family we recently visited a moderately priced hotel chain near London for 3 nights… booked as 2 adults, 2 children. All booked, double checked the confirmation email, all good. I called weeks ahead to enquire about car park to be told it would be sorted on arrival. Well we didn’t arrive until just before midnight (5 hour drive for us) and car park was locked (fair enough) but a well weathered sign over the intercom saying car park full… panicking a bit I called the hotel, they said they’d check and hung up. A bit confused I called again where they hung up again… a couple of minutes of waiting a member of staff arrived complaining we hadn’t pre booked parking, I explained what I was told previously but he looked annoyed. He checked the car park and let us in (loads of space I might add) and said quite sternly I must pay for parking right away. QR code located to pay for car parking, it would let you progress so far… then error. Tried again, error. So headed to check in where I mentioned the car park as to where another employee pulled out his phone, bought up the app, waved it at me saying what was my problem? It works! I explained you had to progress further through the booking in to which he realised I was actually in fact correct and backed down. Eventually the original staff member then processed my car park manually through the computer. Next problem, booking in seemed to take ages… bear in mind it was now after midnight, a very tired hubby and children, all hanging around in the lobby. Finally got our key, top floor, headed up, no children’s bed or bedding. So back down 10 floors to the lobby and asked the staff why my children’s beds weren’t set up and no bedding, to which his reply was “you only booked a room for 2 adults madam”. Being on the ball I whipped out my phone and showed him my email clearly showing 2 adults and 2 children. He analysed it and then backed down and said he would get some bedding. So at 12.30 am I’m in our hotel room pulling out a sofa bed and making up beds for my kids who were at this point absolutely shattered. Had a weak apology from the staff member who was helping but still felt like he thought I was trying to diddle them. This problem then arose every morning at breakfast and we were being eyeballed for having two children with us when the booking was for only two adult breakfasts. I did question the booking again midway through our break because I was fed up of getting embarrassed in front of staff and other guests having to prove each time that this was not our error, and was told it was a technical glitch. The response from the hotel was extremely limited and offered us preferential accommodation and breakfast on our next visit (this was a once in a blue moon thing for us, definitely no more trips planned for a while)…. But that’s not what I want.. I just want an actual apology for being made to feel the way my family did whilst there. AIBU?

I do get that systems can sometimes glitch, but for it to affect our whole stay was very annoying. I think the most annoying comment of whole booking was “you have no bedding for the children because you’ve only booked a two adults madam” 😡

Email sent, not happy with the reply so replied asking for it to be handled by head office. Be interesting to hear what they have to say

I sense some exaggeration here - and it wasn’t the hotel’s fault that you turned up at midnight. I’m pretty sure that if you had waited a few more minutes they would have made the beds up without your assistance. I’m not sure how the receptionist failed to notice that you were only down for a twin room but had 2 children with you either.
What outcome would you like to happen?

Yes, I totally hold my hands up that it was on us the time we arrived.

But I did forget to add that the room staff who go in each day didn’t make our children’s beds as they “weren’t booked in”.

Which is what happened. So I’m not sure why you’re complaining about the parking situation1

I see nothing wrong in arriving at a hotel at midnight, I have arrived around that time many times due to travel, I've never had the issues OP has faced. Arriving later in the day doesn't excuse crappy service, if anything the staff had had longer to check the booking information and get things correct!
Don't feel like you are in any way to blame just because you arrived late in the day OP.

You are allowed to arrive whatever time you like if you have a room booked. I have turned up at hotels in the middle of the night before. It isn’t that strange- just works out that way sometimes when travelling.

This reminds me of what happened to those TikTok comedians where the wife uses a wheelchair.

Unbelievably disgraceful service from Travelodge where they had booked a disabled room but the hotel turned them away when they arrived because they had too few staff on and apparently wouldn’t be able to manage someone in a wheelchair in an emergency. Then reluctantly said she could stay if she got out of her wheelchair and proved she could walk at least a short distance!!

They turned their experience into a hilarious TikTok but I expect it was massively stressful on the night at the hotel.

www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/local-news/man-calls-out-peterborough-travelodge-28325018?int_source=amp_continue_reading&int_medium=amp&int_campaign=continue_reading_button#amp-readmore-target

This happened to us at a hotel at Manchester airport.they took 25% off the bill the next morning after I calmly complained.

TBF, that's what they could see though, if the system glitches and only books for 2 adults then that's what they think you've booked and are expecting to arrive. And from experience, the people on nights usually only have access to the basic systems, they can't backtrack through online bookings, access 3rd party portals or emails etc. I'm not saying they're right in how it was handled but if that's what was in front of him then that's what he believed you'd booked, the same with the breakfast team - clearly the booking hadn't been amended to add the children so those staff were working on the information they had, yes it was wrong but that's the fault of reservations and management.

But that aside, how did you book? Was it on their own system or a 3rd party site?

If it's their own site then it's a bad one, and even if a 3rd party, then when you rang up, the children should have been added to the booking.

Doesn't sound like a particularly good experience tbh, and the way it was handled afterwards isn't particularly productive either, and reservations/reception need a boot up the arse. This was easily rectified the next morning when the situation should have been handed to reservations and rectified and apologised for.

The no kids on the booking part happened i mean.they also knew we would be arriving v late.

She's complaining about being told one thing, then another and being blamed for following the first instructions.

For a late arrival like that I would probably have phoned ahead to let them know when we would be arriving. At that point I might have remembered to mention "And just checking, the childrens' beds will be made up right?", but possibly not. But I wouldn't have explicitly made a call just to check that point.

(When I was learning to drive, the phrase in vogue was "defensive driving". These days I'm often a "defensive consumer", and I assume that they will find some way to screw up, but there's only so much nagging you can do before you start to feel like the dreaded K-word.)

But what benefit is an apology? Why would that make any difference at this point?
Id leave a shit review and decline their offer as I would ever book with them again, but an apology is worthless…or is it a partial refund you are actually after?

I travel a lot for work , generally about 2 nights a week in a hotel.
The “ acceptance “ of any requests that I make ( late check in whatever) .. ping into my inbox un less than a minute after booking .
Clearly automated and no human would have had the time to read it 🤷‍♀️

not great that you phone to alert them and it still doesn’t help .
very frustrating

I would contact head office directly and inform them of this

Often the property management system does not receive the correct information from booking.com etc so often additional guests are missed due to flaws in the system.
The late team should make your beds without fuss and offer you complimentary drinks or breakfast as an apology for your wait.

I would absolutely escalate the appalling customer service you received regarding the car park.

Please don't feel like anyone thought you were pulling a fast one etc it's very common and happens a lot.

You can ask for a complimentary staff in a sister property or a partial refund

Honestly, people on here will bend over backwards to blame the OP no matter what they say. How dare you turn up to a hotel late at night (!), with a car (!!) and two children (!!!) and expect them to give you what you booked, paid for and checked you would be getting. You should have stayed at home and saved the poor hotel staff all the bother.

Of course it was poor service and there’s absolutely no reason they couldn’t have amended the booking so it showed you had children.

Tbh I’m not blaming OP. It’s poor service but it’s exacerbated by the fact they’re tired.

We looked at a holiday last week and the flight landed at 10:30pm and I just thought if something goes wrong we are going to be ratty AF with 2 small children and any issue will seem 10 times worse.

issues happen when travelling, I’d rather have an issue with a hire car or a hotel earlier in the day (these things happen even if you plan as well as you can, services glitch, services can be shit) and if you are less tired you’re more able to deal with it

Apologies, I didn’t make myself very clear… I was told when I phoned right after booking that parking would be dealt with on arrival. On arrival a cellotaped sign on the intercom to the car park that had clearly been there a long time (you could tell it was weathered) that stated full. On phoning up whilst outside I was told it was full and asked if I had pre arranged parking, but they’d check and told there was a space (there were plenty of spaces). Told to pay for parking pretty much immediately, but the qr code and parking machine weren’t working on trying to book in the car. So had to get this sorted at reception who still tried to make out it was my issue but only when they tried themselves on the app it proved it really wasn’t working.
sorry, the car park issue wasn’t the main part of my problem and probably shouldn’t have mentioned it but it does all add up to the frustration caused due to misinformation when I am such an organised person so these things don’t happen.

Why an’t you name and shame it? You are not libelling them, so what’s stopping you?

But surely the vast majority of people are tired when they check in to a hotel.. whether you arrive at 2pm or 12pm you’ve likely been traveling a long time to get there.
There can’t be a lot of guests checking in who have just come from down the road.

Also the OP wasn’t tired when the problems continued at breakfast each day.

Sorry just to clarify a couple of points… (I’m not great at this)

1. I booked through the hotels own webpage
2. my confirmation email clearly states 2 adults, 2 children, 3 nights, breakfasts booked throughout stay
3. admittedly I didn’t call ahead to say how late we would be but I did bring this up when I called at the time of booking because it’s a long way from home and knowing of any other car parks would have been a nightmare at that time of night… I was assured car parking would be absolutely fine on arrival.

It sounds unpleasant and irritating and the staff were not well trained or professional. But I’d just let it go now. It wasn’t so bad you’re likely to get any compensation unless they are willing to.