Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Holidays

Use our Travel forum for recommendations on everything from day trips to the best family-friendly holiday destinations.

Original poster

Would you respond to abusive email from hotel?

323 replies

digginforturnips · 13/07/2023 09:26

Stayed at a small guesthouse recently for two nights. The hotel had overbooked their cheapest rooms. They told us on arrival that we could either pay the £100 extra for an upgraded room, or they could cancel our reservation and find another hotel. There was no availability nearby. We were seriously unimpressed, but after a long journey had no real choice other than to say we’d pay. Owners actually seemed really nice other than that.

We checked out at 5am and did not pay the £100. Hotel has sent us 6 emails asking for the money, which I have ignored all of them. Then today I got a long and very angry email from them telling us how we are dishonest, untrustworthy, unhonourable people. They told us they would be leaving bad reviews of us, and they would be filing a complaint with the booking website.

What would you do? Would you email back? Contact the booking platform for advice?

OP posts:
confusde · 15/07/2023 16:37

misssunshine4040 · 15/07/2023 16:33

It's really not unless you have an advance purchase booking.
Most places allow pay on arrival for guests that book a flexible rate

Show quote history

Yes that is correct however whenever I pay on arrival, I’ve always been asked to pay for the room before they assign me a room number or they at least take a guarantee from the credit card

inamarina · 15/07/2023 18:23

Luckyduc · 14/07/2023 07:17

A hotel made a booking error and have you a choice to either upgrade or be refunded so you could go somewhere else. They took the chance of losing money.
You however matched exactly the description they have called you in the email because you agreed on arrival to upgrade. I hope they learn next time to take 100.00 deposit which is returned on leaving.

They took the chance of losing money.

Maybe they “took the chance” because they knew there weren’t many other options available for OP, so she was stuck with them?

H0210zero · 15/07/2023 18:42

Just reply and say "I was under the impression you supplied the upgraded room as an apology rather than expecting us to pay extra for this. You agreed in person that it was your firm in the wrong and said we were welcome to stay in an upgraded room by way of apology. I'm quite disturbed that you are now asking for money for this. Had this been an agreement it would have been paid prior to using the room, if you believe this to be the case could you please provide evidence of this agreement signed by myself. I will not be paying this amount and will be filing a complaint with the booking company myself. If any negative reviews are left regarding me then I will dispute them and explain the truth.

Blondone · 15/07/2023 18:43

Hi re the Groupon post. We've had lovely rooms in various places, and not had a problem. Also spa days as good as ones I've paid for.

Toomuchtrouble4me · 15/07/2023 18:44

I would tell them that you don’t j tent to pay gif THEIR mistake! And that any negative reviews will be reciprocated and the damage to their business will be greater than anything they can say about you! What a cheek!

NatashaDancing · 15/07/2023 18:45

H0210zero · 15/07/2023 18:42

Just reply and say "I was under the impression you supplied the upgraded room as an apology rather than expecting us to pay extra for this. You agreed in person that it was your firm in the wrong and said we were welcome to stay in an upgraded room by way of apology. I'm quite disturbed that you are now asking for money for this. Had this been an agreement it would have been paid prior to using the room, if you believe this to be the case could you please provide evidence of this agreement signed by myself. I will not be paying this amount and will be filing a complaint with the booking company myself. If any negative reviews are left regarding me then I will dispute them and explain the truth.

Or you could just ignore them.

NatashaDancing · 15/07/2023 18:46

Toomuchtrouble4me · 15/07/2023 18:44

I would tell them that you don’t j tent to pay gif THEIR mistake! And that any negative reviews will be reciprocated and the damage to their business will be greater than anything they can say about you! What a cheek!

Where is the hotel going to put reviews of their guests?

Bernardo1 · 15/07/2023 18:57

Agree

Pupinski · 15/07/2023 19:03

Good for you. It was their error, their responsibility to put it right. They should have given you an available room at the price you'd agreed. It's laughable that they say they'll give you a bad review. A bad review from you would affect them much more.

I'd go ahead and leave the review. Take all the emotion out of it - just explain what happened dispassionately but say you're being relentlessly chased for the additional charge. Don't respond to any of their emails.

Bernardo1 · 15/07/2023 19:04

They were totally wrong to accept yr booking at one price, then ask you for more. One extremely good reason to check in as early as possible if you can.

Having said that, you agreed to the higher price, so you should pay.
if you make a reasoned complaint to the booking site, they may tell the hotel to back off, if not apologise.

SacreBleugh · 15/07/2023 19:19

Tell them you overbooked your budget and the £100 is no longer available.

CantFindMyMarbles · 15/07/2023 19:25

I’d be making a complaint with the booking company over their failure to ensure they don’t overbook.
I’d respond tk the emails explaining that they are in fact the untrustworthy and dishonest ones

WeeOrcadian · 15/07/2023 19:35

SacreBleugh · 15/07/2023 19:19

Tell them you overbooked your budget and the £100 is no longer available.

This, please do this!

Mountainlife · 15/07/2023 19:51

They were completely in the wrong. They overbooked and tried to make money on purpose. Probably something they've done before. You can't overbook hotel rooms unless you lie and put on more rooms than available which is against booking.com policy. They take a gamble and know full well people will be desperate to pay.
I'd like to know the hotel name and see what others have said on trip advisor.
Write honest review everywhere and how they've been. They can respond to it but at least others know

T1Dmama · 15/07/2023 20:50

I would respond and tell them that they were unreasonable to over book their rooms and then attempt to charge people an extra £100 on arrival when they have no other real options!
its dreadful customer service!

BaconChops · 15/07/2023 21:59

Tell them to get on with it. You agreed a price they didn’t stick to it. You owe them no explanation or money imo.

tiredofitall99 · 15/07/2023 22:06

If you arrived late, the room wouldn't have been sold anyway so they haven't actually lost out really..

Devora13 · 15/07/2023 22:16

Breach of contract on their part. You had no obligation to pay. I'd be reporting them. If they'd double booked they should have sucked up the loss, not passed it on to you.

CantThinkOfUserID · 15/07/2023 22:17

Respond to abuse with abuse. Maybe escalate it, add some indirect hints of violence if they don’t back off. We do this from time to time and it has always worked.

NCTDN · 15/07/2023 22:24

Has the OP responded since the original post?

CelestiaNoctis · 15/07/2023 22:44

Was the agreement verbal? I'd just ignore them if so. Its their word against yours and if they leave a bad review then just make a new account with a different email 🤷‍♀️

Emz6103 · 15/07/2023 23:04

It takes many good reviews to gain a good reputation.....and one mistake to loose it!! It was their mistake, they should have said nothing and allowed you the better room at no extra cost, As there was no room anywhere else at such short notice either. I'd leave a scathingly review about the threatening emails, the cheek of expecting YOU to pay an extra £100 for a "better" room. (Was it in a better part of the house? A bigger room? Better bed? On suite?) What was it about the room that warranted another£100? You had little choice but to agree to the extra payment and did the right thing leaving at the crack of dawn......hardly relaxing was it? Getting up at the break of dawn and eating no breakfast! You didn't even cost them breakfast......put that in the review and be sure to include how they totally ruined your relaxing break.!! I'd avoid on that review alone.....they should have taken the high road so you could leave a great review. Threaten them with the police if they don't stop threatening emails.

pollymere · 16/07/2023 00:28

Actually... If it WAS booking.com or similar, I've had the full side of the story from a hotel I stayed at.

Basically, they work on a percentage of no-shows which is why their rooms are so cheap (if they exist at all which has also happened to me).

A decent hotel will give them five rooms to sell for example at £100 each but they'll sell for less than the hotel itself at say £90. But they'll sell 8-10 rooms instead.

I got to a hotel at Check-in and was told I might not get the rooms I'd booked. The people behind me didn't. Unfortunately the hotel had no rooms to offer them due to the over booking.

What this hotel did was say you'd been sold a room that didn't exist. They told you they had "deluxe" rooms or whatever available but they were £100 more than you'd paid. This is not their fault. If you didn't book directly with the hotel it is not the hotel that offered you a £100 room for £50. The hotel will lose £100 if they give you a free upgrade but probably won't lose anything if you cancel on a room which doesn't exist or is also possibly non-refundable.

If you agreed to a room at the higher price which was £100 more, then you entered into an agreement with the hotel directly to pay that instead of your original agreement via the booking site. I would say you basically skipped without paying in a Guest House... So, yes you probably do owe them the money.

You don't say whether you were actually charged by the booking site but it may be the Guest House received no money as they may have had to cancel that booking to give you a room...

Emz6103 · 16/07/2023 00:52

So it's a scam! The hotel gives these rooms to sell knowing that that they will be "over" sold, they them tell the guest ",woops sorry, ya shoulda booked with us.....but seeings as you're already here, and there's nothing else available, we do have a room but it'll cost ya another £100"
The booking agency gets away with selling too many rooms....... If the hotel didn't give it's rooms to sell the agent wouldn't be able to over sell them...... meanwhile the customer pays "because they got scammed" by the hotel and agent.....fk paying I'm leaving at 5am n I'm glad they got away with it. If the hotel cannot afford to let these rooms at the cheaper price it shouldn't be giving them away to scammers to sell

JubileeQueen123 · 16/07/2023 02:13

If you paid or part paid by credit card you are covered under s75. Contact your credit card provider.