Would you respond to abusive email from hotel?

[digginforturnips]

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?

Also do this

I would absolutely be screenshotting their emails and posting them with a factual review of this shady practice. You booked a room; they claimed they'd run out of that level of room. You should have been upgraded for free, not told to pay up for an upgrade or find someplace else to stay after flying in. FFS. What a scam.

If they had “cancelled the booking” if you had said you didn’t want to stay they would have had a vacant room, so yes I think they were trying a fast one, banking on you being tired and not wanting to start finding alternative accommodation. Underhand.

I would report to the booking platform, leave them a stinking review and contact their local tourist office if it is a touristy place to say what a bad impression of the area they have left you with and you will not be back.

It’s not really a choice if there’s nothing else available in that area.
OP booked a room in that hotel, at a particular price. The fact that they overbooked wasn’t her fault.

And I do hope you took all the mini toiletries OP, though not the huge bottle of designer shower gel because we all know where that leads to !

What would you have done our of curiosity?

Incredible.

But the hotel told her up front what the price would be, she agreed to it in exchange for getting the room key, and then scarpered out on the bill. That's different from a restaurant presenting a different bill after the meal.

Look, I agree that it's good customer service to give the free upgrade. But this hotel chose not to, and the OP agreed to that, and then didn't keep her word.

And now people are saying it's OK to defraud companies because they can afford the loss, etc. etc.

Contact the booking platform- we had very similar with booking.com but instead i contacted them at check in and they sorted everything for no additional money. Unfortunately you said one thing and then ran meaning that you lost the moral high ground

No, she was told what the price was when she booked. They changed that price when she arrived. The left her with an unworkable option (cancel the reservation and go elsewhere - when there were no available rooms) and banked on her falling for this well known scam. Unfortunately for them they came up against someone who doesn’t have M.U.G on their forehead.

But the hotel told her up front what the price would be, she agreed to it in exchange for getting the room key, and then scarpered out on the bill.

But the hotel had also already agreed to provide accomodation at X price when the OP booked, and then failed to do so.

Apologies, That to @ZeldaWillTellYourFortune

Agreed.

Exactly

If the hotel had said “you can have standard room X, as booked, which we agreed in writing to supply, or deluxe room Y for £50 more a night” and OP had said Y but then not paid, then she would be in the wrong.

The hotel breached a written/email agreement.

And it’s probably the case that the room they booked didn’t exist. It wasn’t an error, it was a deliberate ploy to scam more money than was in the agreed contract.

I doubt very much a revised contract was produced with the extra costs and signed by the OP.

Some people on here sound so easy to scam!

If your contract is for a room at £x price, they can't say on arrival yeah we have a room for you but it's going to be an extra £x amount of money.

That is bait and switch.

That is not how contracts work. If the OP had arrived and asked for a bigger room and they'd said yes, we can upgrade you for £x amount - that's normal. To say it's an upgrade or goodbye when they were contractually obligated to provide a room for £x price is a scam.

Be careful with your money people!

I work for a hotel booking company and when rooms are overbooked (which does happen), guests are automatically upgraded to the next available room.

If our clients' better rooms are left unbooked completely on the day of arrival, again, guests are upgraded.

For us, it's all about providing the best possible service. That should be the case for all hotels. I'm sorry it wasn't for you.

If you'd like to send me a message with the name of the hotel, I can see if it's one of our clients and deal with it for you.

Absolutely - it’s an old scam. I used to work in a major city’s tourist office back in the early nineties when we used to book accommodation for tourists. It used to happen back then, this is not new - we’d get tourists pitching up having been on the receiving end of the same scam and we’d have to try and book them alternative accommodation, which was not always easy to do.

And these mugs on here claiming the moral high ground and saying they’d pay up - it’s people like that who allow these scammers to keep getting away with it.

Its not about integrity and morals - they’re enabling fraud with their compliance

I am in the hotel trade and would have definitely given you the free upgraded room no questions asked. It was clearly the hotel's mistake.
Cheeky sods.
Definitely write a review on trip advisor to advise future guests of these shady actions.
And if you continue to be harassed then contact Citizens Advice for help.

Some people have integrity, some don't. It's easy to tell the difference.

The hotel was not providing optimal customer service, but they were up front about what was available when the OP showed up. I am sure that the booking contract, if read in minute detail, favours the hotel in such a scenario. The choice then was to accept the higher-cost product, or leave.

Not agree to one thing and then skedaddle when it comes time to pay the bill. Imagine doing that in any other establishment?

I agree with this.

It's not poor customer service. It's a scam.

What would you think if you booked a train ticket and then they wouldn't let you on unless you paid an extra £50? Is that just poor customer service?

Do you think any train company would do that? If they wouldn't, why don't you think they would? What do you think would happen if train companies decided that was a normal way to run business?

Absolutely. It’s been seen time and time again and yet sone still fall for it.

And it’s not about integrity or morals, it’s showing who is gullible and will roll over and let themselves be mugged off

They're the reason these scams still go on because silly people fall for it and wear their gullibility as a badge of honour by dressing it up as integrity

Look, I agree that it's good customer service to give the free upgrade. But this hotel chose not to, and the OP agreed to that, and then didn't keep her word.

”Keeping your word” is meaningless in legal terms. Keeping to a contract is the issue here - and the hotel didn’t. The OP said what she needed to say to ensure she wasn’t left without accommodation for the night. It’s the hotel that was in the wrong.

Unless the hotel owner is planning to go into court, throw him/herself on the floor sobbing and banging his/her fists and sobbing “But it’s not faaaiiiirr!! You PROMISED!!!” like a child who’s been told they’re not going to the fair after all, the OP’s “word” doesn’t come into it - apart from the perspective of it being her word against theirs.