Last fall I impulsively booked the swanky Mayflower Inn & Spa in Connecticut through Expedia. Conventional wisdom tells us that booking travel directly with a hotel or airline is the best way to go. If something goes wrong and you need to cancel or rebook, you’re more likely to get help from the airline or hotel if you booked directly with them. But my experience booking with Expedia made me reconsider this idea.
The takeaway here isn’t that we should all start booking indirectly all the time, but there are cases where doing so works out favorably. Especially if the hotel fails to address the issue.
Settle in because it’s story time…
How hotels handle overbooking
When hotels are overbooked, they will usually cancel reservations based on several factors. Most often, those who book their rooms through a third-party OTA or arrive late will get “walked” first. Being “walked” from a hotel means being sent to another property since the hotel can’t accommodate guests.
Hotels that can’t honor your reservation will put you up elsewhere at no additional cost. Ideally, this will be a property of a similar caliber, though that’s not always possible. In small-town Connecticut, the pickings are slim, and that became apparent when my reservation at the Mayflower Inn & Spa wasn’t honored.
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How I got “walked” from the Mayflower Inn & Spa
Last November, I took a solo road trip through New England. I rented a car in Boston, drove through Rhode Island, and proceeded to explore the stunning fall landscape of Connecticut for the next week. My last stop was supposed to be Washington, CT – the small town that inspired Stars Hollow from Gilmore Girls.
Small towns in Connecticut aren’t exactly awash with hotel options. There are plenty of inns and bed & breakfasts that run the gamut from being high-end (and absurdly expensive) to two-star properties on the more affordable side of the spectrum.
As a Gilmore Girls superfan, I’ve always wanted to stay at the Mayflower Inn & Spa in Washington, CT. It’s where the show’s creator wrote the pilot episode on hotel stationery. She based the show’s fictional Independence Inn around the Mayflower Inn, and the similarities are uncanny.
However, rates at the Mayflower Inn go for well over $1,000 during peak “leafing” season, so I didn’t think it would be an option during this trip until I found an amazing rate at Expedia.
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How I booked it
Last year, I got an Expedia One Key+ card, and it has been surprisingly great at saving me money on travel. The card comes with automatic Gold status, with an upgrade to Platinum after $30,000 spent. Platinum benefits include room upgrades, perks, and discounts of 20% or more at VIP Access properties. I’ve saved a few hundred bucks on non-chain hotel bookings over the past year, thanks to the One Key Platinum discount.
One night, while staying at the Lost Fox Inn in Litchfield (which I highly recommend if you’re in the area), I decided to check Expedia’s rates for the Mayflower Inn & Spa. The hotel’s website was charging $1,252.35 per night for a Premium Guest Room the following day, which was not within my budget. After all, I was paying under $300 to stay at the perfectly comfortable Lost Fox Inn, a mere 20 minutes away.
But I figured I came all this way and the Mayflower Inn has been on my bucket list forever. So why not try to make it happen? To my surprise, Expedia was charging $781.29 for the same room – a saving of $471.06 With an extra 15% cash back from Amex Offers, plus 10% from Rakuten, I did some girl math and decided to splurge. As David Rose would say, “It’s a write-off.”
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Checking in
The following day, I enjoyed a leisurely visit to Litchfield, before continuing to Washington Depot for lunch. The hotel was just down the street from Marty’s Cafe and I eventually made my way there in the afternoon.
The first sign of trouble was when the valet asked for my name and couldn’t pull up my reservation. He advised me to go to the front desk to sort it out. He took my keys and, noticing I had an electric car, offered to charge it for me.
I headed past the lobby to the front desk to check in. When the agent looked at my ID, a worried look appeared on her face. “Your reservation was canceled.” How is that possible? “We were overbooked, so we canceled your reservation. We called you this morning.” They called once but did not leave a voicemail or bother to reach me via any other means.
I had booked my room at 11 PM the previous night, and the hotel called me at 9 AM that morning to let me know they couldn’t honor the reservation. I keep my phone on do-not-disturb mode. So it’s understandable that the hotel couldn’t reach me, but to not even leave a voicemail or maybe a text? Not ok.
Furthermore, they tried to blame the issue on Expedia displaying unavailable inventory – even though the hotel website was showed availability for the same room. I didn’t appreciate the lack of accountability on their part.
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Rebooking
The front desk agent called her manager, who apologized and told me she had taken the initiative to rebook me at the Abner Hotel in Litchfield. The Abner Hotel is a 2-star property akin to a hostel. It was not on par with the Mayflower Inn.
I pushed back on this and told them that wouldn’t be an acceptable alternative. Could they do something else? Yes. In fact, they could put me up at their sister property, the Wildflower Farms. Great! Where is the Wildflower Farms? Gardiner, New York. This property was not only two hours away, it was in another state.
By this time, it was getting dark and my car had around 40 miles of charge. Even if I stuck around for an hour to charge it (something the staff didn’t seem keen on as they desperately tried to usher me out the door), I would not have been able to drive through those backwoods in the pitch dark.
I explained this to the manager, and eventually, she offered to put me up at the Winvian Farm. Now, this property was on par with the Mayflower Inn. But if I couldn’t stay at the Mayflower Inn, paying $800+ per night at a different property wouldn’t be worth it.
I later learned that when a hotel “walks” you to a different property, they’re supposed to refund your booking and cover the nights they moved you to another hotel. I don’t know if that would’ve been the case here because the hotel was clearly trying not to cancel the reservation (it was still showing up as valid on my account) and instead simply wanted to book me another room elsewhere.
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What I ended up doing
Ultimately, I told them I’d figure something out. The staff recommended I call Expedia to cancel the reservation since it was still showing up as valid. I didn’t have time to make the call right away, so I quickly emailed Expedia customer service.
It was very telling that the hotel wouldn’t cancel the reservation and insisted I do it. I later learned from a contact at Expedia that they’re not supposed to cancel a confirmed reservation without providing alternate accommodations.
Expedia responded later that day. They apologized for the incident, refunded my reservation, offered to rebook me, and credited $100 to my One Key account. It was more than the hotel was willing to offer for the inconvenience, which I appreciated.
Final thoughts
In the end, booking through Expedia got me some compensation when the hotel was being difficult. First, they tried to get me to leave without accommodations, pawned me off to a two-star hotel, then to a property in another state, before finally offering up a similar high-end property nine miles away. At least Expedia tried to make it right.
It doesn’t always work out this way. Sometimes, booking through a third party leads to problems. But in this case, the third-party site took accountability when the hotel wouldn’t. In fact, the hotel and La Auberge Resorts don’t even have a public email where I could contact them about this incident.
I submitted a form through the corporate site, but no one ever responded. I left a TripAdvisor review, and they had it taken down on some technicality. So I appreciate that at least Expedia tried to compensate for the hotel’s service failure instead of skirting all accountability.
What weasels. The hotel, not Expedia. Their behavior is appalling.
What weasels. The hotel, not Expedia. Their behavior is appalling.