Was any other team jilted by a Detroit hotel this year?

Competition Championship Event
#1

I would like to know if another team lost their early reservation for a spurious reason this year.

Our 15 rooms, reserved at a downtown hotel (I will keep it nameless for now) were taken away when they told us “they were overbooked by 92 rooms” for next week.

Since our rooms were reserved at a lower price, it was our rooms they took away. We are obviously really upset with this hotel, and we know there must be other teams that suffered the same. This should not be tolerated, and it is not the only problem I have with Detroit as our championship city.

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#2

That is really unfortunate! Have you contacted experient? Maybe they would be able to help you?

Did the hotel offer any help finding you alternate accommodations?

As a team with reservations at a downtown hotel…this scares me a little. How were you notified that your rooms were no longer available?

#3

We did not book through experien, so no they can not do anything.

Yes, they offered us very weak help, suggesting we book their hotel in Dearborne, which was already asking way too much for being 15 miles away.

We found out when our volunteer parent, who was handling reservations this year, called to submit the list of names. The hotel claiamed we were late in getting the list, even though there was no “April 1st deadline” ever stipulated to us.

I do not think I am being over-cynical that this hotel, being well aware of the opportunity of cashing in this week, deliberately “overbooked” in order to force this issue.

The clear lack of a good-faith effort to contact us for a rooming list indicated they were not involved in the customer satisfaction business. I’ve been reserving rooms for a decade now, and all hotels have contacted me in due time in similar situations. I understand they do not want to take a chance at losing business for a “full-up” weekend, but this is clearly an issue where they saw a chance to further maximize their cash intake by causing a severe problem for their customers.

[We have remedied the situation, but it will involve splitting the team up, and half our team sleeping on floors. But at least we will get free breakfast.]

And don’t get me started on the gouging practices of some private ground transportation companies that take advantage of Detroit’s lack of decent public transportation.

#4

That’s too bad. I am guessing this is a major hotel chain (there are no motel 6 types in downtown area), please lodge a formal complaint to their head office. Its no joke. Over booking is not customer’s fault.

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#5

Oh we will/have.
It’s Courtyard, by the way. Did anyone book there in the past 2 weeks? Those were our rooms [no fault nor blame to you!]

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#6

We are at the Renaissance Marriott and booked through Experient back in December.

When did you book the rooms? Was it directly with the hotel or through a 3rd party site? I was under the impression that the hotels offering group housing through experient were under contract not to book groups outside of the experient system.

I’m glad you were able to work it out, but it sucks that they didnt give you more notice…or better yet, not overbook the hotel by 92 rooms.

#7

We booked in November, and had really good rates, better than through experien. So we did not have that protection. Who would have thought they’d be so unscrupulous.

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#8

Wow, you planned in advanced and they do this to you? I would be furious as well.

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#9

Last year we booked a Friday night at the Renaissance Marriott directly with the hotel. When we arrived they told us they oversold by something like 100 rooms. The crazy part was that I had called them two days before to adjust the reservation and they didn’t mention that anything was amiss. They offered to put us up at a hotel in Troy, which isn’t super helpful. Our team hung out in their lobby and ate dinner for 2 hours while trying to put together a reasonable solution, then they figured something out and sent us over to “Aloft Detroit at The David Whitney” and didn’t charge us for anything, so it worked out ok in the end.

#10

So our team didn’t loose our reservation but Experient called to tell me the hotel overbooked it’s rooms with two beds and could any of mine be converted to one bed rooms. I was the first reservation they called, so no doubt other teams further down their list probably lost their reservations.

#11

Next time someone proposes booking a team outside the room block, I’m going to point then to this thread.

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#12

Last week in Houston, Experient tried to put me in a room with 2 beds. I wouldn’t necessarily put all the blame on the hotel. I managed to work it out on check in, but it’s crazy to think that they were going to put me in a room that sleeps 5 while the hotel was going to be overbooked with groups that wanted that room.

Hotels overbook all the time though, same as airlines or car rental companies. It’s just a fact of life in their business that a certain percentage of reservations will be no shows. Unfortunately when you have a big event like this, the no-show percentage goes down. Doesn’t help the guy who shows up at 11:30 and there is no room available though. (I’ve been that guy more than once)

#13

In St. Louis, in 2015, we showed up at one of the downtown hotels at 11:30 PM (late flight). They had given out our rooms. But…

We had already PAID for them. So the hotel was going for getting paid a second time. I gave them “20 minutes to find some rooms, or I’m calling the police.” They said “That won’t be necessary.” I said, “Make sure it’s not!”

And they found some rooms!

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#14

I didn’t enjoy the Experient experience either, but at least there is more of a recourse for these problems

#15

I’ve had the good luck to only be that person once. It was 11:45pm in San Francisco. The hotel did what they were supposed to - find me an alternate hotel for the night and pay for my cab there and back. (At no cost to me.) So while I was standing at the front desk trying not to fall asleep, they solved the problem.

This is more difficult in Detroit where things are further away and with a larger block of rooms. And with students, where I imagine you can’t just pile 5 kids in a cab to go to an alternate hotel even if the hotel offers to pay for it.

#16

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