Hotel/Motel Reservations

[Jim Koepke]

With an early appointment a two hour drive from home, Candy said we should get a room for the night since she doesn't do mornings.

Looked at Google maps for anything close by and one was a well known national chain (starts with an M). Called the number. A person answered and listened to my request. She said she was a desk clerk and to please hold while she transferred me to reservations. This sent me through voice prompt after voice prompt. The system wanted to send me a text, I don't have a cell phone. How do you get through to a robovoice? It kept asking me for my membership number, I'm not a member. After fighting with the automated system for 4 or 5 minutes, I had enough and hung up. Called another national chain in the area and got a room booked in about the same time talking to a woman with what sounded like an Eastern European accent.

I don't think I have ever met someone who likes being jerked around a phone answering menu system that gets stuck in an endless loop of trying to sell you a membership or listen to their pitch over and over. Maybe it would have been faster if I signed up for a membership I didn't want.

Haven't any of these corporate bean counters discovered many folks would rather talk to another human instead of trying to figure out how to talk to a machine?

End of Rant.

jtk

[Jim Becker]

I think you'll find that the majority of hotels are setup much better for making online reservations and they have been for a very long time now. (It's the same with airlines) You'll generally get better rates that way, too, either directly if you do have a loyalty program membership or by using an AAA, AARP or other affiliation discount.

[glenn bradley]

I often feel bad for the actual humans you eventually get to. By the time the menu system has put me through the ringer and I finally get to a person I am so irritated I have to really work at it to not take it out on them. I did find a cool trick for some voice prompt systems; say "returning a call" and you may get punted to a human next instead of another layer of menu items.

In my previous life we never built more than 3 items per prompt. If the department we were building out for needed more than that we strongly urged them to punt to a human.

[Brian Runau]

I think she transferred you to the loyalty program line and this is setup to collect membership info prior to connecting you. Std 800 should dump you in the que to speak to a human. Brian

[Ernie Hobbs]

yeah, they're much easier to deal with online or through their app. I travel quite a bit with the M chain (lifetime Titanium) and when I need to speak with a live human, I don't bother with the 800 number. I look up the local phone number of the specific hotel and it almost always connects me with someone at the front desk right away-- so that may be a way to bypass the automated stuff.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I have and still travel quite a bit. I belong to several of the chains rewards clubs. I am with Ernie, look up the direct line to the specific hotel you want to stay and call them directly. In all the years I have traveled, I got burned when on the road, my wife called an 800 number to make reservations at a known, respected chain hotel in Gillette, WY. The reservationist made reservations for the same chain but in Sheridan, WY. My mom and brother lived in Gillette at the time. I never did get the money back, even when I contested it with the credit card company. We no longer use 800 if we can avoid it. We call the hotel directly or I make reservations online.

[Jim Koepke]

I think you'll find that the majority of hotels are setup much better for making online reservations and they have been for a very long time now.

This is the first time in about 15 years I've looked for a room in a hotel/motel. I used to just go up to the desk and register.

A couple years ago I couldn't get a room while on the road. So I had some packing blankets, a sleeping bag and pillows in my truck. So I pulled into a highway rest stop and slept in the bed of my truck. That doesn't work very well when traveling with the wife.

jtk

[Alan Lightstone]

I have often found better rates speaking with the front desk of the hotel rather than then 800 number. That being said, I usually book online. Your chance of an free upgraded room is also higher booking on the hotel's website vs a 3rd party site like booking.com or expedia. Since they are discounting those rates and paying those sites money, they really don't want to upgrade you vs. someone who books directly with them and they save the fees.

[Stan Calow]

Yeah, the chains send you to a central reservations system that could be anywhere. So they dont have to have a reservation clerk standing by at each hotel all the time. Service costs money.

I've done mostly online, because I dont like to read my card number over the phone. Some people prefer talking to a human, but I think they are more likely to make mistakes.

Agreeing on avoiding the third-party sites. I've been told by front desk people that people who booked through them get treated differently in case of a glitch.

[Jerry Bruette]

Funny story. Traveling from NY back to Wisconsin one time and we made reservations through the 800 reservation system in Mackinaw City, MI. When we arrived it was starting to get dark, we pulled into the parking lot and thought it odd there weren't any other cars but the lights were on. Tried to go inside and the doors were locked, that's when we noticed the line of about 15 toilets outside on the ground. The reservation center booked us a room at a hotel that was in the middle of a renovation. Lucky there was another hotel in town from the same chain that had an opening and rented us a room for the same price as the closed hotel.

[Steve Demuth]

I agree, but if you do this rarely, the online booking thing is a minefield in and of itself. What you definitely don't want to do is go into a search engine and just look for hotels in the area you want, because all the top links will be cut-rate booking sites trying to make it look like you're dealing with an actual hotel. My wife has been burned by bookings through these multiple times. Search for a specific hotel, and you get the same thing - hard for the infrequent guest to tell whether they are booking with their hotel, or someone else. You want to make sure you're either using a reputable travel site (like expedia), or have actually found the booking site for the hotel chain you're trying to book with.

[Roger Feeley]

I have to agree with Jim. I just don’t see the wisdom of voice response systems. When a human finally answers, they are already dealing with an angry customer.

off topic a bit but bad hold music doesn’t help. I get that the fidelity is bad because phone connections are optimized for voice but still…. I have experienced good quality hold music exactly twice. In both cases, it was 1920s jazz. It occurs to me that the composers and performers were fighting the same battle. The constraints imposed by early wax recording technology is not that different from current phone compression and digitization.

[Mike Henderson]

Whatever you do, don't book through one of those third party sites. If you do, and have a problem, the hotel tells you to contact the booking site to fix it.

Also true for airline reservations. Always book directly with the airline. That way, the airline will help you.

Mike

[Scott Winners]

The trouble with booking on line is when the time is just a few minutes after midnight. I landed at SFO one night at 2355. I found out my connecting flight home was cancelled. I was going to be on the ground for about 9 hours. Trying to book a room for 'tonight' at 0005 handed me a lot of check in times for 1500 'today', not right now tonight. I ended up sleeping the airport that night, I don't know anyone in San Francisco.

Otherwise yes, I prefer to book online.

[Pat Germain]

This is the first time in about 15 years I've looked for a room in a hotel/motel. I used to just go up to the desk and register.

A couple years ago I couldn't get a room while on the road. So I had some packing blankets, a sleeping bag and pillows in my truck. So I pulled into a highway rest stop and slept in the bed of my truck. That doesn't work very well when traveling with the wife.

jtk

Be aware overnight camping is no longer permitted at many rest stops. Police will bonk on your window and tell you to move on. Unfortunately, our country has way, way too many people living in RVs and those people are ALWAYS looking for a free place to park their RV. If rest stops allowed overnight camping, many would become default free RV parks. This is a huge problem here in Colorado where everyone wants to be in the summer. Local neighborhoods were lined with parked RVs all summer. The city banned such parking, but they are having a hard time enforcing it.

[Pat Germain]

Over the past year I have travelled to Korea, Japan, Hawaii, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and England. Yeah, things are WAY different than they were back in the 90s when I previously travelled a lot for work.

- I know some people hate giving corporations any of their information, but joining a hotel chain's frequent guest program will give you free perks. I agree it's best to book online or call the desk where you want to stay. The corporate 1 800 numbers are hit or miss. If you're a member of their frequent guest program, you can typically call a number just for members where you can talk to a person who speaks clear English and is actually helpful.

- It's the same with the airlines. If you're a member of their frequent flier program, you're less likely to get bumped. If you get some miles in your account, you get free upgrades, priority boarding and, eventually, free flights.

- Last spring my family went on an Alaska cruise. My dad booked his flight through Expedia. I warned him about the pitfalls of doing that, but he didn't care. He saved a few dollars on the flight from Denver to Vancouver and back. The outbound flight was on Air Canada, but I booked it through United where I'm a frequent flier. Sure enough, Air Canada cancelled the flight. I called United and they immediately booked me on a United flight around the same time. It wasn't so easy for Dad. Air Canada said, "No refunds". Dad explained he didn't cancel the flight, Air Canada cancelled the flight. Too bad. So sad. Dad called Expedia and, after a few days of leaving voice mail and getting passed around, he finally reached a person who called Air Canada and got a refund for Dad. He was lucky. He easily could have lost his money on that flight. (By the way, Air Canada sucks! They didn't even notify me or United that they had cancelled my flight. I only knew about it because Dad saw it when he logged onto the Air Canada web site to check on the flight.)

[Jim Koepke]

Be aware overnight camping is no longer permitted at many rest stops. Police will bonk on your window and tell you to move on. Unfortunately, our country has way, way too many people living in RVs and those people are ALWAYS looking for a free place to park their RV. If rest stops allowed overnight camping, many would become default free RV parks. This is a huge problem here in Colorado where everyone wants to be in the summer. Local neighborhoods were lined with parked RVs all summer. The city banned such parking, but they are having a hard time enforcing it.

Most of the rest stops along the I-5 have signs restricting parking to 8 hours. There is one rest stop in my current area with RV parking and even sanitary system clean out facilities. There is also a large section for semi-trailer parking. They do have limits to prevent long term living.

I was out in the open in the bed of my truck. The sides of my truck requires a person to be fairly tall to see into it if they are more than a few feet away.

I recall one time many years ago when a California Highway Patrol officer knocked on my window. After telling him I pulled over to keep from falling asleep while driving, they said it would be okay and they would be back to check on me. I got a few hours of sleep and drove away.

I recall the problem with an area becoming a "free RV park." When living in California there was an out of the way park area where the access road between the park and a large warehouse store was lined with RVs. The city installed no parking signs about every 30 feet. Signs indicating limited time and no parking at select hours at the main parking lot for the park area helped to make the area usable for the general pubic again.

The city of Portland, OR is going through a battle now over a No Daytime Camping law. The problem is very complex as the city of Portland is finding.

Homelessness is a many faceted conundrum. There are many who are victims of circumstance and are willing to work at getting out of their dilemma. There are others who are willing to work and do but like their untethered life style. Many of them are not truly homeless. Many of the so called "homeless" people I knew when working in SF lived in short term residency hotels. The laws around residency hotels made for other difficulties. People had to move every so many days to keep from becoming long term residents with other rights under the law.

The one size fits all solution so many of our law makers are seeking doesn't exist.

jtk

[Pat Germain]

I know it varies by area when it comes to staying overnight at rest stops and even at Walmart parking lots. Used to be you could park overnight at any Walmart. A friend of mine recently tried to park his RV overnight at a Walmart in Oregon and the manager came banging on the door and told him to get lost. He explained too many RVs were using the parking lot as a permanent RV lot and creating huge piles of garbage and other issues. But I understand some Walmarts will still let you park overnight. How does one know? Good question.

[Brian Elfert]

I know it varies by area when it comes to staying overnight at rest stops and even at Walmart parking lots. Used to be you could park overnight at any Walmart. A friend of mine recently tried to park his RV overnight at a Walmart in Oregon and the manager came banging on the door and told him to get lost. He explained too many RVs were using the parking lot as a permanent RV lot and creating huge piles of garbage and other issues. But I understand some Walmarts will still let you park overnight. How does one know? Good question.

Most Walmart stores that ban RV parking have signs stating such. Over a dozen years ago I stayed at a Walmart overnight in my RV on Christmas night. I saw in the morning a sign prohibiting RV parking. Nobody bothered me. The reason for the ban is a city ordinance. The area thrives on tourists. Campgrounds complained to the city that Walmart was taking away customers from them so the city banned RV parking except in campgrounds.

[Jim Koepke]

A friend of mine recently tried to park his RV overnight at a Walmart in Oregon and the manager came banging on the door and told him to get lost. He explained too many RVs were using the parking lot as a permanent RV lot and creating huge piles of garbage and other issues.

A person or even a corporation may have a big heart and try to have ways to help others.

There are then people who will abuse the kindness of others and wreck it for everyone.

jtk

[Pat Germain]

There are then people who will abuse the kindness of others and wreck it for everyone.

jtk

This exactly.