Upon planning our 15-yr wedding anniversary in the fall, I booked one nite (09/27) at the Marriott thru Hotels.com at a very low rate. Few weeks later we decided to fly in one day earlier, so I booked the previous night (09/26)separately. Naturally the rate was higher. I continued to check for rate decreases and noticed that the rate had gone down for the the 26th. Thru their website, I cancelled just the 26th and rebooked at the lower rate. Didn't do anything for the 27th because the rate for that nite was still incredibly low.
On a hunch, I called the Marriott directly and they only showed reservations for the 26th and not the 27th. From our credit card statement I found that Ian Travel was the booking agency for Hotels.com. After talking to 3 different people, Freddie, Louis, Sadie (all who could not speak english well) over two days and being left on hold for minutes at a time, they finally told me that the reservation was faxed to the Marriott, again, and, yes, we are confirmed for both nights. On another hunch, I called Marriott directly and they still had no reservations for the 27th, but a cancellation number instead.
I thought what is going on? On my final call to Ian Travel, I spoke with "Calvin" (couldn't make out if female or male) who kept on interrupting. When I finally got through to him that we had no reservations for the 27th, he said, "I show you have a confirmation number so that means you have a room. There is no problem". I questioned how that could be since I just called the Marriott and they gave me a cancellation number instead. He told me he will fax the reservation to the hotel and "click", he put me on hold. Not less than a minute later, he said the confirmation was faxed to the Marriott and the hotel have confirmed the reservation. I'm no brain surgeon, but I know there is absolutely no way he could have sent a fax and have heard from the hotel in that length of time.
When I told him to cancel both rooms, it was no big deal. Robotically, he went thru his cancellation monologue. When I proceeded to tell him how dissapointed I was, he kept on saying over and over again, "I can't hear you, you're cutting out on me...my headset hasn't been working" . Likely story.
*They most likely cancelled the 27th on purpose because the rate was so low
*BEWARE... in checking other complaints and researching Hotels.com, they are operating also as Expedia.com. Now there are two websites I will never surf
*I did book our first two nites at another website at an upscale 4 star hotel instead. And the best part is it only cost me another $13.
Joy
Vancouver, Washington
U.S.A.