Hotel Policies

Posted by Bridget Lux Dec 27, 2006

I’m not going to pretend that I’m an expert about hotels or hotel policies, but I do know one thing: those who own the hotels are in it for the money. They may issue glowing press releases about how they live to serve and customer service and hospitality are their focus. The more hotels you stay in, the harder it is to believe.

I recently booked a hotel room for a friend and I in Brussels. She was heading North to show her paintings, I was tagging along to visit the Belgium capital. We chose the hotel - the Best Western Royal Centre Hotel - because it was located in the center of town, moderately priced and looked good online. I reserved the room weeks in advance, and was charged upon making the reservation.

My friend arrived at the hotel around 3:30 in the afternoon. She was immediately told that the hotel was overbooked and that they did not, in fact, have a room for us despite our reservation. She was then directed to another Best Western miles from the center of town. She was offered no transportation.

I’ve contacted Best Western twice about this incident and received no response. If I ever do, I’ll be happy to share it. Until then, we are left to speculate about whether Best Western has a policy to overbook its hotels. I think it’s quite possible that they overbook the Brussels Royal Centre because it is in an ideal location, and then sluff guests off to other less desirable Best Western locations. Having already been charged, guests have the choice of either going to the undesirable Best Western or finding another hotel and eating the cost of the Best Western reservation.

Unfortunately, those in the PR business know that any press is good press. I hope no one will book a hotel room at the aforementioned hotel because they saw it in this blog. Actually, I hope everyone will stay away from it, but ... So, in an effort to give deserving hotels some good press and travelers some suggestions, I’d like to invite people to tell me stories about outstanding hotels in Western Europe. Places they’d recommend for their location, service, amenities, whatever.

I’ve got a few I’d like to mention including the ibis hotel chain. My traveling partner and I stayed in several ibis hotels including one in Cologne and one in Amsterdam and all of them were excellent. Now, don’t get me wrong, they didn’t reflect the cities we were staying in or the culture or people of the countries. They were more like a McDonald’s: We knew what we were getting. And sometimes that’s all you really want.