Choose a Different Place to Stay
As context matters in life - In an effort to help a life-long friend move across multiple states, and after a 3-hour flight and a 6-hour drive with a disabled friend and his 16-year old cat, I pulled into Shilo Inns Klameth Falls.
With tired eyes, I made the reservations for 2 rooms for that night from the parking lot of the Shilo Inns. I selected this hotel because on Expedia, they have listed themselves as ‘Pet Friendly’.
As it turns out, this hotel is only 'dog friendly'. I was told by the front desk staff that this is stated in the 'fine print’ and that I failed to read this. I acknowledge that I failed to read in the fine print that ‘Pet Friendly’ actually means ‘Only Dog Friendly’.
As I do not currently own a pet and have never traveled with one before, it never occurred to me while making the reservation that ‘Pet Friendly’ would mean dogs only. Therefore, I did not consider any issue arising when making the reservation. As soon as I learned this at the front desk, I accepted this information, owned my mistake, and simply requested a cancellation of the sale and reservation that was less than 10-minutes old.
This is when I was told that they could not refund me and that I had to contact Expedia to make this happen. Which I understood and did.
I completely understand that hotels, airlines, rental car companies, and the like, create non-cancellation/no-refund policies to prevent individuals or groups from securing assets, which prevent others from reserving these assets, only to cancel after locking up these assets under reservations, which could cause substantial lost business and revenue. To that point, had this be refunded directly, we had the reservation for less than 10-minutes. The sale could have simply been voided and the rooms been made available to others immediately.
This hotel had no management on property at the time of our visit and there was no manager available for Expedia to connect with when they reached out to resolve this matter.
After receiving an email from Expedia 2 days later, stating the hotel is refusing the refund, I called the hotel to speak with the manager. When I called, I was told there was no manager on property and that she “may be there on Monday or possibly Tuesday”.
For me this now begs the question - What hotel operates without management for multiple days? What hotel operates without the staff knowing when a manager will be on premises? Apparently, the same hotel that refuses to refund a potential guest who made an error and is informed of this error within minutes of making a reservation.
To be clear, I reached out to connect with the manager to confirm that the manager understood the circumstances of the situation. I believe that any reasonable person would understand that a request for cancellation within minutes of booking was not why the cancellation policy they are choosing to enforce in this situation was put in place. In this circumstance, a refund would be not only reasonable, logical, and a good business practice in customer service, but is just the right thing to do.
I have been charged $246.88 for an error that is easily understood and correctable. Instead, Shilo Inns is choosing to keep this money and refuses to do the right thing.
This manager's decision to not refund this makes no sense, has been done in bad faith, and should have taken no more than a quick conversation with a logical and reasonable person to resolve.
Instead, I was on the phone with the Expedia representative for over 23 minutes working to resolve this. I have spent more time emailing with Expedia twice and I have called the hotel back to be told that there is no manager on staff until Monday or maybe Tuesday. Plus, the time to write this review.
I’m confused as to why this much time and resource has to be wasted by all sides of this to get a fair and appropriate resolution. This experience is unacceptable from any reasonable point of view.
As I have never stayed here, I have no idea how the amenities or accommodations are at this hotel. What I can share, is that you may find their customer service, business practices, and general disregard for doing what is right are suspect.
When consumers choose where to spend their money, many factors come into play - quality, services, value, convenience, experience, etc. How businesses treat people should matter most. If this is important to anyone reading this, when in Klameth Falls, I recommend that you choose a different place to stay.
