It was a beautiful night, but the room at a Holiday Inn I returned to was less than desirable. The air conditioner was not cooling properly. The closet door was off its hinges. When I cut my finger on a sharp piece of metal sticking out of the shower curtain rod, I knew I couldn’t stay.
Not every hotel room will be a winner, but that doesn’t mean you have to put up with sharp pieces of metal in the shower—or bugs or noise or unsafe hotel room conditions—in every situation.
Hotels are hit by the same staffing shortages as anywhere else, so a less than tidy bathroom or messy breakfast area may not be a sign that a hotel is on its last legs.
Start with the front desk, said NerdWallet travel expert Sally French. “You don’t need to tweet on the main corporate Twitter account that their hotels are dirty because the person who manages corporate Twitter can’t do anything about it,” French said.
Always be polite “because the person at the front desk is also human,” she said. “You have some level of understanding of the situation you’re in and how much power they have to fix it.” This also goes with managing expectations. Thin towels in a $2,000-a-night hotel room might be something to complain about, but a $50-a-night room? Not that much.
French also recommended documenting the problem by taking pictures. If you call from your mobile, you will also have a log of how many calls you made and when. That way, if the problem isn’t resolved, you can escalate to hotel management or, if part of a hotel chain, the chain’s customer service, and show that you tried to resolve the issue directly.
If you can’t change hotels, or you’re upset but don’t feel like you need to move to another hotel, you can also look for something that will make up for the inconvenience. For example, on a cross-country road trip in 2019, I stopped at a hotel with mandatory valet parking, but none of the valets working at the time could drive, so I had to park the car myself. In exchange, the hotel waived the $50 per night parking fee.
When Sonja Sherwood and her husband took a trip to New Paltz, NY, for what was their anniversary and the first night away from their son since he was born, getting away and getting a good night’s sleep were both a priority. They had a beautiful day on a lake, followed by a meteor shower, “but it’s an old hotel and there was a water hammer in the pipes,” she said, describing it as a “clunk clunk clunk.” Not great for sleep.
She asked the front desk clerk if they could switch rooms and told him their tale of woe, that “we were first-time parents leaving and a full night’s sleep was our anniversary gift to each other. the other,” she said. He upgraded them to the penthouse.
If a situation is unstable or unsafe and staying is not an option, you can request a refund. Sometimes consistency is required. On a trip to Stockholm, Kayt Sukel, who has been to six continents and is no stranger to bumps in the road, got a hotel room with a door that wouldn’t lock, let alone lock. She and her son had arrived late at the hotel and after checking in, the receptionist disappeared. She found maintenance, who told her that the clerk could not be reached and that she could not change rooms. She went to another hotel.
“But I didn’t leave until he paid me back every last cent,” she said.
Trying to work it out with the hotel is your best bet, French said. If you booked the room through a third-party site, it’s not impossible to get a refund, but it may be more difficult because the third-party must refund the hotel first before refunding you.
You can try to dispute the charge with your credit card, but that process can also take time because the card issuer has to investigate and may not rule in your favor, French said. Instead, see if your card already includes travel insurance coverage. A lost or damaged baggage policy, for example, can extend beyond airline issues and also apply to a hotel that breaks your bag when it was left in the checked baggage room. And of course if you’ve bought travel insurance, check if your room condition is covered; this usually applies if you have ‘cancel for any reason’ cover. This type of insurance will allow you to cancel, even mid-trip, and be reimbursed for “a significant percentage,” which is why taking photos is also important, French said.
As for my hotel room in Rochester: I eventually got a refund.
I was supposed to stay at the hotel for two nights, but I left after one and moved on to the next stop on my trip a day early. Given the state of the rest of the hotel – the broken elevator and the broken bottle of wine on the stairs that hadn’t been cleaned – I didn’t think getting another room would be any better, nor that it was something people were working on. . the front desk could check.
Instead, I emailed the manager directly with the photo. I also pointed out that I’m a member of that hotel chain’s rewards program and that I booked the room with their hotel-brand credit card — all things that can help, French said.
Within hours, I was promised a refund. But when my points didn’t arrive five days later, or a week later, or a month later, I asked the hotel chain’s corporate customer service to intervene. Their response was that the hotel manager said that I was lying and that they had never promised me anything.
So I took French’s advice and my screenshots of emails promising a refund on social media. I tweeted about the situation, and despite being angry, frustrated and accused of lying by the hotel manager, I did so without yelling, shouting malice or even mentioning the name or location of the hotel: only that I had stayed in one. of mega-chain hotels and thought this situation was “weird,” included those screenshots and tagged the hotel’s corporate account.
The account asked me to direct message the details and viola, I had my refund. I already applied it on a trip in October to Maine.
