Hotel won't refund 3 nights to elderly tourist

[Kf6vci]

... No elevator and her room was on the 6th floor.

The manager refused to refund - and the woman wanted to change hotels.

What are her options? Tourist police?

[CharlieH]

NONE, you wont get much sympathy, if any.

Its up to the visitor to carry out suitability checks etc prior to booking.

Never "assume" anything.

[cgphuket]

Can try to complain to booking agent or website if she booked on line,

[craigt3365]

Did she use a booking agent? Agoda, booking.com, etc?

[steve187]

no lower floor rooms available

[gk10002000]

This is one of the big problems with the new METV. You are supposed to show all flight travel bookings in and out and back in, and confirmed hotel reservations. Sure many people will pay for the hotel up front. Sadly, that often leads to one getting a bad room, a noisy room, upper floor, elevator out of order, etc. And of course "no more rooms" is always the excuse they won't move you. Total BS but it happens very often. The general rule is always see the room first. You don't usually get much of a discount by paying in advance and the risks of getting bad deal outweighs any cost savings in my opinion and experience

[Pib]

Unless the tourist has something in writing made during the booking the room wouldn't be on a upper floor and there must be an elevator, then that tourist will just have to suck it up unless the hotel wants to refund/give another room. I don't see anything in the OPs post that indicates any wrong doing. The hotel obviously can't snap their fingers and have an elevator magically appear and if rooms on lower floors are full, then there ain't much they can do even if they wanted to...and I doubt they want to refund any booking money since I still haven't seen an fault related to the hotel. Time for that tourist to contact their booking agent to see if anything can be done.

[taninthai]

depends really if hotel states any thing on there web description,if hotels gave refunds to every customer that didn't do their research, changed their mind ,wanted to move cause of bad weather etc etc it wouldn't be worth them running the hotel in the first place.

[jacky54]

must have been a classy hotel, how much a night?

[bino]

must have been a classy hotel, how much a night?

Right - a six floor hotel that does not have an elevator sounds like the ultimate backpacker special.

[PattayaPhom]

This is one of the big problems with the new METV. You are supposed to show all flight travel bookings in and out and back in, and confirmed hotel reservations. Sure many people will pay for the hotel up front. Sadly, that often leads to one getting a bad room, a noisy room, upper floor, elevator out of order, etc. And of course "no more rooms" is always the excuse they won't move you. Total BS but it happens very often. The general rule is always see the room first. You don't usually get much of a discount by paying in advance and the risks of getting bad deal outweighs any cost savings in my opinion and experience

After travelling, trains, buses then anything upto a 14 hour flight, the last thing I want to do is lug suitcases around looking for a room. The OPs friend is old also, the majority of travelers book in advance and it seems she just hasn't checked descriptions etc.

[fey]

always book only several days in advance to test a new place. that gives you just enough time to find a new place if you need to.

great thing about thailand is there is never a shortage of places to stay, with ghe exception of maybe towns with major festivals, for example chiang mai during songkran or water festival.

if it was just for the 3 days take the loss, or get something in writing like an email asking for help with a disability and pay with a cc. email can be used to dispute the charge. the hotel also gets a fine whenever a dispute is raised and it puts their merchant account and ability to accept card in jeopardy.

Edited December 2, 2015 by fey

[craigt3365]

I traveled quite a bit recently, and based on a tripadvisor review, passed on a hotel. The comments clearly stated there was no elevator in the 6 story building. The hotel website didn't say this.

[stoli]

NONE, you wont get much sympathy, if any.

Its up to the visitor to carry out suitability checks etc prior to booking.

Never "assume" anything.

I respectfully disagree. If a hotel says every room has a bathroom, you should be able to assume it also has water. If they have 6 floors, and no elevator, it should not be "buyer beware". People do have a right to assume, regardless of the stupid saying, "ass out of you and me.". I can always assume that the sun will come up tomorrow, without looking like an ass.

[craigt3365]

I booked a hotel via booking.com a month ago. Pics looked great! Beach view, etc. When we got there, it was a different story. Plus, one room wasn't available and the other did NOT have a private bathroom. It was shared. And, they were drying shrimp right in front of the hotel. I almost puked from the smell. Dozens of drying racks directly upwind. It wasn't really on the beach, but set back quite a bit.

We bailed out, with the owner agreeing there would be no charges. Booking.com called us and agreed, so cancelled the booking. Very nice support.

[GotSeoul]

Might be a long shot, might not, depending on if a credit card was used and which one it was. Might call the credit card company and tell the story. I'm pretty sure if an American Express was used then good chance. If Visa or Mastercard would depend on the bank maybe. Either way I'd take a shot at it, worse they can say is sorry.

[rocketboybkk]

Did the person book a room & have a low floor confirmed in writing?

If not why should the hotel refund?

Just cos the customer is elderly they don't have the right to a refund on

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[puukao]

for the millionth time, don't apply western logic and laws to Thailand...

they should fine these people for complaining!!!! 10000 fine and jail for being upset!!!

you pay, end of story....

next thread, "does this store have return policy like Costco in USA?"