Travelscape errs, then atones (updated)
Written: Jan 09 '00 (Updated Jan 10 '00)
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[Original Epinion: Late at night, Jan 9-10]
This was my maiden experience in booking a hotel room on-line, after booking rental cars and airline tickets this way for several months. Priceline.com seemed to be too much a roll of the dice -- I was booking a hotel in Washington DC, where I used to live, and I could imagine some hotels that Priceline might consider "nice" that I wouldn't want to stay in. I tried the Hilton and Embassy Suites sites -- and then came upon one that looked easy and efficient: travelscape.com
For about the first 48 hours of my experience with Travelscape -- from first logging on, the day before yesterday, until showing up at the hotel, half an hour ago -- my experience was completely positive. The site is well laid out. It came up with a sensible list of hotels in Washington, with specific rates. And on the list was one perfectly-fine hotel, the Wyndham Bristol downtown, for a bargain-seeming rate of $109 before tax.
I clicked on the logically-laid out form; got the confirmation immediately by email; and was happily impressed. (For documentary purposes, I attached the confirmation email I got from Travelscape, minus certain details.)
Everything seemed great until I arrived at the hotel desk at 11:30pm Sunday. And, of course, they had no record whatsoever of this reservation, and had to start beating the bushes to find an empty room.
To the credit of Wyndham Bristol, they did come up with a room after a little shuffling. To the discredit of Travelscape, they failed the fundamental purpose of a travel service: making the arrangements you rely on them to make. Conceivably there is some mixup here (in which case I'll put in an addendum -- or change the rating!) But right now, my advice is: AVOID TRAVELSCAPE.
[Update: Jan 10, 10:30am]
Spent twenty minutes on hold with Travelscape's 800 Customer Care number today. That was annoying -- but at the end the Travelscape representative apologized for the problem, and persuaded the hotel to honor to Travelscape voucher. Good news: when it was all over, they stuck by the terms of their deal. Bad news: a hassle on arrival at the hotel last night, and again this morning. Revised advice: try Travelscape, but call the hotel to confirm.
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Original Documents section:
Subj: Order Confirmed - Travelscape
Date: 1/8/00 9:30:42 AM Pacific Standard Time
From: customercare@travelscape.com
To: [Meatloaf's address]
*********************************************************************
**** PLEASE PRINT THIS VOUCHER AND PRESENT TO HOTEL UPON CHECK-IN ***
*********************************************************************
Hello [Meatloaf's Real Name],
We would like to thank you for choosing LVRS/Travelscape.com for your
online travel needs. To be sure you have an enjoyable stay in
WASHINGTON DC, please verify the information below:
HOTEL CONFIRMATION INFORMATION
LVRS Confirmation Number: 912821
If you are traveling to Europe you will reecieve a
GTA Tour Number shortly via email.
Hotel Name: Wyndham Bristol
Check-in Date: 01/09/2000
Check-out Date: 01/10/2000
Room Type: Standard
Smoking Preference: Non-Smoking
Preferred Number of Beds: King
Number of travelers: 1
Total Including Taxes in US Dollars: $121.37
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
Meatloaf
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Location: Seattle
Reviews written: 17
Trusted by: 16 members
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