Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  09/06/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I stayed at the Novotel on the nights of May 14 and 15 for business travel and my reservation was made under a group booking. Upon checkout on May 16 I requested a copy of my invoice, primarily as it is needed in order for me to be reimbursed by my employer for the expense. The Front Desk informed me that there was nothing to be provided and that my hotel chargers were fully covered through the group booking. I continued to question this as I had no knowledge of this, but they assured me all charges were covered. I left the hotel without a copy of the invoice. My travel expenses to be reimbursed by my employer were submitted for the month of May at month end as I am required. However, on June 2 (+2 weeks later) a pending charge of $391 appeared on my credit card that the hotel had on file, and the same day a processed charge of $491 appeared. Also noting that I use a low limit credit card for travel and these unexpected chargers maxed out my limit. I am now anticipating additional charges from my credit card provider in addition to the inconvenience. This is the result of the event organizers informing the hotel that my charges were not to be covered by them and highlighting the hotel’s error. To date I have contacted the hotel multiple times to enquire and request that the $491 charge be reversed. While the hotel admits this is fully their error, they insist that I need to pay the charges. As I have explained to them, apart from the inconvenience and cost of the delayed charges, my travel expenses for that period have already been approved. I understand from a legal/Terms and Conditions perspective they are within their rights to charge me the $491. However, I do not understand how a business can show such poor ethics, and zero accountability for the actions and errors of their staff and hope to be considered reputable. Please advise if *** can help resolve this issue and have the charges revered. I can answer clarifying questions by email or phone.

  Business response

  15/06/2023

  good afternoon, 

  I hope this email finds you doing well, 

  for the group bookings, we always provide a block code which specifically is for that block, and when the main coordinator has 2 types of payment (one pay own and other covered by third party) we set 2 block; one for the people that are covered and one for the pay own guests and each of those blocks has their own block ID code. when Mr. ******* called us to book a room, he provided the block ID which is covered from their coordinator. On the arrival day, as you can see in the attached document, there is an email from their end reminding the MOP for that block ID as they are all covered. And technically once the client checks in there are routing settings (room and taxes covered) on his booking as he booked through that ID and he was told at check in that he is covered, however he himself did not question the coverage (if he knew that he is paying own at least this would raise a question for him that how this has been covered)! after the valued guest checks out and we bill the company/coordinator to pay the room and taxes, (and I am pretty sure that you know billing the third parties has its own procedure and may take more than a week to find the discrepancies on both ends) they informed us that they are not paying for this guest, and our coordinator removes it from their bill and charges the guest as pay own. unfortunately the guest wasn't provided with the right block ID from their end, and when I was in contact few days ago with him by email, I told him that there is miscommunication and confusion and if you like to reimburse your expenses to your employee and if the deadline has been passed, we can assist and explain the situation to your employee to make sure that everything is fine with him, however he kept asking for a refund.

  once again if the valued client needs a letter from our end for his employee as an explanation to extend the deadline for the company reimbursement, we don't mind at all to provide an explanation for his employee. 

  Regards, 

  **** ******

  ***** ****** ******* 

   

  Customer response

  16/06/2023

  
  Complaint: 20165455
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  Novotel Ottawa stated: "And technically once the client checks in there are routing settings (room and taxes covered) on his booking as he booked through that ID and he was told at check in that he is covered, however he himself did not question the coverage (if he knew that he is paying own at least this would raise a question for him that how this has been covered)!"

  The above statement is false/incorrect. I was told no such thing upon check in. As explained previously to Novotel, and in my original complaint to ***, it was only upon checkout on the morning of May 16 when I requested a copy of my invoice that I was told to the effect that the hotel could not provide my with one because my charges were covered, which I did in fact question multiple times, but was continuously assured by the front desk that I was not being billed for the room charges.

  Novotel Ottawa stated: "...and I am pretty sure that you know billing the third parties has its own procedure and may take more than a week to find the discrepancies on both ends".

  Check out on May 16, and billing a customer on June 2 (18 days / 14 business days) is not an acceptable period of time for a business to decided to bill a customer, and is certainly not normal business practice, or anything that I have experienced previously.

  Novotel Ottawa stated: "unfortunately the guest wasn't provided with the right block ID from their end"

  To my knowledge, and from the online event booking with the organizers, there was only one block ID. Is Novotel indicating that they had 2 block IDs? I question the validity of this statement.

  Novotel Ottawa stated: "I told him that there is miscommunication and confusion and if you like to reimburse your expenses to your employee and if the deadline has been passed, we can assist and explain the situation to your employee to make sure that everything is fine with him, however he kept asking for a refund."

  This statement is true, but omitting the fact this the hotel making a billing error, taking 18 days to realize their error and an 'explanation' for their inability to properly manage a group booking is not helpful for me to be reimbursed for this business expense given the exorbitant amount of time that had passed before their mistakes were realized. 

  The response from Novotel Ottawa contains both factual and misleading / incorrect statements. Regardless it summarizes their inexperience in managing a group booking and rather than being accountable for the errors that they made and openly admit to, are choosing to make their ‘valued guest’ pay for their mistakes (as described previously my business expenses for the month of May had already been submitted to my employer). This is not acceptable and certainly not the actions of a reputable business.

  Sincerely,
  
  **** *******

  Business response

  22/06/2023

  Good day, 

  We want to kindly inform you that this specific routing for this block (group) was set up prior the guests' arrival to the hotel.

  secondly, as you can in the attached document, we provided 2 different block IDs for 2 different method of payments to the organizer and with all respect, this is their responsibility to share the right information with their guests as we don't find it professional to check with the guest at the check in or check out the reason if being covered or to recheck with guests if they were supposed to get covered.  

  next statement regarding the billing process that Mr. ******* found it unacceptable the 2 weeks durations of billing process", we kindly reject this because he booked himself unfortunately with the block ID that was supposed to be covered by ******** ***** Supercluster and once they got billed, there was a process between the hotel and them that took 2 weeks from their side to dispute Mr. *******'s charges for room and taxes. 

  once Mr. ******* at the check out was told that he is covered (which means that charges had been transferred to master account automatically by routing g set up) with all respect he could ask for the sales manager or a supervisor to get more information- if there was a doubt on his side.

  This was their organizer's responsibility to follow with their guest regarding the charges since they were the one that did not provided the right information with their attendees and If the valued guest Mr. ******* as per his statement wasn't provided with the right ID from the organizer, we recommend him to follow up with them for clarification. 

  We do not agree kindly with Mr. *******'s statement that the hotel is misleading/ incorrect statement  since we gave all necessary information to the organizer and the reservation was booked through the only block ID that they provided for their attendees (which apparently was a wrong one for Mr. *******). 

  Once again, this was not a hotel's billing error, the valued guest booked through the wrong block ID (the billing process for this block, took 2 weeks for the ******** ***** to review and dispute the charges for him)  while all necessary information were provided to organizer and they failed obviously in this ****er. 

  Regards, 

  **** ******

  ***** ****** ******* 

  Customer response

  27/06/2023

  
  Complaint: 20165455
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  It is ridiculous that the Novotel is now placing the blame on the event organizer's for the hotel's mismanagement of the group booking. Although considering the communications from the hotel to date, it is unfortunately not surprising.
  
  The Novotel and it's staff are clearly incapable of accepting any responsibility for the errors made, despite admitting to the mistakes and even providing evidence (earlier email showing the group organizers clarifying it was only their stuff that was to have room charges covered) and choosing to ignore the facts of what took place (as stated previously I did enquire /question the hotel staff multiple times about the charges being covered by someone else).
  
  It is disappointing that businesses are allowed to operate in such a manner, provide exceptionally poor service, and then have the audacity to blame the customers for the shortcomings.
  
  I require a detailed copy of the invoice / $491 charges that the Novotel is insisting I cover, so that I can at least verify what they charged me. Considering this experience with the hotel I am doubtful the billing is even accurate. 

  Sincerely,
  
  **** *******

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩