An IHG hotel told me the room I'd reserved as the bridal suite for my wedding had been double booked. It's 6 weeks until the wedding and they've still not given me a replacement room.
Hi reddit, I'm kind of panicking at this point and not sure where to turn, just wanted to see if anyone has any advice or has been through something similar.
We'd been working with the Director of Sales and Marketing on a hotel room block for our upcoming wedding at the end of September, and up until this issue came up he'd been very kind and helpful. We first met with him a full year before the wedding, made the wedding block contract in October, and had reserved all rooms for the bride, groom, and immediate family in November.
I had periodically checked in with him about the status of our block, with him telling me we were half booked in March, and that our block had sold out in May. All good.
Well, in early June, he emailed to tell us that due to a glitch in the system, the room I had reserved as the bridal suite had actually been booked the summer before we made the room block, and that he had to honor the earlier reservation.
Naturally I was a little heartbroken as this was a one-of-a-kind room with no exact replacement, and was the only room big enough to hold the bridesmaids I'd invited to stay with me, so I would have to get 2 rooms to compensate.
My fiancé and I both felt like something was a little off. We knew for a fact that there were no other wedding blocks booked that weekend at the time we'd booked ours, and we're having some doubts that someone had truly booked the room almost a year and a half in advance.
We set up a call with the Director to make arrangements for me and my girls to get substitute rooms, but we did ask if there was a way he could provide us with proof that the room had indeed been booked by someone else before us. He accused us of asking for sensitive information, and yelled and berated us over the phone. At no point had we raised our voices. By the end of the call he had calmed down and said we could work something out. We summarized what we discussed in an email, including setting up another call with him and the GM to finalize the new accommodations. (Tuesday)
He replied to the email on Wednesday that he was on a sales blitz today and tomorrow and he'd chat with us on Friday.
On Friday he said the GM had to leave for a funeral and wouldn't be back until the following Wednesday. We ask if he could at least book the rooms we discussed and send us confirmation. No reply.
On Wednesday we emailed him again to ask if the GM had returned and we could pick the conversation back up. No reply.
That Friday we emailed the GM directly to ask if she could help us and that we would be in the area that weekend if she preferred to meet in person. No reply.
That Sunday my fiancé submitted a complaint to corporate about their lack of response.
Finally, the following Thursday, the GM replied that the room I reserved had actually been booked as a long-term lease before we made the hotel block (which only raised our suspicions more, because who the heck arranges a lease that they aren't going to start for a year and a half??). She assures us the replacement room (singular) had been booked for us.
We reply on Friday to clarify that to compensate for the number of people we'd need rooms, plural, and ask if we could still have a quick phone call with her to solve this.
As a quick side note, the story of the suite being booked as a long term lease didn't really track, because we could still book the suite the week before and after the wedding.
We do not hear back from her, and email her again the following Wednesday, as well as raising the issue again with corporate. It's been 3 weeks with no resolution at this point. She replies the same day that she will not be able to have a phone call to discuss matters until 2 weeks later. We ask if we could at least get the room confirmation before then and let her know our availability. No response. The two weeks pass, she doesn't call. We call the hotel, she's not there.
It's been 4 weeks since then, for a total of 9 weeks since this issue began. We've reached out to corporate a couple more times and all they're telling us is that there's no one higher up than the GM at that location, so there's nothing anyone else in the area can do for us.
My mom, who is an angel, did book me an Airbnb as a backup if this remains unresolved, but I would still prefer to stay with all my guests and family if possible.
Our wedding is now 6 weeks away and the bride (me) does not have a hotel room in the same hotel as her friends and family.
We've emailed both of them repeatedly with no response. And as it turns out, the marketing and sales director is no longer with the company. It feels like there's nothing anyone can do for us.
Does anyone have any idea what we can do from here? This situation has been really straining my mental health at a time I should be getting excited. I don't just want to go and trash them online since we still have a block with them and do have our honeymoon suite there. Maybe I'm going crazy but I have to wonder if they're giving us radio silence on purpose so we cancel the reservation ourselves and can't hold them liable for the breach of contract, in the event that they're lying to us. Or maybe the GM really is just overworked and overwhelmed, but I still think she should have been able to help us in 9 weeks.
Any help is greatly appreciated.