r/askhotels

Where best to hunt? How to ensure I'm not getting something rubbish? Anything really.

I'm going to Paris with my wife at the end of September. We thought we'd budgeted enough for a very nice hotel but it appears we were all sorts of wrong. Even prepared to spend £300 a night and can't find much that I'm certain will be nice. Any advice?

Hi all,

Is it normal for hotel to refuse to help with restaurant reservations until after guests have checked in? It’s not a big deal and we most likely will find another restaurant that takes online reservations via other concierge services. I just find it kind of odd for a high end hotel to refuse to help until you’re physically there, esp. for popular omakase restaurants I just feel like there is no way for us to get in if we can’t reserve in advance. Is it the practice in general?🤔 (I’ve never asked hotel to reserve anything so I’m just really curious).

Thanks!

Edit: thank you everyone for your responses. Good to know that it seems to be the norm now, saves me time in asking in the future🙏

I noticed that many hotels around the world, direct booking sometimes is as high as 30% - 40% more than third party booking on luxury hotels.

If a room is $450 on direct booking but 3rd party sells at $290 with the next teir room at $450, it's like a free room upgrade booking thirs party.

Why would anyone want to book direct and gamble if you will get upgrade when there already feels like an upgrade by 3rd party in this example? It doesent make sense. I understand it will be harder if you want to cancel, change dates or something goes wrong, you need to deal with 3rd party but if nothing goes wrong, it feels like a free upgrade from booking 3rd party everytime. It just doesent make sense to me to pay that 30% - 40% more when there is already room upgrade from 3rd party.

As a body removal driver, I've handled several dead people who died in hotel rooms, usually natural causes.

Does a hotel know which rooms somebody has died in? If I ask at check-in, will FD tell me if my room was a death scene?

How do hotel clean hundreds of rooms in 2-3 hour? Do they have 50 house keeper working for that 3 hour and 90% of them go home? Check out at 12 noon and check in at 2-3pm. How is that possible to clean hundrends of room in 2-3hours? Cleaning a room takes like 15 minutes at least?

Do hotel booking with 3rd party get the worst rooms? If someone dont need to cancel and dont need to contact their 3rd party on anything and checking in as normal, what difference does it make other than saving so much money from booking 3rd party than hotel direct? I also seen vloggers who booked third party seems to always get upgraded over people booking direct too. If nothing goes wrong, why would anyone want to spend so much more on direct booking if direct booking didnt get upgraded anyways?

Using Opera PMS Ver 5.6.13.0

The person tried checking in as soon as they booked late at night. I assumed it was direct booking and was wondering why the card wouldn’t process. I took their CC which removed their virtual card but finally realized it was 3rd party. I took their deposit and did my routing as usual but it charged the guest. They were billed by 3rd party and us(by mistake). The guest card is in window 1 and 2. How can I fix this?

I was going to quick and brain went blank. Can I at-least run night audit and still fix this before guest checkout?

Hi, i just wanna ask since i am becoming petty about this

I stayed in a 4-star hotel in ortigas for 12 days and unfortunately the housekeeping threw away my clear retainers that was thinly wrapped (2 layers) in wet tissue paper during service (so it’s obv that it’s a retainer even my partner recognized it) by the sink. I reported it then until check the manager keeps on saying that they are investigating and looking for it. I voiced out that i want to be compensated for it in any forms (monetary or even vouchers) so i wont feel bad for myself. Unfortunately until now i have not heard some progress. We will be back after a week tho, what can I do so I can get the compensated i badly want? Thanks!!!

this is my first hotel job. it’s seasonal, and the location is amazing. for the most part, it’s not a bad job. check-in is at 3. but here lately, housekeeping hasn’t been finishing rooms until 6-7 pm. so i have to turn away people for hours, and deal with their frustrations. i’m just not sure if this is standard. i’ve never been to a hotel where i can’t check in at the stated time.

is this normal? or probably not worth the stress?

I'm a writer and I'm always trying to find places nearby to get work done. Libraries and coffee houses are great, but unfortunately they often close too early for me.

There is a Sheraton nearby where I live that has a nice lobby bar. So long as I order food and/or drinks, would it be ok to park myself there a couple hours to get some work done? I know that non-guests loitering in the lobby is a no no, but does the same apply for lobby bars?

Thanks in advance!

I’m about to hit the road with a new company, and I have to pay upfront for my hotel stay within a set limit. I need an extended stay property for my 6 month assignment. I travel with my 2 cats. I’ve called Extended Stay America, but their policy is $25 per pet per day, which blows my budget. Red Roof Inn Plus has a 1 free pet policy but they don’t have a kitchenette. Studio Stay 6 is within budget but I haven’t called about their pet policy. I’ve never lost a deposit to damage, and I’d be willing to put down a substantial deposit (say $500 - 800) in lieu of a nightly pet fee.

Is this a possibility and is it a discussion to have with the GM ? Leaving the cats behind isn’t an option as I don’t have anyone to take care of them for that long.

I'm really just starting to travel now and I've had a couple 4-5 night stays this year.

I am usually always checking on Google for any cheaper deals for places I'd like to visit.

I've booked 3 trips through Super.com these couple months and everything has gone smoothly. I usually just purchase the dates and call the hotel in advance to see if they have my reservation. I do know people don't like 3rd party sites because they can be unreliable in a pinch and they have non-refundable rooms where people can't back out of if anything happens.

I basically don't find very many cons with 3rd party sites and the big difference is that I'm usually saving $50/night on a room in the same hotel by avoiding them directly. I'm not too hard to please with rooms and reallly just appreciate clean ones. I've basically booked a Hilton Doubletree for $100/night after fees whereas their direct site has it at $150. I'm saving $200 on my 4 night stay.

Even if the price difference was $25/night wouldn't I just be missing out future points that are worth less than that $25?

Is there something I'm missing here? I've read about credit hotel cards that give you higher status and more points booking with their card. For example, IHG will give you 26x points if you use their premier card. So on a $150/night stay you'll get 3100 points. Do I need to care about these points if I'm just flat out saving $200 altogether booking the same room for $100? For a standard Crowne Plaza near me, 30,000 points would be worth 1 night. So I'd need to buy 10 nights in order to get 1 night free?

There are perks such as 4th night free when booking with points, but does that matter with the ridiculous savings I'm getting using a 3rd party site?

I've read that if I do get a card it's better to have it for the free night that covers the annual fee and i can choose not to use the card again that year. Also, are there ways to earn a massive amount of points at a time?

There are other arguments about the incremental costs that will add up if you're not a loyalty member such as wifi and breakfast which is valid but I haven't run into that issue, at Hiltons at least. Been offered to buy breakfast through super and they give me free wifi for being a hilton member (which i realize i don't get points for).

I'm probably a 30-40/nights per year person. . is there anything I'm missing out on because the price differences are pretty significant. Maybe my time hasn't come for a horrible experience yet.

I was doing a little bit of research for a possible mini vacation for me and my bf at the end of July. It'd be for 2 nights, so i checked expedia for good options. A 3 star hotel near the highway looked nice and it said it was $140 per night. I checked off the two nights to estimate how much it'd be and low and behold it came out to $780. This is crazy right?? I mean, I've never had to research hotel prices of my own so maybe this is normal. It just seems like a lot to me... especially since its not in New York or LA. And also, how on earth did 140 a night, jump to 360 a night? Im so confused.

I will be going on a two or three day road trip with my elderly cat at the end of the month. She’s little and I have a rather large dog crate so she will have room to move and sleep, and a small litter box and food.

I will have to stay in pet friendly hotels, and I have a question. I want to stop along the way in my trip and take my aunt out for lunch. She’s rather elderly and I don’t get to her area very often.

I’m wondering if it’s ok to leave the cat in the hotel in her crate for maybe two or three hours so I can take my aunt out. I don’t want to be a jerk but she is really quiet and I would keep her in the crate while I’m out so she’s not overwhelmed. Depending on the weather I might be able to leave her in the crate in the car with the windows down but that’s really not something I feel terribly comfortable with.

Do hotels value diffcult customers as it's revenue for them? I mean like really diffcult customers but legal enough to not be kicked out or banned. Like a Karen. What are the hotel management and head office view on this? Do they care? And what if it's repeat customer Karens? How do management handle these special customers especially if they are repeat customers?

I am 41 years old and I am severely disabled. I am in a wheelchair I am morbidly obese and I have a tracheostomy. I spent the last two years in the hospital where I became homeless and I was in a coma for three months and recovering for another eight months and last year I was discharged and left to fend for myself.

I went to an extended stay hotel, and I had problems there. They put me in a dirty room and when I asked for another room, the manager called me nasty and argue with me and said that I’m nasty and I made the room dirty. After a couple weeks of arguing, they agreed to put me in another room, but I don’t think it was for my benefit. They moved me from the front of the hotel to the back where all the drug users and the loitering is. I was robbed. The room was even more offensively dirty, and the mattress was covered in bodily fluid from other guests.

again she told me I was nasty and that she gave me their newest clean room and said that I made it dirty. I tolerate it because I thought it was temporary, but I ended up being there for seven months. I asked her to put me back in the front of the hotel because it is safer there and after a lot of arguments, she agreed to do it, but said that the hotel is at maximum capacity and it will take some time for a room to open. In the meantime, I asked if she can swap the mattress with another room and she said no, it’s impossible. They’re not allowed to move the mattresses around. She said that she would order me a new mattress, but it would take 6 weeks to get there. 6 months went by They were at full capacity, and the mattress was still on the way.

Finally, a guest checked in next to me and the next day they asked for another room and they were moved to the front of the hotel. I realize that the management was lying to me about full capacity and 6 weeks and wanted me to leave. I did nothing wrong. I wasn’t rude to them. I wasn’t argumentative. I was not a disturbance. I was not damaging the property and despite my disabilities and medical conditions i am extremely hygienic. It feels discriminatory because why else did they treat me differently from everyone else?

So I had a nervous breakdown and I went to the hospital for a psych hold several days. I’ve been fighting for my life for the last eight years and my big sister got cancer and died right when I was discharged from the hospital and Im alone now and I can’t fight all these battles. Discrimination are not challenges I should have to overcome to have a clean safe Shelter.

So I decided to leave and I went to another hotel. Everything was in order. I paid and signed. I’m not causing a disturbance. I’m not causing any damage. I’m not asking for any special treatment. I’m hygienic. After a few days, they told me that they are fully booked and that they can’t extend my stay. That I’ll have to leave. But when I try to reserve online and on the phones they have plenty of availability. They want me to leave clearly and they won’t even tell me why they just lie to me which makes me feel like they’re being prejudice and discriminatory and have been since the first day I got here. The way they look at me.

I am in Southern California in a city called Irvine. What am I supposed to do ? There are not a lot of options here. A lot of the affordable hotels are very rundown and extremely filthy, and so I’m trying to stay is slighter higher price range because I need to be somewhere clean because my health is vulnerable.

hi there, I recently became a maintenance technician for a fairly small Hilton Park Hotel that had already agreed to pay me several dollars under my asking wages, even though I have 10 years of hotel, maintenance experience as well as operations manager.
As I began working at the hotel, I noticed quickly how an organized and the lack of structure there was between management being that sometimes a general manager and a hotel owners were on site at the same time constantly giving me different orders and managing me different. I slowly began to give suggestions on different computer software used to streamline work orders and preventative maintenance for a hotel. I’ve used in the past that works well while all management here wants to keep it strictly on a notepad and paper, which is very disorganized at this point in the hotel industry.

Two days ago I come into work and the owner calls me into his office and tries to tell me that there’s something wrong with me and that I have been sleeping on the beds in rooms that were turned over and was getting mud on the beds from standing on them, which was a blatant lie I don’t lay on guest beds and have been in industry for so long that I know how to keep a room, clean and fix what is inside and exit the room. I felt like telling him off and saying he must not need me because all I do is what you guys want me to do on a day-to-day basis. I also clean the trash around the whole resort. Make sure the pool is up and running day today and clean out over 100 AC unit.

The manager also asked me what was wrong with me when our break room is up over 90° so I sat out in the lobby for 15 minutes and close my eyes and took a drink couple drinks of water and he asked me what was wrong with me because my eyes were closed while I was sitting in the lobby, I mentioned to him I was taking a break and was pretty tired that day considering I had taken out six AC units from the rooms down to the bottom floor, clean them and then put them all back into each room all by myself with no help and a broken dolly because they won’t get a good one.

Finally, the day is coming to an end and my day off is not until Monday and tomorrow is Sunday so I expect to be coming in but at the last minute the boss tells me why don’t you just take tomorrow off and I hesitantly said why and he said he has his other maintenance guy coming into do stuff and he wants me to have a day off which is not what is shown on the schedule. I told him fine. I would take the day off and now I have several interviews set up at other places, but I feel like I’m being harassed and all I do is work all day on projects they need to have done. I have not once missed a work order and I’m constantly trying to get Replacement parts for the hotel that sometimes don’t come until a month later.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do? I feel like I wanna sit down with them again and tell them that if they don’t up my salary or show me more respect then I am out the door. I can’t take this much disrespect when I have been in the industry longer than most of the people that are working there making the same money amount is me as I only make $17 an hour, but have responsibilities of housekeeping duties too as I have to clean floors vacuum anything else they tell me to do and I still do all of it even though I maintenance.

I've read in many places people recommend to ask and worst you can get is a simple " no ". I am a very shy person and feel weird asking for free breakfast during check in without paying. How often do people ask for free breakfast and what are other things people ask for? Is this normal and should I also be doing this on future check in?

Anyone else find their locations are a bit unconventional?

Here is what I've noticed (in Europe)

They seem to really like setting up near large office parks. The fact that the hotel does is not near the centre (or downtown) of city, town or suburb does not seem to matter. The Moxy will be setup in middle of the software, insurance offices and fire protection companies. This is great if you've got a meeting in one of these companies early the next morning but not so good if you want to be near cafes, bars or restaurants.

I'm not sure if this hotel location trend is unique to the Moxy brand or it's happen industry-wide?