A few weeks ago my girlfriend tried to book a room for the early morning. She was exhausted and needed a few hours of sleep before her next flight. As her own creditcard was not accepted by the hotel I allowed her to use mine. Unfortunately due to her fatigue she made a mistake with the time in the online booking. The booking was confirmed, my credit card was charged. Immediately after finishing the online booking my girlfriend went to the hotel to sleep. But there was no room available yet. She asked the receptionist to cancel the booking, which he did. And she explicitly asked if the money would be returned to my creditcard, which the receptionist confirmed.
A few days later I checked, and I saw the money had not been returned. I tried to settle it with customer service, but the lady refused to refund the money because of the cancellation policy. After some more email exchange the general manager took over and told me in an annoying and pedantic way that my girlfriend and I could not get a refund, according to the letter of the cancellation policy, stressing that it was my girlfriend's fault because she made a mistake with the booking.
Even for a small crappy budget hotel these practices would not be acceptable. Both the customer service executive and especially the general manager of Yotel Heathrow should be ashamed of this. read more