Beware of cancellations

[awilcockson]

No, this isn't a rant about cancellation fees.

I had a booking I made 2 weeks ago for a weekend at the Crowne Plaza Auckland (bossreggies "lunch"). I had booked a 2 Queen bed room on a refundable AAA rate, expecting to share the room.

I couldn't find anyone to share the room with, so I decided I might as well get a King room for the same price.

So I opened my PC account, selected the original booking, went to the cancellation page, and ensure that it was a free to cancel booking. Note that I didn't take the final step of cancelling the booking at this point.

Then I opened a new tab on the browser, created a new, non refundable (therefore slightly cheaper) booking for a King Room.

Then I switched back to the first tab, and hit "confirm cancellation".

Imagine my shock when I went to "my reservations" and saw that the non refundable King room had been cancelled (after being charged of course) and that my original booking was still there.

I jumped straight on the phone to PC, who were completely useless, as usual, telling me I'd have to call the hotel direct. Which I did, and was told that it was all fixed, my new booking was reinstated and the old one cancelled.

Except that now when I go into my reservations, neither is showing up .... I sense a long fight ahead of me here, for a stuffup caused by the PC website.

 

[Ewing]

The Starwood (SPG) site has the exact same issue. It has caused me grief a few times!

 

[awilcockson]

The Starwood (SPG) site has the exact same issue. It has caused me grief a few times!

I have a theory.

The second booking actually had a lower booking reference number than the first one.

So my theory is that when you hit cancel it cancels the booking with the lowest booking reference number that matches the location, surname and checkin/checkout date.

Once I finally get this sorted, I have a plan to test my theory (using fully refundable bookings).

If this is the case, then it is truly horrendous programming.

 

[Ewing]

With the SPG issue it stores the reservation you're viewing in the session.

When you go to the cancel reservation page, instead of sending the details through as part of the page request it simply reads the most recently viewed reservation from the session and cancels that.

PC could be the same.

 

[markis10]

Ever since the PC site had a revamp with a new look, its functionality has been diminishing, its a joke!

 

[awilcockson]

With the SPG issue it stores the reservation you're viewing in the session.

When you go to the cancel reservation page, instead of sending the details through as part of the page request it simply reads the most recently viewed reservation from the session and cancels that.

PC could be the same.

Yeah I guess that is quite possible as well. Either way it is completely ridiculous. If I am sitting looking at a page with a reservations listed, and a "confirm deletion" button, I expect it to delete THAT reservation when I hit the button!

 

[markis10]

Use the mobile site which works on a PC, allows you to see when a reservation has been changed by the hotel (upgraded ) as well, I just used it to check a res for tomorrow and its changed from Points to Best Flex - should be fun!

Priority Club official online reservations

 

[Mal]

Yeah I guess that is quite possible as well. Either way it is completely ridiculous. If I am sitting looking at a page with a reservations listed, and a "confirm deletion" button, I expect it to delete THAT reservation when I hit the button!

I think the site does have that issue. Keeps a reference as to the current booking.

Btw website has been improved and now shows some bookings that previously were not viewable. Mobile app is still often the best way to handle bookings.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using AustFreqFly

 

[oz_mark]

My experience across multiple booking engines, is that if you are going to have two windows with two different booking, you should use two different browsers.

Session based information often gets shared in wierd and wonderful ways if you have two windows using the same browser.

 

[awilcockson]

Use the mobile site which works on a PC, allows you to see when a reservation has been changed by the hotel (upgraded ) as well, I just used it to check a res for tomorrow and its changed from Points to Best Flex - should be fun!

Interesting, reservation still shows as cancelled on the full site. On the mobile site I can bring the reservation up and it has a Cancel button. But I had to manually enter the number, it wasn't shown as linked to my account. Still not confident that I have a valid booking

But I'll keep that mobile site filed for future reference

 

[markis10]

The mobile site allows you to cancel reservations that are locked by the hotel as well.

 

[james1]

The mobile site allows you to cancel reservations that are locked by the hotel as well.

Thanks. That is awesome to know. The inability to do that online has been driving me nuts for quite a long time!