Last weekend I reserved a suite described as a King bed and a double hide-a-bed with fridge, microwave, coffeemaker, and hairdryer at a Best Western in Oklahoma City through hotels.com for $81.88/night. I reserved the room with my creditcard. Upon arrival, the clerk had my reservation and informed me that the room desribed in the reservation listing did not exist at the hotel. Since the room was described as a Suite and hotels.com had shown 4 Suites available, I asked if there was any available rather than a "down-sized" room. I was told that there were Suites available and was also shown an internal Best Western memo posted behind the desk that indicated that all Suites were $189/night and $229/night and would not be allowed for less. It was after 1am, so I agreed to a non-Suite room since my wife and daughter were ready to just go to bed after the trip. The room was roughly a 10' x 20' room without either a refridge or a microwave, but it did have 2 Queen beds. In addition, there were other unpleasant things at the hotel and the entire experience was completely unsatisfactory for my family.
After getting back home, I contacted hotels.com about what I found was fraudulent listings for the hotel and was told that the descriptions for the rooms were Best Western's sole responsibility and the only thing they could do was offer discount coupons for future reservations through their site for a period of one year. I declined the offer as I have no intention of having a similar future experience even with a discount. I then called Best Western's customer service where I was told such rooms were available at the price stated, but only a booking through Best Western's website guarantees a reservation and the room (out of 4 listed) must have been booked. Further, the service agent told me that the 3rd party booking websites all contain disclaimers stating that a reservation does not guarantee the described room. I had the service agent look up the exact same listing I had reserved at hotels.com and he found no such disclaimer. He went through the entire process of reserving the room and found no such disclaimer. He then said that when the listed room is not available they are allowed to substitute any room they wish as fulfilling their reservation duties and this MUST have been the case. He stated that there was nothing fraudulent done by Best Western and hoped that I would have better experiences in the future. I uttered a few obscenitites after that and was hung up on for being vulgar.
In summary, I reserved a room through a 3rd party booking website. Although similar rooms, if not the exact room being listed for reservation, were available at the point of booking-in; I was denied the room without paying an additional $100/night. I was substituted a room that was not at all what was described by Best Western in the listing for the same price as the listed Suite I reserved. Neither Best Western or hotels.com will assume responsibility for what I clearly see as past and present fraudulent listings on the hotels.com website. There is also no intention of changing this practice on either parties behalf. It was unfortunate, but conformed to both parties business practices. There is no disclaimer as claimed by Best Western on the hotels.com website or booking process. This experience will be allowed to happen to anyone in the future at any time.
What would be the proper process to pursue concerning what I clearly find as intentional fraudulent booking practices? Is this a criminal matter that a gov't attorney's office can investigate? Is this a civil matter that I can pursue to try and eliminate any such future practices by the named parties?
This link is the same room listing as I reserved (#17 & #18):
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