Can I sue a hotel for horrible customer service?

[Mitchelle01]

This is by far, the worst experience I have ever had staying at a so called “5-star” hotel. I got here from an exhausting 12-hour flight and spoke to the receptionist regarding my reserved room, only to find out that the hotel is already fully booked. She told me all the rooms were taken because there was a huge Latin foreign affair event going on in their conference rooms. She insisted that there were no rooms left and when I demanded to speak to her manager, she suddenly changed her mind and told me they had one free.

Just when I started to calm down, I got to my room to finally rest only to find out the sheets were not even clean. There were dirty pieces of tissue everywhere, a large unrecognizable stain on the blanket, and to top it all off, there were no clean towels and the bedside phone didn’t even work. I had to go all the way down to voice out my complaints and request for new sheets, and guess what? The receptionist that booked the disgusting room for me already went home and didn’t even input it in their system.

As it turns out, the room was actually for employees that had to work double shifts and needed a room to rest and freshen up, which explained the small size. From a legal standpoint, can I actually sue this hotel for their horrible customer service? As a guest that paid for a suite overlooking the city, I feel so deceived- and they wouldn’t even give me a refund for my payment!

[miclason]

first you have to contact the hotel corporate and complain, if they don't offer you some suitable compensation, you can contact the Ombudsman and have them help you with this issue (i remember reading the Letters to the Ombudsman in the Traveler magazine)

[TexasHusker]

A person can sue someone else for just about anything imaginable. I overheard a guy on a plane today say he was going to sue a football stadium because his wife stepped on a sprinkler and cut her foot.

To SUCCESSFULLY sue someone, you have to prove that you were damaged, prove that the defendant damaged you, and demonstrate the amount that you were damaged in terms of dollars. You also have to demonstrate that you made every reasonable effort to mitigate your damage.

Few potential lawsuits are capable of meeting this threshold, and even if they can, your odds of a favorable judgment and collection thereof is remote. And you will spend a small fortune in lawyer fees as you move through the arduous legal process.

[~bs]

probably not.... unless they promised a room and refused to refund or provide alternative accommodations. the contract likely disclaims most responsibility relating to qualitative issues such as the ones you mentioned.

The most you could likely do is complain to management, and blast them on review.

I would NOT tell them you're thinking of lawsuit unless you area serious in doing it. once you use that magic word "lawsuit", ALL discussion and negotiations will cease immediately, and you'll get referred to their black hole of a legal department. At that point, they will not communicate to you, except through legal filings and court hearings.

It's actually interesting that they are "fully booked". I thought hotels usually keep 1-2 rooms free for extraordinary circumstances.

[bjl584]

I doubt it.

Escalating the issue up the ladder and getting a refund is about as far as you will realistically get.

[TexasHusker]

It's actually interesting that they are "fully booked". I thought hotels usually keep 1-2 rooms free for extraordinary circumstances.

Like airlines, hotels can, for a variety of reasons beyond their control, overbook. That is another thread.
In such instances, tyoically the hotel will “comp” your room (pay for it) at another, similar hotel.

I don’t necessarily see anything negligent here. You have a young desk clerk being dressed down by a tired and angry guest, who might genuinely been trying to accommodate the guest, not knowing that the room he or she was assigning was not ready to rent.

Now, if the guest was making a complete a-hole of him/herself, the staff’s interest in helping the guest may have waned. I’m not saying that happened here, but it is a possibility.

As a business owner myself, we try our best to appease unhappy customers. But if and when the customer becomes unreasonably belligerent (we call those types Yankees ) we tend to punt them and move on.

[disneysteve]

Why would suing even be in your thought process?

If this happened to me, and as someone who travels a fair amount I've had my share of unpleasant hotel experiences, I would first be complaining to the hotel manager and requesting compensation in the form of a partial or full refund depending on the severity of the problem.

If that didn't work, I'd be going up the ladder to corporate to do the same.

I have never failed to get a refund when I've had an issue at a hotel and I can honestly say that that has happened to me on numerous occasions. And I can tell you that for me, at least, I'm much more willing to cut them some slack when I end up getting the room for free even if there were problems.

[Smallsteps]

There are many variables not mentioned in your post.
Many hotels will release your reserved room at a certain point thinking you are a no show. In traveling if we are going to be checking in late we will let them know so this does not happen.
In the case of no show most places charge a 1 night stay.
With a confirmed reservation it really should not be a problem in getting a refund with the manager or the corporation.

[Like2Plan]

Firstly, I am not sure where your hotel is located. This could make a big difference in consumer protection. Also, the hotel brand may make a difference. And, the outcome could be further influenced by whether you have status with that hotel brand.

Secondly, (as others have already mentioned) you need to address your immediate situation and give hotel management a chance to correct it to your satisfaction. Failing that— you should take it up with corporate. After that, check with your credit card company. After exhausting these avenues (and depending on jurisdictions), maybe you would want to seek a legal solution, but the. You have to weigh whether legal costs would cost more than the damages you are trying to recover, etc. (in other words, I can’t imagine it would be worth it).

DH and I have only been “walked” once. We arrived very late in the evening and they were out of rooms when we got there. Since we had reserved a 2 bedroom unit they moved us to 2- rooms at another property and comped the rooms. We still received our points for the stay. It was a real pain to arrive late and then have to drive back into the city (San Diego)— but it was a better location and a free room made me feel much better about the situation.

My advice is to try to solve it at the lowest level get your vacation back on track.

[Mitchelle01]

first you have to contact the hotel corporate and complain, if they don't offer you some suitable compensation, you can contact the Ombudsman and have them help you with this issue (i remember reading the Letters to the Ombudsman in the Traveler magazine)

I think I'm definitely going to approach the hotel manager first and come to terms on some kind of compensation. If they are unwilling to resolve the issue, they'll have to face charges.

[Mitchelle01]

A person can sue someone else for just about anything imaginable. I overheard a guy on a plane today say he was going to sue a football stadium because his wife stepped on a sprinkler and cut her foot.

To SUCCESSFULLY sue someone, you have to prove that you were damaged, prove that the defendant damaged you, and demonstrate the amount that you were damaged in terms of dollars. You also have to demonstrate that you made every reasonable effort to mitigate your damage.

Few potential lawsuits are capable of meeting this threshold, and even if they can, your odds of a favorable judgment and collection thereof is remote. And you will spend a small fortune in lawyer fees as you move through the arduous legal process.

I suppose it is true that people can sue anyone for just about anything these days. To make sure it all goes well if I decide to sue, I'm going to hire the best attorney I can find. The experience was very infuriating, especially considering how much I spent to have my suite reserved beforehand.

[Mitchelle01]

probably not.... unless they promised a room and refused to refund or provide alternative accommodations. the contract likely disclaims most responsibility relating to qualitative issues such as the ones you mentioned.

The most you could likely do is complain to management, and blast them on review.

I would NOT tell them you're thinking of lawsuit unless you area serious in doing it. once you use that magic word "lawsuit", ALL discussion and negotiations will cease immediately, and you'll get referred to their black hole of a legal department. At that point, they will not communicate to you, except through legal filings and court hearings.

It's actually interesting that they are "fully booked". I thought hotels usually keep 1-2 rooms free for extraordinary circumstances.

Well, they did promise me a room, seeing as I did pay for the reservation fee plus the price to stay at one of their suites through my credit card at least a week before my scheduled date of arrival.

This is not something that has actually crossed my mind but now that you mentioned it, that would make it somewhat harder to obtain the results I want. I'm still attempting to contact the management though, so we'll see how it goes.

[Like2Plan]

Here are a couple of links that might be of interest to you:

https://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2017/08/22/can-hotels-cancel-your-confirmed-reservation/

https://loyaltylobby.com/2013/10/04/ihg-brands-standards-in-case-of-overbooking-being-walked/

I mentioned before that you might get some relief depending on which credit card you used--you might automatically be covered by travel insurance. So, it would be worthwhile to check with your credit card as to what you might do in addition to disputing the charge for the prepaid room.

You still haven't said where this hotel is located. I believe there may be more consumer protections in other countries. (Anyway, that was what I was lead to believe when DH and I were in Switzerland a few years back and witnessed someone getting "walked" to another hotel. )

[disneysteve]

As a guest that paid for a suite overlooking the city, I feel so deceived- and they wouldn’t even give me a refund for my payment!

If the room you were given was not what you paid for, you're entitled to at least a partial refund. That doesn't require a lawsuit. That shouldn't require more than a calm conversation with the hotel manager.

If you paid for a suite and were put in a standard room, they should refund the difference, plain and simple.

I've gotten refunds for something as basic as the Wifi reception being lousy in my room. You certainly shouldn't have difficulty getting a refund for being put in staff quarters instead of the suite you paid for.

[TexasHusker]

I’ve given this a lot more thought these past few days and I say LAWYER UP!