Guest being bumped

[mac_r_a]

We just got back. We booked through a group a premium room . We were bumped and when we got back to the resort we were put in a non premium room. My husband asked to speak to the manager numerous times, but the management never contacted us or even apologized. If we can't get compensation back from the resort this week we will be forced to take this issue up with our credit card company. Sad part is we love visiting Hedo but we are very disappointed that they would treat their guests like this

To be downgraded like that is not fair

[happy2us]

If enough people keep getting bumped from vacations they've looked forward to for a long time and paid good money, the resort will see a steady reduction in bookings until...spiral... We hope they get the message and hear enough complaints.

[phillygirl22]

Sorry in advance for the length of this reply. This whole issue of bumping people AFTER you have confirmed a room and taken their money is ridiculous, and in my opinion fraudulent. I've been working in IT for well over 30 years now and can assure you that keeping the data current in real time (and available to customers and TA's) is a problem that has been solved long ago and in use by hundreds of thousands of websites (at least) around the world every day.

For customers that extend their stay the solution is simple and well used - CHECK THE CURRENT AVAILABILITY of rooms before granting and extension. If you are fully booked up, then it is not possible. If you do extend, mark the room as unavailable immediately so new overlapping reservations are not possible. For customers who cancel at the last minute use a cancellation policy that only provides a partial refund up to one point and no refund after another date, especially for high season dates. This is a way you can legally and morally double charge for rooms in some situations. None of this is rocket science and has been used extensively for years.

Many of us have to save up for quite some time and then travel a LONG way (half way around the world for us). To get there to be shuttled off to some POS property we had not contracted for or have any interest in is unacceptable. Can you imagine a cruise line doing this? "Oh excuse me customer. We're re really sorry about that mega-bucks payment you made to us for your confirmed room but it will not be available right away. For the first thee nights however we have gone ahead and booked you on the lovely S.S. Minnow - enjoy your stay!"

These days there are really VERY FEW valid excuses for bumping a PAID customer from a room. Being 50 years behind the times on your policies and procedures is not a valid response.

All the best,

C&T

EXTREMELY well said!!!

[Naughty Nudists]

EXTREMELY well said!!!

Big Dittos! If I can go out to my Delta Flight and see what seats are booked(and hope they don't sell them twice) then any resort can get the software package to see room availability on any given date.Final confirmations should only be made by the Front Desk.Easy..............

[kpr]

I am unsure whether the resort was involved in the initial overbooking or if it is possible for a group to overbook their block without the resort's approval...but it was definitely the resort who decided that all groups had to share the bumps and I thought that was terribly unfair. Downgrades are unfortunate, too, but a lot of people simply had no room available at all. We met one couple who, on their 38th trip, extended their layover in Atlanta for two days until a room would be available for them.

This is the first year we came in a little early and spent three days on the cliffs before coming over to Hedo. We may have been saved by being able to just taxi over and check in so early in the morning. We will definitely be repeating that practice in the future.

[foxxyandhound]

I am unsure whether the resort was involved in the initial overbooking or if it is possible for a group to overbook their block without the resort's approval...but it was definitely the resort who decided that all groups had to share the bumps and I thought that was terribly unfair. Downgrades are unfortunate, too, but a lot of people simply had no room available at all. We met one couple who, on their 38th trip, extended their layover in Atlanta for two days until a room would be available for them.

This is the first year we came in a little early and spent three days on the cliffs before coming over to Hedo. We may have been saved by being able to just taxi over and check in so early in the morning. We will definitely be repeating that practice in the future.

if its the groups that are over booking then they should be responsible for the ppl they over booked not the resort... the group should have to find them a place to stay

[pierrrre]

I am not usually the one to complaint but we are going in March and if I would have known that even after paying good money months in advance, our vacation at Hedo seems to be just a maybe, maybe not, i don't think I would had bothered and I would had went somewhere else. We are going there to relax, not to stress out about where "they" will decide we are going to spend our vacation. Not very professional. It reminds me of the Seinfeld episode at the car rental desk (they know how to take the reservation, they just don't know how to hold to the reservation)...

[we2are469]

I am not usually the one to complaint but we are going in March and if I would have known that even after paying good money months in advance, our vacation at Hedo seems to be just a maybe, maybe not, i don't think I would had bothered and I would had went somewhere else. We are going there to relax, not to stress out about where "they" will decide we are going to spend our vacation. Not very professional. It reminds me of the Seinfeld episode at the car rental desk (they know how to take the reservation, they just don't know how to hold to the reservation)...

Agreed. We are booked for April 2016. I expect to get my room the day I check in. I have paid in full, a full 5 months in advance. There is NO FXXk'EN excuse for not having a room for me. I really hate having to worry about whether my room is available or whether I'll spend the first night at the roach motel.
R

[Naughty Nudists]

The thought has occurred to me that Hedo has a finite supply of "overflow rooms" at the Village.So if they exceed that number,what do they do with you then?If they never exceed it then it proves they know EXACTLY what they are doing and over booking by the number of Village rooms they have.They could just as easily choose not to overbook if they wanted to do it that way but they obviously don't.

[Dreamingofhedo]

My wife and I have been bumped in the past, last April we spent the night at their village. And for those who think that you can call it week before to confirm your room, that doesn't always work. I did call a week in advance to confirm and we still got bumped. The reason being is our flight was late getting in and we were late getting to the resort along with five or six other couples. Three or four of us got bumped because they were sold out. And the room they gave us was a dump. Bathroom sink drained on your feet, no hot water and we slept on top of the bed in our travel cloths because the bed was to gross. The restore gave us 2 nights compensation. We are using those two nights in our upcoming trip March 2016. We just got back from our 2nd trip a week ago. Resort was sold out again, luckily we showed up on Wednesday the week before our group week. And again I did call to confirm our reservations. On Sunday and Saturday they you're asking for volunteers to get over to the village. From what I understand they have improved the rooms greatly. They were offering the people that are bumped for week and additional week. From what I hear the rooms were ok. I was told that the resort is doing very well and that Harry said that they will try to no longer double book. But my advice would be is to add a couple days to your stay if you plan on attending on sold out for weeks.

[we2are469]

They were offering the people that are bumped for week and additional week.

Are you saying they are asking for people to stay at the Village, for a week!

R

[lovin_life]

All hotels and airlines and for that matter car rentals over book, it's yield management . They all play the how many people on this day are going to change their minds and cancel, or want to add a day.they all do always have. As far as the travel agents, they contract a block of rooms saying we will sell 100 rooms by xx day but day by day when you book with the travel agent, they are just turning around and calling the hotel and booking with them under their special rate. And the block is released on xx day if any rooms are still there. What happens is the hotel looks back and sees that last year this group asked for 100 rooms but only booked 50 and group xyz asked for 100 and only booked 75 and group abc asked for 100 and book 115...so they feel it's safe to ok the contracts for all three groups So they have to play the number game this year of how many of those rooms are going to come back to them at the last minute. Sometimes, all three groups sell all 100 rooms that's when there's a issue

This is EXACTLY right - Having worked in Hotels & with Travel agents in Las Vegas, I can attest that typical return days for unused rooms are usually 30 or 60 or 90 days out. Lets think about that for a moment. If a group, returns 50 rooms onto the hotel even 90 days out - Hedo is going to have a hard time selling them (because most people book so far in advance). And they won't be able to charge the TA, because they operated within their contracted agreement to return unused rooms by a specific date. Lets multiply that by several groups...all dropping rooms onto the Resort to sell last minute. Therefore, the resort has to forecast based on past occupancy & past group history to try & minimize the number of unfilled rooms (they usually have fancy Yield management systems that forecast trends on which to base calculated decisions - I'd be surprised if Hedo doesn't have this in place as well). Also, if the resort can't sell ahead in anticipation of this, they will be turning away people that they would have actually have been able to accommodate & then on your trip - the resort would be only half full. Even an electronic system may not solve the challenge, because the TA would still have a contract with a deadline...

For those of you who booked your first visit, please don't let this scare you. Every hotel/resort does this - there just isn't a forum such as this one to hear from the guests affected directly (other than tripadvisor). So even if you were staying at Sandals - this could technically happen to you as well....you just might not hear about it because none of the guests talk to each other there.

[Dreamingofhedo]

Nov, 7-14 was complete sold. At least 5 or 6 couples stayed at the village, they seemed find. It was a little crazy on the nude side with the dirty pervs group. They even brought in porn talent, so probably not such a bad idea to stay off resort. Very young group. They even had someone running on the roofs and I guess put some holes in the roof.

[kpr]

Interesting info. I know the numbers game gets played, and I don't expect Hedo to lose out. I just think this was a BIG miss and hope that it was due to a miscommunication or misunderstanding of some kind. I feel like my group was turning away interested guests months ago b/c the resort told my TA that additional space was not available. If you weren't there, the forum might be the reason you are hearing about it, but if you were there, it was hard to avoid story after story just because of the size of the bump and the number of people affected.

Are those who get bumped allowed to still take advantage of all the Hedo amenities? We are in and out of our room constantly and it would be extremely inconvenient to stay off site. But if we could still enjoy Hedo AND we gained another week to use, I would be tempted to volunteer to be bumped anyhow.

And yes, Dreaming, there was some craziness and a very different vibe compared to my visits in the past. On more than one occasion, the serenity of the playroom was broken up by groups coming in without being respectful to the environment they were entering. Loud talking and music, doors being propped open so harsh lighting beamed in...not sure if it was the same group you mentioned or not...Don't get me wrong, despite a number of issues this year, we still had a brilliant time and can't wait to be back. We just had to work harder to find and keep the right scene for us this year. :-)

[Dreamingofhedo]

We were not bumped this past time. but from what I gathered from couples that were, yes you get the run of Hedo just as you would if you were on the grounds, and they pick you up and bring you back to your room when ever you want. So for the people who volunteered it was a win. I'm not sure but I think you had to use it within a year. And we are already booked for nine days in March so it would not have benefited us at all.