s/o Never Shopping - I'm never STAYING there again!!

[miranova]

The fine for leaving a bad review is obviously ridiculous, but who in their right mind would even agree to a contract like that?  I would run as far and as fast as I can from any business who promised to bill me for reviews left by my friends! 

When you book a hotel room, do you always read the fine print in the agreement? I would bet the fine is buried well.

When I book my wedding somewhere and give them a huge deposit, yes I read what I am signing and want to know under what circumstances they can keep my deposit!

[jedikaiti]

The fine for leaving a bad review is obviously ridiculous, but who in their right mind would even agree to a contract like that?  I would run as far and as fast as I can from any business who promised to bill me for reviews left by my friends! 

When you book a hotel room, do you always read the fine print in the agreement? I would bet the fine is buried well.

When I book my wedding somewhere and give them a huge deposit, yes I read what I am signing and want to know under what circumstances they can keep my deposit!

That I would read, too (or at least skim, that tiny print gives me a headache), but a standard room? Or is the clause only in the wedding/event contracts?

[Eeep!]

The fine for leaving a bad review is obviously ridiculous, but who in their right mind would even agree to a contract like that?  I would run as far and as fast as I can from any business who promised to bill me for reviews left by my friends! 

When you book a hotel room, do you always read the fine print in the agreement? I would bet the fine is buried well.

When I book my wedding somewhere and give them a huge deposit, yes I read what I am signing and want to know under what circumstances they can keep my deposit!

That I would read, too (or at least skim, that tiny print gives me a headache), but a standard room? Or is the clause only in the wedding/event contracts?

Actually their regular cancellation policy is fairly easy to find on their site. It is also pretty ridiculous too.  If you are staying for more than 3 days you can't cancel. Period.  Plus it sounds like they reserve the right to not "approve" your cancellation, even if you do it before their 15 day requirement. And if you are trying to negotiate with them on the cancellation and 29 days pass after your reservation date you are out of luck.  Yeesh!
There is no way in hell I would ever book there. My guess is that they pretty much won't refund you unless they can fill the spot.

[KB]

There is no way in hell I would ever book there. My guess is that they pretty much won't refund you unless they can fill the spot.

My guess is that they don't refund ever. They just need to have ways of justifying their actions.

[cicero]

The fine for leaving a bad review is obviously ridiculous, but who in their right mind would even agree to a contract like that?  I would run as far and as fast as I can from any business who promised to bill me for reviews left by my friends! 

When you book a hotel room, do you always read the fine print in the agreement? I would bet the fine is buried well.

When I book my wedding somewhere and give them a huge deposit, yes I read what I am signing and want to know under what circumstances they can keep my deposit!

That I would read, too (or at least skim, that tiny print gives me a headache), but a standard room? Or is the clause only in the wedding/event contracts?

go to their website - it's not buried at all. under "rates and policies" it says "cancel at your own risk". Personally, without reading the whole 500$ fine issue, i wouldn't reserve a hotel room that (a) charges 100% of the room at the time of reservation and (b) had such a bizarre cancelation policy. When i travel, i make sure that I have an "out" - because you never know (plane got delayed, bad weather, someone got sick etc). most hotels in the US (at least the ones i've researched) allow cancelation up to the day of the reservation or the day before and they don't charge for the stay in advance

[iridaceae]

I worked at a well-regarded small boutique hotel here in Tucson that -and we did tell people at the time of booking- charge one night's stay in advance,  two if it was a weekend stay.

And prepaying is how third parties like expedia work: you are paying the entire amount of the took and tax in advance.

[Bobbie]

Is this the Amy's Bakery of hotels? The Union Street Guest House charges wedding parties $500 per bad Yelp review: http://www.businessinsider.com/hotel-fines-brides-for-negative-yelp-reviews-2014-8 .

Of course, they didn't realize this had little effect on those not still waiting for their deposits, and their Yelp rating is now verging on negative numbers. The hotel's current stance is that this was a joke response to a specific situation that should have been taken down long ago, and was never meant to be enforced. But considering they have a pretty small website, that sounds less than convincing (particularly in combination with their odd cancellation policies).

Not too long ago an internet vendor attempted to enforce a contract clause like that on a customer. They failed on a number of fronts.

The KlearGear story at Popehat.

And another one, very similar to the story Twik posted. Note that this one wasn't "a joke," and I don't believe the Union Street Guest House's claim that theirs was.

Shore Dreams.

While I understand that companies want to manage their online image, and said image is hard to control, this is the wrong way to go about it.  Lesson #1 in managing your reputation: The Streisand Effect.

KlearGear lost so far....

http://consumerist.com/2014/06/26/kleargear-com-ordered-to-pay-306k-to-couple-who-wrote-negative-review/

[knitwicca]

SEVERE WEATHER: We do not refund rents or deposits lost due to cancelled or shortened stays because of weather. Departures due to inclement weather do no warrant refund of rent or deposit. We suggest CSA Vacation Travel Insurance during the hurricane seasons and offer the purchase of travel insurance at the time of booking or several weeks before your check in date.

All of this company's rentals are in Florida and Georgia.  Hurricane season begins June 1st and ends November 30th.
This means that, for 6 months out of the year and during peak tourist season, should there be a hurricane or damaging tropical storm which prevents your being able to get to the destination, you are out of the cost of your rental. Because they do not reimburse if you cancel less than 45 days in advance.

[iridaceae]

Yeah the hotel I work at now has a 7-day cancellation policy in high season and 3-day in off season and most groups have a 14-day. There are exceptions: we have some aircraft employees from time to time who, because of the nature of their work,  have it written into their contract with us that we don't charge any late cancellations ever.

[Twik]

It's the "maybe we'll let you cancel, maybe we won't" policy that's ridiculous. I presume that they think people will read it and think, "Oh, they'll let us cancel with reasonable notice," when they mean, "We'll only let you cancel if ... oh, heck, we actually don't do cancellations, but we want to make you think we do."

[earthgirl]

My friends got married on New Years Eve a few years ago at some hotel chain that I don't remember the name of, probably because it was a wedding and it was New Years Eve.  I had a fabulous time, more fun than I had had in years, and I have not had as much fun since.

And by fun, I mean vodka tonics of course.

At six thirty the next morning, DH and I were awakened by someone pounding on our door, shouting, "Housekeeping!  Housekeeping!"

Seeing as how it was New Years day and the sun hadn't even risen, we assumed it was one of our friends playing a joke on us...I staggered to the door, unlocked the chain, threw the door open, only to find...housekeeping.  At six thirty in the morning. On New Years Day. 

I'd planned on saying something when we checked out, since checkout time wasn't until 11 AM and it really didn't make sense that housekeeping was going around trying to flip the rooms four plus hours early, but alas, all that fun I'd had the night before was coming back to bite me, and I wasn't really in the mood to talk. 

[z_squared82]

Just posting for updates.

[MindsEye]

I can only imagine that the Union Street Guest House is actually a front for something nefarious, because with their bizarre and draconian policies they sure don't seem to want to be in the hotel business.

[Dazi]

A Resort in the Bahamas...

Our family had stayed there several times before over the years and never had any problems except for this last trip that was in 2000 or maybe 2001.

Let's start of this comedy of errors with this fun tidbit.   I'm sure someone meant well, but this was just all sorts of awkward. They were having some maintenance issues and had to move existing guests to rooms that were booked to new guests that were arriving from port. The cancelled the two rooms that were booked, one for me/one for my brother,  and upgraded us to the honeymoon suite. Due to our ages and genders they assumed we were a couple on our honeymoon. 

As it stood, there were simply no other available rooms that night. The clerk did look rather embarrassed that I I had to share the honeymoon suite with my brother. The next day we were swapped to two adjoining rooms after a huge ship departure. My shower was broken. They moved me to the room on the other side and the toilet was broken. I was moved to a room a few doors down and the a/c quit in the middle of the night. So the last night I ended up sharing a room with him again because there were no other rooms available.

I hate sharing a room with my brother.  Good deity, he snores so freaking loud, he talks in his sleep, he sleep walks,  and he kicks. I had bruises all over from having to share a bed with him the first night and I didn't get any sleep that first and last night from the snoring.

The front desk was just gobsmacked that I demanded a full refund.

[zyrs]

DoubleTree Inn at Southcenter.

While the room was ok, the design of the hotel is rooms around a central atrium, which holds a restaurant and bar as well as the front desk and access to the function rooms.  The atrium itself has lots of polished wood surfaces and no padding to maybe baffle sound.

This design made our specific room an acoustic nightmare.  You could actually hear clearly enough to get snippets of normal conversation  from diners in the restaurant which I might have been fine with if we weren't on the 6th floor.  If there was someone who talked loudly downstairs it was like they were standing next to you.

That and the ten buck a night internet access made it so we won't be going back.