How often have I hated Tripadvisor for its biased reviews. How often have I felt the need for a platform where WE, deliverers of hotel & restaurant services can utter our humble opinion on clients we had and never want to encounter anymore.
Tripadvisor tells you which places to visit , recommends its ABSOLUTE musts and which are the ones to avoid.
Granted, that is fine as long as these comments are objective, true and honest. The problem is they rarely are.What do WE hotel owners have in stead? A reply noone reads on Tripadvisor when the damage is done as the client's comment get published first? Where can WE POST a review on a client who made a mess, stayed up late at night keeping the other guests awake....
Today is one of these moments where I am in need of a
Guestadvisor
You'd be surprised how far people go to escape from paying their bills.
On July 23 rd we here in Brussels received a same-day booking through #EXPEDIA for a certain Mr & Ms Blakely from the USA. Mr and Ms happily checked in some time during the day and we agreed I'd debit the #AMEX card he had used for booking purposes for payment. They did not need breakfast, not included in the roomrate, and wondered off mid morning to explore the city. I thought they were fine as they never mentioned a complaint.
Big was my surprise when I received a letter from AMEX last week to justify the debit. Mr Blakely had found it wise to state 'he'd never been with us'. Those are the moments you think you are losing your mind and age is getting the better of you.
First thing I did, I checked. I keep a record of all the credit card debits, mentioning the date, the amount, the name of the cardholder and guest and the booking engine they found us through.
It was all well and there and his file did not mention an irregularity. I checked on Expedia and it was all there too.
Before sending my reply to AMEX as we are required to, I wrote Mr Blakely a mail asking for some explanation. Mr Blakely agressively stood by his point he'd never stayed with us. To which of course I replied I had been the very one and only to check them in.
Fact is: Mr and Ms Blakely booked, never cancelled AND spent two full days and nights at the Phileas Fogg in Brussels. Now what !
Now what is what Mr Blakely must have thought too. His today's mail reads
Stop writing me crazy lady! I'm not paying for that dump of an establishment of yours. If your goal in life is to scam people into thinking they're booking something decent, when instead they're booking your dump, then you have bigger issues. I never check in and stayed. So, you're not getting a dime from me. Enjoy your pathetic life.
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It will depend on AMEX how they judge the situation and in whose favor they will rule.
Mr Blakely, in spite of his lies and respectless behaviour, might even be on the winning side. We do not have his signature, only a booking he made online. I cannot send AMEX his DNA, that would be too costly.
But it is precisely customers like him who exploit the system. When I 'steal' a bike and drop it a few miles further, it is called joyriding.
How do you call a guest that sleeps two nights in a hotel, enjoys the 'ride' and dumps it later?
Further strongly recommended reads:
tripadvisor fake reviews