Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:08/05/2023

  Type:Customer Service Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I booked a room on Oct.26, 2022 through ************ at the comfort inn in Sydney, NS for April 14-16th, 2023, *** was subsequently charged $531.86. On March 20, 2023 I called the comfort inn to confirm my reservation *** was told that I did not have a reservation. I ended up spending twice as much on a last minute ******. Upon return of my trip I called the booking agency to ask for a refund as there was no booking according to the comfort inn. They called the hotel *** the manager said they had no record of me calling on the 20th to confirm *** had me listed as a no show *** denied the booking companies request for a refund. I called the hotel back to ask the manager *** was told he would call me back. He never called me back, *** over the period of a week I would call *** be told, he was there but busy, not in for the day, be back in a week *** my most recent call I was told he left the company about 2 days ago. The employee did tell me that they do not keep track of when customers call, so they could not dent talking to me on March 20th. I talked to the same employee everytime I called, *** then the last call he admitted they had no manager *** the assistant manager was gone as well. He said only mgmt can give refunds. I asked for head office contact info *** he could not give me any information. Tried contacting comfort inn (choice hotel) customer service but they need a reservation number which I do not have because the booking agency sent them to the wrong email address. I did not stay at the hotel because when I called to confirm they told me they had no record of my reservation. The screenshots are a record of me calling the hotel to confirm my reservation, *** directly after calling my bank to report the charge.

  Business Response

  Date: 30/05/2023

  Good Day, 
  

  
  

  My name is ******* ***** *** I am the Acting General Manager at the Comfort Inn Sydney. We received a letter from your organization regarding a complaint filed by a Mrs. **** ******* , Case#20031529.  

  The previous General Manager left our property in early May *** we are doing a bit of re-organizing which is the reason for the delay in responding to your case.  From what we underst*** after looking into this complaint Mrs. ******* made the booking in October 2022 with a third party that made the reservation for her, the company was The reason I point this out is to let you know that we did not receive the booking directly so we did not bill Mrs. ******* as she had to pay  *** they would in turn pay us for the room, so we did not charge her account directly but  did. 

  Another issue we have with the reservation was she did not contact the hotel until April 21 which was 1 week after the booking to cancel the reservation not before the reservation as is stated in our hotel policy so when she contacted our front desk we could not really do much for her as  had already charged her account. We did try to explain to Mrs. ******* that she would have to contact to get her refund *** that we could do no more on our end until they contacted us. 

  That being said we have no problem with refunding her bill but to do so she must contact  *** in turn they must contact myself so I can process the refund on my end.

  Feel free to reach out if you have any other questions.

  ******* Patel

  
  

  Kind Regards,

  Customer Answer

  Date: 30/05/2023

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID 20031529, *** find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.

  Inever contacted the business on April 21st according to them. I contacted them on March 20th to confirm my reservation which I was told did not exist. My next phone call with them was after I noticed the charge on my card was still there considering I was told I had no reservation. When the hotel told me I needed to call ******** to get a refund, ******** replied that they needed permission from the hotel to reverse the charge. ******** put me on hold, called the hotel *** returned to tell me the hotel told them no to a refund. I will call ******** right now *** tell them to contact the hotel to allow for the charge to be reversed.