Matthew B.
Yelp
For my birthday, we wanted to get away for a night and made a reservation through Hotels.com at the Cambria Hotel on 1320 Centre Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15219 for Friday, August 14th (confirmation number 9196576407952).
When we arrived, I attempted to enter the lobby through two sets of sliding glass doors. One automatically opened, the second did not. There were no signs posted indicating this was a pandemic policy or the doors were locked for another reason or were broken. However, I could see the desk clerk helping a guest presumably check-in. So, I stood there for 5+ minutes without the clerk ever indicating to me that he would be with me or assuring me I was following correct procedure. I eventually gained access to the lobby only when another guest was leaving the hotel and activated the doors from the inside. Even then, the desk clerk never looked up at me or gave me any indication I was doing the correct thing by entering the lobby (all this can be confirmed by hotel video).
I continued to stand in the lobby waiting for additional 5-10 minutes without being acknowledged. It became apparent to me the guest the desk clerk had been helping this entire time was checking-in multiple guests for multiple rooms. Finally, I asked if the desk clerk (from 6ft away with a mask on) if he was the only available employee to check-in guests. Certainly, there had to be more than one desk clerk staffed on a Friday evening. He informed me he was the only one and told me that during these time (pandemic I presume) people shouldn't get so worked up over little things.
I then told him some direction as to what to do while standing in front of the locked door like a fool for 5+ minutes would have been appreciated or acknowledging my presence at any time while I was waiting would have been appropriate (even a single finger in the air to tell me to wait a minute would have been sufficient). Things went south real fast after that. I was surprised by how unapologetic and confrontational the desk clerk was towards my concerns.
Eventually, I decided I did not feel comfortable moving forward staying at a hotel with an abusive, disgruntled employee assisting me (I did ask to speak to the manager, and he informed me he was the manager). I asked that my room be canceled. He clicked a few keys on the keyboard and said, "done." I insisted he print me off something stating that my room was canceled, which he did with a cancellation number 483753144.
When I got back to the car and told my partner we had to find another hotel for the night, he informed me that despite the cancellation, we might still be charged. My partner decided to go in and try to talk to the desk clerk to see if there was a possible resolution. The desk clerk informed him "what's done is done" and "good luck getting refunded."
At that point, we booked a room at the Hilton in Monroeville through Hotels.com. On our way there, I contacted Hotels.com through their chat feature to make sure we wouldn't be charged for the Cambria room. In the end, they said because of the cancelation policy the only thing they could do was offer us $40 credit towards our next hotel stay. I am not interested in a credit. Hotels.com has to do a better job at protecting their users from abusive customer service (and for the record you can see on my Hotels.com account we paid more and had to drive across town for a room at the Hilton that night; proof we weren't being irrational or trying to cancel our room for any other reasons than stated)
No one should be expected to feel that uncomfortable or spend money where such little thought goes into assisting guests during a pandemic. It felt like I was a burden to the overwhelmed desk clerk who obviously hates his understaffed job. The desk clerk's responses to my concerns were confrontational and abusive. He could have easily acknowledged my presence while standing at the locked door or opened the door an told me that it will be awhile as he checks in the multiple guests and suggest I wait in my car. But he chose to not make eye contact and ignore me at all costs.
When we checked into the Hilton, we contacted my credit card and began the process of refuting the charges. I would hope under these circumstances, Hotels.com/ Cambria lets these charges get reversed. If not, my next step will be to contact the Better Business Bureau.
