What to do if the owner canceled the reservation at the last moment

In the morning in Calgary, before heading to Radium Hot Springs, we received a message from Buking that our host at Radium Hot Springs canceled our reservation made six months ago. What to do?

I will accompany the story with pictures of the mountain bighorn goats that literally occupied the streets of Radium Hot Springs, where we lived. And in the mornings we always came to our motel on the veranda for a barbecue, there are pears that attacked overnight from three large trees.

We drove a company of 5 people. All adults. In fact - three different families. Therefore, it is desirable that there are three separate bedrooms, or at least two + a large lounge, in which there is a folding sofa bed, which is not easy to find on our route, where housing for 5 people is usually three double beds in one room - an option for a family with children, but not for us.
Our travel schedule is pretty tight. Canada is not a cheap country to travel at all. They didn’t plan to go to restaurants, because apart from the prices, they simply did not have enough time or energy, usually quickly jumped into the store, and then they cooked dinner themselves, washing themselves after the trips.

Therefore, I searched and booked all accommodation in advance - more than half a year. And then after the order, two or three more times I wrote to the owners different messages with questions - I checked whether they remember our reservation and if there were any problems. The last time I did this a couple of weeks before our trip.

And so, arriving late in the evening in Calgary, in the morning we receive a message from Bucking that the owner of the motel canceled our reservation for the next two nights at the last moment. And in return, he (in this case, the owner) offers us a “similar” accommodation for 5 people in some other Radium motel. If we agree, confirm the cancellation.

Glancing briefly at the proposed option, I immediately realized that we did not agree at all.

We ordered the largest apartments in Motel Tyrol - with two bedrooms and a living room, with a folding sofa bed, with a full kitchen and a pool + jacuzzi in the motel itself. The "similar" option, which was offered to us in return, consisted of three large beds in one room, without a kitchen and without a jacuzzi in the territory.

I tried to look that there is another one suitable for us at Bucking, and immediately closed it. Today is Saturday and the season itself (early September) - the options for the remaining housing are five to three to four times more expensive than the price at which we booked. In addition, the phone is not convenient to view different options and compare them. Having realized that we’ll just lose time no matter what, and besides spoil our mood, we spit on everything and just decide that we will sort it out on arrival at Radium. The only thing we’ll try to get there is at 5-6 o’clock at least before dark. In the meantime, we are going according to our program.

And our day went just fine.

And so we arrive at Radium Hot Springs in our motel booked by us. Yeah, the motel is not burned out, it’s not closed, cars are in the parking lot, guests are also visible.

Come with your reservation at the reception.

The owner is either German or Austrian, about 50-60 years old. At first, he pretends to be glad of our arrival, then, after hearing the name of the reservation, he immediately changes in person, becomes angry-aggressive and declares that he doesn’t have a reservation for this name at all. It seems that he examined the country where we are from already on the day of arrival.

In response, she receives a printout from Booking with the number and code.

Again, he depicts a long search in his ledger and declares that he canceled our reservation, and in return at his own expense he ordered us another motel, similar.

- Well, how similar - there is no swimming pool, no jacuzzi, no kitchen and separate bedrooms ... And in general, we wrote to you for the last time a week ago - everything was in order. Therefore, we want to get our number, and if not, to see it and get a clear reason and answer why we cannot check into it and why our reservation was canceled at the last moment.

In response, we hear another lie that since September, neither the pools, nor the jacuzzi have been working in motels (despite the fact that they work year-round), and in general, the motel where he sends us to, which is better than this, he even had to pay extra. But he’s not going to show and explain anything to us, and in general, if you don’t like something, write me a bad review in Booking.

At the same time, he talks to us defiantly rudely and simply brazenly kicks us out.

Of course, in this regard, give us at least three rooms in his motel instead of our one — we don’t want to stay here.

We arrive at the motel where he sent us. We look at the number. As expected - there is no kitchen, there are two rooms: one has one bed, the other two. We tell the hostess the situation, we see that she is terribly uncomfortable for the behavior of that man, she shows us that she has one more room - a bedroom and a living room with kitchen. Oh, such two numbers on all of us are suitable. But for the second number we have to pay ourselves (she called the previous motel, he naturally refused to pay). Do we really want to pay twice as much as what was ordered?

And here the communication algorithm in Bucking comes into action, laid out on the shelves at the time. That is why I did not worry at all in the morning.

And here I have one important addition!

When you make a reservation, make it on a site option in your own language.

Now you will understand why.

You can print the reservation in any of three options - in English, in your own language, or in the language of the country you are traveling to.

At the end of the reservation printout there is always a toll-free number (for the country in which you have booked your accommodation) to contact Bucking Support - 24/7.

We hand the phone to Vika, she speaks English best of all, we call.

And lo! - in Russian (I made all reservations in the Russian version of the site) an employee of Buking with a fabulous name Bakhtiyar answers us.

We are talking to him. We complain, tell the situation. We explain that we need at least three separate sleeping rooms + a full kitchen. And yes, there is another room in this motel. Bucking agrees to rent this room for us, but while Bakhtiyar calls this motel, the room is already occupied by other tourists arriving during this time.

Then we call Bakhtiyar, then he calls us.

Now, he has already found for us to replace another motel in the neighborhood - Radium Park Lodge - two rooms for five. We drive there. Everything would be fine, but there is no kitchen in this room. We are talking with the owner of the Korean. We find out that he has a suite - two bedrooms + a living room with a kitchen, but the sofa in the lounge does not fold out for sleeping. And then show us any other room for 1-2 - just with a shower-bath. There is one. But none of these numbers are stated in Bucking.

We talk again with Bakhtiyar. He consults with his manager.

We get the go-pay for these two numbers, and then send a check to the Bucking, we will refund the price difference with your reservation. And the difference was two times.

We are wondering if we can write a bad review about Motel Tyrol? It turns out that no, because the reservation has been canceled. But do not worry, he also made us very angry - we will recover all this price difference from him. Hurrah!!!

What more i can say? Two days before departure, we made a scan of the check for payment and sent it to Booking. And while we were sitting at breakfast, we already received an answer that the price difference was returned to our card.

And yes, both the pool and the jacuzzi worked in this motel, and even - a nice bonus - included breakfast.

We were more than satisfied with the work of Booking. Bakhtiyar got a thank you note - he spent two hours with us, dealing only with our problem.

And do not forget - make a reservation on the site version, in the language that you are fluent in.