Dropped the Ball -$200

At the beginning of last month I registered for a conference for Denmark and at the same time put down a deposit on for a hotel, recommended through a company that is coordinating the conference. I vaguely remember checking the prices and doing the conversion from the Denmark kroner to Yen to find that it was about $100/night to stay and left it at that.

I would come back to check on the price again a month later to find out that the hotel I booked and came to realize that just today that the price per night was $200 and I would be staying there for 5 nights... ouch! Fortunately the lab is covering hotel costs, however only up to $100 per night meaning that I would be in the hole for $500 should I have gone that route.

I quickly sent off an e-mail to the coordinators to have my reservation changed to another hotel on their list that was in the $100 range. The problem, however, is that changing the hotel would cost me my $200 deposit and I would have to pay a new deposit on the next hotel I reserve! I was aghast! More over, they told me that the $100 room that I wanted was not available and they told me that a next class up room was available for $120.

Figuring that I had enough of this, I did a search through the net looking for a phone number directly to the hotel I wanted to stay at and gave them a ring. They told me that the room I wanted was available for $100. I told them yes and took the room; no deposit or anything required. The coordination company would have swindled me out of an extra $100 over 5 days had I left it up to them.

Yes, they had a policy that I would lose the deposit on their website if I canceled my reservation and they would charge if I had it changed. I dropped the ball on this one on making a bad reservation, but caught them in the act of trying to swindle me out of more cash when I tried to change my reservation.

So just as a note, don't let some organization take a deposit from you for a hotel booking. The key thing is that hotels don't generally take deposits, and even if it is a no show, you just lose the reservation. Also, it is always wise to call the hotel directly to make sure you aren't paying some kind of markup fee for some organization making a phone call and doing the reservation for you.

This, unfortunately, is my $200 lesson.