{"id":7334,"date":"2012-09-14T07:51:55","date_gmt":"2012-09-14T12:51:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/?p=7334"},"modified":"2012-09-14T08:04:54","modified_gmt":"2012-09-14T13:04:54","slug":"in-which-she-narrowly-averts-fratricide-in-a-hotel-double-bed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/2012\/09\/14\/in-which-she-narrowly-averts-fratricide-in-a-hotel-double-bed\/","title":{"rendered":"In which she narrowly averts fratricide in a hotel double bed"},"content":{"rendered":"

O<\/span>ne of my pet peeves about travel is that many hotels will not accommodate a family of five in a single room. When making a booking, before I check availability or other amenities, I always check to see whether they’ll accomodate two adults and three children in one room.<\/p>\n

That’s what I was doing yesterday when I made a booking. The hotel’s website allowed me to select a room for two adults and three kids, and the online reviews were decent. The location was pretty good and the amenities were acceptable. Perfect! I had one more question that I couldn’t see addressed on the website, so I called and had my question answered, and the agent offered to book my reservation. <\/p>\n

We went through everything: arrival and departure dates, number of guests, credit card number, etc. He asked for the ages of the boys and I gave it to him. We ended up with a room with two double beds, which would be tight, but we usually divide one kid per parent and the extra on whatever cot or pull-out is available. It was only for one night, so we could squeeze in. At $159, it was about what I expected to spend.<\/p>\n

An hour or so later, when I checked my e-mail reservation, the price was stated as $219, but when I clicked through to the website, it confirmed the $159 price. So I called, and the agent confirmed the lesser price, which was good. “By the way,” I said, “I noticed when I was double checking the rates that you have a pool-side room for the same price. Can we have that?” <\/p>\n

He put me on hold and checked. “Sure, I could do that, but it’s $175.”<\/p>\n

Me:<\/strong> “No it’s not, it’s $159, I’m looking at it on your website.”<\/p>\n

Him:<\/strong> “Oh, that’s the price for non-bed and breakfast. You have the bed and breakfast package.”<\/p>\n

Me:<\/strong> “I don’t want a bed and breakfast price, I just want a bed. And a poolside room. Wait, I’m being charged for breakfast?”<\/p>\n

Him: <\/strong>“Okay, can I put you on hold?” *pause* “Thanks for waiting. We only have bed and breakfast availabilities at that time.”<\/p>\n

Me:<\/strong> “What?! You’re charging me for a breakfast I don’t want? That’s crazy! You can’t force me to pay extra for breakfast when you have non-breakfast rates on your website!”<\/p>\n

Him:<\/strong> *unhelpful stammering*<\/p>\n

Me:<\/strong> “Okay, putting that aside for a second, can you tell me if the poolside rooms are larger? Do they have a pull-out sofa or more room for the cot?”<\/p>\n

Him: <\/strong>“Okay, can I put you on hold?” *pause* “The double room doesn’t have a sofa bed. We can provide you with a cot for $15.”<\/p>\n

Me:<\/strong> “WHAT?! You’re going to charge me extra for the cot? Where the heck did you think the fifth person was going to sleep, in the bathtub?”<\/p>\n

Him, clearly wishing he was anywhere else except taking the call from increasingly crazy lady:<\/strong> “Well, they’re kids, right? They can sleep in the bed together?”<\/p>\n

I almost laugh at the idea. I can barely get them to share a living room at times, let alone a double bed. 170 collective pounds and twelve sprawling, poking, shoving limbs vying for real estate in one double bed had all the makings of a cage match. So not going to happen.<\/p>\n

Needless to say, I cancelled the reservation. I’ve found a much nicer and more accommodating Holiday Inn Express for pretty much the same price with a junior suite: two queen beds and a queen-sized pull-out sofa. And free wifi, too! No children will be sacrificed to the gods of peaceful sleep during this hotel sojourn.<\/p>\n

Moral of the story: Beware of hidden fees, and always ensure that each person has an actual place to sleep the next time you book a hotel room! <\/p>\n

PS I thought about outing the hotel here, which is probably one of the most recognizable names in the industry and really a brand I had equated with a higher level of class and service — but I decided that it’s more about the funny story than the axe to grind with a particular chain. But still!<\/em><\/p>\n

PPS This hotel booking is part of a VERY EXCITING ADVENTURE coming up for us next month and I am squirming to tell you about it. Let’s just say if you thought the Mexico adventure was cool, you ain’t seen nothing yet!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of my pet peeves about travel is that many hotels will not accommodate a family of five in a single room. When making a booking, before I check availability or other amenities, I always check to see whether they’ll accomodate two adults and three children in one room. That’s what I was doing yesterday … Continue reading “In which she narrowly averts fratricide in a hotel double bed”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-away-we-go"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7334"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7337,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7334\/revisions\/7337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}