My stay experience at Holiday Inn
Warm experience:
On December 28, I accidentally booked the wrong date for the hotel. A very kind and enthusiastic front desk girl helped me cancel the incorrect reservation from my perspective. She told me at the time that she didn’t want me to waste a night’s room fee. Her kindness has left a lasting impression on me, and I will remember her for the rest of my life.
Negative experience:
I checked in on December 30 and checked out on January 2 at 11:00 AM. That evening, I noticed two unauthorized charges on my account: $10.98 and $5.
According to the billing information, these two charges were actually triggered on December 30 and December 31, respectively, but they only appeared on the statement simultaneously on the evening of my final checkout.
During check-in, I clearly informed the front desk that I did not have a vehicle, and during my stay, I neither consumed alcohol nor made any other purchases.
Communication and issue handling:
On January 3 at 1:18 PM, I contacted the hotel to dispute these charges. Although the hotel replied, the issue was never resolved (details can be seen in the screenshots).
The hotel’s first response requested “confirmation number or name” (note: “or,” not “and”), so I provided the reservation confirmation number. At that time, I provided the confirmation number for the January 2 checkout, because before that, I did not know the actual trigger dates of these two charges.
Afterwards, the hotel either said they had not received my email or that the information was incomplete.
On January 7 at 8:38 AM, I replied again and added my full name (I believed that providing my full name would allow them to locate all my reservations), but I have not received any response from the hotel since then.
After checking other reviews, I found that similar small unauthorized charges are not isolated incidents.
Reason for switching hotels:
The room with a balcony on the second floor had bedbugs, and all the rooms I stayed in had bathtubs, which I do not like for showering. In addition, due to an uncertain schedule, I often check in and out multiple times, resulting in multiple deposit charges. I have a poor memory and find it difficult to accurately track whether each deposit has been successfully refunded. Therefore, I chose another nearby hotel where deposits are refunded very quickly (fastest in a few minutes, slowest within 2.5 hours), to avoid unnecessary hassle.