I would first ask if you have the cancellation number that they give out. But, most people dont keep this information. Hotels are held to pretty strigdent rules regarding paying. That is why you have to sign something when you come in and why they will usually swipe or imprint your credit card. Without that kind of proof anyone can say that they were never at the hotel and get their charges reversed. Holiday Inn is part of the Intercontinental hotel group (I just looked it up to double check)... if you continue to have problems contact them. Hotels are under flags like hampton inn is a hilton hotel brand... although each hotel may have an individual owner... kind of like franchise. They are held to very strict rules of conduct and risk losing flagship for complaints made. I can gaurantee that if you contact that flagship... you will get an almost immediate response... gms do not take these lightly. These kind of complaints (especially at the smaller hotels) go directly to the gm and is passed down. But, what comes from the big dog is not usually looked over.

I worked in hotel management for years and more likely than not someone didnt finish cancelling out your reservations like they should have (probably the chick trying to fix the mistake) so when night audit ran the days totals ...yours got charged a no show fee.

You have really done everything you can do to correct the problem and you might not hear anything until Monday because of the holidays.

It could be (and should be) that they will determine they are in error and do the right thing and back off the charges. I hope that is the case.

But if they do not, you've got small claims court. It will cost Holiday Inn more money to go to court than it will be to back-off the charges. If they don't show, you win. If they do show, come forth with your documentation. I think a smart judge would give you the benefit of the doubt, particularly if you preserve your documentation and be precise about who you talked to when making/cancelling reservations, when you did it, etc.

Good luck and keep us posted!

i always get the cancellation number and take it with on my trip. i had a hotel do that to me also.

To be more exact, InterContinental owns the Holiday Inn brand name -- so the franchise company. They have thousands of companies and/or individuals who own the physical hotels, PLUS another few hundred management companies running them. So InterContinental is pretty far removed from the scene.

The advice to call Holiday Inn #1 directly was actually the best advice. Please give them another few days to call you, and/or follow up with them -- again allowing a few days. The time between Christmas and New Years is generally very sparcely staffed in most hotels; plus when you figure in year-end book-keeping, the accounting office becomes a huge catch-up during the first week or two of January. So if they don't call you back -- call them. Be clear, firm and polite, because the young person who gets your call is probably going to have to do a lot of research to substantiate your claim and process your refund. (And it wasn't her/his fault -- separate departments entirely.)

The 800# probably didn't make a complete record of your cancellation, or else the mix-up wouldn't have happened. Which means the 800# won't be able to fix it. Rest assured that the hotel itself experiences this a lot from their 800#, and is sick of the paperwork messes.

If that doesn't work, call your credit card company and find out how to file a protest. Since your story makes perfect sense and you can provide cancellation dates and show your charges at the OTHER Holiday Inn, they should process your refund fairly quickly. If nothing else gets the first Holiday Inn's attention, that will. Most likely, if they didn't return your phone call, they'll let it drop. It takes a lot of work for them to make the credit card charges stick.

they are fairly removed from the scene but if you still dont receive a response from holiday inn... then that is an avenue to persue... and from experience with (not you but there are those out there) painfully unable to satisfy guests that choose to take it to that level... there are written reports apologies and resolutions to the problem that have to be completed. Not to mention follow up on behalf on mgt heads to make sure the customer will again be a repeat customer of the brand... Hotel flags are very much the customer is always right.... especially when there is a valid complaint.

I cant even tell you the amount of paper work and butt kissing that was involved when folks complained to 'flagship' when our water went out one night. Completely unforseeable and we were offering refunds... but still sooo many people complained and flagships biggest concern was to make sure they came back to flagship in one form or another... it makes it even worse if you are a vip member (for IHG it the priority club or something like that)

you have to keep record of every conversation, cancellation, numbers, confirmations etc. i can't tell you how many times i was charged mistakenly, overcharged, lied about cacellations etc. the only way to deal with it, kep everything, record everything. my parents recently had to pull their 10 year old car insurance policy to prove something. i am telling you it is crazy but it is the only way.
my dad ended up filing at a small claim court over similar situation and he was refunded the money and got compensation. it is a lot of work though. i am sorry...you must be frustrated.

I sometimes read a travel troubleshooter column, and he often recommends sending a postal-mail letter to corporate when a problem isn't being resolved. He usually says that there's a point beyond which phone/e-mail just doesn't get the response you want, but postal mail grabs a little more attention. If Sweeby's advice doesn't get things sorted out within the next couple of weeks, I'd write that letter.

Thanks for all your advice! I am going to keep calling the hotel branch directly. Then Monday I will go ahead and call Intercontinental. If that does not work I am writing a letter.

most businesses know that when they are asked to sign for a letter that a law suit is the next step. i have done that 3 or 4 times and got favorable results right away.

Helpwiththis -- A little patience please! There has barely been one regular 'business' day since this thing happened. (If you can call Friday a regular 'business' day.)

While it's true that hotels operate 24/7, these types of refunds are handled by a property's accounting office, and those folks DO work normal hours.

Please give the hotel a fair shot at fixing this (a few days) before running to 'Corporate' or threatening lawsuits. And again, while I'm sure you're in the right and will prevail in your request, is IS a nuisance on the part of the little clerk doing the work, so some extra patience and kindness on your part will go a long way.

I would listen to sweeby on at least waiting until monday to let the hotel work it out... give them a moment... however I will say that in every hotel I have worked for the front office is perfectly capable and trained in working out credits to accounts over charged or charged incorrectly. They almost always have access to reciepts and what not to handle the problem quickly. But given the nature of the weekend holidays sports events and the such... try calling monday.

Well yesterday I finally got a call from the Holiday Inn that charged me for 4 rooms and the manager said he would get it all taken care of. I told him that I should get 2 free rooms for my inconvenience. He said he could do one and I said that since I have overpaid for 6 rooms between the two hotels and am going to be paying late fees on bills I can not pay since they have $1600 of my money that 2 rooms is the least they can do. He said he would speak to the general manager.

Today I looked at my bank statement online and only one room was refunded. So I called the general manager directly this morning and told him of only one room being refunded. He apologized and said he thought everything had been taken care of yesterday and he would get to the bottom of it today. I also asked him about the 2 rooms and he said no problem! That Holiday Inn has an indoor waterpark so that will be a lot of fun for our kids and we are going to bring another couple and their kids with as well when we go.

As for the Holiday Inn I did stay at that overcharged me for two rooms. Well they said right away that they would take care of it, but they still have not. I left a message for their general manager and I am going to insist on free rooms there too for the inconvenience.

This has all been such a hassle! Free rooms at each is the least they can do.

Lesson learned--I will never book with a debit card instead of a regular credit card again!

"Lesson learned--I will never book with a debit card instead of a regular credit card again!"

This is something everyone needs to know: NEVER use a Debit card to reserve anything! When a hotel, airline, rental car company or any other service provider gets a card number up front, they place a 'hold' against available funds. In every circumstance I've ever heard of, the hold they place is the largest reasonable estimate of the charges. And the holds generally aren't released until the transaction has been completed or the day after. Fair? Probably not. But that's the way the whole industry works. So use a CREDIT card instead, and if you travel a lot, get your credit limit raised high enough to cover the unexpected.

Absolutely!! I try to warn every person who comes into my hotel not to use a debit card... But, some people just dont quite get it.

For hotels the hold is generally the room +tax
(and remember tax for hotels can be as much as 20 percent and then some depending on where they are at) plus anywhere from 5 to 50 dollars per day for possible amenities purchased. That is a huge chunk of change that you can not touch in your bank account. And like Sweeby said those charges are not released until the night audit run the day you check out and we always tell our guests it can take up to 3 business days for your bank to release the funds... depends on your bank. Debit cards are not your friend when it comes to hotels and the like