Cancellation Struggles

Saturday, June 11

Saturday morning we confirmed that our Mainz Hotel can have us that night and we have Cindy call our hotel in Frankfurt to cancel. The story here gets complicated with many phone calls, much ranting, etc. Here's how it unfolded over the course of the day:

• Cindy calls the Frankfurt hotel around 8:30am. They say sure you can cancel but you'll have to arrange that through this booking agency and there may be some penalty.
• Cindy tries about 10 times to reach this booking agency, in yet some other city, only to always get a busy line.
• Around 9:00am Cindy solicits the help of our desk clerk.

We had a confirmed booking in Frankfurt and they have our MasterCard. Given our hassle over the 14DM breakfast we had not ordered in Cologne/Köln we are somewhat concerned about a 200DM bill for a room in Frankfurt that we will not occupy!

• The desk clerk at our hotel believes that you ought to be able to cancel without having to call some dumb booking agent. We go to breakfast and he calls the Frankfurt hotel.
• After breakfast our clerk tells us he got through and no we don't have to call the booking agent but we're going to get dinged for "our room" if it isn't picked up.
• We get Martin to call them around 11:00 when he arrives. He has lots of experience with hotels and such and understands the language. The conversation we overhear goes: "Professor Fry... herr doctor ... yah ... bitte ... Canadians ... nicht!" There's lots of loud emphatic German in this prolonged conversation and, while Martin agrees with us, he says "If they want to screw you they will and there's not much you can do about it."
• We have a big conflab with Martin and our motel desk clerk as we go out the door. Our clerk is to call back at 3:30 to see if "our" room in Frankfurt has been booked.

There is some fair or conference going on in Frankfurt and hotels are hard to book (that's why we reserved) but it also should mean that it's easy to cancel as there's lots of people looking for a scarce commodity and they should be able to charge a premium price. We had a better deal by advanced booking.

• While we are out with Martin the Frankfurt hotel manager calls Veronika, Martin's wife, and repeats much the same story. At around 1:30 the room has still not been booked and we're still going to get charged for it.
• The hotel clerk in Mainz calls Frankfurt at 3:30 and the same story is repeated
• Around 8:30pm Veronika calls the Frankfurt hotel to see if there is a single and a double available (our rooms). And there is! So I guess we're going to be charged.
• Around 9:00 we're back at our hotel in Mainz and get a message from our clerk about the 3:30 call they had made. We say many thanks, we appreciate all of your help.

We've long ago decided to let our booking agent Roger know about this experience so he and others are advised of what we understand to be really bizarre cancellation policies in Germany. This isn't a country where "the customer is always right".

Around 9:30 Kate recalls that Martin and Veronika mentioned that the hotel manager in Frankfurt was French. Perhaps sicking the Germans on them was a bad idea so she calls, she has a little French from her McGill days in Montreal, and the conversation we overhear goes something like this: "Bonjour, ici Dr. Graham ... Je parle un peu français ... oui, oui ... Je m'excuse ... s'il vous plaît ... mais, non! ...." It's clearly much to the same effect. Kate says the hotel manager softened up considerably when she spoke French but she heard the same story with these additions:

• Hey don't worry, the room will be booked.
• I've been holding this for you for two months.
• With the fair I've been turning away business to hold this for you.
• Why aren't you coming to Frankfurt?
• This room will rent for 500DM (we were on the hook for 200DM).
• Last minute cancellations hurt — "Yes, that's why we called first thing in the morning!"
• Kate asks, "Well what is your cancellation policy? When would it be acceptable?" But gets no answer.

Kate isn't confident that the rooms will go but he promises to call back at 8:30 on Sunday to let us know more. Around 10:00 he does call back and Reg talks to him first. He says, "I have got good news for you Mr. Graham your room has been booked!" But underneath there's a clear message: you've made my life tough with all these calls. The conversation continues:

"I'm really glad the room has been booked and I'm sorry about all these calls but we're from a country where making a morning cancellation is acceptable." 

"Yes, but I could have been out a lot of money." 

"Yes I know, but isn't that the price of doing business?" 

"We have lots of Canadians here and we really appreciate their business, etc. etc.

Kate got on and spoke a bit of French and got the same only in French. "Merci, merci. ... je comprends ... Bonne nuit, et merci".  The bottom line is this if they had just said, "Thanks for calling to cancel we appreciate your business. Please try us again" this would have been oh so simple. And we might tell all our friends how friendly and helpful they are at this Frankfurt hotel. Instead they've poisoned the well.