How we beat the hospitality shell game

This space is usually devoted to expressing opinions on a variety of topics. Sometimes people disagree with those opinions, and sometimes people get genuinely ticked off at me for spouting them.

But trust me, this is one piece you might want to file away for future reference − especially if you plan to travel in the year ahead.

My family and I embarked on an awesome road trip to the Carolinas last summer. The only setbacks took place at two different hotels on the same night, in the same town of Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina. And that's when we ran into what I'll call the Hospitality Shell Game.

The details are too complicated to completely explore in this limited space, but it basically boils down to this:

While on the road, we booked through BringFido.com a room at a local national franchise hotel we'll call Chain Number One on a Saturday evening, as we were traveling with our two pups. But after checking in, we discovered our first-floor room had a damaged window that wouldn't close or lock. My family didn't feel especially safe in such an arrangement. The front desk clerk offered us a room on the second floor, located on the other side of the building.

This room also wasn't suitable, and my wife – who has an uncanny intuition about these things − suggested we'd be better off elsewhere. Let's just say this particular hotel didn't match our usual expectations of quality related to Chain Number One

We informed the young lady at the front desk we were going to try another hotel instead. She told us only the general manager could give us a full refund and that individual wouldn't be back until the following morning.

So we got back in the car and my wife again booked a room on her phone through BringFido.com at a different hotel associated with Chain Number Two, located within view of the first, less than half a mile away. She got an error message on her first attempt, but the second one went through.

She informed the front desk staff about the issue when checking in, and they assured her we would only be charged for the room we occupied. A power outage in the area necessitated the manual input of credit card information but we got our room and had a lovely stay.

After departing the next morning – which happened to be my birthday − we swung by Chain Number One again to ask about our refund. The manager was in, but claimed she couldn't give us a full refund because, according to the woman working the desk the previous night, we had the room for two hours. I assured her that was absolutely incorrect. She responded by saying something like, “Well, I don't know why she would lie.”

The point being, I suppose, that I must be the one lying.

She didn't bother to check her records or anything else, but simply had another employee provide me a phone number for the Chain Number One corporate office. We then went back to the other establishment where we had actually stayed (Chain Number Two) and obtained a copy of our receipt from that visit, which displayed a check-in time verifying we couldn't have been at Chain Number One for two hours.

But later we realized we had indeed been charged for two rooms at the Chain Number Two. Then the shell game began.

Since we had booked both visits through a third party – BringFido.com – we were told they would have to contact the hotels on our behalf. In the meantime, we also registered complaints by phone with the corporate offices of both chains. What followed was a round robin in which these intermediaries would try to call the respective hotels, we would follow up with the third-party reps or corporate community relations on their progress, and they would tell us they hadn't heard back yet. Then, at our insistence, these third parties would start the cycle all over again.

At one point, however, once the Chain Number One manager was advised of the evidence showing we were not in the unsatisfactory room for two hours, she told these two parties she couldn't provide a refund because we had been there for ONE hour.

These intermediaries acknowledged there is nothing they can do to compel these hotels to take any action.

We were fairly certain the corporate offices would at least make an effort to prevent an independent establishment from sullying their good name, but apparently each site is an individual franchise and only that establishment can determine whether to refund a payment. Through the simple tactic of avoidance, these hotels appeared to be buffered from accountability.

A couple of times, we were advised by these third parties to request a reversal of charges from our credit card company, which in this case was the debit card from our local bank. We assumed this would be a complex procedure and hoped instead these managers would just see the reasonableness of refunding our money. We were essentially being charged a total of about $400 for two rooms in two hotels we never occupied.

After weeks of frustration evolved into months, a lawyer acquaintance provided some friendly advice which ultimately resulted in our bank reclaiming both charges through our card. While hiring an attorney to settle a $400 dispute may not be practical, there are some things to consider if you wish to resolve matters like this yourself.

● Make sure interactions with the business in question are in writing, to be forwarded as evidence to your credit institution when disputing the charge.

● Dispute inaccurate charges within 60 days of the transaction, and demand prompt action from your bank or credit card company.

● Assertively emphasize the non-receipt of services for which the charges were imposed. This establishes that the charges were unauthorized.

● Follow up monthly on their progress toward resolution.

The bottom line here is that we as consumers are not helpless. If someone tries to stiff you out of your hard-earned money, there may be more recourse to reclaiming these funds than you thought.