Question of the Day - 11 October 2018

For an expert opinion, we turned to Dr. Mehmet Erdem of the William F. College of Hotel Administration at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. “I'm happy to offer my five cents,” he replies. “It is indeed a major challenge to get all rooms ready by the 3 p.m. deadline in such megaresorts, especially when they are housing a variety of conventions. Attendees tend to arrive all in the same time frame (i.e. morning flights from the East Coast landing at Las Vegas around noontime). 

“It is always advisable for guests to arrange their travel so that the arrival time at the hotel is after the official check-in time. Some hotels, including many in Vegas, offer an early-check-in option for an additional fee. It is common practice in destination resorts such as those in Hawaii. 

“Regardless,” Dr. Erdem continues, “if a guest arrives at official check-in time or soon after, a room should be ready for them. If it is not, the front desk agents should be empowered to offer a remedy to recover the service-failure, i.e., free upgrade, complimentary parking, drink coupons, etc. I received complimentary parking for my entire stay last time I had experienced the same thing. 

“I am not sure if there are any legal grounds to seek any remedies (i.e., not honoring the contract). All hotels I know include a phrase in the reservation agreement stating that in the case a room is not available for a guaranteed reservation, they will substitute it with an alternative and comparable accommodation (what we call ‘walking the guest’). If the reservation was guaranteed via a credit card, the guest showed up on time, and they still don't have a room at all and the hotel fails to offer accommodations at another hotel (plus pay for the expenses to get the guest to the other hotel), then they are breaching their contract,” Erdem says.

“However, if the room is available, but not ready — again, I am not a legal expert — the hotel can argue against the breach-of-contract claim and I don't think such a claim will hold up in court.”

What Dr. Erdem is too polite to say (but we aren’t) is that a breach-of-contract suit over an unready hotel room is a disproportionate response to an inconvenience, sort of like launching a nuclear missile to take out a beehive.

At any rate, there’s not much a guest can do when his or her room isn't ready, except stew in frustration. Unpleasant, we know, but the deck is stacked in favor of the hotelier. Perhaps you can use the inconvenience to shame them into waiving the resort and/or parking fees. It’s a Hail Mary pass, we know, but it's certainly worth asking for.