appreciate

We appreciate all you did to make us feel special.
Anonymous
10/21/2008

My ratings for this property

Unreasonable and Uncompromising

I was invited to a wedding in the Berkshires and heard that accommodations there are very difficult to find. To make sure I had a place to stay, my friend and I booked two nights at the New Boston Inn. We were very careful to ask for their cancellation policy since we were unsure of whether or not we would end up staying there, and were told that we had 2 weeks prior to the reservation to cancel. My friends and I canceled in advance of their policy and assumed that once we called and canceled the New Boston Inn would cross our names out or enter into their computer that our reservation had been canceled. Apparently, this was expecting too much. One week after the wedding, my friend's credit card was charged for the stay at the New Boston Inn. We assumed there was a simple error on their part and she called prior to leaving the country for two weeks and left a message explaining the error as well as an email explaining the error. She never received any return communication. I then called in her absence to clarify and spoke to one of the three women on staff. She looked at the reservation book, saw that no one on their staff had recorded our cancellation, and essentially told me that bc she had no record of it, and I had no way to prove that we had called to cancel, she did not believe me. I pointed out that because the New Boston Inn provides no record of cancellation, nor do they call their guests to confirm reservations, we had no way of knowing that they had not entered our cancellation into their system (which she described to me as a ledger book that they write into in pencil). My friend, upon returning to the country, also called to try to explain that she had canceled the reservation, but the staff person she spoke to refused to believe her. I have never dealt with a company who was so utterly unresponsive to what I believe was a very reasonable, run-of-the-mill misunderstanding. When we first saw that my friend's card had been charged, I had no doubt that we could call the Inn and resolve the issue easily. She is now having to dispute the charge through her credit card company, or contemplate bringing a small claims suit against them, and go through a major inconvenience. Two weeks later I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express in Mystic, CT and the experience my boyfriend and I had there stood in stark contrast-- they were completely accommodating when he asked at the last minute to change a reservation and were courteous and helpful on the phone and in person. Although I realize that the two companies run different kinds of operations, it struck me how badly and unreasonably we had been treated by the New Boston Inn.We have told our story to everyone who attended the wedding, including the groom's parents who live nearby and often have guests from out of town looking for places to stay. They will never recommend the New Boston Inn again.
Unhappy Customer
8/22/2008

My ratings for this property