ULPT reqyest: Hotel blasting loud music from rooftop bar until midnight. Getting back at it for ruined night?
Stayed at a really nice hotel in Athens with my parents and was expecting a relaxing stay but we got the opposite. They were playing music so loud that you could feel the vibrations when sitting on the toilet. All 3 nights we stayed there this was an issue and the staff was pretty dismissive saying it’s only until 11:30-00 but the noise lasted until 1 AM. We paid quite a bit of money to sleep 4-5h per night and get blasted with electronic music. Is there anything I could do that makes it obvious this is not okay, that people are aware of this shitty situation?
Posted May 29, 2023, 11:54 AM UTC
251106
The best solution for this is not illegal nor unethical. You start by calling the hotel, get ahold of a manager. You calmly and politely explain your experience and express that you were dissatisfied. Explain the steps you took to remedy the situation, such as speaking to the front desk and requested a different room or whatever you did. Ask for a refund. There's a chance they just refund you and it's done. If they don't offer a refund, they may offer a credit for another stay or other things like free upgrades, politely decline and reiterate that you would like a refund. They may still decline. At this point you hang up, you document everything in detail. How many times you spoke to the front desk, the name of the manager you spoke to, the date you spoke to them etc. Then you call your credit card company and ask them to do a charge back since you did not receive the services you were charged for. The credit card company will ask you for all your documents and the majority of the time they will side with you and take the money from the hotel and refund you.
That's a lot more work than making a pissdisk
But i guess if it works...
It's more work but if I paid a few hundred dollars a night for a room I didn't enjoy, I'd much rather have that $900 back than petty revenge and no money. Also, nobody is saying OP can't do both...
Who is paying $300 a night?
Many people do. I have in the past paid more and less than that, depending on the hotel.
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Your reply to my comment makes no sense and has nothing to do with the topic at hand. Nobody here is discussing college towns.
Yeah but you gotta find something to do while your pissdisk freezes
This is what adults do, no arguing or fighting. You payed for a service that was not given. So in a way you get a free vacation and they get the shaft. I would 100% do this. Anything else but getting a full refund is a win in their books.
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Thank you! If the trip was booked through trip.com I imagine the first place to go is them since they’re the ones that charged me?
That's a good question. I can't be certain, however from my understanding of the situation. You already had tried to deal with it at the time with the front desk and they were unsympathetic to your plight. So I'd say you've already given them the chance to resolve it and they refused. So now I would speak with trip, be very deliberate and thorough in explaining to them what the problem was, what steps you took at the hotel, how many times you spoke with the front desk about it, etc. If you have names of the clerks you spoke with. Basically from there just follow the steps I laid out, ask trip for a refund and then go to the credit card after that if it doesn't work. Document everything, everyone you speak to, dates etc. It's pretty simple, just a bit time consuming and the more organized and thorough you are, the smoother things will go.
That’s all up my alley. Thank you so much, I’ve already started down this path.
Oof 90% of the reason those middle men sites exist is to make customer support impossible
Yes, go through trip.com and be persistent. I’ve had to do it before and it wasn’t even that bad (just a bit of waiting on hold)
Great news thank you!
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Would this actually work? I feel like at some point the CC company won't go that far for someone who basically had buyer's remorse.
Edit: buyer's remorse was a poor choice of words in this case... I was thinking how the CC company would dismiss it because it wasn't a tangible product to return
Yes it works. Credit card companies will bend over backwards and gladly fuck over vendors for their customers. The only way it won't work is if you have an iron clad contract with the vendor and the vendor responds to the credit card company in the allotted time and provides the correct documentation to prove it. Or they can prove that the product or service was actually provided. The only thing the credit card company asks of you is that you contacted the vendor first and tried to resolve it with them and then if that didn't work the credit card company will issue a charge back to the vendor and the vendor has a small. Window of time to reply and prove why the charge back should not apply. Most vendors don't reply or don't reply in time or the credit card company doesn't care about the proof and refunds you anyway.
Wow good to know, thanks. I didn't think they would help with anything more than fraud protection.
It's actually pretty ridiculous what you can get away with, asking for chargebacks. They do keep track though so if you're a serial abuser they will have notes and stop doing it. You could, for example go to a fancy corporate owned night club with a few friends and get a private booth and bottle service. Rack up a $500 tab and then when the cheque comes pay with your credit card and sign with a signature that doesn't look like yours. Leave a big fat tip in cash for the waitress. Then call the credit card company and say you don't recognize the charge. They will ask the club for the signed slip and you say that's not my signature. They will refund you guaranteed. Now that being said if the tab isn't outrageous the club will just write it off as loss. If you racked up $10,000 though, they would call the police and show video evidence and you would be charged with fraud.
I would say it’s not buyer’s remorse.
A basic function of a hotel room is to sleep. If the hotel does not provide a place that is quiet enough that a normal person can sleep, they have not delivered the product.
If you can feel the toilet vibrating, that’s not a place threat a normal person can sleep.
Yeah I guess I didn't mean it in the traditional/literal sense. Saying it's buyer's remorse is a bit reductive. More buyer beware type of thing. Hotel is definitely in the wrong here, but there isn't a tangible product to return. I didn't know CC companies can help in these cases.
There are different types of hotels though.
If its a party hotel, the primary function isn’t sleep, its partying.
So they did deliver the product, the fact you were looking for something else doesn’t change that.
Looking into the hotel, they specifically say you’ll be drenched in the nightlife soaked atmosphere and never have a dull moment.
If it’s advertised as “you won’t be able to sleep here” I will agree.
How about the fact that the “quiet” hours for the city are 23:00-07:00? The hotel is in the center of town, is blasting music disturbing guests and visitors later than the normal hours. Also at no point are they give you a warning that you can only sleep starting midnight.
I used to work in chargebacks, this isn’t how it works. They paid for a night in a hotel, they got a night in a hotel. How much sleep they got has no bearing on whether the room they paid for was provided. This would not work at all at least in the UK, Visa and Mastercard have rules and vendors can and do dispute chargebacks. There’s no way this is a valid claim.
I work for a credit card issuer and can confirm this is correct for Visa, Mastercard and American Express. If you stayed the whole night you do not have valid dispute rights regardless of how bad it was. You would have to cancel and leave due to the poor conditions if you wanted to have valid dispute rights.
I worked for 4 years for a credit card company and this absolutely is how chargebacks work. I have also personally abused the chargeback system many many many times over the years and I have never had a Credit card company take the vendors side. It doesn't matter whether this is a "valid" claim in the sense of fairness or whatever. It only matters that the credit card company will most likely process the chargeback and refund the user.
I worked for 4 years for a credit card company and this absolutely is how chargebacks work. I have also personally abused the chargeback system many many many times over the years and I have never had a Credit card company take the vendors side. It doesn't matter whether this is a "valid" claim in the sense of fairness or whatever. It only matters that the credit card company will most likely process the chargeback and refund the user.
Then we don’t want it here haha.
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Bitchmove and actually extremely unethical. Just because you didn't enjoy your stay doesn't entitle you to a full refund.
Lol. You must be North American. I can assure you customer service in Europe is vastly different. Especially in the southern countries like Greece and Italy.