Lucy Liu

Review of The Ritz-Carlton Hotels of Bos...

BE AWARE of the hotel practice of OVERBOOKING!

BE AWARE of the hotel practice of OVERBOOKING!
We are SPG platinum elite. We arrived at the hotel at 1am and was told our room was overbooked due to "plumbing issue."

The night manager said even though he was aware of the situation at least TWO HOURS prior to our arrival but decided "it would be better to wait and inform us in person" instead of contacting us by email or call, or do anything to minimize our inconvenience. WHY??? He was not apologetic but said it was "on me," and would arrange us to a different hotel nearby. When I inquired further about the location of this hotel, he had to google it and told me it would be 20 min from the hotel in Cambridge. The entire time all other staff were just watching us with pity and no one even offered us a water or anything. Later I found out why!

We had no choice but got into the car they arranged, and checked in another hotel at 2am completely exhausted. Later, I learned from other limo drivers in town that this hotel does this "OVERBOOKING" nearly EVERYDAY! They witnessed some people leaving the hotel late at night CRYING AND BEING DRIVEN 30 MILES cross town sometimes. They said and I quote: "The residence side along with the hotel caters 80% of the cliental to Saudi guests who would pay them so much more money , they literarily don't care about other guests. You are lucky being sent only 6 miles away." It sounds like a tale, but our experience also testify this might be believable!

Here it is how it appears to us: the night manager had to do all the unpleasant work of informing guest in person about the bad news, catching everyone by surprise and sending them away to hotels he does not even know where they are located. The next day, after the damage is done, there would be a "DELIGHTFUL" assistant manager on the phone, name Tamera, super apologetic and would make up for your loss (reading other reviews from tripadvisor and google can confirm this).

In our case, we got our points back and some additional compensation points, which I thought it was totally fair if it was TRULY a rare occasion as she ensured us. But what if those limo drivers were correct? Then it was it sounds to me more like a willful and knowing policy violation of guaranteed rooms for platinum elite, not a negligent handling of the reservations.

Good luck staying at this hotel and try to check in early!