One of the worst things a hotel can do is leave yo...

One of the worst things a hotel can do is leave you without a place to sleep when you arrive in a distant city late at night with important meetings scheduled for the next morning. That is what the Crowne Plaza did to me.

I reserved a room at the Crowne Plaza two months before my trip for a conference at the Dayton convention center. My room was guaranteed for late arrival. I arrived a little before 10 pm on Sept 11, and the hotel informed me that they canceled my reservation at approximately 6 pm that night. They claimed that they ran my credit card and it was declined due to insufficient funds. My credit card company verified that they did not decline any charges, and I am no where near a credit limit. The exact same thing happened to my work colleague who I was traveling with. Not coincidentally, the Crowne Plaza was all sold out (overbooked) that night along with all hotels with 10+ miles. We called several hotels as far away as Middletown and they were all booked. After driving and calling around for 45 minutes, we found a cheap, smoky hotel that had a couple rooms for the night. I would highly suggest any other hotel if you would prefer a reliable, low drama experience for staying in Dayton. I certainly will not make the mistake of staying at this hotel, or another Crowne Plaza, in the future.

Edit to respond to owner's response.
I find it telling that the owner finds it unfortunate that I am able to post about my experience at the Crowne Plaza. What is clear is that the Crowne Plaza believes they acted completely appropriately in this situation, and will therefore act in the same way for future travelers. I would suggest that anyone considering reserving a room there consider that fact. You may not have a mysterious credit card problem while you are flying and unreachable, but then again, neither had my colleague or I. What is clear is that the Crowne Plaza will prioritize making sure they have revenue for that night over ensuring you have a place to stay.

My name is listed for all to see and I stand behind all the facts I stated above including the fact that my credit card company told me that they did not decline the charges when I spoke to them on the phone the morning of Sept 14. Of course I can't know what transpired other than the conflicting information I am given by the Crowne Plaza and my credit card company. However given that a) the same room cancellation happened to my work colleague (different CC) and b) we have not had any other mysterious credit card problems, I am not inclined to give Crowne Plaza the benefit of the doubt. Additionally, my colleague had 3 pelican cases left behind the counter for him by co-workers that checked out the morning before we arrived. If the hotel was actually wondering whether or not we were going to arrive, that would be a very good clue. Again however, their priority was guaranteed, short term revenue.

Crowne Plaza posted the same response (word for word minus google) to my colleague's review on TripAdvisor. We are not the same person, had separate reservations, credit cards, etc... However somehow we had such an identical experience that Crowne Plaza can copy and paste an identical response.