Company Response
8/26/2024
While Mr. Awdykowyz's complaint does include some accuracies, I believe that it does not provide the full picture of the issues at hand.
On April 15, Mark originally made a booking with us via Travelocity for an Economy Double Room with an Ensuite bathroom (private bathroom in the room). As a customary, we sent a re-confirmation notice which provides the booking details, dates, fees, etc. One week later, on April 22, Mark canceled the booking via his Travelocity account. Approx 8mins later on that same date, Mark made a new booking with us via Booking.com, and selected a Single Room - Shared Bathroom. Again, as customary, our system sent the re-confirmaiton.
On July 27, which is about 90 days in advance of his arrival date, our system sent him a "new booking"notice, which provides guests with full details about the type of room selected as well as other important information about our properties. A couple days later, Mark reviewed the notice, decided the type of room he booked would not meet his needs, and responded to the "new booking" email with a very brief message stating: "Change to private bathroom. I'm 69 and use the bathroom twice nightly during my sleep cycle. I was not aware that the shared bathroom was down the hallway".
I responded to him almost immediately and advised him that he had originally booked the room with a private bathroom, canceled and booked a room with a shared bathroom instead. I told him that there were many other properties in the area with rooms available that had private/ensuite bathrooms. I reminded him he would need to cancel his booking via booking.com.
I found the situation to be very frustrating. I also did not trust he was being hones with me. None of this situation felt right, and again it still didn't make any sense that he wouldn't simply seek accommodation elsewhere. I take great pride in our property and services. I advised him I was going to cancel his booking, marking his credit card as invalid (which allows us to force-cancel a booking within 24hrs) and again urged him to do what he wanted in the first place - find another place to stay that had rooms that met his needs.
Mark insinuated that I was discriminating against people with a disability. Of course, that's not true, and he never mentioned any disability until this time. I never once asked him about any disability or medical condition, and to insinuate otherwise is completely false.
I sent back a lengthy but firm response, letting him know that personal insults would not get him anywhere. I felt that he was being unreasonable and this whole thing would never have happened if he just agreed to use the assigned bathroom or cancel his booking. I advised him I would not report him to booking.com, I would simply cancel the booking so he would book a room somewhere else.
In his final response, he tried to walk back his insults and said my remarks were "false bravado", among other justifications for his remarks to me. I did not respond further.
He should have either agreed to use the assigned bathroom in the hallway or canceled his booking with us and booked a room somewhere else.
I genuinely hope htat Mark has booked a room somewhere that will meet his needs and will enjoy his stay in Boston. There are hundreds of them available for the dates he was seeking. We wish him all the best.
General Manager
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