How to fail your hotel booking process with your customers

Yesterday, I was looking for a nice hotel to stay in for a weekend in Oxford. I decided to go for the new Malmaison hotel which a converted prison. I needed 1 double room and 1 twin room.

13 little steps that I had to go through to get my hotel reservation. Really tedious job I tell you...

Step 1: I search for "malmaison oxford" on Google

Step 2: Google takes me to the microsite of Malmaison

Step 3: Look for availability and rates for one night

Step 4: The site returns all sorts of room types with published rates (rack rates) and promotional summer rates. I decide to pick the summer rates. Also, there are a lot of room types and I try to find some pictures or videos that can help me in my choice. No luck, I can't find any pictures that distinguish each room type. Even on TripAdvisor, the guests picture don't give me much in terms of what to expect for the price. The twin room available is a superior room priced at £185 and the double room "in a cell" priced at £165. Not sure about this choice but I decide to go ahead. I realise that unfortunately I cannot book 2 rooms at a time. So I decide to book the superior room first. It takes 5 mins to fill my information and payment details. Then I click the proceed button. The website returns me a message "session timed out".

Step 5: I decide to persevere and go back to the site and book straight away the superior room at £185. Most of my personal details are already prefilled and press the "proceed" button. Once again, the site returns me a message "session timed out".

Step 6: I have enough of this website. I decide to call their reservation desk. I call their hotel directly who re-direct me to the reservation desk. I have a waiting music background for 2 minutes and then got disconnected.

Step 7: Call again the hotel then got to the reservation desk. I finally get somebody on the phone. I expain the situation but the person doesn't seem to be surprised by my problem for my attempted booking via their website. Instead, she says that she can book these rooms for me ( I bet she does, I am spending a fortune for these rooms). Clearly, the reservation goes through a script when you make a booking with them. First, she offers me the suite with balcony ...in the end I say that I am interested to book a twin and a double. In 7 minutes, I finally got my rooms booked for the same priced quoted on the site and my reservation confirmation number. I also book the restaurant (because it is very busy on the day). I receive my hotel confirmation by email in minutes.

Step 8: My wife calls me in the middle of the day and advises me that she found a great offer on lastminute.com. The offer is one double room for the Malmaison Oxford at £119. That is much less what I have booked (even though I booked the superior room which is a superior standard room type, apparently this only the shower room in the standard room). I decide to call back the hotel and negotiate.

Step 9: Before I call, I check again the Malmaison website. I ask for availability and rates and get a big surprise. The pricing has changed since the morning. My superior room is now priced at £139 (instead of £185) and the double room is at £109 (instead of £165). My head is fuming at this stage.

Step 10: I call the reservation desk and tell them my findings. They say that they cannot see these rates on their system. Do I believe them or not? I tell the guys to cancel my reservation made in the morning. "No problem Sir". Receive the cancellation confirmation by email within minutes.

Step 11: I go back to the website and find my superior room still priced at £139. Fill my details (again) with my payment. Suprise, surprise...I proceed and the website returns me the "Session has timed out". At this point, I have lost confidence and start growing grey hair again.

Step 12: I call the reservation desk. I manage to get somebody quickly. Ask for superior twin and a double. The person reads again the bloody script with the suite with balcony...I stop her in the middle of her story and ask her for a superior twin and a double. Prices quoted are the same ones quoted on their site. After a while, I recognized the voice and ask "didn't I talked with you this morning?". She says"Yes, I think you did". I explain my situation. In the end, I am the lucky boy because prices have gone down. Got my reservation confirmation number. I ask the reservation desk if there is any chance the prices can go lower during the week. She says with confidence that she thinks not. I guess she doesn't really know. This all depends of the yield manager of the hotel or the Malmaison revenue management department in the end. But the reservation desk is very helpful with my enquiry which is what I am expecting from this hotel brand.

Step 13: Booking is made but I still haven't received my email confirmation. I call back the reservation desk and realised they got my email spelled wrong (always a pleasure to spell french names - the people at the other end of the phone always seem to have it wrong). How can you spell it right the first time and missed it the second time. In the end, I take note of the confirmation number.

This story is unique but I am sure it repeats itself with other customers.

Malmaison, I have been a big fan of your brand since your creation nearly (as many people in this country) and I have stayed in several of your hotels in the past.

But this time, you have really disappointed me - efficient reservation systems should be such a basic thing for an established, recognised hotel company such as yours. Where did it go wrong?

I don't understand how you can fail this...

Comments

[Claude]

Guillaume, do yo need a aspirin !!!

Thanks for this story, I am not very surprise, I see and we see lot of incredible stuff in hotel industry (around operation, reservation, management)

Have a nice week-end in Oxford ;-)

Regards

Claude

[Guillaume]

Thanks Claude. Will tell you more after.

Guillaume

[Sylvain]

Guess what! "session time out" is one of the 10 things I hate most while booking online! You can have a look at the 9 other annoying things that bug me, on my last post. I will be happy if you could share YOUR list.

[Wolfi]

next time try booking.com ;-) - way faster

[Guillaume]

@Sylvain - let me look at this and I will publish my list and compare it to yours

@Wolfi - well coming from that company, of course I have checked their website but the hotel wasn't available...