Skip to main content

9 replies

Hotels and Tournaments

CoachB25CoachB25Honorary "Old TImer"
The team I coach in is going through an argument on our hotel stay at the (I'm going to ask Julie if I can insert the name of the hotel) Bloomington, Illinois. I'll give you the scenerio, what we've experienced in the past AND what has been done. This will be lengthy.

We played in the ASA Class A State Tournament in Normal and so, our team booked the rooms AS A TEAM. We booked two nights. We played in the tournament but due to our bracket played multiple games on Friday starting at 1:00. After a good start, we entered the loser's bracket late Friday night. Therefore, one more loss and we would be done with the tournament. Therefore, Saturday morning and knowing that one of our main players, my child, had been injured getting hit by a line drive while pitching, we asked the front desk about checking out early. We were told several things BUT one of the Dad had the person at the desk type into their hotel record and on the computer that if we came back and checked out by 5 we'd be fine and would only have to pay $50. (Extended stay!) One very real reason this was important was that severe storms including the prediction of hail was in the forecast that afternoon. Many of you know this since your kids were playing that day at the same facilities. (Next to Normal West High School) BTW, when we signed in, we did sign an agreement or contract for the room. We've done this in the past and so, no big deal. Well, we won a game but then lost and so, we returned to the hotel by 1:00 to checkout. Wow, the circus was just beginning. We all had our stuff out of the rooms, no one went back to their rooms. This was simply for turning in the door keys and signing whatever we had to sign for payment including the $50 which would be $40 short of the full price for that day.

Long story short:

[LIST]
  • We were told that we could not sign out early.
  • We were told that no one said that we could do so. Then, it was suggested that we were lying. However, one parent asked them to print out his bill and SURE ENOUGH, THERE ON THE BILL WAS THE EXACT STATEMENT - $50 extended stay if out by 5.
  • We sat there for over an hour while everyone called denied the statement.
  • It was then stated that because this was a group that they would not allow us to leave early and that contract we signed was for 2 days so we are getting charged for 2 days no matter what.

    OUR PAST EXPERIENCE:

    This team my DD plays on won a National Championship last year. We travel a lot. This year, we've taken to the road 7 weekends and are doing so again this week in an attempt to win another national title. In every case that we have been eliminated early (not often) the hotel has charged the extended fee AND cancelled any rooms beyond the checkout day.

    What has happened?

    Only the parent that had it typed into the bill on the computer is getting a break. All of the others that stood there but took them at their word are not. With a severe storm rolling in, we left for home since we didn't want our cars in a hotel parking lot if it hailed.

    ___________

    What is your experiece with hotels, contracts, etc.

    • "Failure depends upon people who say I can't."  - my dad's quote July 1st, 2021.  CoachB25 = Cannonball for other sites.

    Original Post

    Replies sorted oldest to newest

    H Homerun041,000+ posts
    Well Coachb25, I am sorry to hear about your difficulties, but you have been caught up in one of the big problems with booking as a team, you need to have all aspects of the contract well documented in the original agreement before you sign the contract.

    Just like tie-breakers rules, well defined before the tournament starts are needed, everything is fine until it is really needed and the rules change for the benefit of one party.

    We have had situations where we lost in tournaments early and we were able to check out of the hotel early, in other situations, the contract indicated that we had to have a certain minimum number of total nights as a whole team, so if we have more rooms but for less nights, we were fine.

    In most situations, we had no problems if we were close, in one situation, when we worked through a new travel agency, we got a relatively good room rate for the whole team including families until it was discovered that the hotel in LA had only self parking or valet parking both costing at least $20 per night per car and it did not include breakfast, that made the total cost of the week long tournament more cost restrictive, one of the managers decided to book another block of rooms and another hotel that did not charge for parking and included breakfast. It turned out that we had to pay for the first night at the hotel we did not stay at just to get out of the contract!

    Bottom line, get in writing all aspects of the block, such as rate, breakfast, parking cost, internet cost, early checkout rules, etc.
    2Bmom2Bmom1,000+ posts
    Yeah, we had the same problem down in Jupiter for the 16U USA Baseball championship this year - the contract said we had to give 24 hours notice, so we were stuck paying an extra $99 when we left on Friday. Besides that 2B is a big breakfast eater and the "free" breakfast just didn't cut it - a sad, sugary, fat-laden little pastry, one piece of fruit, and a tiny cup of juice - so we ended up buying breakfast every day. Plus there was no laundry facility so we had to trek out to the laundromat or wash unies in the tub.

    Won't be staying there again. It was as a great tournament, though. Smile

    Homerun04 is right - buyer beware!
    Last edited by 2Bmom
    mythreesonsmythreesons500+ posts
    Hate to say it, but this is one of the reasons that we never book with the team... we always take care of our own reservations. I've always mentioned that we are with the tournament and we get the same (and occasionally better!) rates as everyone else, but we aren't committed to anyone else's agreement. We've had our share of the same types of issues - not fun. As a parent, you usually don't have the opportunity to see the contract or agreement ahead of time, and in many situations the agreement is actually signed by the tournament organizers, not by the team at all.

    And P.S. I think I know the COMFORTable hotel you are referring to - we had many issues there, including an air conditioner that started ON FIRE in one of the rooms and they refused to move the family to another room! They felt since the fire had been extinguished, they should be fine... in spite of the fact there was no longer any air conditioning and the room reeked of electrical fire. Good luck with your problem!
    TRhitTRhit10,000+ posts
    WE have never encountered the problem noted here perhaps because we use the same hotels year after year and they know us--I even get holiday cards from many of then

    The one problem we did have was when the hotel realized that our rate was too since there was a huge wedding in town and they could get a better rate from the wedding party. They tried to blame my kids for things that they never did--in fact they weren't even in the hotel when they claimed they did the things they were accused of---we were on the field in the middle of a game ---the hotel owner made a huge mistake when he claimed the kids gouged the walls in the rooms---the hotel was just opened after new construction and he did not realize he was dealing with construction man---it was kind of hard to blame the kids for gouges when they were painted over---the gouges were done in construction prior to the painting LOL---well after we walked out and went across the street to another hotel he tappeed my card for a sizeable sum for damages---a quick note to the Attorney General got that all taken care of and then some and his hotel was removed from the hotel list of the Tournament Sponsors

    Early on we found that dealing with reputable name hotels solved a lot of problems. Many of these chains my wife uses for business trips so they have us on file for bonus points etc so we get treated well absed on that alone.

    You pay a few bucks more at the name hotels but I find it worth because of the service you get
    CoachB25CoachB25Honorary "Old TImer"
    mythreesons, yes, the room was COMFORTABLE. Wink We had one family not book with the team. However, she was also charged. Why? BECAUSE she requested a room close to the other teammates AND because the manager said that they would not allow anyone to have a one night stay in their hotel for this weekend. Therefore, she stated that in order for this family to have booked the rooms, they had to sign the same agreement as our team even though they didn't realize it. BTW, I asked then what my recourse was since I complained several times that night that teams already eliminated were having parties in the halls. She said that is to be expected since we were attending a tournament. I really don't recommend this line of hotels. I've tried for an hour to find the customer service links to complain to their corporate services. Talk about an adventure.

    I've coached for a few decades and have played longer. Not once has this happened before. As I said, the typical is the "$50 extended stay" Which is really just a holding fee. We all know that if we use the rooms after they have been cleaned, then we have to pay for the night. Therefore, we were all cleared out.
    CoachB25CoachB25Honorary "Old TImer"
    Amazing!!!

    My Daughter's team is playing in Topeka, Kansas this week for the Northern Nationals. Because of this incident, we contacted the hotel we're staying at. We have booked 4 days. Not only will we be able to check out any time WITHOUT PENALTY, but the Manager also said that if we mention our games times, they will hold housekeeping off until 2 so that we can make it back to clear out our rooms if we are eliminated. NOW THAT IS GOOD SERVICE. The Manager did an "Of course you're playing in a tournament" statement like they've been in the hotel business a while and know what to expect.
    H Homerun041,000+ posts
    Most of the out of town tournaments that we flew to, on the finals day when we had a later game, we would have talked to the manager earlier and asked if we could check out all but a few of rooms so the players could take a shower and change before we hit the airport.

    Most of the time it was not a problem, it obviously was based on their occupancy level for the last night.

    Add Reply

    Post
    .

    Membership Required

    We're sorry. You must be signed in to continue. Sign In or Register
    ×
    Are you sure you want to remove from your Block List?
    ×
    Loading...
    ×
    When you block a person, they can no longer invite you to a private message or post to your profile wall. Replies and comments they make will be collapsed/hidden by default. Finally, you'll never receive email notifications about content they create or likes they designate for your content.
    Note: if you proceed, you will no longer be following .
    ×
    Advanced Search
    Advanced Search
    Link copied to your clipboard.
    ×