A local couple had been looking forward to a Vegas vacation for months last year, but all bets were off when they got there. They reached out to our NBC10 Boston Responds unit for help and our Leslie Gaydos got involved.
Cheryl and Sal wanted to get away and they settled on Vegas to catch the Professional Bull Riders World Finals.
"We were going to stay at the Wyndham Grand Resort. It had a gold star -- which that's what we were looking for -- something that's going to be nice," said Cheryl.
Cheryl booked a one-bedroom suite for a week at the Wyndham Grand Desert Resort through RCI – her boyfriend's timeshare vacation exchange network. They paid $239 and used 39,550 resort points for the reservation. Although she says she confirmed everything a week out, when they got there, Cheryl says the hotel didn't have a room for them.
"I says what? This has been booked since June," said Cheryl. "You're telling me there is no room?"
They sent Cheryl and Sal to stay at a sister resort, The Desert Rose. It was a block and a half off the strip.
"I asked them if it was just as nice and if it had all the amenities," explained Cheryl. "We get there, there's no amenities. There's nothing. It's a little tiny place. The laundry facilities were in a different building and you had to pay for them. I went outside on the balcony and I was looking at a cement wall."
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Cheryl and Sal were stuck. Their calls to Wyndham and RCI didn't get them anywhere, so they decided to make the best of it, and enjoy their vacation and deal with it later.
"When I came back, I called RCI, and I got a very nasty lady on the phone who said to me, 'You had your vacation – tough,'" said Cheryl. "I says, 'Where am I going to go from here now?' That's when I saw your ad and I said, 'I'm going to try Leslie and see what happens.'"
We reached out to RCI and they contacted Cheryl, refunding her money and reinstating her resort points, which means she can use them for another week stay somewhere this year.
"I was like, wow. It's like, oh my God," said Cheryl.
RCI tells NBC10 Boston Responds: "RCI strives to deliver the best customer service experience. On occasion, members let us know when they are not entirely pleased. In this instance, once we were made aware of the situation, we were able to work with Ms. Klez to resolve the matter to her satisfaction."
Although Cheryl did everything right, there are a couple of things you can do to try to avoid this kind of situation:
Ask about the hotel's overbooking policy ahead of time; if you're going to be a late arrival at the hotel, call the property and let them know so they don't think you're a no-show; and if you book directly with the hotel or have elite status with the hotel chain, it may be less likely that you'll find yourself in an overbooking situation.
