Wyndham Hotel Sells Property and Ignores Reservations

Less than a month is left before Dragon*Con, the most enthusiastically attended Geek gathering in the nation and I couldn't be more excited. Well, that's not true. I'd be far more excited if I still had a place to sleep while I'm in Atlanta from September 3^rd through the 6^th.

A year after I began planning my quest to attend Dragon*Con with some friends from across the nation, I have suffered a communication meltdown that is leaving me, my friends, and hundreds of other lodgers out to fend for ourselves in a battle to find a place to sleep. Who is to blame for the lack of sleep resulting from the lack of a place to sleep? Wyndham Garden Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia.

I began chronicling my frustration with Wyndham into an article to let other lodgers know about the sale of the Wyndham Garden Hotel and their decision to close their doors just weeks before we all arrive in Atlanta for Dragon*Con (and Labor Day weekend, family vacations and business type trips) but decided that it would be best to just let you read my letter of complaint to Wyndham over their uncaring handling of the situation. So here it is:

----------------------------

Wyndham Hotel Group
22 Sylvan Way
Parsippany, NJ 07054

I am writing to inform you of the gross mishandling of my reservation. I selected the Wyndham Garden Hotel for a three night stay during Dragon*Con in September of this year, and booked my reservation back on 10/5/2009. I called back to re-confirm my reservation June 1, 2010 and was told that everything was set for my trip.

I received a phone call from a friend of mine who is also attending the Con to ask me where Wyndham had moved my reservation to since the hotel was going to be closed. I had not received a phone call, email or any other notification of the closure and called the reservation number back on July 31st to confirm that my reservation was still in place. I was told that it was, but that I should call back 8/2 and speak with the front desk to find out about the rumor of the closure.

When I called back on 8/2/2010 I spoke with a woman named Jennifer who told me that the hotel had been sold and would be closed effective 8/16/2010. Beyond that she was of no help, telling me that I best start shopping around for another hotel since everything in the area was booked solid due to the convention - which is why I had originally made my reservation with the hotel 11 months in advance. I asked her if Wyndham was transferring our reservation and she again did not offer any help and I finally had to ask her to transfer me to a voicemail so I could get someone to call me back with answers. To date, no one has called me back.

I called the hotel again the afternoon on 8/3 and requested to speak with a manager. A gentleman got on the phone (I didn't catch his name) and I told him about my situation and my disappointing conversation with Jennifer. Again there was no apology for the inconvenience, and no offer to help. The manager told me that a letter was going out sometime this month to people with reservations but that he didn't know when that was going to be done. He took down my information and said someone would call me back with any information on where I might stay (I have contacted roughly a dozen other hotels in the area and they are all booked due to the convention with the exception of a few high end rooms that are double and triple the cost of my Wyndham reservation). I was expecting a phone call first thing this morning, and still no one has called me back.

I am furious with this situation and wanted to let your corporation know that I will not be staying at a Wyndham property or partner property again because of this experience. I am a freelance writer and will be writing a piece on this experience to inform my readers and other guests who do not know yet that their reservation is invalid of my experience so that they can make an informed decision about their own stay with Wyndham in the future.

Because of the lack of communication to guests about the sale of the property, the lack of apology for pulling the reservation out from under me, the lack of assistance in finding other available rooms at another hotel during my stay in Atlanta, the lack of response when I have asked for help, the lack of compassion in what is becoming the most unbelievably frustrating travel experience I have ever had; I am giving up on Wyndham and will spend my money elsewhere.

---------------------

In my frustration over the loss of my hotel reservation, and the difficulty of trying to find another hotel room in a property within walking distance to Dragon*Con that doesn't cost $300 a night, I have tried to see the issue from Wyndham's point of view. They have sold their property to a local university to use as a dormitory, and that's great for them. But the way that they have handled the transaction leaves much to be desired.

What should have happened is that they should have notified those with reservations of the pending sale and offered assistance in finding other available accommodations for similar rates. Whether that be moving lodgers to other Wyndham properties and providing transportation to guests, partnering with other downtown hotels to match rates, or at least keeping a list of hotels in the area that still had open rooms, any action would have been better than the one that has been taken; doing nothing at all.

If you have a reservation at the Wyndham Garden Hotel after August 16^th, 2010 or any other Atlanta Wyndham property, I implore you to call them at 1-800-996-3426 to discuss your reservation with them. If they are as unhelpful with you as they have been with me, please send a letter with your own comments either via their corporate contact link: http://www.wyndham.com/contact/eform_hotel_stay.wnt or via snail-mail to:

Wyndham Hotel Group
22 Sylvan Way
Parsippany, NJ 07054

Let's hope that we can all find a place to rest our heads between Dragon*Con forums, events and exhibitions.