Back in the day, finding a good hotel was nothing like it is today. After a long day of traveling, we would sit in the car and wait with great anticipation as my beloved spouse, Pat, walked into establishment after establishment.
Either the hotels were fully booked and had neglected to turn on the “No Vacancy” sign, or the cost of spending the night far surpassed our budget.
With the kids strapped into their car seats, crying, quarreling and begging for a reprieve, I would silently pray as we waited. When he finally walked out with room keys in hand, indicating that a room was indeed ours, the whole car would rejoice and offer up a heartfelt hallelujah!
Although I would stress about where we would stay on our family vacations, it never seemed to bother Pat. He would reassure me with thoughts as comforting as, “I’m sure we’ll find something, even if it’s an hour away from our destination,” or “Don’t worry Lori, we could always just sleep in the car.” Such thoughts led us to many subpar accommodations, such as a damp room in the basement of a bed and breakfast, rooms with thin walls that had other patrons banging on the door because the kids were too loud, and my personal favorite, the “hotel” with dirty carpets, dingy bathrooms and (I swallow hard as I write) a screen door.
Good night and oh! Don’t let the beg bugs bite.
Today booking a room is completely different. There are websites and reviews, and all one needs to do is to simply click on the hotel.
Or so I’m told.
When I watch our sons do the booking on their iPads and smart phones, they make it look like a piece of cake. They simply touch an app, punch in a little information and voila! We can call it done.
I tried to duplicate their simplicity just last week as we made plans to travel to a nearby city for a wedding.
As the sun was beginning to rise on the horizon, I sat with a cup of coffee and reviewed rooms near the reception. It wasn’t long before I found a new hotel with great pictures and reviews singing its praises.
Feeling smart and techy, I grabbed my credit card, punched in the numbers and was feeling like I had my fingers on the pulse of technology right up until I got the confirmation email that said I had booked the room for the 8th of July. That would have been wonderful if July 8 wasn’t a Wednesday instead of the Saturday when we actually needed to stay.
Worse yet, the email also informed me that I could cancel the room just so long as it was done by noon on July 7, which happened to be the day before!
There were no little apps to touch, tags to direct or offers of retribution. As I sat there in my comfy chair I couldn’t help but think what else I could do with that $150 I had possibly just wasted.
I tried to simply call the hotel and cancel the reservation with a real, live human being, but to no avail. It had to be cancelled on the website and there was no way around it.
I had no one to blame but myself and I have to tell you, I was really mad at me. I finally found a phone number for the booking site after pushing “1” for English, “2” for customer support and “9” to speak to a representative.
My call was answered by a nice lady who empathized with my plight and although she didn’t tell me that what I had done was a stupid thing to do, we all know it was stupid.
It took some doing, some crying and a little bit of begging, but in a mere 45 minutes, I had accomplished the task and was able to cancel the reservation and rebook it for the night we were actually saying.
I suppose technology is wonderful when you know how to correctly use it. Yet, after that experience, I think Pat might have been on the right track — sometimes it might be easier to just sleep in the car.
Lori Clinch is the author of “Are We There Yet?” You can reach her by sending an email to [email protected].