In August, my wife and I and my family were driving in two vehicles from Bangor, Maine to Niagara Falls through New Hampshire, Vermont and New York. In the morning, before leaving Bangor, I went online to book two rooms at a major hotel chain in Albany, NY for that night.. I booked online through Travelocity. I admit that prior to confirming, I was given the option of reading the legal agreement consisting of pages of very fine print and then clicking to confirm that I've read it. Be honest. How many of you read those legal agreements, whether they are from an online travel reservation company, an airline or Microsoft? Yes we should. However, like most people who don't time or a law degree, I clicked OK and headed out on the highway, content that our entourage, including my two married daughters, their husbands and my grandkids had a place to stay that night.  It was not to be,

In Portsmouth, New Hampshire, my youngest grand-daughter became very ill with a high fever and nausea. It became serious enough to warrant a trip to a local emergency room in Portsmouth. As in most emergency rooms on a weekend, there was a long wait and a decision had to be made. Given the lost time and my grand-daughter's worsening condition, should we continue to Albany? Her mother made the decision. We cannot continue today with our little girl in this condition.

I called the hotel at about 3 PM to cancel but of course was told I had to cancel with Travelocity. They gave me the toll-free number. I called from my cell phone and waited for almost ten minutes until a person came on the line who literally sounded like a computer...and had the personality of an old Compaq PC. I am not exaggerating!  In addition there was an very long delay between my question an his response and not just line delay. He was extremely difficult to understand. The phone connection sounded like a very bad Instant Messenger voice connection. I am still not sure that I wasn't speaking with a voice recognition computer of some sort. Speaker with this character was painful.

After a 35-minute wait, a broken conversation, the unearthly voice on the other end said "very well sir, your reservation has been cancelled at your request". I said "thank you!". After a five second pause, the voice then said "there will be no refund". What!!!?I was astounded and eventually, enraged. I had explained the hospital emergency, but this was a disembodied computer voice...he wasn't programmed for compassion. He repeated, "there will be no refund to your credit card".

It's true. If you book a hotel through an online travel agency such as Travelocity, don't plan to cancel your reservation for ANY reason.  We're not sure, but even death may not be a suitable reason for canceling and getting even a partial refund. Take our advice and that of the hotel, book directly with the hotel and ask for promotional rates, senior rates, company rates, AAA rates. Most often, most major hotel chains can provide you with a better rate than the online agency. The online companies do a very good job of convincing you that they are able to get you a better rate. Don't believe it!

By the way, we did continue on to the hotel we had booked in Albany. Our grand-daughter had a throat infection and after some medication and rest, she was fine. In the meantime, the hotel manager told me they could have offered me a better rate than Travelocity but...it was too late. Also, they told me that they would have felt obliged  to cancel my reservation, especially under our trying circumstances and even at a late hour.

Taking The Road Less Traveled