Memories Of A Nightmare Journey
By Anna
@LadyDuck (459212)
Switzerland
September 10, 2016 10:30am CST
This happened before the age of the Internet.
From France, we booked a Hotel in Atlanta, through their European phone line.
The day of the departure, the first problems started at the airport.
Instead that the usual flight from Nice (France) to New York, then Atlanta, we had to board the flight to Brussels and there change to Atlanta.
The flight to Atlanta was a crowded flight and the kid, just behind us, cried from the moment we boarded until we arrived.
We arrived in Atlanta around midnight, four hours after the schedule.
It rained, it poured and it was cold.
I destroyed my shoes in the rain, while we got our rented car, but we finally entered the freeway to reach our hotel. (We knew where it was, because we already went there the year before.)
When first we did not see the hotel, we thought we took the wrong exit.
We made another turn, nothing. Tried another couple of times and finally found a phone and called to inquire.
Bad news! The hotel, that their European headquarter had booked, has been demolished so we had no room where to spend the night. That was the start of a nightmare night.
I cannot remember how many hotels we visited, there was a convention and no rooms available.
Finally, after a couple of hours, I found the last available room at a nice Holiday Inn not far from the freeway, even if not too close to the town.
This is a trip that I will never forget.
Have you ever experienced such a bad hotel booking malfunction?
65 people like this
66 responses
@DeborahDiane (40065)
• Laguna Woods, California
11 Sep 16
@LadyDuck - My husband and I mostly travel within driving distance of our home or we fly to see our children. I agree that traveling a lot, just for fun, is very expensive!
4 people like this
@LadyDuck (459212)
• Switzerland
11 Sep 16
@jayaramas NO it was not bad planning it was bad, VERY BAD, customer service.
6 people like this
@much2say (53944)
• Los Angeles, California
10 Sep 16
Demolished 
. Oh my gosh, I would be so livid! Thank goodness you found a place eventually . . . I hope you were able to get some new shoes too! We never do any far distant travelling . . . so before the age of the internet, we used to call the hotels directly to do any booking . . . they existed, but sometimes we took our chances without knowing much about the hotel/area!
. Oh my gosh, I would be so livid! Thank goodness you found a place eventually . . . I hope you were able to get some new shoes too! We never do any far distant travelling . . . so before the age of the internet, we used to call the hotels directly to do any booking . . . they existed, but sometimes we took our chances without knowing much about the hotel/area!7 people like this
@much2say (53944)
• Los Angeles, California
11 Sep 16
@LadyDuck That is a lot of time and distance to come only to find that what's supposed to be there ISN'T there! There were no smartphones back then either - so making the calls or researching places was not so easy I'm sure (I suppose it really was faster to just visit various hotels til you could find one!)
3 people like this
@silvermist (19702)
• India
10 Sep 16
@LadyDuck That was one scary experience.Imagine on a rainy night,in a new place. and the hotel where you were supposed to stay is not there!
5 people like this
@silvermist (19702)
• India
11 Sep 16
@LadyDuck If you were a short story writer,you could have written a good story on that.
2 people like this
@LadyDuck (459212)
• Switzerland
11 Sep 16
@silvermist Yes surely I would because I did not mention all the details. I still remember that the morning after was St. Patrick's day and we had a wonderful breakfast and then we went out to assist to the parade.
2 people like this
@BelleStarr (61047)
• United States
10 Sep 16
Yes I have but not in many years, these days we can check things so much easier. we got to the airport in Munich to fly home and there was no flight, we had been sold a flight that didn't fly in the winter. Wee ended up having to fly to Washington DC and then on to New York. But first they wanted us to take the train to Frankfurt and I refused. Their error, they needed to fix it
5 people like this
@LadyDuck (459212)
• Switzerland
11 Sep 16
We had several flights canceled during the years. Delta always took care to book another flight and to send us to the right destination. Of course most of the times with many hours delay and the luggage that arrived a couple of days later. 
2 people like this
@MALUSE (69409)
• Germany
11 Sep 16
@BelleStarr Once my husband stranded in Munich. He had come by train from Italy. The train was delayed so much that there was no train connection for him any more. There was not one free bed in Munich to be had because it was the time of the Oktoberfest. He took a taxt to Augsburg, the next biggest city, one hour away, where there was no free bed, either. In the end, he landed in a small village and had spent a lot of money on the taxi fare. Luckily, he had enough money with him. Otherwise he would have had to spend the night in the waiting room of the train station.
3 people like this
@msiduri (5687)
• United States
10 Sep 16
@LadyDuck I can't say that I blame you. And I hope you called the people who booked you into the demolished hotel and left them with their ears ringing. What a horrible thing to do—leave you stranded in a foreign country with no place to go.
4 people like this
@louievill (28851)
• Philippines
10 Sep 16
That's terrible, being exposed on the streets with no where to go in a foreign land is a horrible experience.
4 people like this
@louievill (28851)
• Philippines
10 Sep 16
@LadyDuck did you sue them? Good thing you were in Europe, would have been more dangerous of you were in some parts of Asia, some parts but not all
4 people like this
@LadyDuck (459212)
• Switzerland
10 Sep 16
@louievill We did not sue them. We wrote to the Management and they send us a 500$ card to use in one of their hotels or restaurants. It was not enough, but we were so tired and busy that we did not want to have other problems.
1 person likes this
@LovingMyBabies (85127)
• Valdosta, Georgia
11 Sep 16
Oh goodness that sounds terrible! I have never had a booking nightmare like that. I'm glad you found a hotel to stay in though.
3 people like this
@Hate2Iron (15730)
• Canada
10 Sep 16
How sad for you... I don't know if I would have ever left the house again after that. As for bad bookings... can't think of any!
4 people like this
@BettyB (4117)
• Summerville, South Carolina
10 Sep 16
When we book in advance, we usually get what we expected. However, we frequently take car trips and don't know how far we'll go any particular day. Then we count on finding a room where ever we end up stopping. That works, most of the time but there have been exceptions. Conventions, weddings, car races.... When all the hotels are booked, we have to keep going.
I wouldn't want to arrive after a long flight and find that I had no were to stay. I understand why you called it a nightmare night.
3 people like this
@LadyDuck (459212)
• Switzerland
11 Sep 16
We had booked the hotel at least 3 weeks in advance and for what we knew later the hotel was already thrown down. I cannot understand how was it possible that they confirmed the availability of the room and sent us the confirmation voucher.
1 person likes this
@ramapo17 (30441)
• Melbourne, Florida
19 Sep 16
@BettyB We had that happen to us last year when we were returning to Florida from New Jersey. We had our 15 year old grandson with us too and we could not get a hotel. We finally did after checking about 8 different ones. There were weddings and conventions going on.
1 person likes this
@responsiveme (22926)
• India
10 Sep 16
yes we did once and the hotel we had booked turned out to be a seedy place...thankfully we got a good place soon afterwards.
3 people like this
