I concur, Laterooms’ customer service is an absolute disaster.

When we arrived in Prague, we were told that our reservation was lost. No real alternative was available for the first 2 nights; result was that we had to stay in a private pension 10 km outside city centre for 2 out of 3 nights and the last night we had to move to another apartment in the city. Our original Lateroom reservation was for a very nice apartment in the heart of the Prague with short walking distance to all main locations.

The local agency was very friendly and tried really hard to help.

But, the back-up from Laterooms was an absolute disaster and a disgrace to customer service; Lateroom showed no sincere interest in making up for this mishap. Only "help" was an offer to stay at a hotel at 50% higher cost than our original rate (we had booked an apartment). Apparently no one in Laterooms have the authority to take responsibility to take actions to turn around a booking mistake

We succeeded in talking to 4 different people at Laterooms. One of which promised to find an alternative and call back, but when we called back to hear status, the person had left for the day and had not left a message for her colleagues. 3 other persons was involved from Laterooms. Last person we talked to was an individual from customer service, who greatest talent was to explain the disclaimer of Laterooms in any matters relating to booking security through Laterooms, "we take no responsibility that your booking cannot not be fulfilled"

I have never had any problems with them and I book with them a few times a month. I'd recommend them.

Very wise words, there, Broken Jar. 

I'll second that!!

 

Cat

"There's no way to decide who is at fault here; Laterooms version of
events sounded completely reasonable to me"

Isn't
that a little contradictory Cat? If there is no way to decide who is at
fault then surely there is no way of deciding who's version was more
'reasonable' and all you've done is to decide who's version of events
sounds more believable. Thats not a criticism of you in any way, it
just highlights the point I'm about to make. We could spend months on
this forum debating who is in the wrong and who should have done what
without really achieving anything. The customer seems to have a
reasonable grievance with the way they have been treated, but
conversely, LateRooms is a company that is still in business, still
turning a profit and still dealing with hotels, which leads me to
believe that they must be doing something right. I think there are two
very useful points for future customers of LateRooms (and any other
such company) that have come from this (very enjoyable) debate. One is
that individuals should independently confirm their booking with the
hotel to avoid the problems we have seen here. The other is for
LateRooms (and companies in general). We all know that there are a
myriad of Terms and Conditions that contract you out of liability, but
having them quoted at you verbatim over the phone when you're stranded
in a foreign country does nothing for morale (or blood pressure!). I
understand the fact that the contract is between the individual and the
hotel but I think a simple "I'm sorry, I'll see what we can do" would
have gone a long way. Even if the person at the end of the phone said
"here are some alternative hotels that meet your needs within X
distance and here are their phone numbers". It would not have cost
Laterooms anything, the customer would have still been liable for the
extra cost but they would perhaps not have felt as though they had been
left high and dry in a foreign land by a heartless company. 
 

Hi Cat,

I am a B&B who uses Laterooms. I have had many happy guests via them, I am advised by email from them and part of the reason is that I always e mail a personal comfirmation the the person who books.

I confirm the date and duration, and confirm arrival and departure times, and offer directions.

This works well, perhaps all hotels should follow this example/

 

Um, resign? Like a mother ever could (or would want to)!!

I thought you were a 'he' but maybe you are a 'she' - did you join my introductions thread, too?!?!?!

Cat

Cat,
Saturday starts with cleaning the house, doing the laundry, weekly grocery shopping and ohhhhh !! the kids school work as well.

sunday , you prepare for the week ahead, i'm begining to dread Mondays .

What can we do about it Any thoughts????

Go for it, TT!! Your post was very rational - and I'm not complaining, just musing about potential outcomes!

Welcome, by the way - there's a good thing going here, as you may have noticed. Have you joined my 'Introduce Yourself' therad yet??

Cat

PS - Cheers back atcha Zizzy - why does the weekend go so fast?!?!

Cat

I've only just joined today and was enjoying having some input!

Cat,
I do appreciate your efforts in this forum, we all have our different opinion about issues.

Sincerely i think i that if Lateroom tried to check on this customer when she/he came back there will be no need for this thread.

The idea of being stranded abroad with "KIDS" .....i won't love to experience that and i'm sure you won't like it either.
.
Circumstances sometimes are beyond our control, but we still have to keep up good customer service, even if there was a mistake during the booking, there is no need to read terms and conditions to a stranded customer with KIDS.

You are right ,none of us was there, untill Lateroom backs their claim with facts we then can say who is telling the truth.

Enjoy what is left of the weekend, cheers

All communities will remove posts that disrupt the atmosphere and the - I don't know what they call it - the harmonious operation of the boards.

If it is too much trouble for MS to maintain a thread, they won't. It's the same everywhere.

There's no way to decide who is at fault here; Laterooms version of events sounded completely reasonable to me, and that's the stance I have chosen to take. But if it gets too aggressive, no doubt the thread will be killed off because it detracts from the community spirit that we're supposed to be all about.

How do we know? Zizzy says that he accepts the hotel did not exist, Laterooms claim it was actuallya different problem at the root of the complaint. None of use was there so perhaps it's better left, now.

Just MHO.

Cat

For both members of this forum, who have either good or bad experience with Lateroom let all bear this in mind.

A company that cannot accept its mistakes and help a stranded customer in a foreign country, but read out terms and conditions is not worthy to exist at all.

Me think that the company is not telling the truth, cos whereas the customer is saying that the accomodation do not exist "Lateroom" is claiming that they tried to help............... on a non existing hotel????

Advise for lateroom: i believe that a good service speaks for it self, if you had helped and resolved the problem, your customers will not have reason to vent their anger in an open forum. Good customer service is a great asset for any successful business.

You are now challenged to back up your stories with facts, pls do it, i think it will help your prospective customers decide how good and efficient you are..

OVER TO YOU.

I too have used laterooms and haven't had any problems. However, that doesn't mean I couldn't fall short at some time. I am a single parent and if I had paid out and got there, like you, I don't know what I would have done! Let alone the loss of money. Its like going into Tescos, buying a load of grocerys, getting home to find they are just empty packets and Tescos throwing their terms and conditions at you saying it wasn't our fault there was no food inside!
May I suggest you take this to Trading Standards - irrespective of their terms and conditions they should not be advertising places that do not exist or with incorrect information. Surely it could amount to Fraud! Even if it was a data input error they should still hold some responsibility.

I am sure all of us that have read this section would be intrigued to know the outcome.

{Have you contacted Laterooms since you arrived back? What happened?}

Yes, I contacted them and they read out their terms & conditions once again. I spoke to the customer services supervisor and asked him to give me the name of his manager and he refused. So you can judge by that what kind of company it is.
To all the other comments, I would like to apologise that I did not log in for sometime after I had started the thread, that is the reason I have not been able to reply the outrageous comments from Late rooms!
NO, the people from "sleeping beauty" apartments did not contact us in Rome. Late rooms informed us of that initially as well (they actually said that the apartments wrote us an email, and when I asked for a copy of that email, they changed the story to "the apartments spoke to us on the phone"!)
NO we never contacted the apartments after making the booking as we were sent an email confirmation confirming the exact date etc so there was no need for us to contact them (we had also written in the comments field that we would be arriving around 10pm)
Yes, when the booking was made, we had informed the apartment and the late rooms about the four adults and two kids (two infants in fact) and only after that they sent us a booking confirmation.
No, the apartment does not exist on the address that was sent in the confirmation. I even have photos to that effect.
NO, late rooms did not help us find an alternate accommodation at all. They did not have time to...they were too busy reading the terms and conditions! (“the contract is between the hotel and the customer.” “Late rooms does not take any responsibility ..”blah blah blah!)
NO, they did not help us even when I told them that we had two infants with us (it was 1030pm when we roaming in the streets of Rome looking for these b******g apartments!)
Its very amusing that Late rooms has very conveniently forgotten to mention that they themselves could not contact the apartments that night. Even the next day they could not contact them till 2pm in the afternoon....I quote one the numerous numbers of late rooms employees "I find it very strange that we are not able to contact them again. This can't keep happening!" What does that tell you? that it does keep happening again and again!
I would invite late rooms again to show me copies of the email that this apartment had apparently sent me and I would also challenge them to prove to me and maybe the whole forum how they helped us when we were stranded in a foreign country with two babies? I also would love for them to show me bookings made by other customers for this particular apartment and prove to me that these customers actually ended up staying in it. I would also challenge them to release copies of the recorded conversation between me and their "efficient" customer service team. I also request late rooms to please tell the truth for a change! and back up their stories with evidence!

Yes...I am surprised too...maybe they recieve so many complaints that they have an entire team who concentrates on sorting the mess out!!! My word of advice to them..please start concentraing on helping the customer and maybe then they won't need such a team! I would doubt it very much if they have actually spoken with the person who started this thread.
I speak from experience....LATEROOMS.COM Horror experience! I also booked a Hotel in London with the laterooms.com for my sister's birthday, and when me and pregnant sister reached there, we were told by the Hotel that they do not have any booking for us! I had to go to an internet cafe to print the booking (as I only had the booking confirmation number stored on my phone and the Hotel did not have any internet access at that time & worst of all, when the Hotel receptionist tried calling late rooms, she was put on hold for quite some time, so we gave up trying & I left in search of an internet cafe!). When I showed the booking confirmation to the Receptionist, she also said that Late rooms were very bad in sending faxes to the Hotel when a customer makes a booking! She then said to me that she only had a double bedroom (with a queen size bed in it) available and that was the last room that was left. (we had made a booking for room with one double bed-for my pregnant sister and a single bed for me). I had to sleep on the floor that night. We also missed out on the lovely birthday dinner I was supposed to take my sister out for, because we wasted 2-3 hours just trying to sort this mess out.
When I complained to the late rooms customer services the next day(after being put on hold for 15 minutes), I was told that I should take this up with the Hotel, it is not Late Rooms responsibility! They ALSO read out the terms & conditions to me!!!! It seems they are very good at that! Can you imagine?! Not only did my sister's birthday get ruined, the way the late rooms "so-called customer services" treated us was just shocking! When we spoke with the Hotel Management, they insisted that there was no fax from late rooms confirming our booking! If I have to compare the customer service of the Hotel in question and the customer disservice of late rooms, I think the Hotel did everything they could to help us, whereas late rooms just read out the terms and conditins!