Jacksonville Super Bowl XXXIX Hotel Room Fiasco - Pt 4

(This is the fourth installment on the problem I'm having getting a hotel room in Jacksonville for this year's Super Bowl. For the others scroll down below.)


There's more news in this unfolding nightmare. After I had the great conversation with Best Western's Paul Alben, I checked my cell phone voicemail, only to find a nasty message from my friend's friend who was supposed to have the room at the Best Western Executive Inn.

I had specifically instructed his accountant not to run my credit card until I called him. What I really did was use one of my debt cards that didn't have money on it, until I found out I actually had a room.

Well, on Wednesday I called to express concern that I didn't have the proper hotel confirmation. Well, his accountant seemed to understand my fear. But the guy who runs this brokerage firm in New York didn't. He basically started yelling at me that "He was only doing this as a favor," and "He wasn't making money on the deal anyway."

I tried to make light of the conversation by simply laughing or basically calming him down, but in my mind I was more nervous that ever. So, I kept calling Best Western until I received call backs starting Thursday.

Anyway, it turns out that they decided to run my card, without my permission. So, of course it came up declined. Now get this, the hotel rep I talked to when I called to report the cell phone message told me that some other firm seemed to have control of the rooms. There are 61 of them.

So if I placed $700 on that card's account, I may not have had the room anyway! The very fine print of the credit card authorization reads "All orders on on a try to fill basis." Plus, the document refers to tickets and not hotel rooms. Geez. A ticket broker trying to move hotel rooms.

Whew!

I hope Best Western comes through.

Jacksonville Super Bowl XXXIX Hotel Room Fiasco - Pt 3

Hey. Best Western's Will Jansen did call me. He said that they were concerned about what was going on down there, and would check to see if the room was indeed there for me. Then I just now got a call from Mr. Paul Alben who represents Best Western's customer relations department. He's also going to check into the hotel matter. He agrees that third-parties should always give you a hotel confirmation number.