The manager of the Holiday Inn, Cambridge tried his best. We arrived at the Holiday Inn, Cambridge on a dark cold evening and attempted to check in with our paid, guaranteed reservation. We were told there had been a glitch with the booking software and there were no rooms available.
As a service provider myself for many years, I have always held to the belief that a dissatisfied customer, properly treated, can become one of your greatest supporters. Sadly, even the best efforts of the manager couldn’t make this happen for us. To be fair, he was faultless in his courtesy and attention to our needs. However, sorry, the hotel was full. We would have to go somewhere else. We rejected his proposal to switch to the other Holiday Inn on the other side of the city but eventually he offered to upgrade us to a local Hilton. He agreed to pay all additional costs including the Hilton’s pricy underground carpark.
All this took over an hour sitting and standing around in reception and then driving over to the other hotel. It was a bad start to a short holiday break (though the Hilton turned out to be amazing!). Despite the manager’s respectful attention I don’t think I’d book the Holiday Inn again.