Eclipse Hotel Tried To Scam Guests Into Re-Booking At a Higher Price; They Did This Then

Amid high inflation, companies have found various techniques like shrinkflation. In the case of hospitality, there isn’t much of a choice other than raising prices. However, some hotels have found unique ways to get more out of customers. Such was the case with a couple of Reddit users who shared a bizarre revenge story on the forum r/pettyrevenge. The user who goes by u/VictoriaEuphoria99 on the platform described how they took revenge from a hotel that tried to get more money out of them.

A Near Perfect Revenge or Just Pettiness?

In the Reddit post, the user explains that they booked an eclipse hotel (one that offers viewing of an eclipse) at a discounted price but the hotel cancelled their reservation at the last minute. Citing “computer error”, the unnamed hotel denied the users their stay. However, the user later found that the same rooms were then available for $700. This was probably due to high demand as the April Solar Eclipse was once in a lifetime event.

Suggesting that the updated price was higher than before, the user mapped out a revenge plan. The user along with some friends booked the entire hotel, all the rooms at the higher price, until they had no availability.

However, the intention wasn’t to go through with it, from the beginning. The group then cancelled all the reservation about 30 minutes before the cancellation deadline. The plan was to prevent the hotel from getting customers and it seemed to work. The user added that they had plenty of availability till midnight, suggesting they didn’t get rebooked.

The user wondered if the business would recover, as they had plenty of bad reviews posted online. The poster suggested that this meant the hotel had done the same with several others.

Comments on the post from fellow Redditors suggested that it was a common practice. One user (u/ MaleficentCoconut458) said they had worked in hospitality before and their manager did the same thing. The user explained that the manager of their hotel would monitor all big card events in the area and cancel all third-party bookings to gain “extra revenue”. The user added that one time their manager almost had a stroke upon finding out that the hotel was completely booked out for a wedding right on the day a major big time draw card concert was happening.

Other hospitality workers also lauded the petty revenge. User (u/BornInABathtub) said they also worked in a hotel which often overbooked and cancelled bookings last minute. The user said this put both the front desk staff and customers in a bad situation. However, the user did appreciate the tactic of fake bookings to take revenge.

 Meanwhile, some Redditors warned the original poster about the consequences of their operation. One user (u/bobk2) joked that the hotel might ban the original poster for the next total eclipse.

Some others even warned the original poster about legal implications which became a subject of debate. In one of the comments, the original poster wrote that they don’t think they did anything illegal but they aren’t sure about civil violation. To this one user (u/BardtheGM) replied that they definitely did something wrong as the acted with malintent and caused financial damages.

For more such stories of petty revenge, follow r/pettyrevenge on Reddit.