A Horrible Customer Service Experience, Courtesy of the Chelsea Savoy Hotel

I was in Manhattan last week for business and stayed at a lovely hotel in Chelsea that I won’t mention here because I want to stay there again and I don’t want any trolls to show up when I do. This post isn’t about the hotel I stayed in, anyway. It’s about the hotel I almost stayed in.

I had to stay in New York a night longer than I’d originally planned and the hotel I was staying at didn’t have a room available. They recommended that I check out the Chelsea Savoy Hotel, which was close by.

I was wowed by the reasonable prices and rave reviews on Yelp and decided to book a room. Just to be safe, I also asked my current hotel to get me a room if they should happen to have a cancellation.

Less than 24 hours later, that’s exactly what happened. A colleague of mine decided to head home a night early and cancelled his room, giving me another night in the same hotel as my team. In turn, I gave the Chelsea Savoy more than 48 hours notice that I wouldn’t need the room. When I called back later that day to confirm that my reservation had indeed been cancelled, I was told that it was no longer in the system.

That was the last I thought of the Chelsea Savoy until I saw the $235 charge from the Chelsea Savoy on my online bank statement this morning. Convinced I’d been the victim of an honest mistake, I called the hotel and asked to speak to the billing department. That’s when it became clear that they were trying to fleece me.

The woman in billing was rude and combative. She practically accused me of lying about canceling my room and told me that she “wasn’t going to take sides” in the matter. Furious, I told her that I planned to dispute the charges with my bank, which is exactly what I’ve done.

Bottom Line: The Chelsea Savoy may be inexpensive, but fraudulent credit card charges are never cheap.