Red Roof Inn & Suites Monterey, Monterey

While previous encounters with this hotel have been pleasant, the most recent was anything but. My wife made a reservation at around 7:30 in the morning. 10 minutes later she called to cancel the reservation as my plans had changed and I failed to tell her so. Sonny, the front desk guy was very unfriendly and flat out refused to allow the cancellation without a charge. I called and asked to make a reservation for the weekend and asked if rooms were available. The answer was an emphatic yes. At that time I told him who I was and asked to cancel the reservation. He was less than cordial in telling me that they have a 72 hour cancellation policy and I will have to pay. Even though the reservation was made inside the 72 hour period, even though they had plenty of rooms, even though I called to cancel 30 minutes after the reservation was made, even though our booking did not cause them to turn away other customers thereby causing them to lose money by having empty rooms. Sonny was more concerned with explaining their policy to me - than trying to understand why his hotel had the policy in the first place. I was unable to contact the manager (she never called me back) and I am certain they will charge my card for the room. I understand the need for such cancellation terms, but I cannot begin to understand how they would use the policy to hold a customer hostage.

Beware!