La Casa Del Mar

EXPECT TO BE CHEATED

I spoke an employee of innkeeper Ohad Soberano. I was interested in the 99 dollar special advertised on their site. He said that the total bill would be 574.20, which he explained to be 99 dollars for five nights plus tax. He told me that their policy was to bill me half the total as a deposit with the other half due on arrival. My credit card was charged 287.10, half the total just as Wally had said it would be for my trip from 12/29/05- 1/3/06. Indeed, on their online billing form clearly stated is the fact that one half of the bill will be charged initially with the other half due upon arrival.When my partner and I arrived we were told by Mr. Soberano that the total bill would be much higher than the quoted amount. As I would expect any reputable business person to stand by their quoted reservation I thought that this matter would be quickly resolved. Mr. Soberano however quickly proved himself to be no reputable businessman. He said that if anyone quoted me that rate that they would have to make up the difference out of their pocket and that I should not want any employee to have to do that. He then said that even if his employee did quote me that it was a mistake and that he would not stand by that. He continued to fabricate excuses saying that I should have seen that the special was only for non holiday nights in December and that his computer program quotes the wrong rate until January when it then calculates the correct rate such that there was no way his employee could have know the rate. He said that what I actually had paid for on deposit was two nights stay. When I asked him to verify 99 dollars for five nights plus tax divided by half he came up with 287.10 , the exact amount I explained I had been billed and told was to be half my total. Still he would not honor his quote. He began to express exasperation with me that I would rather have his employee make up the difference than to work with him to negotiate a solution.

Unique Quality: Of course, I did not feel that it was my responsibility to make sure that he had trained his employees properly, had an adequate computer system, or to negotiate after I had already booked a reservation and paid a deposit.At this point, when I said I would take the room for the 99 dollars for the two nights he would still charge that before he charged a higher rate and use the time to look for another hotel, he said he would not hold the rooms for me for the other nights and could rent them out immediately to someone just on the phone. Searching for a new place would have entailed walking with our suitcases or paying for a cab until we found an affordable place with vacancies, if there were even any in the area. As I was concerned about the responsibility I had to my partner, having told them about our reservation at a quoted price already, and the possibility of not being able to find any more vacancies not to mention wasting time looking for another place I decided that, even though I knew I was being robbed and the victim of a dishonest innkeeper, I needed to secure rooms for our vacation. I had previously told Mr. Soberano that he had me at a disadvantage as almost a month had gone by from the time I booked the reservation until that point and that there were no longer as many options, if any for me. I accepted the higher rate he charged me at that point, which was approximately 10 dollars more plus tax for the last three nights. I also endured that unpleasant experience of being lied to and having my quoted reservation not honored to start my vacation. This is without question the poorest customer service I have ever experienced. I consider Mr. Sobreno to be dishonest. I consider the situation he put me in to be akin to highway robbery. Furthermore, he created all of this ill will for approximately 38.50. Obviously, I am most upset about the principal of the matter; being lied to and as a result of that lie being in an untenable situation and forced to accept being cheated to avoid further hassle.