Parents irked about overbooking of hotels on weekend

This weekend, many parents and family members arrived on campus for Family Weekend. However, some parents were forced to deal with an unexpected, last minute complication.

As reservations at the Penn Tower Hotel fell through, some families found themselves scrambling to find somewhere else to stay.

A staffer at the Penn Tower confirmed that the hotel was overbooked for the weekend, though she said she was unsure of how many people were affected by the overbooking.

Becca Aronson, a junior in the College, said that despite reserving a room at the Penn Tower a year in advance and paying in full at the time, her parents were unable to stay at the hotel.

"The thing we couldn't believe was that they had booked a year in advance and still [Penn Tower] had no record of them whatsoever," she said.

According to Aronson, her parents arrived late Thursday night to check in at the Penn Tower, but the staff there could not find a record of their reservation.

"Before they actually came, my father had called and they gave him a confirmation number and they said it was all set for them," she said. "They get to the hotel and they have no idea who they are, no room for them, nothing."

"Initially [the staff] weren't very helpful," Aronson said, describing her father as "ready to kill them."

Aronson said that eventually, Penn Tower staff found her parents a room at the Wyndham Hotel in Center City, and they received two nights' complimentary stay. However, they did pay for the third night of their stay.

Anne Aronson, Becca's mother, said that while "in the long run it wasn't that bad," the inconvenience of the situation was discouraging.

She said that being placed at the Wyndham was especially inconvenient because she and her husband wanted to stay at a hotel within walking distance of campus.

"The Penn Tower [staff] weren't accommodating," she said. "It was just a terrible situation."

Anne Aronson also said that the room they were placed in at the Wyndham "wasn't very pleasant."

"The only room available there was a smoking room," she said, adding that they were moved to a nonsmoking room the next night.

"We'll never stay at the Penn Tower ever again," she said.

Not all students' parents faced the consequences of hotel overbooking, however.

"My parents didn't have any problems with their reservation," Wharton freshman Jonathan Pomeraniec said. "And I haven't heard of anyone else's families that had problems this weekend."

Other hotels near campus were sold out for the weekend, but not overbooked.

Dave Newhart, the general manager of the Inn at Penn, said that while it is common practice in the hotel industry to overbook by five to eight rooms in case of cancellations, the Inn at Penn does not do this during "event weekends" like Family Weekend and graduation.

"What we do for event weekends is we require people to sign contracts and pay in advance, and in that fashion, we do not oversell the hotel," he said.

Newhart said that by charging guests in advance, "the hotel is protected from a revenue standpoint and the guest is also protected and guaranteed a room."

According to Newhart, the entire Inn at Penn -- 238 rooms --was booked for the weekend, and things seemed to have gone smoothly.

At the Sheraton University City, the situation was much the same.

Guest Services Manager Eliza Jachowicz said that the hotel was fully booked for the weekend, but that overbooking did not occur.

"People didn't have to be turned away," she said. "We were the lucky ones."

Deanna Gonzalez, also a guest services manager, added that the Sheraton avoids problems with overbooking by taking reservations about a year in advance.

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