Most local, international readers stand up for female guest denied prepaid room at Hanoi hotel

Ed Hermannson, who lives in Kralendijk, the capital and main port of the island of Bonaire in the Caribbean Netherlands, wrote that if it was fully prepaid, it would be up to the guest to show up when she wanted.

“This is unacceptable behavior of hotel staff. The room was prepaid in full, and the late arrival was due to unforeseen circumstances beyond the control of the guest,” Robert TL commented.

“The room should be available when this guest shows up at the location,” added the foreign reader.

Ann Pentaz, who comes from Perth, Western Australia, commented that she fully paid for the room in advance, so legally she was entitled to her consumer rights.

“If she got stuck on the plane, how could she contact the hotel? The hotel should offer her an alternative room or book her another hotel,” he wrote.

Reader Quynh Luong from Hanoi offered her support that the guest had booked a room for three days and the hotel had already received full payment.

“During the period, even if the guest doesn’t show up, the room should still be reserved for her," she commented.

“If the guest doesn’t check in, she will simply lose her payment.

“The hotel took the guest’s money and then gave the room to someone else, meaning the hotel has received payment twice for one room.”

She denounced the act as fraud and misappropriation of another person’s property

Another reader from Da Nang City remarked that when the guest paid in full, the room should have been reserved for her, regardless of whether she arrived early, late, or not at all.

Reader Hoai Nam wrote that hotels usually request guests to check in from 2:00 pm and check out by 11:00 am, meaning guests are free to check in anytime within that period.

“The hotel is only entitled to sell the room if the guest has not made a deposit and does not arrive after 2:00 pm,” he added.

“This act might contribute to tarnishing the image of the capital and disgracing the entire hotel industry,” a local reader wrote.

Hotel hit by backlash after denying prepaid room to late-arriving guest        

The hotel received dozens of thousands of one-star reviews on Google Maps after a video of the female tourist being refused the prepaid room for arriving late went viral on social media.

According to the video, the guest, identified as N.Y.Q., had booked and paid in full for the room for the period of November 7-10.

However, due to heavy rain and stormy weather, she arrived in Hanoi later than planned, around 2:00 am on November 9, to check in.

The hotel’s front desk staff reportedly informed her that her room had already been given to someone else because she arrived too late.

"Since the guest didn’t show up, I marked it as a ‘no-show,'" the staff later told local media.

"As I don’t have much experience, my response upset the guest. 

"In hindsight, instead of waiting to reach the booking platform, I should have immediately tried to help the guest find another nearby room.”

Left without accommodation, Q. took a taxi to find another place to stay in the middle of the night.

On Monday, the hotel side contacted Q. to offer a refund of the room payment.

However, she stated that she remained dissatisfied with the hotel’s handling of the situation.

The video’s spread triggered an online backlash.

However, over 30,000 negative one-star reviews targeting the hotel completely disappeared from Google Maps on Wednesday.

The hotel’s profile showed only 336 reviews, with an average score of 4.3 out of 5 on Wednesday morning.