So Long, Yuba City HIX

[kevin_standlee]

Having decided that I'm not going to go up to Yuba City on Friday night after all, I tried to cancel my reservation that I'd made for tomorrow night at the Holiday Inn Express Yuba City, where I've stayed many times. The online system wouldn't let me cancel it. I called customer service, and they escalated it to the second level because they couldn't get at it either. Upon investigation, the agent said, "I can't access it because it isn't a Holiday Inn Express anymore, effective today." Apparently that property decided not to do the revamp necessary to stay in the HIX brand anymore and were dropped from the system. A direct call to the hotel got the reservation canceled.

Upon reflection, I sort of wish I would have kept the reservation and stayed there one more time "for old times sake," because I liked the hotel, and because I probably would have still received credit for the stay as a transition reservation. Now I'll have to re-think where I stay on my trips to Yuba City.

Comments

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

I'm astonished that you were able to get a clear answer to the question of why you couldn't cancel your reservation by the ordinary methods.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Well, it did have to get "kicked upstairs" to find someone who knew the problem. It's not even the first time that it's happened to me. The Holiday Inn Reno (which to be honest was a pretty terrible hotel) also got the boot for failing to meet standards, and I had a similarly "untouchable" reservation.

As you may have noticed, Holiday Inns and Expresses have been engaged in a brand revamp. You can tell when one of the hotels has been through the remodel because the blue/yellow Holiday Inn Express signs get replaced with the new Green logo (similar to that of the regular Holiday Inns, which are also being revamped). I expect that when a franchisee's contract comes up for renewal, they get told "upgrade or lose your franchise." I noticed the last time I was there that Yuba City was still in the older blue livery, and thus am not surprised that they've left the chain.

[travelswithkuma.livejournal.com]

Bears ands Lias likes stays theres,
evens thoughs theys hads nos fishs.

[scott-sanford.livejournal.com]

I'm sure there's a simple way to include a picture which I haven't found yet, so I'll use a URL: http://oddlyspecific.com/2010/06/15/funny-signs-vaguely-specific/#comments

"So...is there a hotel around here?"

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Cute. To include a picture instead of a link, in your html tag instead of "A HREF" write "IMG SRC" and you don't need a closing tag.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Clearly, dealing with these hotels regularly has given you a sophisticated feel for this situation. Now, if only some people would realize it's possible to get the same thing about the Hugos ...

[scott-sanford.livejournal.com]

Ah, basic HTML. Obviously. So, trying this: