There are no words
There are absolutely no words that can describe my anger right now.
Pull up a chair, grab some popcorn or something, and read the story of our botched trip to Austin.
To start out, I want you to all do me a favor and never use Travelocity. Ever. Or never again, if you've used them. Here's why:
K booked a hotel room at the Omni hotel in Austin for today and tomorrow earlier in the week. No problems, right? Right. He called and confirmed that we 1)had a room, 2)this room was non-smoking, and 3)they knew that we have and are bringing our dogs. The woman confirmed with K all 3 items, and in fact, told us that the ENTIRE Omni hotel was smoke-free.
We arrive, and to our surprise, learn that we do not have a room, and the only rooms they have are on smoking floors. Oh, and just to add insult to injury, the ENTIRE hotel aside from one floor is smoking-accepted. Um, wut? Needless to say, K calls Travelocity and demands that we get both a refund on that hotel, and that they reserve a space in another hotel in Austin. Luckily, he had the woman add notes to the call that confirmed that she blatantly lied (or was being downright stupid), so they went ahead and accommodated.
They set us up with a room in the Sheraton, which was AWESOME because it was close to everything great about Austin. A 5 minute bus ride from the state capital, 6th street, and lots of food. Anyways, again, we MADE SURE that the Travelocity agent understood that we had 2 dogs, wanted a non-smoking room, and there we go. In fact, he went above and beyond, and made sure that we would be able to walk into the hotel and go to our room, even though it was going to take a few minutes for our reservation to be in their system. We drive over there, K goes inside to check in, and the woman fully understands that we have 2 dogs with us. Here's where we were screwed: they neglected to give us a "pet waiver".
Fast forward about a half hour, and me and K are out and about, walking around on 6th and gawking at the homeless people. We even saw a bum fight. I should mention that we had Biscotti in his kennel, and Mel was left outside, as he has no issues with destruction or housetraining. Biscotti, however, is not fully kennel trained. And while I thought his barking had been reduced to minimum while he was crated, apparently the terrifying experience of the strange hotel was enough to cause him to bark. A lot. Enough to garner some complaints. We make it back to the hotel about 2 hours later at most, head up to our room, and lo and behold, we can't get in.
Cue rushing back downstairs and trying to figure out what's going on. At first, the woman was just going to re-activate our cards, but then K mentioned that we couldn't hear our dogs, and was wondering if they had the dogs. She leaves, and comes back all giddy and tells us that yes, they have the dogs, and that the desk manager or whatever will be here shortly to talk to us. He finally comes to the desk, takes us to the side, and very snottily tells us that "Your dog DESTROYED the room! There was a complaint about barking, so we went upstairs to look, and there was crap EVERYWHERE, and he just DESTROYED everything!"
WHAT?!??! Melcocha does NOT use the bathroom inside. He has not used the bathroom in our house in the 1 1/2 years since I house broke him. So I immediately knew that he did that, because as you may or may not know, Mel is fear aggressive. Which means that fear aggressive dogs will often urinate or defecate when cornered and scared. We're both terrified at this point, and asked what happened, and why were we not contacted?? This snotty manager tells us very pointedly that he DID call the contact information, and that if we had signed the pet waiver, we would have been contacted sooner.
What fucking pet waiver?! No one said anything about a waiver. This does not excuse the fact that NOT A SINGLE ONE OF THEM TRIED TO CONTACT US! Just because we didn't sign a waiver does not mean that they couldn't look at the god damned reservation and booking information to get our number so that we could have returned and silenced Biscotti. We were not even 10 minutes away from the hotel.
So, the bell hop escorts us up to our room, I'm beside myself with both anger and sadness (and of course, I'm sobbing like a git), as is K. We get up there, and there's tufts of Mel's fur in the hallway. Cue my sobbing harder. Neither of us had noticed the fur when we originally came back upstairs. Anyways, we get in there to get our stuff, and sure enough, there's a few pebbles of poop here and there. Maybe about 4 or 5 max. There was no destruction, only the blanket was tousled. There was a little bit of urine on the blanket, and that's the range of the "DESTROYED THE ROOM" this asshat of a manager claimed. The bellhop was polite, and asked us if we really didn't get a pet waiver, and if we really didn't receive any calls, and we both told him no. Of course, neither me or K were of a right mindset to think to stop and take pictures of the lack of destruction.
Anyways, we get back downstairs, and we're waiting on them to bring us back the dogs, when the bellhop suggests that we talk to the general manager about this situation. So we talk to him, and explain everything, and there's a fear in his eyes as we explain that no one made an attempt to contact us so that we could try to rectify the situation before they went in the room. He immediately and profusely apologizes about that, and that he would talk to the desk manager or whatever that guy's title was to see what was going on.
Cue a blood-curdling shriek coming from the street. Then everyone at the bar stands up and looks terrified as the shrieking continues. That's when I realized that was Mel screaming like that. I get outside, and he is UNDER A FUCKING CAR with blood on his chin, and he reeks of urine and saliva, and he is shaking and his eyes are as huge as saucers, and...oh god. There's not a single time that I can replay this in my head and not cry as hard as I cried out there. He was frantic, and even lashed out at me before he realized I was just trying to pick him up so that he wouldn't run off again. He had run across a busy street and positioned himself under a car. This is why I TOLD them that I should pick him up. I asked the desk manager several times if I could get Mel myself, but no, he was so fucking proud of himself for fucking everyone's day up. As a side note, I couldn't believe the audacity of the hotel visitors. It was as if they were chiding at me. Here I am, sobbing, with Mel in my arms, and about 6 different people commented on how "cute" Mel was. Blood on his chin and all. "OH!! Isn't he just ADORABLE!!!!!!"
We weren't the only ones that had problems with him that day. Just in the 10 minutes K spent at the desk, there were over 3 to 5 other people having to deal with the bullshit that manager had put them through.
While I'm outside, K is inside talking to the general manager, the desk manager, and the bellhop about this situation. As soon as they all realized that we weren't raving mad, weren't acting a public fucking fool over this situation (aside from my crying), and that they were completely in the wrong for this, they all looked terrified. I was making a point to show them just how trained Mel was by having him sit and lay down on command, which attracted a consierge to come bother me about how cute Mel was again. The managers and bell hop were open-mouthed at how well behaved Mel was.
K requested that we be let back inside our hotel room to obtain pictures so that we would not be charged for "damage", when a few nuggets of shit and soiled hotel blankets where the least of the damage that hotel experiences daily. They all agreed that the "damage" was indeed not damage, and that we would not be charged. They refused to let us back upstairs. K proceeded to then ask for some kind of paperwork or something that binds them to this decision so that they could not go back and claim that our dogs chewed the bed in half, but they absolutely refused this as well.
Remember that I said that both managers were terrified at this point. They then began apologizing like nothing before, and in fact, try to tell us that we should not leave, and that they would give us a new and better room. Or in fact, if we wanted a new hotel all together, they would arrange that as well. They just sincerely wanted us to "enjoy your stay in Austin! We don't want you to let this situation ruin your vacation."
Get the fuck out of here with that bullshit. First, this asshat tries to belittle and berate us without and goddamn warrant, when neither of us treated him in that manner. Then, they try to "quick fix" the problem by giving us a new room? Fuck you Sheraton. Not even their top suites could better what they had done.
Ridiculous.
So, we're back home now. We immediately left Austin after this. No dinner, no stops, just lots of tears, worry, and speeding. Mel appears to be ok as of right now, but I can never be sure until he starts to have symptoms. We're down over $250 because of Travelocity's incompetence. Half of that might be refunded within 30 work days. We tried getting a refund for the Sheraton, since there is no reason that anyone there should have a dime of our money. Both companies are giving us the run-around, so we'll have to wait till the morning to continue the good fight to get our money back.
'Scuse me while I go cry myself to sleep. This event has seriously put a dent in my desire to move to Austin. The traffic is fucking awful, the people are fucking awful (for the most part), and everything about today was fucking awful.
This post needs more f-bombs...
Needless to say, Mel has basically reset in his trust of strangers. We had made so much progress, and now that is completely gone. He goes berserk at strangers now, and at us if he doesn't recognize us right away. Now that I have the job at Ikea, I'm going to look into wasting some money on dog training, specifically on aggression fixes. I've found a couple of places, but half look like folks trying to make quick and easy money off of desperate dog owners. :(
Pull up a chair, grab some popcorn or something, and read the story of our botched trip to Austin.
To start out, I want you to all do me a favor and never use Travelocity. Ever. Or never again, if you've used them. Here's why:
K booked a hotel room at the Omni hotel in Austin for today and tomorrow earlier in the week. No problems, right? Right. He called and confirmed that we 1)had a room, 2)this room was non-smoking, and 3)they knew that we have and are bringing our dogs. The woman confirmed with K all 3 items, and in fact, told us that the ENTIRE Omni hotel was smoke-free.
We arrive, and to our surprise, learn that we do not have a room, and the only rooms they have are on smoking floors. Oh, and just to add insult to injury, the ENTIRE hotel aside from one floor is smoking-accepted. Um, wut? Needless to say, K calls Travelocity and demands that we get both a refund on that hotel, and that they reserve a space in another hotel in Austin. Luckily, he had the woman add notes to the call that confirmed that she blatantly lied (or was being downright stupid), so they went ahead and accommodated.
They set us up with a room in the Sheraton, which was AWESOME because it was close to everything great about Austin. A 5 minute bus ride from the state capital, 6th street, and lots of food. Anyways, again, we MADE SURE that the Travelocity agent understood that we had 2 dogs, wanted a non-smoking room, and there we go. In fact, he went above and beyond, and made sure that we would be able to walk into the hotel and go to our room, even though it was going to take a few minutes for our reservation to be in their system. We drive over there, K goes inside to check in, and the woman fully understands that we have 2 dogs with us. Here's where we were screwed: they neglected to give us a "pet waiver".
Fast forward about a half hour, and me and K are out and about, walking around on 6th and gawking at the homeless people. We even saw a bum fight. I should mention that we had Biscotti in his kennel, and Mel was left outside, as he has no issues with destruction or housetraining. Biscotti, however, is not fully kennel trained. And while I thought his barking had been reduced to minimum while he was crated, apparently the terrifying experience of the strange hotel was enough to cause him to bark. A lot. Enough to garner some complaints. We make it back to the hotel about 2 hours later at most, head up to our room, and lo and behold, we can't get in.
Cue rushing back downstairs and trying to figure out what's going on. At first, the woman was just going to re-activate our cards, but then K mentioned that we couldn't hear our dogs, and was wondering if they had the dogs. She leaves, and comes back all giddy and tells us that yes, they have the dogs, and that the desk manager or whatever will be here shortly to talk to us. He finally comes to the desk, takes us to the side, and very snottily tells us that "Your dog DESTROYED the room! There was a complaint about barking, so we went upstairs to look, and there was crap EVERYWHERE, and he just DESTROYED everything!"
WHAT?!??! Melcocha does NOT use the bathroom inside. He has not used the bathroom in our house in the 1 1/2 years since I house broke him. So I immediately knew that he did that, because as you may or may not know, Mel is fear aggressive. Which means that fear aggressive dogs will often urinate or defecate when cornered and scared. We're both terrified at this point, and asked what happened, and why were we not contacted?? This snotty manager tells us very pointedly that he DID call the contact information, and that if we had signed the pet waiver, we would have been contacted sooner.
What fucking pet waiver?! No one said anything about a waiver. This does not excuse the fact that NOT A SINGLE ONE OF THEM TRIED TO CONTACT US! Just because we didn't sign a waiver does not mean that they couldn't look at the god damned reservation and booking information to get our number so that we could have returned and silenced Biscotti. We were not even 10 minutes away from the hotel.
So, the bell hop escorts us up to our room, I'm beside myself with both anger and sadness (and of course, I'm sobbing like a git), as is K. We get up there, and there's tufts of Mel's fur in the hallway. Cue my sobbing harder. Neither of us had noticed the fur when we originally came back upstairs. Anyways, we get in there to get our stuff, and sure enough, there's a few pebbles of poop here and there. Maybe about 4 or 5 max. There was no destruction, only the blanket was tousled. There was a little bit of urine on the blanket, and that's the range of the "DESTROYED THE ROOM" this asshat of a manager claimed. The bellhop was polite, and asked us if we really didn't get a pet waiver, and if we really didn't receive any calls, and we both told him no. Of course, neither me or K were of a right mindset to think to stop and take pictures of the lack of destruction.
Anyways, we get back downstairs, and we're waiting on them to bring us back the dogs, when the bellhop suggests that we talk to the general manager about this situation. So we talk to him, and explain everything, and there's a fear in his eyes as we explain that no one made an attempt to contact us so that we could try to rectify the situation before they went in the room. He immediately and profusely apologizes about that, and that he would talk to the desk manager or whatever that guy's title was to see what was going on.
Cue a blood-curdling shriek coming from the street. Then everyone at the bar stands up and looks terrified as the shrieking continues. That's when I realized that was Mel screaming like that. I get outside, and he is UNDER A FUCKING CAR with blood on his chin, and he reeks of urine and saliva, and he is shaking and his eyes are as huge as saucers, and...oh god. There's not a single time that I can replay this in my head and not cry as hard as I cried out there. He was frantic, and even lashed out at me before he realized I was just trying to pick him up so that he wouldn't run off again. He had run across a busy street and positioned himself under a car. This is why I TOLD them that I should pick him up. I asked the desk manager several times if I could get Mel myself, but no, he was so fucking proud of himself for fucking everyone's day up. As a side note, I couldn't believe the audacity of the hotel visitors. It was as if they were chiding at me. Here I am, sobbing, with Mel in my arms, and about 6 different people commented on how "cute" Mel was. Blood on his chin and all. "OH!! Isn't he just ADORABLE!!!!!!"
We weren't the only ones that had problems with him that day. Just in the 10 minutes K spent at the desk, there were over 3 to 5 other people having to deal with the bullshit that manager had put them through.
While I'm outside, K is inside talking to the general manager, the desk manager, and the bellhop about this situation. As soon as they all realized that we weren't raving mad, weren't acting a public fucking fool over this situation (aside from my crying), and that they were completely in the wrong for this, they all looked terrified. I was making a point to show them just how trained Mel was by having him sit and lay down on command, which attracted a consierge to come bother me about how cute Mel was again. The managers and bell hop were open-mouthed at how well behaved Mel was.
K requested that we be let back inside our hotel room to obtain pictures so that we would not be charged for "damage", when a few nuggets of shit and soiled hotel blankets where the least of the damage that hotel experiences daily. They all agreed that the "damage" was indeed not damage, and that we would not be charged. They refused to let us back upstairs. K proceeded to then ask for some kind of paperwork or something that binds them to this decision so that they could not go back and claim that our dogs chewed the bed in half, but they absolutely refused this as well.
Remember that I said that both managers were terrified at this point. They then began apologizing like nothing before, and in fact, try to tell us that we should not leave, and that they would give us a new and better room. Or in fact, if we wanted a new hotel all together, they would arrange that as well. They just sincerely wanted us to "enjoy your stay in Austin! We don't want you to let this situation ruin your vacation."
Get the fuck out of here with that bullshit. First, this asshat tries to belittle and berate us without and goddamn warrant, when neither of us treated him in that manner. Then, they try to "quick fix" the problem by giving us a new room? Fuck you Sheraton. Not even their top suites could better what they had done.
Ridiculous.
So, we're back home now. We immediately left Austin after this. No dinner, no stops, just lots of tears, worry, and speeding. Mel appears to be ok as of right now, but I can never be sure until he starts to have symptoms. We're down over $250 because of Travelocity's incompetence. Half of that might be refunded within 30 work days. We tried getting a refund for the Sheraton, since there is no reason that anyone there should have a dime of our money. Both companies are giving us the run-around, so we'll have to wait till the morning to continue the good fight to get our money back.
'Scuse me while I go cry myself to sleep. This event has seriously put a dent in my desire to move to Austin. The traffic is fucking awful, the people are fucking awful (for the most part), and everything about today was fucking awful.
This post needs more f-bombs...
Needless to say, Mel has basically reset in his trust of strangers. We had made so much progress, and now that is completely gone. He goes berserk at strangers now, and at us if he doesn't recognize us right away. Now that I have the job at Ikea, I'm going to look into wasting some money on dog training, specifically on aggression fixes. I've found a couple of places, but half look like folks trying to make quick and easy money off of desperate dog owners. :(