A South Bay family says a big, brand-name hotel turned them away because it overbooked — and that cost the family a pretty penny.   The Dworkin family’s goal for a recent getaway was simple: sand, surf, and sun. “The plan was to spend eight delightful days in the Bahamas,” Krist ine Dworkin said. Their arrangements were pretty simple, too: a one night stay at a Marriott Courtyard. Then, seven nights at a resort. Kristine’s husband, Jimmy Dworkin, confirmed and pre-paid their one-night stay at the Marriott. So, check in should’ve been easy. It was not. Air Travel Mar 11 NBC Bay Area Responds to travel trouble consumer Mar 6 Price check: where do consumers pay the most for groceries? “This lady says, ‘the rooms are all sold out. We don’t have any more rooms,’” Kristine said. “And we were like, ‘this doesn’t make any sense. We have a reservation.’ That’s when Jimmy launched into the whole Seinfeld routine about keeping a reservation.”     Kristine is talking about a much-quoted 1991 Seinfeld episode that unfolded at a rental car counter.  Jerry says, “I don’t understand. I made a reservation. Do you have my reservation?”  The agent is quick to reply. “Yes,” she says. “But unfortunately we ran out of cars.”   Jerry quips, “you know how to take the reservation; you just don’t know how to keep the reservation.”    The Dworkins were living the hotel version of that joke. But they were not laughing. After overbooking the hotel and giving away their prepaid room, here’s what the Dworkins say Marriott did for them: “nothing,” Kristine said. “I’m quite surprised,” said Professor Michael “Doc” Terry, a hospitality industry veteran who teaches hotel managers at the University of Central Florida. Terry said hotels routinely have “no-shows,” guests who hold reservations but don’t check in or cancel.   “Usually it’s two to three percent,” he said. “And so, they will overbook.” But when everyone shows up and there are more guests than rooms, Terry said what customarily happens next is the overbooked hotel finds you an alternative place to stay. “Any major, reputable hotel in the world will transport you to that hotel, pay for that hotel for the first night, [provide] transportation back the next morning, and, of course, not charge you for that room,” he said.        That was not the case for the Dworkins. They say the Courtyard Marriott simply turned them away. “They were pretty rude about it,” Kristine said.   So, that night — around midnight — they say they started walking the streets of Nassau. “Off in the distance we see Margaritaville and I’m like, ‘come on, Jimmy Buffett!’”  They changed their latitude and found a change in attitude. The Margaritaville resort found the Dworkin family a room. The hotel’s last available room. A suite. For $1,400. For one night. “That’s a lot of money,” Kristine said. “That’s certainly not money we budgeted for this trip.”  The Dworkins expected Marriott to pay them back. They started emailing — with help from folks on social media. They also contacted us. We reached out to Marriott headquarters, as well as the London company that actually owns the Nassau hotel. Neither replied to us.  But Marriott did respond to the Dworkin family, and agreed to pay back the extra $1,400 they spent, plus the original cost of their stay. “We travel a lot and we’ve been traveling for years. and this is the first time we’ve encountered this,” Kristine said. We reviewed Marriott’s website and found only one reference to overbooking: a commitment to re-accommodate overbooked “elite” members. Besides being a VIP, how else can you try to avoid becoming a victim of an overbooked hotel?  Try to check-in online. Some hotels let you check in up to 24 hours in advance on their app. You might get your room assignment and digital key early, hopefully guaranteeing your accommodation. When you’re making travel plans, Terry said be careful booking business hotels. He explained that corporate travelers frequently no-show, so business hotels frequently overbook. “If it’s a business hotel, it’s much more common,” Terry said. Finally, if ever you’re going to check into a hotel late at night, Terry says over communicate your arrival time: call on the phone, direct message on social media, chat in the app. That didn’t work for the Dworkins. But Terry says you’ve got to try. ...read more read less