LIVE from the Camino Cancel booked rooms

[patw]

Just a plea to all pilgrims. If you book a room by phone and don't intend to use it for whatever reasons please notify the owner. We have just turned away a very tired young woman because we are fully booked. However it is now nearly 8pm and two pilgrims who booked a room by phone have not shown and we suspect will not show. Although we felt bad turning the young woman away we really could not give her their room just in case they arrive late.

 

[Anniesantiago]

Just a plea to all pilgrims. If you book a room by phone and don't intend to use it for whatever reasons please notify the owner. Although we felt bad turning the young woman away we really could not give her their room just in case they arrive late.

This is so important.

 

[SYates]

Couldn't agree more!!! Buen Camino, SY

 

[SabsP]

Indeed and it is plain rude not to cancel ( unless one is really in an emergency situation and not able to call in ).

 

[domigee]

The few times I booked a room by phone, invariably the hospitalero/a asked me to confirm by 4pm if I still wanted it - if I hadn't arrived by then otherwise they wouldn't keep it.
In fact, on the first night of my first Camino, I lost the room I had reserved at l'Esprit du Chemin albergue. I had told them what train I was catching but didn't know I had to phone to confirm so they gave it to another pilgrim.

 

[KinkyOne]

Just a plea to all pilgrims. If you book a room by phone and don't intend to use it for whatever reasons please notify the owner. We have just turned away a very tired young woman because we are fully booked. However it is now nearly 8pm and two pilgrims who booked a room by phone have not shown and we suspect will not show. Although we felt bad turning the young woman away we really could not give her their room just in case they arrive late.

It's good and important you've came up with this problem!!!

I too reserved a room here and there on my walks. I'm late riser, fast walker and making long stops. Also enjoying late afternoon light (best for photos) especially in flatlands, so therefore I ask owners if I can show after 5PM. Usually they told me my bed is waiting for me but to call at 5PM if anything has changed. And that worked out beautifully everytime.
I mean, it's so easy to be kind, just a few seconds and few cents to call. Even if you cancel the reservation... For the sake of another pilgrim as posted in OP. But for me it is even more important for the people that run these places. Come on, they make living with these beds/rooms etc. I simply can't understand people reserve accomm. and then don't show up... It's a riddle to me, sorry...

 

[Saint Mike II]

Just a plea to all pilgrims. If you book a room by phone and don't intend to use it for whatever reasons please notify the owner. We have just turned away a very tired young woman because we are fully booked. However it is now nearly 8pm and two pilgrims who booked a room by phone have not shown and we suspect will not show. Although we felt bad turning the young woman away we really could not give her their room just in case they arrive late.

I would have thought that if they were a "no show" by 8.00 pm and had not advised that they expected to arrive very late, then in the absence of other information you would have been justified giving the room to that very tired pilgrim. If I am arriving after 18.00/6.00 PM I was try to provide an approximate arrival time and also provide my contact details (mobile number). I do agree - its only common courtesy to notify any accommodation venue if you do not intend to use the booked room. Cheers

 

[Carlos Santiago]

An expiration time and date on any reservation should do the trick.

 

[Tia Valeria]

We saw it happen this year on the Primitivo at private accommodation. Sadly 'no shows' is the reason that many places now ask for a non-returnable deposit to make a booking. At least then they don't make a loss, but it doesn't solve the problem of the tired pilgrim who is turned away.

 

[HeidiL]

When I was hospitalera in Grado we quite frequently had people show up between 9 and 10 in the evening. Sometimes we found a bed for them, sometimes we phoned the private places, and if everything was full, they slept in the park.

 

[dougfitz]

An expiration time and date on any reservation should do the trick.

I understand this is an option available for accommodation vendors using sites like booking dot com. As listing on these sites becomes more common, and where no-shows are an issue, I expect that the use of features like this will increase. In addition, as already mentioned above, there are often arrival deadlines set when making a telephone booking, after which time the reservation you have made will be released.

Does this remove the social obligation to inform a vendor if you are not going to be able to use your reservation? I don't think so. Clearly it is the polite thing to do in any case.

 

[Wokabaut_Meri]

Just common decency and consideration. Unfortunately we saw several instances of 'no shows' with other pilgrims being turned away because the accommodation was booked. Whenever we booked rooms I would always call and reconfirm if we were still walking by mid afternoon.

 

[Smallest_Sparrow]

I think hospitaleros are caught in a tough position...if they assume you are a no-show, and give away your bed, then you will be angry (and probably express that anger in person and online) if you do show up eventually. OTOH they may turn away a pilgrim in need and then have an empty bed. We are all adults...if you must miss a reservation for an emergency then call them. I imagine requiring a deposit is an extra headache, one I am sorry and a bit ashamed pilgrims have caused.

Another potential outcome of no-shows could be the albergues resort to first-come, first-served. When I moved I tried to give away my boxes on Craigslist. People would call or txt me to hold some for them. I did. they never showed up, but I'd told others they couldn't have the boxes. They were disappointed and so was I. After two rounds of this, I put them on the curb, first-come, first-served, and noted in the remarks I would not answer calls or txts about them. If we like the ability to make reservations, we must act like adults or potentially lose that ability.

 

[MargLav]

We had a very negative experience because we turned up at our reserved accommodation personally to cancel it as we had decided to do extra 6 kms to next town. We had only booked it the same morning as there was a frenzy around us of booked out accommodation. This was the first time ever we had cancelled accommodation since SJPdP and was in Rabanel but as my feet (blisters) were coping we decided to go on to Foncebaden to make the next day easier. It was early enough (befor 2pm) with lots of pilgrims behind us to take our booking but the owner made us feel terrible for cancelling. We were shocked and it impacted us significantly. We felt the commercialism of Rabanel and were very happy to spend the night in quiet Foncebaden and leave our trobles behind at Cruz de Ferro the next morning.

 

[Smallest_Sparrow]

I'm sorry you had such an unpleasant experience, but everyone please cancel when you know you won't make it [edit: and major kudos to the person above who told them in person, even though that resulted in a very unpleasant experience end edit]. Perhaps the owner in the case above was also under pressure, with so many pilgrims on the road, and maybe they were out of sorts because they'd earlier had someone burst into tears when they said they were completo. I booked three nights in SJPdP because I wanted to explore the area; when I arrived they were predicting a snow storm would arrive in two days. I told the nice owners at the albergue (now Belairi, at the time a different name) that I could not stay, I needed to get ahead of the storm, but insisted they keep my fee (after all, I was happy when they let me book those nights, and the owners at first tried to refund my fee). They in turn thanked me, esp for telling them there was now room for others who needed it, and if they found another pilgrim to fill that bed would donate the money to the poor. A win all around.

 

[MargLav]

This experience would never stop us advising of a cancellation but it has stopped us reserving accommodation in advance. We are very honest people and it made our Camino experience feel very cheap and commercial.

 

[dougfitz]

but the owner made us feel terrible for cancelling.

I can understand that. In exchange for your promise that you would be using their accommodation, they had undertaken to forego providing that accommodation to someone else. I think I would be upset as well if someone broke their part of an undertaking like this at the very last moment. It is easy to say that they might have found someone else to take up the accommodation they had reserved for you, but at the moment you cancelled, neither of you could be certain of that.

In other places that I travel, cancelling a reservation at such late notice would normally result in the full price of the accommodation being levied, even were there a prospect of the room subsequently being occupied. Perhaps some personal discomfort was a small price to pay in the circumstances.

 

[C clearly]

It was early enough (befor 2pm) with lots of pilgrims behind us to take our booking but the owner made us feel terrible for cancelling. We were shocked and it impacted us significantly.

it made our Camino experience feel very cheap and commercial.

This tells me that you genuinely want to do the "right" thing. However, you probably should not be shocked that the owner was annoyed. After all, it created more work for him.

It is difficult to decide what the ethical solution would be. The owner may well have thought after the fact "Gee, I should have been more gracious because at least those people had the courtesy to show up and tell me." The owner had a valid perspective, but as you pointed out, he was probably not impacted financially in the end.

I question why this would have impacted you "severely" unless you basically understood his point of view. We sometimes make mistakes - it's as simple as that! You had 3 choices (a) inform him that you will not use the reservation but will pay for it, (b) stand him up and make him fend for himself, or (c) what you did. I don't think you did a bad thing by choosing (c), but maybe it wasn't the perfect decision. And how often do us humans reach the perfect decision?

Your solution of making fewer reservations is a sensible one to avoid this particular situation.