Extended Stay America Prepaid Reservations Not Held, Not Refunded Class Action

If you have prepaid for a hotel stay, should the hotel hold the room for you? And if it does not, should you get a refund for your prepayment? The complaint for this class action alleges that, when rooms are prepaid, Extended Stay America, Inc. and other companies neither hold the room nor provide refunds when they cancel the customer’s reservation.

The Nationwide Class for this action is all individuals who prepaid for a reservation at an Extended Stay America hotel in the US, who were denied accommodation at an Extended Stay America hotel during the term of the prepaid reservation, and whose prepayment was not refunded. A Georgia Subclass has also been defined as those in the above class where the Extended Stay America hotel was in Georgia.

Reservations for Extended Stay America hotels are handled by a central reservation system. According to the complaint, a would-be customer of Extended Stay America hotels has two ways of holding a reservation: guaranteeing the room with a credit card or prepaying for the reservation.

Customers who hold rooms with a credit card can cancel the reservation up to 6 pm on the first night of the reservation, the complaint claims. If the guest has not canceled the reservation by 6 pm on the first night of the reservation and has not checked in, the complaint alleges, then the central reservation systems decides the guest is a no-show, cancels the reservation, and charges the guest’s credit card for one night.

Prepaid reservations are not refundable. When customers prepay for their reservations but who do not check in on the first day of their reservations, the complaint alleges, they system cancels their reservations. If the customer tries to check in after the reservation has been cancelled, the complaint alleges, the customer is no longer allowed to check in but the hotel keeps the entire prepaid fee.

In this case, plaintiff Latreass Brittain stayed at the Extended Stay America hotel in Norcross, Georgia from December 14, 2021 to January 11, 2022. When she decided to extend her stay, the complaint alleges, she prepaid $1,777.50 for the days from January 11 to February 8, 2022. In other words, the complaint says she was already staying at the hotel on the start date of the second reservation.

The complaint alleges that Brittain “was designated a ‘no show’ for her second reservation by the ESA computer system, was told her reservation could not be accommodated because she was a ‘no show’ and was told to vacate the hotel room.” To make it worse, the conplaing claims the hotel kept her entire $1,777.50 fee, because prepaid reservations are not refundable.

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: Contract
Tags: Breach of Contract