Ramada Inn Galveston?

[long_shot45]

Has anyone ever stayed there pre cruise. They have free parking and say they are close to the dock. Any info will be of great help.

[jobster71]

Is it walking distance to the terminal? Carnival.

[MellowMel]

The Ramada is near the port, but it is too far to walk.

[ChristieDawn]

I am also looking to stay at this hotel. Is it clean?

[rlowe38742]

just booked the ramada is it clean?

[aleahmach1]

I have stayed at the Ramada Inn Galveston twice before two cruises. I went there this weekend for the 4th of July weekend. I have always had a good experience....until now.

 

On 3/7/08 I booked this hotel for our 4th of July weekend. Gave them a valid credit card to hold the room and always either pay cash or debit when I check-out. I received an email confirmation. On 6/13/08 I called and altered the reservation from a king bed to two doubles since the kiddos decided to come along. Upon arrival at check-in the extremely rude lady behind the counter said that my reservation was cancelled because my credit card was declined, before I even arrived! WHAT! No one called me to say "Hey do you have another form of payment?" When I confronted her on this point she said that my finances were not her responsibility.

 

On the reservation's small fine print it clearly states:

"We require a credit or debit card to confirm your reservation and guarantee your room. Any required deposit or pre-payment will be charged to this card immediately. Otherwise, your card will not be charged until you check-out."

Nothing was charged at the time I made a reservation nor when I called to revise the reservation so according to their statement I should have been charged upon check-out as I have always done before. Come to find out there was a line at 7 am that morning (7/4/08) of people wanting a room but the entire island was sold out. Someone had a hair brain idea to run all reservation credit cards early and all declined cards lost their rooms and those people in line were given rooms. I paid $139.00 a night and they gave it away at $279.00 a night to those people. The lady behind me was cancelled as well.

My question is, who runs a business this way? It does clearly state on the reservation that it is either run immediately or at check-out. I have a call into corporate right now. We will see what happens.

My family and I drove from Dallas, used $200 in gas just to find out we had to turn around and go home. Every hotel on the island was completely sold out and all said what Ramada did to us was not the way it should be done.

This is just a cautionary note to those thinking of staying there.

 

UPDATE:

Corporate called me back and did clarify that what the did violated all franchise rules and that I would be compensated accordingly. Would I stay there again?...no way.

[mcfam5]

I have stayed at the Ramada Inn Galveston twice before two cruises. I went there this weekend for the 4th of July weekend. I have always had a good experience....until now.

 

On 3/7/08 I booked this hotel for our 4th of July weekend. Gave them a valid credit card to hold the room and always either pay cash or debit when I check-out. I received an email confirmation. On 6/13/08 I called and altered the reservation from a king bed to two doubles since the kiddos decided to come along. Upon arrival at check-in the extremely rude lady behind the counter said that my reservation was cancelled because my credit card was declined, before I even arrived! WHAT! No one called me to say "Hey do you have another form of payment?" When I confronted her on this point she said that my finances were not her responsibility.

 

On the reservation's small fine print it clearly states:

"We require a credit or debit card to confirm your reservation and guarantee your room. Any required deposit or pre-payment will be charged to this card immediately. Otherwise, your card will not be charged until you check-out."

 

Nothing was charged at the time I made a reservation nor when I called to revise the reservation so according to their statement I should have been charged upon check-out as I have always done before. Come to find out there was a line at 7 am that morning (7/4/08) of people wanting a room but the entire island was sold out. Someone had a hair brain idea to run all reservation credit cards early and all declined cards lost their rooms and those people in line were given rooms. I paid $139.00 a night and they gave it away at $279.00 a night to those people. The lady behind me was cancelled as well.

My question is, who runs a business this way? It does clearly state on the reservation that it is either run immediately or at check-out. I have a call into corporate right now. We will see what happens.

My family and I drove from Dallas, used $200 in gas just to find out we had to turn around and go home. Every hotel on the island was completely sold out and all said what Ramada did to us was not the way it should be done.

This is just a cautionary note to those thinking of staying there.

 

UPDATE:

Corporate called me back and did clarify that what the did violated all franchise rules and that I would be compensated accordingly. Would I stay there again?...no way.

 

 

. . . is that you have to have enough available credit to cover the cost of the reservation. Not that they are neccessarily charging the amount to the card, just securing it. It would not be a secured reservation if the reservation total was $400 and the availabe credit on the customer's card was $150.

 

Sorry you had this experience, hope you were able to salvage some of your holiday weekend!:)

[aleahmach1]

. . . is that you have to have enough available credit to cover the cost of the reservation. Not that they are neccessarily charging the amount to the card, just securing it. It would not be a secured reservation if the reservation total was $400 and the availabe credit on the customer's card was $150.

 

Sorry you had this experience, hope you were able to salvage some of your holiday weekend!:)

It does secure your reservation but if it is not charged immediately (at the time the reservation is made, 4 months prior) it will not be charged until check-out. Even Ramada corporate said what they did was not right. All Ramada Hotels are individually owned but corporate says they have to adhere to policy. All I know is that Ramada Galveston needs a major facelift, new elevators, a new manager and staff.

We did end up staying lond enough to eat at Fish Tales (highly recomended), play on the beach, watch an amazing firework display and then head home and get into bed around 4:30 am. Thank God the kiddos slept the whole way.

[lovebug33]

Did they even call you? That is ridiculous! I booked a hotel under a credit card that got revoked because of some sort of fraud. I didn't realize the hotel had the number. When I went to check in, they told me that credit card was no good and I'd have to give them a different one. That seems like only fair practice to me.

[aleahmach1]

Did they even call you? That is ridiculous! I booked a hotel under a credit card that got revoked because of some sort of fraud. I didn't realize the hotel had the number. When I went to check in, they told me that credit card was no good and I'd have to give them a different one. That seems like only fair practice to me.

 

Never got a call at all, believe me I checked. If I had received a call the debit card # would have been given and would have went through. Fair practice is the word that sums up this whole mess.

One of my lawyer friends told me that according to their own statement that by them running the card before I even got there was considered a form of unauthorized use of a credit card. Hmmm makes me wonder. The really sad thing about the whole situation was that the card I used to hold the room is a $300.00 limit card with no balance on it. After taxes the room was $320.00, so I was bumped for $20.00.

The reason I am writing this story on here is for people to be aware that THIS hotel seems to think they can do this to people. And on cruise weekends hotels, especially the cheaper ones tend to sell out and I would really hate for someone else to have this happen to them.

[bobstack]

We have stayed at the Ramada Limited in Galveston 6X over the past 2 years, and would stay there again. Our reasons:

 

We have always had a clean room, friendly visits with the front desk people, and reservations that always were honored.

 

Whenever we travel, we do call the hotel a couple of weeks in advance to confirm the reservation. Then we call again a week or so before, and then the day before the arrival. We do not want to let the reservation system work by design or by chance. We call to confirm, and have not had a problem.

 

When we read the Dallas Morning News Sunday Travel section, and hear the trouble shooters advise again and again to confirm your hotel reservations, we got the message. Sorry to learn of your problems. I hope you enjoy Galveston again.

[aleahmach1]

We have stayed at the Ramada Limited in Galveston 6X over the past 2 years, and would stay there again. Our reasons:

 

We have always had a clean room, friendly visits with the front desk people, and reservations that always were honored.

 

Whenever we travel, we do call the hotel a couple of weeks in advance to confirm the reservation. Then we call again a week or so before, and then the day before the arrival. We do not want to let the reservation system work by design or by chance. We call to confirm, and have not had a problem.

 

When we read the Dallas Morning News Sunday Travel section, and hear the trouble shooters advise again and again to confirm your hotel reservations, we got the message. Sorry to learn of your problems. I hope you enjoy Galveston again.

Calling the day before would have not helped me as they cancelled my reservation at 7:15am the morning of my check-in. No amount of planning would have helped me there.

We are going back to Galveston on the 26th for a long weekend to try it again. We decided on Best Western on Seawall.

[oldmedic]

We have stayed at the Ramada Limited in Galveston 6X over the past 2 years, and would stay there again. Our reasons:

 

We have always had a clean room, friendly visits with the front desk people, and reservations that always were honored.

 

Whenever we travel, we do call the hotel a couple of weeks in advance to confirm the reservation. Then we call again a week or so before, and then the day before the arrival. We do not want to let the reservation system work by design or by chance. We call to confirm, and have not had a problem.

 

When we read the Dallas Morning News Sunday Travel section, and hear the trouble shooters advise again and again to confirm your hotel reservations, we got the message. Sorry to learn of your problems. I hope you enjoy Galveston again.

 

 

hey there!!!

good to see you on the boards!! please tell Donna we said hello!!! see you are booked for the 12/09 Conquest...maybe we can meet at the coffee pot again!! which week are you booked on? we have been wanting to go back on the Conquest...let us know. bill and amy

[bobstack]

What a pleasure to hear from you!

 

We are booked on the 12-14-2008 Carnival Conquest. We would love, love to sail with you both again. If that date is not good, we are also sailing on the 3-22-2009 Voyager of the Seas. Please let us know your travel plans. You both are a lot of fun for us. But we got to cruise with you again.

 

Bob and Donna

[cnorris]

Hey all,

 

We have had the same experience with Ramada Inn, Galveston as many of you. Our situation happened August of 2007. We reserved 4 rooms around 6 months in advance and were staying there one night before a cruise. We were quoted a very good rate! I used my credit card to reserve it and also called several times prior to verify our reservations. I was very angry when I arrived to check in and was told our reservations were cancelled, some issue with our card!! They didn't even bother to call me when this "issue" came about. The manager informed me they had rooms available for us but with only king beds, not doubles, and the price would double. Not a chance!! We went somewhere else.