"A computer glitch can happen. Accusing your customer afterward of having falsified their confirmation and refusing to refund them, much less so.
I have been a customer of this hotel several times a year since it opened. Until now, I returned there with pleasure and in complete confidence.
After this experience, and especially after the way the management chose to handle it, that will be the end of it.
I had made a reservation for 4 people and received directly from The Originals Hotels an email indicating to me very clearly:
« Your booking is confirmed! »
This confirmation includes my name, the reservation number 1089725395, a Family Suite and especially perfectly explicit dates: from Friday, October 2 to Saturday, October 3, 2026. Booking confirmation The Origi… The reservation also mentions 2 adults and 2 children.
We therefore take a 3-hour train ride with 4 people to reach Paris.
Upon our arrival at the hotel on October 2: problem.
According to the manager, my reservation does indeed exist in their system, but it is registered for another date, in the month of July.
For my part, I have a confirmation received from The Originals Hotels indicating in black and white October 2-3, 2026.
The hotel being full, no room can be assigned to us and no solution is offered to us.
We therefore find ourselves in Paris, the four of us, with our luggage and without a room.
A computer glitch can happen.
I am a professional myself and I can perfectly understand that a system malfunctions.
On the other hand, what is totally unacceptable in my eyes is the way the management subsequently handled the problem.
Two different dates? For the management, the problem supposedly stems from my confirmation.
I forwarded to the manager all the supporting documents in my possession, notably the confirmation received.
We therefore have a situation that is relatively simple to understand:
in their system: a reservation in the month of July;
in the confirmation received by the client: a stay from October 2 to 3.
There is clearly a discrepancy somewhere.
But rather than seriously considering that a malfunction could have occurred between the booking system and the confirmation that was sent to me, the manager chose to question the authenticity of my document.
He clearly made me understand, both by phone and by email, that I had allegedly falsified my booking confirmation.
And here, I would really like someone to explain to me:
WHAT WOULD HAVE BEEN MY MOTIVE FOR DOING THAT?
If one follows this reasoning, I would have therefore taken a real reservation existing in the month of July and falsified the confirmation to transform it into a reservation for the month of October.
Very well.
But for what purpose exactly?
To then:
buy train tickets for 4 people, travel for 3 hours, arrive with our luggage at a hotel where I stay several times a year, and calmly present myself at the front desk of a fully booked establishment where I would know for a fact that I do not have a room?
To gain what?
For a room to miraculously appear?
What would be the benefit of this alleged falsification?
One would therefore have to imagine that I voluntarily organized a trip for four to Paris knowing that I risked ending up without accommodation, simply to try to pass off a July reservation as an October reservation.
It borders on the absurd.
And the "proof" of the falsification becomes even more surprising.
The manager explains to me in particular that my confirmation could not be authentic because it includes the mention "THE ORIGINALS CITY," whereas his establishment belongs to the "BOUTIQUE" category.
He also notes differences in typography which, according to him, would make it possible to call the authenticity of the document into question.
Indeed, my confirmation has a peculiarity: the subject of the email does indeed designate the establishment as "The Originals Boutique, Hôtel Maison Montmartre, Paris Les Puces."
Very well.
Except that I also have another reservation at this same establishment for the month of November, a reservation which, for its part, is indeed recognized by the hotel.
So I sent the director the confirmation for this November reservation.
And surprise:
SAME PRESENTATION. SAME PECULIARITIES. SAME "ERRORS" AS THOSE USED TO CAST DOUBT ON MY OCTOBER CONFIRMATION.
So, at some point, the question must be asked:
SYSTEM BUG OR FALSIFICATION ON MY PART?!
Because if the confirmation of a reservation recognized as perfectly real by the establishment also presents the anomalies supposedly demonstrating that I had falsified the other document, it becomes difficult to understand what this accusation is based on.
And once again:
WHY WOULD I HAVE DONE THAT?
So I would have managed to fabricate a fake confirmation by reproducing, down to its "errors," the confirmation template that The Originals sends me for my real reservations?
Let's be serious.
My disputed confirmation even includes a special request referring to a telephone conversation, with a request to prepare four beds.
At what point does anyone simply consider that the problem might come from the system rather than the customer?
Then comes the story of the bank charge…
Because despite the lack of a room on the day I showed up, my credit card had been charged.
When I point this out to the director, he starts by disputing that the transaction came from his establishment, notably because the description appearing on my bank statement does not match the hotel's trade name.
Once again, my word is doubted.
I therefore have to contact my bank and ask them to specifically look up the identity of the transaction issuer.
And then, a miracle.
The detailed bank information states the name of the hotel in black and white.
I am therefore forwarding this new evidence to the manager.
And suddenly, the story changes.
This time:
"Oh yes, that is indeed us."
But the charge would be justified because I supposedly did not show up on the stay date scheduled in their system, that is to say, the one recorded in July.
And that is precisely where we get to the heart of the problem!
IN THEIR SYSTEM: JULY.
ON MY CONFIRMATION: OCTOBER 2.
As a customer, I showed up on the date appearing on the confirmation I received from The Originals Hotels.
How was I supposed to guess that, on their end, their system apparently showed a different date?
And above all, why should I financially bear the consequences of this discrepancy?
Especially since the confirmation I received specifies that the card is requested to guarantee the reservation, that a pre-authorization of €1 must be performed, and that "payment will be made on-site."
What I expected from the manager was extremely simple: A REFUND.
I did not expect days or weeks of research.
From my point of view, the facts were simple:
I had received a confirmation for October.
I showed up in October in accordance with this confirmation.
The hotel was full.
I did not get the confirmed room.
And yet my card had been charged.
From that point on, I was simply waiting for a refund of the amount charged for a service I did not receive.
Period.
It is then up to the hotel to spend a day, a week, or a month investigating internally why its system indicated July when the confirmation sent to the client indicated October.
That is their internal problem.
I do not see why this investigation should condition the refund of the client who, for his part, simply relied on the confirmation document he received.
And above all, with every new piece of evidence I provided, I was entitled to a new explanation.
My confirmation was supposedly falsified because of its presentation?
I provided the one from November showing the same characteristics.
The bank charge did not come from the hotel?
I contacted my bank and provided the proof identifying the establishment.
The charge finally did come from the hotel?
Then it suddenly became justified by my "no-show"... on a date in July that is precisely not the one appearing on my confirmation.
At a certain point, I no longer had to demonstrate my good faith over and over again.
I WAS WAITING FOR A REFUND. PERIOD.
Faced with this situation and failing to obtain this refund, I finally informed the manager that I was disputing the transaction with my bank in order to recover the charged amount.
And that is probably what shocks me the most in this whole affair.
It would have been enough to acknowledge that there was clearly a discrepancy in dates, to apologize, and to provide a refund.
The hotel could then have carried out any internal investigations it wished to understand what had happened.
Instead of that, I was subjected to suspicions of falsification, the initial contesting of the charge, and then successive explanations as I provided new evidence.
A refund would have closed this incident. The way the management chose to handle it turned it into a matter of principle.
I am the one who ended up in Paris without a room after three hours on a train, and yet I am the one who had to provide proof after proof.
And despite that, I had the feeling that with each new inconsistency, the first hypothesis considered was that the customer was wrong.
I repeat it therefore one last time:
WHAT WOULD HAVE BEEN MY INTEREST IN FALSIFYING THIS CONFIRMATION?
Voluntarily transforming a July reservation into an October reservation?
Buying four train tickets?
Making a three-hour trip?
Showing up physically at the hotel with my luggage?
Choosing for this an establishment that I frequent several times a year?
And arriving at a fully booked hotel to finally find myself… without a room and charged despite everything?
What an extraordinary plan!
At some point, perhaps one must consider the simplest hypothesis:
there was a malfunction somewhere between their system and the confirmation that was sent to me.
And that is precisely what is most regrettable: initially, I did not even particularly blame the hotel for this error.
A bug can happen.
A reservation can be recorded on the wrong date.
A confirmation can contain an error.
A computer system can malfunction.
And when a hotel is full, I can even understand that it is physically impossible to find a room.
What I do not accept is being treated as if I were a fraudster when I am presenting the confirmation that I received from the brand itself.
Before accusing a loyal customer of having falsified a document, perhaps it would have been better to check its own system, its confirmation templates, and the history of its own transactions.
I also find it particularly regrettable that The Originals Hotels could have its image associated with such customer relationship management.
Unfortunately, I already have a new reservation at this establishment for the month of November, which I can no longer cancel under the current conditions. I will therefore honor it.
It will nevertheless be my last stay at this hotel.
After several years of loyalty and numerous stays:
This hotel is not losing me because of a computer bug.
It is losing me because its management preferred to suspect its customer rather than its system.
And one question will probably remain unanswered:
What interest would I have had in falsifying a July reservation to change it into an October stay, paying for the travel of four people, taking a three-hour train ride, and physically showing up at a full hotel with my luggage, only to end up without a room?
If someone finds the logic, I am all ears."
