Travel Guru.. Savoy Suites Noida, and high tech..

On the same trip that I had my wonderful MakeMyTrip.com experience, I booked my hotel through TravelGuru.com. I was impressed that I could indicate that I'd pay with cash. They would send somebody home to collect the cash. True enough, somebody came in a couple of days and picked up the Rs. 22,664 ($480) for 3 nights at the Savoy Suites in sector 16 at Noida.

The hotel was nice and all, but just before I set out to my room, the chap at the counter says 'Sir, you're checking out on the 17th ? '.

I almost nod and walk off (like I usually do), but for some unfathomable reason my brain works on that right away, and issues me a warning.

"No, I'm supposed to be checking out on the 18th.... so I'm staying 17th night too.." I say.

"No, Sir, we don't have any vacancies for the 17th" says he with a smile.

"Well, you've taken money from me for 3 days and here's the booking.. " I return the smile while handing over the document. "Why don't you call the TravelGuru guys and sort this out? They have this in their system ? "

He looks at it .. " Ok, Sir. We'll find out about this and let you know by tomorrow about this". Again with a smile. Charmed by that, I nod and trod away to the room.

As you may have guessed, this exchange of smiles continues the next morning, evening, and the morning following that. Each guy repeating the same things. I'm now feeling like I'm in Groundhog day. And its becoming real hard to keep up the Bill Murray charm.

The second night - when I'm being asked to vacate the next morning for sure, I think its time to probe this a little more. Clearly, " please call Travelguru and sort this out" wasn't working.

I ask, "Can you please show me your transaction from Travelguru that says this reservation is for 2 days, instead of 3 days like I see it? "

"No transaction sir.. " the kid at the desk says "..Gurmeet" .

I almost walked away from desk right there. You see I have a history with guys named Gurmeet - they all seem to be intent on wrecking my life. More about it sometime later.

But walking around the next night in stinky Noida looking for a "Sir ke oopar ek chuth (a roof on my head)" wasn't exactly looking like a fun thing either.

So, I will myself to go on : " Gurmeet? What about Gurmeet? "

He shows me a piece of paper "Gurmeet, sir. He took down your reservation as 2 nights, checking out on 17th"

Now I realize I deserve a slap from Edward De Bono to be carrying my assumptions for so long. "Wait a minute. You mean TravelGuru.com just calls you and you guys write down the reservation on a piece of paper? "

"Yes sir" he says with an eyebrow raised that seemed to say "What else? Use the computer?"

"You mean they have no clue about your vacancies? Your systems have no hookup/linkup? "

"No sir" the smile comes back on his face. The accompanying thought may have been "Where is this duffer from?"

"You don't even have an SMS or anything from them about the booking?"

"No sir" the smile is still there, as he tries to help me "but you don't worry sir. We'll take care of you"

My feeble brain starts to get confused as to which train of thought to follow up on. But I falter on

" But your Gurmeet could have just taken it down wrong. I'm sure Travelguru has this on their systems. Look at the printout... "

He nods understandingly "I understand, sir. But we have no vacancies right now. If one opens up tomorrow, you're the highest priority sir" .

".. And don't worry sir, we'll take care of you" he adds.

I finally take the bait " What do you mean by that? If you say you have no vacancies, do you mean you'll hook me up with some other hotel nearby?"

"No sir" he shakes his head "..but you are our guest, and we'll make sure you are fine"

Flattered but still as flustered, I struggle deciding which direction I should go now. He helps me out. "You see, a lady is checking out tomorrow. But she wants to check out in the evening by 7 only. I will ask her if she can checkout on time"

He calls her. "Ma'am, since we have other guests who need the room, I will have to charge you a full day's rent for the room..." There's more squawking from the other side.. and finally he says " Sir, I will get back to you later. She'll let me know in 10 min "

I say "You see this can't wait any longer. I need to know now if I need to start hunting around for another hotel"

His smile continues as he repeats how he 'understands' the situation. And also repeats the 'take care of you' line. That damn Garnier ad, I'm thinking.

I say "I'll come back after an hour. You figure out by then whats the situation".

He nods.

When I walk upto him later on, he's again smiling the 'I understand sir' smile.

"Sir, the lady is angry with me. She says she won't come to this hotel again if I charge her for overstaying. And she doesn't want to vacate before 7 or 8 pm"

This is a problem I could solve. I say "Thats ok. I come back after 9pm. So, I'm perfectly ok with her staying that late, so long as you'll give me the room by the time I come "

His smile widens "Ok sir. Then we can manage this. It will take us only 15 minutes to clean the room"

I ask "So, what will be the room number tomorrow?"

He says " No problem, sir. You can stay in your room. We'll manage"

That confused me, but I just nodded my understanding at his understanding, and walked to my room.

Sure enough the next day I remained in my room, and my problem was mysteriously solved. So, clearly the lady leaving the room late wasn't an issue independent of me.

So, what really was the problem?