I travel for my job. A lot. I’ve had jobs that entail a fair amount of travel for about 10 years now, and my recent stay in Overland Park, KS, is quickly moving to the top of my list of Worst Ever Hotel Experiences.

I was browsing the hotel chain’s website tonight, making sure that all my points are registered there, and saw that I needed to submit a “missing points” request for last week’s stay (once that stay is registered, I’ll be “gold” status with this chain). One of the questions on the “missing points” form is the room rate (so they can figure out the correct number of points to give you).

As I was doublechecking my rate, I realized that while my confirmed reservation showed one rate, the rate I paid was $10 higher. I vaguely remember mentioning when I checked in that the rate they were having me initial seemed higher than the one I was expecting, but it was almost midnight, I was exhausted, and so I bought their response of “that rate’s not available” or some such.

Well, I’m not tired now. I’m angry. In ten years of business travel, I’ve never been charged a higher rate than the one on my confirmed reservation.

I will be back in Overland Park next week, and I will be making an appointment to see the GM of the hotel where I stayed last time. I’ll be taking with me a copy of the letter I left with the front desk when I checked out (since I’m confident they never gave it to him), and after speaking with him, I’ll be sending a copy of the letter to the corporate office of this particular chain.

I’ve gotta say… I’m easily irritated at things, but my irritations are quickly dispersed, and not long-lasting. It takes a lot to make me truly angry, and these folks have done it. I’ll also be sending a letter to my company’s travel department, expressing my extreme dissatisfaction with this particular hotel in this particular town.

My question for our more knowledgeable readers is this: Is it common for a hotel to charge a guest a different rate at check-in than what is on the confirmed reservation? A reservation, I might add, that’s being held by a credit card to ensure that the room and rate will be available upon check-in? Is it legal to do this? Did I lose any right to complain when I initialed the room rate upon check-in? I just want to have all my ducks in a row when I visit the GM next week.

Thanks for your input.