Alpine Village Inn

On July 5, 2018 I made a reservation on ***.*** for the Alpine Village Inn in Blowing Rock, NC for the weekend of January 25, 2019. This is the town’s “***” event weekend and, knowing we always attend, I booked the rate of $178.14 for two nights.
Approximately 2 weeks ago, I started getting calls from a Blowing Rock phone number and finally, a message, from someone named Katherine asking me to call the hotel immediately. I tried several times to return the call, however, no message inbox was setup for the number she instructed me to call.
On or about 1/7/2019, she reached out to me on the ***.*** site through their messaging platform asking me to “call the hotel”. Again, I did, couldn’t leave a message. I sent a message back through ***.*** asking what the problem was. She replied again with “Call the hotel”. Yesterday, 1/10/2019 we finally connected, and she told me that ***.*** shouldn’t have made the reservation and that despite me having a confirmation from ***.*** that they didn’t have the room I reserved. She also told me the pet fee, which ***.*** had listed at $10 per pet per night, was actually $75 (I’ve since looked at other third-party sites and all are showing their pet fee as $10 per night, per pet with max of two pets). She told me she had a Queen Room for Saturday night only and that she would honor my rate for that night, however, the room wasn’t pet friendly. She would be willing to help me try to find another place to stay for Friday night but obviously I’d have to pay the going rate. (remember, the event I’m attending is in two weeks, so any remaining rooms are obviously at inflated rates at this point). Katherine acted as though I had made the mistake by booking with ***.*** and when I told her I would call ***.*** to see what could be done I was told “They won’t do anything and you’re only going to get to talk to someone in India”. She continued with a story about how they are a small, family run business and that she must work two jobs and that these third-party sites bait and switch all the time, this is just what happens when you book with them. It almost seems like this establishment is using the third-party sites to get potential customers contact information, then reaching out to them to get them to cancel their reservation and book directly through the hotel or (which I’m assuming happened here) refusing to honor a reservation when they know they can get more from someone else now that rates are inflated. Regardless, Katherine disingenuously pointed the blame at the third-party sites and was extremely unconcerned that I, as her customer, was essentially being punished for booking early to attend an event that we’ve attended annually for years. We mostly likely won’t be able to find a room at this point, and if we do, we’ll be paying a premium for it. If you’re considering a stay at Alpine Village Inn, I would advise you to stay at another location in Blowing Rock. She mentioned they have a sister property, so when you book another hotel, be sure they aren’t affiliated with Alpine Village Inn unless you’re up for having the rug pulled out from under you with just two weeks to go before an event. This is most likely the worst and most experience I’ve ever had with a hotel and the service and explanations provided by Katherine we just prevarications. I have reported this to ***.*** and hope they will investigate and share with other third-party sites with my experience. There appears to be something very deceptive going on and customers are the victims.