Hotel chain sues regular guest for loyalty programme ‘abuse’
A hotel chain is suing a member of its loyalty programme after he allegedly took advantage of a flaw in its online reservations system to rack up nearly $50,000 in rewards.
Choice Hotels International claims that Robert Chat, a regular guest, had discovered that the hotel group gave reward points even when a booking was cancelled.
It said that Chat, from Florida, then systematically made hundreds of bookings and cancellations over a four-month period, earning $48,500 in loyalty points.
The lawsuit stated points are ‘offered as a reward in exchange for actually staying at Choice Hotels, not simply for making a reservation’.
"Frequent-stay programs are common throughout the industry and neither Choice nor its competitors offer rewards for frequent reservations," the lawsuit added.
Chat, who Choice admits is a frequent customer at its hotels, claims no wrongdoing.
"I’ll be hiring a lawyer tomorrow to fight the suit as there was nothing done illegal nor was anything done in malice," Chat told the Tampa Bay Times.
"I stayed at over 1,100 Choice hotels in the last five years. I worked with their bonus structure to obtain points.
"I’m not even computer literate. If I obtained more rewards than allowed, it’s on their end, not mine. As I’ve stayed in their hotels exclusively for over six years, points do accumulate."
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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