I work as a consultant, so all my travel costs are billed back to the client. As a result, I have to abide by their travel rules. I am working with a client near South Bend, IN the week before the BYU - ND game, so I figured I would make a trip out of it. They have a preferred hotel, but I had to call them directly to get it. So, when I called the hotel it was very late (11-12 pm their time) so I spoke to someone who had some difficulties making the reservation. She did what she could, made the reservation and told me that someone would call me back to get more information if needed. The added difficulty here was that I was planning to turn this business trip into a weekend included trip where I would pay for the remainder of the stay (Friday and Saturday night). This would be charged to my personal card.

Anyway, today I got a call telling me that my reservation was all taken care of, except for getting my personal card info for my portion of the stay. They then informed me that my portion of the stay would cost $190 a night! I was shocked and asked to have that portion of my stay cancelled. They refused saying that since there was a Notre Dame football game that weekend, they require a 30 day notice to cancel reservations. NO ONE TOLD ME THIS when I booked the reservation, had I known, I would have booked elsewhere.

When I told them that "you don't have my card number, so what will you do if I just don't give you mine for my portion of the stay? Will you cancel it then?" He then said "Well, at that point, we would have a discussion with your client." At that point, I realized that they were going to screw me, so I gave him my stupid credit card number rather than have to deal with explaining this whole situation to the client.

So, they extorted me. I paid the money rather than explaining to the client why they were billed a cancellation fee.