ComplaintsforDonna's Premier Lodging

• Initial Complaint

  08/18/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  My ex fiancé and I were looking for an affordable and local place to have a small intimate wedding. We found Donnas and thought it was perfect. Everyone was really nice about setting things up. We set things up around July 19. A few weeks later, some details came up regarding my fiancé and sadly I decided to call off the wedding. I notified Donnas and ask for a refund of the full amount on August 4. The latest they needed a cancellation was September 4, the date of intended service was to be September 15, 2023. So I was well ahead of that. I paid a total of 1552.06 for a full wedding service package and reservations. I was refunded 1302.06. I am still owed 250 dollars. Since there is no cancellation policy noted for weddings on the website, I’d assume it would align with other the reservation cancellation which is full refund if cancelled before two weeks of date of service. Also, I cancelled well over a month in advance. These circumstances are beyond my control and have caused much heartache. There is no documented notation on the website regarding the wedding package refund and since no services were utilized, I did not end up costing the facility anything. I ended up choosing this venue due to affordability, modesty, and values. This is a lot of money to me. I feel that I am being taken advantage of in a moment of weakness and hurt because I had to make a tough decision in order to protect myself and my future. I am not in a good place and I would appreciate some grace extended here and my additional 250 returned so that I can more easily budget my finances, as I have lost quite a bit due to this situation. I feel that due to canceling well over a month prior to the event and not utilizing any services, this should be no problem. Not to mention the emotional and mental toll this has taken on me.

  Business response

  08/19/2023

  We feel as if we have been beyond gracious only holding you accountable for that small modest amount. We want to explain our side of the situation. You state you did not use any services, but we went thru the booking process with you, scheduled a wedding with a minister that blocked time on his schedule for you, scheduled massages with 2 therapists that held time on their schedule, and held dates of reservation for you that could have been booked to other guests. We also incurred credit card fees for payment/refund issued on the booked and cancelled services. We do feel these were services provided to you. When we spoke with you on the phone after you decided to cancel everything included in this dispute, we explained it would not be a 100% refund and you stated that you would be grateful for whatever we were able to do. Our stated policy for reservation cancellations has always been a $100 fee up to 2 weeks prior to the reservation date and then it becomes non-refundable after that. This has been stated in our Policies & ADA section on our website for quite some time. You stated above that it is a full refund up to 2 weeks before the date of service but that is not accurate. Our weddings have always been non-refundable as we schedule and book everything attached to those with outside service providers (minister, baker, florist, and massage therapists.) We have held you accountable for the $100 cancellation of the reservation itself (standard lodging cancellation fee), and a small portion of the wedding package that would go towards the above-mentioned time and effort spent scheduling these things with outside providers.  If you add up the reservation cancellation fee ($100), the credit card fees incurred($50.75), and $100 for serviced scheduled, that is how we came up with the $250.  We felt we were going above and beyond our normal policies/procedures to show grace as you had mentioned the difficult situation you were in.

  Customer response

  08/21/2023

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********* and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
  
  [Provide details of why you are not satisfied with this resolution.]
  
  Regards,
  
  ******* ********

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩