Der Ritterhof Inn — Hotel in Leavenworth

My original post keeps disappearing, so I'll just say that since March 26, 2018, my husband and I have been trying to get our money back from this hotel after we were charged well over $1000 on our debit card, after check out, and after the rooms were paid for using a different company's credit card. Some of the charges were reversed, some of them were refunded to us by our bank, and now we are still waiting on about $300 that the hotel charged when they shouldn't have. What started as a simple mistake (or so we thought) has turned into a complete nightmare.

UPDATE: The hotel has now tampered with the original check in time for two people. They sent my bank two modified receipts that do NOT match the original receipts. They are claiming the following: -the two people who’s receipts were modified were “no-shows” -the two supposed no-shows checked in the day after they were supposed to, around 2 am, and checked out 45 minutes later Seriously? Four people rode to Leavenworth in the same vehicle, arrived at the hotel at the same time, checked in together, checked out together, and rode home together. The original receipts show they checked in on the correct date and checked out two days later, as planned. Thank goodness I have the original receipts and a lot of dated notes I took when all this began. Plus, the modified receipts now show a different staff member at check in. At this point, my bank is reviewing the original receipts and my documentation, but there may not be anything they can/will do, so I might be out $309.70; however, I have filed complaints with the BBB and the WA State Attorney General. I don’t know who at the hotel is responsible for this but I am done with the run-around. The total hotel bill was paid at checkout, and I have proof that it was paid. Beware if you stay here, it’s probably best to pay in cash or a prepaid debit card, because not only are they lying to and hiding information from my bank, but two days after checkout they tried to run my husbands debit card an additional NINE times (after they’d “accidentally” charged our debit card for the entire hotel bill before checkout, which they were supposed to fix immediately, but it took starting a dispute with my bank to do so). I’ve tried to be really nice and patient throughout this process, but all it’s gotten me is $309.70 less in my bank account and put me in a bad mood.

8/20/18 In response to the owner: I did not and will not deal with you directly. I tried that at the beginning and you never called, just sent a fax with your scribbles all over it. I have accepted that I won't be getting my money back, but I'll try and explain this one last time. EVERYBODY paid for their rooms separately, except for my husband, who covered his and another person's bill. Two days after checkout, you/your staff ran my husband's card NINE times for the same amount-eight were denied, one went through. After that BS, you said we still owed $309.70. I spoke with several people from my bank and your hotel, wasting several hours of my time, and took extensive notes. I forwarded all of these notes and the original receipts to my bank, and originally, they believed us. I even went to my local branch to have a banker look everything over to make sure I wasn't going crazy. Then, the final straw. You/your staff blatantly changed receipts to claim that two people checked in late and checked out 45 minutes later, and somehow the fraud department believed you. Even with proof of original receipts. You also failed to respond to a complaint from the WA State Attorney General and the Better Business Bureau. I spoke to several attorneys and while they agreed with me, they said it's not worth going after. And just so you know, if this had been a legitimate charge from you, I would have paid it immediately without argument. Instead I got the run around from you and your staff. Personally, I think someone at the hotel messed up, tried to cover up, and we had to pay for it. Good luck with your business, and I hope you don't treat all your customers the way we've...

AVOID THIS DUMP LIKE THE PLAGUE! I wish there was a negative 10 rating option! After a very long and exhausting drive, and being very excited to see the town of Leavenworth for the first time, I wasn’t allowed to check into my bought and paid for room due to an issue between Expedia and the front desk manager! The customer service is the worst I’ve experienced in my entire life as a traveling professional. Bottom line… NIGHTMARE over an issue that had nothing to do with me! And I was blatantly LIED to at the front desk. They told me Expedia hadn’t forwarded my payment to their hotel, which they had. The hotel made me spend 1 hour and 20 minutes on the phone with Expedia, trying to solve the hotel's problem. I originally booked two nights at this hotel. Two days later, I had to cancel one of my nights. Both Expedia and Der Rittenhof approved my cancellation and agreed to refund my non-refundable cancellation, which I thought was pretty cool. However, I really paid for that cancellation a week later on the afternoon that I attempted to check in. The front desk manager told me that Expedia hadn't paid the hotel for ANY of my stay which was a lie and she knew it was a lie. Expedia confirmed that they paid the hotel for the one night. The funds were also taken from my account and the cancelled night was credited. Apparently Expedia didn't update their records to reflect my cancellation on their end, which caused the update to not occur on the hotel's end. The REAL story was, the front desk manager was mad at Expedia for not updating my cancellation on the hotel's end, yet she was well aware of my change of plans, in fact, she admitted that she was the one that approved my one night cancellation a week earlier. Expedia updated their records while we were all trying to fix this on check-in day, but it still wasn't updating on the hotel's computer and I was still stranded in the lobby. When I asked the front desk manager why she couldn't just check me in and sort it out with Expedia later, she told me "The last time Expedia did this, they billed me for the commission on the rooms that were cancelled". Now it was clear to me that the front desk lady was not only going to teach Expedia a lesson but she was going to teach me a lesson by making me wait in their lobby, with no room to check into, while on the phone with Expedia for over and hour and 20 minutes, trying to make me solve HER problem. She wasn't being nice about it either, she wasn't trying to reassure me that we will get this worked out, etc. Early on, this lady also disappeared to some back room for at least an hour, claiming she was going to handle this from there, yet while I was on the phone, Expedia was telling me they couldn't reach her at the hotel.  The other gal at the front desk wouldn't go back to make sure she was answering Expedia's call. VERY FRUSTRATING! They were playing a big game and it was obvious by now that the staff here is hostile. There was absolutely no effort to assure me that I was going to be able to check into my room. When I first walked in, rather than being greeted with; "welcome" and a "hello", I was told I that I was going to have to call Expedia to resolve a problem. I only had a few hours to enjoy Leavenworth and this hotel screwed it all up. This Hotel pays Expedia to post and market their listings, but on this day, you would think Expedia was this third-party nuisance that forces this hotel to list their rooms online. I professionally fix online reputations but I'm going to rightfully reverse those skills to post this on the 13 travel review sites that I work with daily, to warn all travelers about this nightmarish place. I ended up in a comp'd room by Expedia (the actual problem solver), at the Howard Johnson down the street which was a major upgrade. The Rittenhof looks pretty dumpy when you drive up to it and looks nothing like the photos. Their customer service seems to be an ongoing negative theme within their bad reviews and the owners may definitely want to reconsider their...

Stay away from this hotel. They engage in bad business practices. They misrepresentated the number of days to cancel (they say 14 in writing due to the month and on Booking.com, it says 14 days and set the cancelation date for the full to 6:00 PM 14 days prior to check in- but then over the phone the hotel lied and said that cancelation was the day prior which is 15 days, and they kept claiming, wrongly, that that was 14 days. They charged the whole stay when the email the hotel sent re preauthorization that they hotel states they are allowed to charge 1 night only to hold the room (it reads "[T]he hotel reserve [sic] the right to authorize your credit/debit card for the first night's room and tax amount.") I noticed that they had charged the stay and called them, only for them to continue to repeat a lie. I notified the hotel that I had a SA 2 weeks before check in when I inquired about cancelation (so i would not have to walk as far downtown for obvious reasons), and they tried to charge me for him as an ESA when we arrived (the manager, the front desk said, has decided it is an ESA and then the manager came out minutes later to ask the ADA questions). After we left, the hotel also accused my service animal of urinating on the bed which was a ridiculous and blatant lie, then charged me without approval $65. After I told them there was no way my SA could have possibly done that, they then switched to claiming they were charging me to clean sheets that got mud on them during a muddy and wet season when there was no way to mitigate (this is ordinary use; hotels at the beach don't charge you for sand from said beach, that's expected). They also don't have any mats to enter the room to wipe your feet on. The room was also, of course, not worth the exorbitant price anyway, due, in part to the season but especially considering their bad practices. Obviously, it was a 2 star hotel at the absolute max. The mattresses are not sealed with a protector (the best practice to avoid filth and infestation) nor is the bedding itself. The back door to the patio is inadequately secured with a nail and a broken broom handle. The hotel's misrepresentations themselves are enough to steer clear of this place, but fact that they fabricated an insane story about my service dog urinating on a bed, in an effort to justify charging us should tell you everything you need to know about this place. There are better options in...