Consumer complaint received 2022-09-11
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: DC
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Other features, terms, or problems
Sub-issue: Problem with rewards from credit card

Complaint:
On XX/XX/22 I logged into my Bank of America ( BOA ) Rewards Visa credit card to use points I earned to book a hotel room in XXXX, XXXX. The name of the hotel is the XXXX and is a XXXX XXXX. I saw the hotel being advertised on the BOA rewards redeeming site for XXXX points for my intended stay the next day on XX/XX/22. In addition, I assumed that there would not be an issue with the booking since it was listed on the BOA site and I understood it would deduct points from my account once I completed the reservation. 

On XX/XX/22, I went to the XXXX XXXX XXXX to check in and made it there a little after XXXX XXXX. I had an issue trying to find someone working at the front desk, but eventually someone showed up. I had a chance to look around the property as I waited and noticed that the property seemed to be still under construction, as there was construction debris everywhere and the road I took to drive onto the hotel premises was still very much unpaved and somewhat dangerous. Nevertheless, when a person arrived at the reservation desk to check me in, I got my key and went to the room. 

When I made it to the room assigned to me, I noticed that the door was unlocked and that the room had an unfinished feel to it. For instance, the bathroom was very sandy and the floors were uneven and none of the room amenities were plugged up -- the tv was unplugged and did not work. When my husband and I noticed that the door was unlocked when we arrived, we tried to work the door with the key provided and found that it did not work. 

Also, there was another door in our room that seemed to be an adjoining door to another room. We checked that door out of curiosity and found that that door was not locked! In fact, when we tried to lock the door, it would not lock, the bolts on the door were either incorrectly placed or unfinished because there was no locking mechanism that would have made the door secure. 

Because the adjoining room door was unlocked, we were able to enter the adjoining room and found that there was a patio door at that room, which had stairs leading down to it and that patio door lock was also either unfinished or broken as that patio door would not lock. We immediately went back up to our room and tried the patio door in our room -- also found that that door did not lock or had a broken lock. 

We were very afraid because the room doors could not lock and I was uncomfortable about staying there, due to safety. The property seemed to be unfinished and I did remember seeing construction equipment in the front area. However, it was the lack of security inside my room and access from other rooms to my room due to doors not being able to lock, that was a huge problem for us. This hotel simply was not safe and there was very little response from staff to be able to deal with this. 

Because we were concerned, my husband and I attempted to speak with someone at the hotel but no one was around, so I then called the BOA rewards number to report the issue and attempt to get a refund of the points I used because it was very clear that we could not stay at this unsafe hotel. When I called BOA, I was connected with a woman named XXXX, who I spent nearly 2 hours on the phone with to try to speak with a supervisor regarding the situation. 

XXXX kept placing me on hold and then coming back to report whether a supervisor could be found. When she finally got back to me the last time, she told me that there was a language barrier between BOA and the hotel because the people at BOA could not speak XXXX and the staff at the hotel could not speak XXXX. The entire ordeal was very frustrating and I felt that I had to suffer behind it. I was on vacation with my husband and could not be helped. 

XXXX then told me that someone from BOA would reach out to me within 2 days, due to the holiday the next day, but that she could not do anything to refund my points. We hung up and my husband and I left the hotel without seeing anyone at the front desk. The whole entire place seemed abandoned, but we were just too mortified that we couldnt even speak to anyone to report the issues with the room. There was no one to be found. The whole situation was very eerie and we did not trust the safety of the hotel, especially with doors not being able to be locked. 

The listing on the rewards site at BOA regarding the XXXX XXXX XXXX is very misleading and is misrepresented. They show you a finished hotel with beautiful amenities and a staff that can speak XXXX and other languages, but this is not the case because I could not get this problem resolved, supposedly due to a language barrier and the hotel is still clearly being constructed, which is likely why it seemed abandoned and there were issues with the doors. 

Once we left, we were able to then use some of my other BOA points to book another room in town where we had stayed before and that was a success. However, no one from BOA has bothered to reach out to me and my points have not been refunded. 

Another issue with the booking is that the points I used to book the room were listed as XXXX to come from my bank of points, but really, when the reservationwas made, the total points coming from my account for this room was XXXX, as the points value changed once the reservation was made. Actually, XXXX points were deducted from my points total, but I want my points back. I feel as if BOA totally did not care about my safety or my interests and I am a customer who has been with BOA for over 10 years and use my card very frequently. They should've done something to help me. There is no excuse not to. I want my points back ASAP.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief