Help! We Had to Sleep in the Hotel’s Breakfast Room. We Would Like a $215 Refund.

Dear Tripped Up,

Last September, my husband and I flew to New York City and headed to the Ridge Hotel on the Lower East Side to spend a few days before a cruise. Since the Ridge had “contactless check-in,” we had received two codes to get in the front entrance and our room. When we arrived after midnight, we had no problems getting into the hotel with the first code. But we couldn’t get into our room with the second code. There were no staff on duty, so we called the hotel’s number. But the woman who answered could not help and subsequent calls went to voice mail. I also sent messages through the Booking.com app, the online travel agency with which we made the reservation, but the staff there couldn’t solve the issue. So we spent the night in the hotel’s breakfast room, where the restroom also required a code that we did not have. The next morning, the hotel staff sent an apologetic message with the right code, and promised us a refund for that night, about $215. But we never got the money, even though the hotel insists they returned it to Booking. Can you help? Roberta, Boise, Idaho

Dear Roberta,

Any hotel rate under $300 a night in a fun Manhattan neighborhood would normally count as a bargain in these inflationary times. But paying that much to sleep fitfully in the breakfast room with no access to a bathroom and (I’m guessing) no 24-hour waffle maker? That’s totally unacceptable. You and your husband are obviously due a refund, and you’re generous not to ask for more. Is everyone in Boise this nice?

I got in touch with the owners of the Ridge Hotel and the communications team at Booking, and quickly figured out what happened: The hotel had sent your money back to Booking, but Booking didn’t realize it was there and thus didn’t pass it along to you.

Both organizations gently blamed the other for the communications breakdown. I have no idea who’s right, but the important thing is that Booking has now refunded you, along with a $150 credit — enough to get you a night’s stay in a pretty nice hotel in many parts of the world.

But why couldn’t the hotel help you that night? And are we really entering an era of reception-desk-free hotels with minimal services that mirrors what travelers are getting used to when they book short-term rentals?

Samantha Gladstein oversees the day-to-day operations of the 44-room Ridge for her family’s company, the CS Hospitality Group, which owns Ridge and five other hotels and hostels in New York and Florida. She told me that your late night call would have been routed to Miami, where the group has a hotel and a hostel. The person on duty that night no longer works for the company, Ms. Gladstein said, so she could not ask her for details. “I am assuming they didn’t know what to do,” she said, “and I apologize for that.”

A spokeswoman for Booking told me that the hotel had not fully completed the process to get a refund issued. Angela Cavis, Booking’s director of communications for North America, also issued a statement.

“While we are not responsible for check-in as that is up to our property partners, we have issued a credit for the guest to use toward a future trip given the experience did not meet the expectations we have for our guests,” she wrote.

You have told me you received the refund and credit and are happy with the outcome, and that the rest of your stay in the hotel was pleasant — you especially enjoyed the Ridge’s outdoor patio — though you said you would not stay there again.

Ms. Gladstein explained to me at length the company’s decision to reduce staff and allow customers to head straight for their rooms.

She said that when the pandemic hit in 2020, the Ridge reopened without a manned front desk for most of the day out of health concerns for workers and guests. Instead, the hotel sent guests door codes by email or through the agency with which they made the reservation. The company has increased the hours reception staff are physically present at either the Ridge or the group’s other New York hotel, the Chelsea Inn, to 20 hours a day. A designated “fire and life safety director” was present 24 hours a day as required by law, she said, although he or she may have been in the basement when you arrived.

Not having 24-hour staff at each location saves the company on labor costs, Ms. Gladstein said, and they can pass that savings onto customers.

The CS Hospitality Group is not the only hotel company moving in that direction, said Jordan Hollander, a co-founder of the Hotel Tech Report, a site that reviews technology used by hotels.

He has seen an increasing number of hospitality companies work toward lowering room prices by reducing staffing — which means in some places, there’s no longer a coffee-drinking, TV-watching front desk clerk on duty through the wee hours.

“There are limited-services hotels where you’re not really trying to deliver this elevated guest experience,” Mr. Hollander said. “They have been able eliminate a lot of the on-property labor that you would ordinarily have.”

These limited-personnel hotels, along with many hotel chains and Airbnbs, frequently provide guests mobile keys, often through smartphone apps, to allow them to bypass the front desk. The Ridge Hotel has so far not invested in those, in part because of the expense, said Ms. Gladstein, and has stuck with the code-via-email approach.

But at the end of the day — or in your case, deep into the night — this was a customer service issue.

“It’s also just unacceptable for the hotel not to have a process for what happens in this instance,” Mr. Hollander said.

By Seth Kugel