A year after making reservations, Dover hotel cancels on Phish fans days before Mondegreen
It almost seems like diehard Phish fans know what the band is going to do before they do it.
That was the case around this time last year when rumors started to swirl that the four-piece rock act with a longtime cult following was going to launch its 11th music festival and that it would be held at The Woodlands in Dover.
Some fans sprung into action and booked hotel rooms in town for the rumored weekend, which turned out to be true: the Mondegreen festival would be held Aug. 15 to 18, 2024, with 45,000 fans expected to flood the area.
For some of them, however, their pre-planning to secure rooms near the festival grounds at regular rates eventually morphed from a good idea to a bad dream this week.
Around 2:30 a.m. on Sunday, texts and emails came rolling in from the Wyndham Garden Dover hotel where they had rooms reserved since last year: their reservations were canceled ― just four days before the camping and music festival was set to launch.
The cause? Different customers received different reasons in their messages.
Hotel rep: Dover Air Force Base contract to blame
Some were falsely told that they had canceled their own reservation. Others were told their payment did not go through. Others were told the hotel was overbooked.
When they called the 135-room hotel off U.S. Route 13 for an explanation, they say they did not get one. Instead, they were told by the front desk to email the hotel's general manager named John. (Hotel workers would not give his last name, customers say.)
Many of them have still not received a response or explanation. The News Journal/DelawareOnline also has not received a response from the hotel's general manager about what happened.
But the person who answered the phone at the front desk this week, who identified himself as the hotel's guest services manager, said John had told him the reason was a request for rooms from Dover Air Force Base, with whom they are under contract.
"We regularly house troops and contract workers that are coming from the base," said the man, who would only identify himself as Patrick J., declining to give his last name due to "privacy reasons." "They contacted us and apparently they bought up about half the property for the weekend. It's an obligation from what I understand."
'It's shady'
John Yocca of West Orange, New Jersey, booked his room at Wyndham Garden Dover for four nights for $510 on August 20, 2023, wagering that the Mondegreen rumors were true.
His gamble went bust at 2:36 a.m. Sunday when he received an email saying his reservation had been canceled at his request, something he says he never did. After calling the hotel and being told to email the general manager, he still has not received a response or explanation.
He believes hotel management realized they could charge more for the rooms with the festival in town and canceled early reservations made at lower rates. Some hotels in the area are charging more than $450 a night this weekend ― more than three times regular rates.
"It's shady," Yocca says.
Phish fan Barbie Shiffman from Montclair, New Jersey, was outraged when she saw the email informing her that the five-night, $561 reservation she made in November was invalidated due to a supposed problem with her payment. She made repeated calls to the hotel.
"I can tell you they hated my guts on Sunday. It was the fury of an Italian woman from New Jersey," says Shiffman, who was planning on letting a friend use her room because she had also booked an RV for the weekend.
After many calls, she says she eventually was told the U.S. Air Force contract was actually to blame.
Another Phish fan locked out of the hotel after making a reservation late last year, Carrie Alperovich of Marlboro, New Jersey, says she also was eventually told by Patrick J. about the military takeover of the hotel.
When she asked why they bumped reservations made nearly a year ago instead of more recent bookings, she says she didn't get a straight answer: "He just kind of paused."
Alperovich says the entire experience with the hotel, including the cancelation message, was "fishy," no pun intended: "There was no flowery language like 'sorry for the inconvenience,' it was just like you're up a creek without a paddle."
The scramble to find housing against a ticking clock
The Vermont-born, 41-year-old Phish has a fervent fanbase, many of whom shadow the band and travel from city to city to see multiple shows each tour, creating a tight-knit fan community.
Friendships are formed night to night with the same faces bumping into each other, whether the band is performing at Madison Square Garden in New York or the Sphere in Las Vegas.
It's those relationships that suddenly hotelless Phish fans leaned on to find a bed for this weekend's festival after having their pillows pulled out from under them.
For example, Yocca, who has attended 74 Phish concerts through the years, had two friends staying at a hotel nearby who offered to let him stay with them. He's bringing an air mattress and will sleep on the floor, splitting their hotel fare three ways.
"It'll end up being cheaper in the long run, actually," he says.
Others offered to help Yocca with extra camping sites or hotel rooms they weren't going to use.
"The Phish community is always there for you. That's why I didn't panic. I figured it would work out some way," he says. "For us, it's all about love and light. I was showered with support"
Shiffman, who has seen Phish 222 times ― you read that right ― refuses to let the hotel chaos ruin what should be an epic weekend with her favorite band, even though she says she was tempted to visit the hotel and leave trash from her RV on their sofa to make a point.
Her friend was able to book a room at a nearby hotel, but for $1,000 more than the original bill at Wyndham Garden Dover.
As for Alperovich, she and her husband will be camping on site after fellow fans gifted them a free camping pass.
"It'll be my first time at festival like this and camping. I'm as excited as I can be," she says with a laugh. "I guess there's a time to do it in life, so we're going to have the full experience and learn some new life lessons."
A cancellation, an apology & blame of a 'glitch'
The experience of Steve Lappat of Gaithersburg, Maryland, with Wyndham Garden Dover mirrors the others, but with a twist.
He received an early morning email Sunday like the others, letting him know his $751 four-day reservation, which he made in the fall, suddenly was canceled. It did not mention a reason. After three calls to the hotel over three days, he says he was finally told about a Dover Air Force Base contract.
With more than 100 Phish shows under his belt, he leaned on the fan community and was offered campsites to join by friends. "Everyone was so gracious," Lappat says.
In the end, his scramble ended when he found someone who wasn't able to attend the festival and agreed to mail him their camping pass overnight for $750, half the price it was originally sold.
And then came the surprise: the hotel's general manager responded to Lappat's email Tuesday, writing that his reservation had been mistakenly canceled due to an "error in the system during an overnight update" and told him his reservation was still good after the "glitch in the system."
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But Lappat had just paid for the camping pass, so he had to cancel his resurrected reservation. "It's all very odd," Lappat says of his experience with the hotel, especially considering the same issues with other early reservations made by fans.
Before receiving the email, he even called the Wyndham Hotels & Resorts corporate office and they told him he had to take it up with the staff in Dover.
"I will blast them on every social media outlet I can and tell my friend and family to never use them," he says. "It just looks like cash grab ― they're taking the opportunity to make more money."
Have a story idea? Contact Ryan Cormier of Delaware Online/The News Journal at [email protected] or (302) 324-2863. Follow him on Facebook (@ryancormier) and X (@ryancormier).
This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Wyndham Garden Dover cancels on Phish fans days before Mondegreen
