More tourists have stays at hotels for eclipse canceled

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) – The list of cancelations for travelers booking rooms at the Aloft Buffalo Airport continues to get longer.

Terence Brady describes his experience booking with the hotel as “surprised, outraged, and disgusted.”

Brady and his siblings, all living in various parts of the U.S. including Maryland and Maine, booked several rooms at the hotel in May 2023 for the solar eclipse.

Brady and his sister, Patricia Paterson, booked through booking.com. Brady’s one brother booked directly on the Aloft’s website.

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“I saw Buffalo in the path. Told my siblings, hey we need to plan a reunion in Buffalo in 2024 for the eclipse, this is going to be great,” Brady said. “Great excuse for a reunion. Let’s do it.”

Brady was the first among his siblings to receive and email that his reservation was canceled.

He received an email from hotel manager Emar Fernandez saying in part, “Due to high online traffic, our reservations systems ended up overbooking some of our properties, affecting upcoming reservations that had been booked recently up to four weeks prior… if you are getting this email, it is because your reservation has been canceled at Aloft.”

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“Couldn’t tell you how many hotels I’ve ever stayed at, but I have never ever had this happen to me anywhere in the world except Buffalo,” Brady said.

Paterson was emailed almost the same message this week.

“Infuriating and just really feel like you know why they’re doing it you know. They can make a big buck for what they’re charging for one night about what we had booked for a three night stay,” she said.

The siblings are not alone in this.

Last week, a South Carolina man reached out to News 4 with similar complaints.

Sugar Tours Inc., a travel agency based in New Jersey, said dozens of their rooms booked two years ago at the Aloft, were canceled. Owner Christopher Donnelly says the cancelations forced the agency to pay $30,000 more to secure hotel rooms elsewhere.

“This is not the image or the reputation that we would like for Buffalo. We are the city of good neighbors and this is not a neighborly act that we would want any of our visitors or our customers or clients to experience,” said Patrick Kaler, who’s the CEO and President of Visit Buffalo Niagara.

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Sugar Tours, Inc. reached out to Visit Buffalo Niagara for help to find other places for their 250 guests they plan to bring to Western New York.

“It was our job to step in,” Kaler said. “First of all we reached out to the hotel. Unresponsive. We reached out to the management company in Canada. Again, unresponsive. Then we set course in helping help secure rooms and other hotels.”

The State Attorney Generals office tells News 4 that they have received complaints of price gouging. People are encouraged to file their complaints to the AG’s office.

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Sarah Minkewicz is an Emmy-nominated reporter and Buffalo native who has been a part of the News 4 team since 2019. Follow Sarah on Twitter @SarahMinkewicz and click here to see more of her work.

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