Hotel reinstates man's booking for Vancouver Taylor Swift weekend after claiming 'technical issue' forced it to cancel

The scramble for accommodations in Vancouver during Taylor Swift's three-night Eras Tour finale got another unwilling participant Monday.

Dan Rosen booked a one-bedroom suite at "WorldMark Vancouver - The Canadian," a timeshare hotel tower on Hornby Street in downtown Vancouver, so that he and his 12-year-old daughter could easily walk to and from the concert at BC Place and explore other attractions in the city during their visit. 

The Chicago resident made the booking in January and confirmed it on a call with staff at the hotel earlier this month, so he was shocked by the email he received Monday evening.

"Dear valued guest," reads the email, which Rosen shared with CTV News.

"Due to Technical Issue - nonhuman error, we are unable to accommodate your reservation."

The email goes on to "sincerely apologize for any inconvenience or disruption" the cancellation may cause, and provides a phone number for the recipient to call with "questions or concerns."

Rosen said calling the number wasn't helpful. The person he spoke to said there was nothing they could do to reinstate his reservation.

It was a similar story when he called the hotel directly. The manager told him the hotel doesn't have direct control over its booking system, but promised to pass along his concerns.

"My sense is that – I used Wyndham points to book the reservation, and obviously, this is a very expensive weekend to travel to Vancouver – so I just wonder if that had something to do with why they cancelled it, the thought that maybe they could get more money for the room," Rosen said.

Supply and demand

Taylor Swift's Vancouver tour dates have led to a surge in demand for accommodations, and a corresponding spike in prices. CTV News has reported on Vancouver condo owners seeking as much as $10,000 for a five-night stay centred around Swift's shows on Dec. 6, 7 and 8. 

At least one group visiting the city that weekend had to find alternative accommodations for a higher price after their VRBO host demanded that they cancel their reservation. They told CTV News they think the host realized she could get more money than what she had agreed to accept because of the Eras Tour demand. 

In Rosen's case, he scrambled to book alternative accommodations as soon as possible, and ended up paying about US$1,500 for two nights in a hotel near the airport, plus one night in a hotel downtown on the night of the concert.

His previous itinerary – which would have kept him in the same convenient, downtown location the whole time – cost him 45,000 points, which he estimated to be approximately US$900.

Booking reinstated

Rosen also contacted CTV News, looking to share his story and hoping to get some answers from the hotel and its parent company Wyndham Destinations.

CTV News spoke to Rosen on Tuesday and reached out to spokespeople for the company seeking comment. On Wednesday morning, the company emailed a brief statement explaining that Rosen's booking had been reinstated, something he also confirmed.

"Without knowing the specifics of this particular guest, we believe we were able to track down the booking you referenced and secure their original reservation," a spokesperson said in the email.

"The guest has been notified and is satisfied with the outcome. Thank you for bringing this to our attention."

Wyndham Destinations did not answer questions about the "technical issue" that prompted the cancellation of Rosen's booking in the first place, nor did it say whether any other guests had been affected by the same issue.

'Really not right'

Rosen was delighted to learn his stay at WorldMark Vancouver would go ahead as initially planned, though he described himself as "a little hesitant to trust it," after the sudden and largely unexplained cancellation.

On Tuesday, before he knew his booking would be revived, he said it felt like no one at the hotel wanted to "take responsibility" for what happened.

"I just don't buy that there's an error that went unnoticed for 10 months," he said, at the time.

"It's not like they told me a week, a month or even six months afterward. They told me less than three weeks before my arrival date that this was going to happen, and that's really not right."

Now that the issue is resolved, Rosen is looking forward to having more time and a more central location from which to explore Vancouver, a city he said he's visited only once before, for a single day before departing on a cruise.

And, of course, he's also looking forward to sharing a once-in-a-lifetime concert experience with his daughter.

"We're very excited about it," he said. "We're both big Taylor Swift fans." 

Dan Rosen and his daughter are flying to Vancouver for Taylor Swift's Eras Tour, but their hotel booking was unexpectedly cancelled this week, then reinstated after CTV News got involved. (Dan Rosen)