Wyndham Gardens hotel representatives said this week that the reasons given for canceling reservations for Phish fans heading to Delaware for a four-day music festival were untrue.
When the Wyndham Garden hotel in Dover canceled the reservations, hotel representatives initially placed the blame on the Dover Air Force Base. Hotel representatives told customers their reservations – made nearly a year ago and canceled just days before the start of the Mondegreen festival – were pulled because of the hotel's contract with the military to house personnel when rooms are requested.
The same was told to Delaware Online/The News Journal when hotel officials were asked about the last-minute cancellations.
Some fans were also told they had canceled their reservations themselves when they had not, that there were payment problems, and that the hotel had been overbooked.
"We regularly house troops and contract workers that are coming from the base," said the hotel's guest services manager, who would identify himself only as Patrick J. "They contacted us and apparently they bought up about half the property for the weekend. It's an obligation from what I understand."
But according to spokespeople for the two main wings at Dover Air Force Base, no request was ever made and no personnel stayed at the hotel over the weekend.
And now hotel officials admit it wasn't true, pointing instead to "room maintenance issues" as the cause for the cancellations after being questioned by Delaware Online/The News Journal.
Some festivalgoers now accuse the chain of price-gouging and are filing claims with the Delaware Department of Justice.
Military officials: No Dover Air Force Base personnel at Wyndham Garden over Mondegreen weekend
Veronica Aceveda, chief of public affairs for 436th Airlift Wing, an associate Air Force Reserve Command unit housed at the base, confirmed off-base hotel rooms are used to supplement lodging for its reservists during unit training.
"However, this weekend was not a reserve training weekend. A status check today does not show any Air Force reservist billeted at the Wyndham Garden Dover hotel for the duration of the Mondegreen Music Festival," she said.
Capt. Christina Camp, chief of public affairs for the 436th Airlift Wing, the host wing and active unit on the base, also denied any request or housing carried out by Wyndham Garden.
Camp confirmed with the on-base Eagle's Rest Inn hotel that "they have not sent any personnel off base." She also contacted the Wyndham Garden to "triple check that we haven’t had any airmen reservations there this week."
Wyndham responds
When contacted Friday by Delaware Online/The News Journal about the Dover Air Force Base denial of a room request, the Wyndham Garden Dover general manager named John (no last name given) referred questions to Wyndham Hotels & Resorts' corporate public relations department.
Wyndham's public relations department did not respond to multiple phone calls and emails. But on Tuesday, hotel general manager John wrote a statement to the newspaper about what he called a "difficult situation."
"Please note that previous reports attributing the cancellations due to a military contract are highly inaccurate and false," he stated. "Furthermore, we sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and disruption caused by the recent cancellations of reservations at our hotel."
He noted customers were given refunds and additionally compensated with offers of hotel rewards points.
After releasing the statement, he declined an interview request due to a "heavy international travel schedule" and would answer further questions from a reporter only by email.
Asked for the "accurate reason'' why the reservations were canceled, he responded by email, "Cancellations were made due to last-minute room maintenance issues that could not be fixed in a timely manner.''
When asked about accusations from Phish fans that the hotel purposefully canceled room bookings made last year at regular rates so it could book the festivalgoers in those rooms at higher rates, the general manager responded, "At no time were cancellations done in an effort to resell those rooms to any festival-goers for a higher cost as this did not happen.''
He was then asked why customers and the newspaper were told earlier that the cancellations were due to a Dover Air Force Base contract.
"As noted in the original statement, no cancellations were due to the military or any contract with Dover Air Force Base and this information is highly inaccurate and false,'' he wrote.
And if the rooms were c anceled due to “room maintenance issues,” why were customers not told that to begin with?
"As all questions asked have been covered in the previous statements,'' the manager responded. "You will be directed to those statements for any further information. ''
Delaware Department of Justice receiving official complaints
Multiple affected Wyndham customers have told Delaware Online/The News Journal that they have filed official complaints through the Delaware Attorney General's Fraud & Consumer Protection Division.
Caroline Harrison, a Delaware Department of Justice spokesperson, said the department does not comment on, confirm or deny any investigations.
However, she said consumer complaints can be filed at attorneygeneral.delaware.gov/fraud/cmu/complaint .
Carrie Alperovich of Marlboro, New Jersey, said she received a call back from a representative of the Attorney General's Office on Monday – the same day she filed her complaint.
"We watch for a pattern of complaints to develop. If it sparks a consumer fraud investigation, it would be assigned to our consumer protection unit," a representative of the office told her.
Phish fans given different reasons for cancellations by hotel
For Phish fans who had their reservations canceled, they were suspicious of the hotel's excuses.
They had made the reservations nearly a year ago based on rumors the festival would be in Dover, locking in regular rates for the in-demand weekend where hotel room prices more than quadrupled at some hotels as an expected 45,000 music fans streamed into the city.
Many initially received different reasons for their reservation revocations. Some were notified they themselves had requested the cancellations, which was not the case. Others were informed that their payment methods were denied. Some say they were told the hotel was simply overbooked.
Customers were told to email the hotel's general manager and given only the first name of John. Initially, they said, there was no response to their emails for days. Eventually, some were told by front desk personnel and via messages about the supposed U.S. Air Force request.
At the time, canceled customers told Delaware Online/ The News Journal the hotel was being "shady" amid cries of a "money grab."
Now with the Dover Air Force Base denial that it caused the cancellations, the reaction of Phish fans mirror a line from the band's 1992 tune "Cavern": "The angry mob responded."
Over the weekend, some canceled customers began to finally receive a response from their emails, receiving an apology and offer of 30,000 Wyndham Rewards points as a "gesture of goodwill."
Even so, Carrie Alperovich of Marlboro, New Jersey, doesn't see herself staying at a Wyndham any time soon after her four-night $548.24 reservation made last year was rescinded just four days before the festival.
"The taste that Wyndham left with me is just yuck," she said.
'It's just really slimy'
And it got yuckier. When Alperovich's reservation was first canceled, a note about the hotel's military obligation excuse was included on her online reservation.
"Early check in CANCELLATION due to Property Buy out & Military Housing Obligations - per MGMT 8/10/24," it read.
After receiving their apology over the weekend, she logged in and saw it had been removed. Instead, the message simply read, "early check in CANCELLATION."
"It's just really slimy," Alperovich said.
She had taken a screenshot of the initial message before it was changed and included it in her complaint with the Department of Justice.
"I think they saw they could make a lot more money off these rooms and just canceled us," Alperovich has concluded. "Greed took over."
After cancellations, fan says hotel offered 4-night reservation for $2,800
Phish fan Tracy Callard of Wichita, Kansas, stayed at the Wyndham Garden Dover on Tuesday and Wednesday night last week and asked management to be placed on a waiting list for the weekend if any rooms opened up.
Callard said guest services manager Patrick called her Thursday and offered her a "special room they kept in case they had problems with other rooms" for four nights at a cost of $2,800 – more than five times the rate some fans originally booked their rooms for at the same hotel last year.
PREVIOUSLY A year after making reservations, Dover hotel cancels on Phish fans days before Mondegreen
RIGHT AND WRONG AT MONDEGREEN Mondegreen: What went right, what went wrong at Phish's Dover festival
"I told him I'm a retired teacher and there was no way I could afford that," she said, calling her experience a case of price gouging. "Then [John] said we could have the room for the weekend for $1,600. It seemed very shady, so we declined.
"They are con artists. If what they are doing is not illegal, it should be."
Hotel general manager John did not answer an emailed question about Callard's experience.
Barbie Shiffman from Montclair, New Jersey, also filed an official complaint with the state this week after her five-night, $561 reservation made in November was canceled by Wyndham Garden last week.
"I'm pissed off. When there's an injustice, people have to step up," she said. "The Attorney General's Office needs to know there's a business out there screwing with people."
And John Yocca of West Orange, New Jersey, also let state officials know that he, too, had his $510, four-night reservation canceled after he made it last August.
He also received a hotel apology over the weekend and the offer of 30,000 hotel rewards points. But after learning the military had not requested rooms after all, his anger has only grown.
"I had to laugh because this is a joke," Yocca said. "Giving us points doesn't change the fact that they screwed us, lied to people, made excuses and put us out in the street."
Have a story idea? Contact Ryan Cormier of Delaware Online/The News Journal at rcormier@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2863. Follow him on Facebook ( @ryancormier ) and X ( @ryancormier ).
This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: This hotel blamed Dover Air Force Base for Mondegreen room cancellations. It wasn't true
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