SALT LAKE CITY — The NBA All-Star Game in Salt Lake City is only a few months away, but a local hotel's contract mixup with the NBA has some families without anywhere to stay.
Ronnie and Jennie Jiron purchased a room at the downtown Courtyard Marriott on March 7, 2022, nearly a full year in advance of the NBA All-Star Game on February 19, 2023.
The downtown Courtyard Marriott is only a few steps away from Vivint Arena.
The Jiron family received an email in November informing them of the cancellation.
"The National Basketball Association signed a contract in 2018 that we inherited from a previous management company for 100% occupancy of our available rooms during the NBA All-Star Game," wrote operations manager Lata Hikila. "After further review of the NBA contract, our legal team recently confirmed that it is concrete. I reached out to you as soon as we were notified and truly apologize for the delay."
The reservation was mostly for their eight-year-old granddaughter Mia to have fun on NBA All-Star weekend.
"She's really into basketball, she's really into the (Utah) Jazz," said grandmother Jennie Jiron. "She’s old enough now at the age of eight where she can enjoy it and remember it."
Donovan Mitchell used to be Mia's favorite Jazz player. She was hoping to be able to see him again in Utah now that Mitchell is having a potentially all-star season with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
"Once we got the cancellation, we had to tell her, and that wasn't good," said grandfather Ronnie Jiron. "She cried."
Hotel rooms are now very difficult to find for NBA All-Star weekend. The Courtyard Marriott offered to reserve a room for the Jiron family near the airport, which they declined due to the commute from Vivint Arena.
They haven't been able to find a room downtown.
"They're talking thousands of dollars for one night, if you can find anything, but we haven't been able to find anything," Jennie Jiron explained.
"I don't think they care. They haven't shown it. I guess money talks," added Ronnie Jiron. "If they’ve known that long, they should’ve had all the rooms blocked out at that time."
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced Salt Lake City would host the 2023 NBA-All Star Game on October 23, 2019.
The last time Utah hosted the game was in 1993.
The Jiron family worries travel will become even more difficult for those who are traveling to Utah from out of state.
They did get their money back in December.
"This might be the last time we could we could do something like this with (our granddaughter)," Jennie Jiron said.
Emily Sleater, another upset customer, sent an email to FOX 13 News on Tuesday with a similar story.
"The worst part was (Courtyard Marriott) didn’t even care we had this booked for over nine months and they acted like it was just some little glitch and they were sorry for the inconvenience," she wrote. "It’s impossible to find anything now. They didn’t offer us anything other than a reservation at the airport. Why would I want a reservation at the airport?"
"They gave us no discounted stays in the future, no points, nothing. Just a sorry for the inconvenience and then they went ahead and booked us at the airport even though I was pretty explicitly clear I didn’t want that to happen. I will never stay at the Courtyard again," Sleater added.
The general manager for Courtyard Marriott sent the following email to FOX 13 News on Tuesday morning.
"The reservations in question were the result of a system error, with dual bookings inadvertently made within a block of rooms originally reserved in 2018," wrote General Manager Mackenzie White. "We are doing everything we can to seamlessly accommodate these guests at our nearby sister property, including offering a complementary shuttle several times a day to and from the arena. We sincerely regret any inconvenience this has caused."