A bride-to-be was left fuming after a Hilton hotel cancelled her room bookings almost immediately after Taylor Swift announced tour dates for her new show, The Eras.
Christina Leonard, from the city of Revere in Massachusetts, said she received an email from the Home2 Suites by Hilton hotel in Walpole cancelling the 10 rooms she had booked for her wedding next year.
Her wedding falls on the same weekend that Swift announced she would be performing at the Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, from 19 to 21 May 2023.
According to CBS News, Leonard said the hotel’s sales manager explained that the cancellations were because “there’s a big event coming”.
“I said I have a big event. Taylor Swift has a whole tour. I have one day,” she told local broadcaster WBZ-TV.
“They just want to make the most money. He told me on the phone that they could charge up to US$1,000 (£871) [per room] for this.”
The future bride booked the rooms in September for US$169 (£147) per night including tax. Almost immediately after Swift announced her tour dates on 1 November, Leonard said the hotel cancelled her booking.
Although she had signed a contract for the booking and sent it back, she claimed that the sales manager told her he never signed it and therefore it was void.
“I said, ‘You can’t do that. I have emails that you got it and you reached out to me’, like, come on,” she told reporters.
Leonard added that it was “not fair” that if she had been the one to cancel the booking, she would have to pay the hotel a penalty.
“If I didn’t speak up, these companies just could do whatever they want,” she added.
After raising the issue with different levels of the hotel management since she received the email, Leonard said no one could resolve the problem and she became “just more frustrated and upset and angry”.
However, after she spoke to the press about the incident, Leonard said she received a response from the hotel on Friday morning (4 November) apologising for the “misunderstanding”.
The email said: “We would like to apologise for the misunderstanding with your room block at the hotel. We would like to reinstate your room block and offer you and your fiancé complimentary accommodations for the entire weekend.”
The Independent has contacted Hilton hotels for comment.
Leonard’s wedding is not the only nuptials that the Midnights singer’s tour dates announcement has threatened.
Swift fans took to TikTok to lament that some of her US dates coincided with their weddings, leaving them in a dilemma.
One TikTok user joked: “Taylor Swift is finally going on tour. But I live in Seattle and that’s my wedding day. So do I cancel my wedding or…?”
Another commented she would “absolutely leave my own wedding early” to attend a Swift concert. “Sorry guys – gotta bounce! Thanks for coming!”
