One day after the Mentor school district was forced to abruptly cancel a bus trip to Washington, D.C., for more than 500 eighth grade students, disputes still remain over what caused the fiasco.
Discovery Tours, the agency in charge of the trip, claims the Hyatt Regency Dulles Hotel refused to honor its contract to provide rooms for the students. The company called the hotel's actions "unreasonable and inappropriate," adding that Hyatt demanded extra money for the rooms and refused to accept a credit card payment from Discovery Tours.
However, Hyatt Regency Dulles has since issued a statement saying Discovery Tours' claims "are not accurate," adding:
"Hyatt Regency Dulles is disappointed that Discovery Tours has been unable to provide sufficient payment owed under its contracts, despite the numerous options the hotel provided to Discovery Tours on several occasions over an extended period of time. As a result, the hotel was forced to unfortunately cancel accommodations for Discovery Tours student groups booked at the hotel. The statements from Discovery Tours about this situation are not accurate.We understand and appreciate how important these kinds of learning experiences are to the students, parents and schools involved. To that end, we have been in touch with Mentor Public Schools directly to offer coordination of alternative arrangements that would allow the students to visit our nation’s capital as soon as possible."
In a videotaped message to students Tuesday, Mentor Superintendent Bill Porter said the district "no longer have faith in Discovery Tours to trust them with the most precious cargo -- our students." The matter was scheduled to be further discussed on Wednesday.
