REVERT TO CONSOLE

So, I was driving on I99, towards San Francisco, two hours away from the airport. I opened the browser on my iPhone. Hotels.com has an iPhone interface. Sweet. It was 9:50pm, I searched for hotels near the SF airport area for the same day. I got 6 results. Now for some reason, the radio was playing a sweet song or the freeway had only 1 lane, whatever, I was distracted for 10 minutes. I refreshed the browser and I see the results are now zero. I Searched for all categories inc 5 star. Zero results. I opened priceline.com and another website, I don’t remember. No results found for the same day. I called hotels.com customer service and this is our conversation: -

Me                               : Can I get a room for two, tonight, near SF Airport?
Customer Service (CS:) : I’m sorry sir, but it’s past midnight, do you want me to book for the next day?
Me                               : I don’t know which watch you’re wearing but mine says 10:12pm.
CS:                               : But we book hotels only in Central time
Me                               : So … ?
CS                                : The “system” doesn’t allow us
Me (eureka)                  : No wonder, I didn’t get any results online
CS                                : (silent, probably checking her nails)
Me                               : What do you suggest?
CS                                : Call the hotel directly

So, I called the two other travel agencies, same story. Looks like they all use the same *** system. It’s shocking to see that this BUG probably exists and known by the agencies but they haven’t done anything to fix it. Dealing with timezones maybe a little tricky but bringing down the business in a 2 hour window, because a system that “ignores” user’s timezones, I think is lame. (shame)

PS: I did get some hotel, for 25% more price but that’s another story.