How hard is it to add another name to a hotel reservation?

Earlier this year I was in Seattle to attend and speak at the annual WritersUA Conference. The conference venue was The Westin Hotel in Seattle, and a wonderful venue it was too! But there’s something wrong with their reservation procedures…

My friend and roommate had made the reservation. Because I wasn’t sure when I was getting in to Seattle, I’d asked her to make sure my name was on the room as well so that I could check in before her if our flights didn’t match (I was coming from Australia via Los Angeles and she was coming from the US east coast). She called them, got my name added to the room, and she got a confirmation email from The Westin after doing so. So far, so good.

But the confirmation email was a right botch up! Take a look at the pictures below — the auto reservation process increased the number of rooms from 1 to 2, increased the number of people from 2 to 4, applied a room charge to only one room (and it was a charge substantially higher than the Conference rate), made one room a King and one a Deluxe Suite, and put the two rooms on two different floors!

Confirmation email - Part 1

Confirmation email - Part 2

As it happened, it was all OK when we arrived — we ended up with one room (Deluxe Suite) for two people for one charge. But this email confirmation was very confusing! More to the point, my friend and I both spent time deciphering it, and she also spent time calling them (again) to sort it out. Time that shouldn’t have been spent if their process worked. How hard is it to add another name to an existing hotel reservation?