Complaint Review: Expo-key booking

I made a hotel reservation at a major hotel in Orlando about five months in advance via "Expo-key Booking",  who purported to be offering a special discounted room rate, and paid a deposit of almost $200 (I would have been happt to have paid all in advance) and was told that the balance of almost $550 would be due a month before the stay, and my okay to charge it to the card would be required.

A month before the stay the sent me an email asking if the balance could be charged to my card on file, and I immediately replied that that card should be fine (it absolutely was). I never heard anything else back from them at all ... no emails, no phone call, etc., and assumed that our room eas all paid. This was for all of our staff, attending a trade show in Orlando.  We drove 10 hours, and worked hard setting up our booth for another 8 hours, and arrived at our hotel only to be told that Expo-key had CANCELLED our reservation, and we had no room! 

After some time we were able to get in touch with Expo-key by phone, and were told that for whatever reason, the additional $550 was never charged to my card, and they cancelled our room! The representative said that if she could run our card at that time for the $550, that she could still do the reservation at the agreed room rate, so I gave her the card again, and she charged it. After over TWO hours of all of my exhausted staff sitting in the hotel lobby, the rep was STILL not able to get our reservation to show in the hotel's system, so I just asked for a refund and that I would get a room from the hotel directly. The Expo-key rep said that she would refund all of my money, the deposit of almost $200 plus the almost $550 additional. I thanked her, and the hotel desk said they did have a room available, and that their rate was WELL less than the "discount rate" I paid through Expo-key Booking!

We were able to sleep finally, knowing that after all of that horrible experience that we would at least get a full refund. When my card statement came in, they only refunded the additional charge, and NOT my almost $200 deposit! 

After many, many calls and emails to Expo-key representatives and their accounting department, supplying copies of all emails, including my original authorization to charge the balance due, I have STILL not gotten the deposit refund, and they now simply refuse contact.   LESSON LEARNED: Do NOT ever use "Expo-key Booking", and it is usually MUCH safer and CHEAPER to book your hotel direct instead of going through a third party booking company.