Hotels.com HOTELS.COM RIPPED ME OFF Dallas Texas
I made a reservation online for a hotel room in Keene New Hampshire in June. While the reservation was not until August 14th, I paid upfront (meaning the hotels.com service charged my debit card that day for the entire sum). As the reservation day came my plans changed and I called the hotel that had booked me a room and asked about the cancellation policy. The front desk attendant advised me that they could take a cancellation up until 2 pm of the day of the reservation for no charge.
I called the next day at about 11:30 to make the cancellation and when I asked about when I can receive a refund from the service Hotels.com that I used to book the room I was told that the hotel will not charge for the unused room since the cancellation took place in a timely manor according to their internal rules. I waited about 2 weeks for a refund check to be produced to me and finally called the hotel once again. I was told by the desk attendant I needed to speak with Ryan, the manager. I called back the next day and spoke with Ryan who informed me that Hotels.com would be the one to contact about this. Since then I have contacted a number of representatives from this service each time getting no-where. Once I spoke with male named Jeremy who informed me that he had more important calls to handle and disconnected my line. I have asked for managers and each time have been refused this.
I finally spoke to Phillip last night (10/04/04) who made a call to the hotel himself and finally got the information I had been asking for since mid August. The hotel claims that I was labeled is a no show so they would have to charge Hotels.com. This is not possible since I had made 2 separate phone calls to cancel not to mention that the day of the reservation a friend of mine stopped by the hotel to see me. She was told that the reservation had been canceled by me.
If she was told it was canceled, obviously they had records of this. I have cell phone records to corroborate my account of the day. Unfortunately I did not write down the names of the front desk personnel at the time of my calls, I did not think there would be such a problem since the hotel assured me of a refund. Since this has occurred, I have spend many days trying to recover my money. I have made numerous (over 8 calls) to both the hotel and to Hotels.com for current information. I am at a stand still now and don't see any relief in the future and would appreciate some sort of mediation.
Kristen
Canton, Connecticut
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Bob
Orlando,Florida,
U.S.A.
You did everything just fine - almost
#2Consumer Comment
Wed, November 17, 2004
Sounds like you did just about everything right. ALMOST ! When you cancel a reservation, ALWAYS get a cancellation number. When you make the reservation you were most likely given a confirmation number. Same deal for cancellations, if you don't have that number, it doesn't matter how many times you called a hotel. That number is your proof of cancellation. The second problem is that you dealt with a 3rd party operator - Hotels.com You paid Hotels.com and unless you call THEM and cancel with THEM, how do you expect them to know you cancelled the reservation with the hotel? The hotel is not going to tell hotels.com that you cancelled but they should have told you to contact hotels.com directly to cancel. The hotel does have the ability to inform hotels.com that they will not bill hotels.com and you should not be billed either (depending on hotels.com cancellation policy). Since you were charged as a no show, it's obvious that the person you cancelled with at the hotel did NOT cancel your reservation. This is why you always get the cancellation number. In order to get a refund you definitely need the help of the hotel and have them send a letter to hotels.com stating that they (the hotel) will not bill hotles.com. Worse case secenario you should get your money back minus a possible cancellation fee. In the future, book directly with the hotels as most hotels offer a lowest rate guarantee which means you would have paid the same rate BUT would have booked directly with the hotel and cancelling with the hotel would have assured that you were not charged. This is a significant problem in the hotel industry because alot of people forget they booked with hotels.com and paid hotels.com. You need to cancel the same way or be refunded the same way. Always be sure to read the cancellation policy as they protect the company which usually means you wont get a full refund. Good luck.