reservations.com Buyer Beware--reservations.com should be called scam.com unknown Internet
Who is reservations.com? The company is like a ghost that trolls the internet taking cancellation and booking fees from unsuspecting consumers who think they are booking directly on a hotel website.
On September 12, I made and later cancelled a reservation at the Wyndham Garden Boise Airport Hotel. Both transactions were made within a few hours of each other. It was only when I received an email confirming the cancellation, that I discovered I was not dealing with the hotel directly, but a company called reservations.com.
Imagine my surprise when I got my credit card bill a few weeks later and discovered that reservations.com had charged me a $14.99 booking fee and $96.23 for the cancelled reservation. I looked back at the email and saw that there was a "no refund" policy in small print at the bottom of the email.
I went directly to reservations.com's website to have a look at the same hotel property directly on their site. What is notable about the site, is that nothing about cancellation policies or booking fees is listed next to the hotel prices. If you go to "room details" these fees are revealed in a hidden drop down box.
I scrolled through numerous hotel listings at all price points from $85 to over $250 on the reservations.com website The majority of the properties had non-refundable rates, although a refundable room would appear from time to time in the hidden boxes. Interestingly enough, many of the first few entries in the list of available rooms at a hotel were "non-refundable" with the occasional refundable room thrown in. I did not detect a specific pattern, but I do think the majority of their listings are non-refundable.
Beware of this site. I had no idea I was using it and it wasn't disclosed at all upfront what would happen with fees. When I called the hotel directly, they had a record of the cancelled reservation, which had come in under Expedia. I contacted Expedia about this, who said that some of the smaller companies use Expedia to process fees. I reported t reservations.com to expedia too.
For anyone scammed by reservations.com, I recommend you first contact your credit card company and dispute charges. You can also file reports with the FCC, the Better Business Bureau, and your state Consumer Protection Division. As for the latter, you can file an "informational" report and not ask for help from them if you are already getting it from your credit card company.
For my part, I will be doing all of this plus contacting reservations.com's web hosting company to report their practices there.