Hostelworld

angel00079

Has anyone had an experience of booking a room with Hostelworld where it has not been booked with the hostel?

I recently booked a room and on arrival I was told that they the hotel did not have a reservation for me. They blamed HW. It is now looking like it was the hotel not HW.

I just wondered if HW would be bothered or just happy to take the commission regardless of the service the hostel/hotel offers its customers.

Mr_Lahey

Used HW many many times all over the globe and not had a single problem with them.

Maybe give them call, that said if you ever turn up and they dont have a reservation just ask them to put you up somewhere else, that usually works.

Bananabelly

I had the same problem once, but the hotel was very strange and I thought it was probably them.
Recently I booked another place and the email confirmation was missing the first day and had the prices wrong - I emailed straight away (always keep the confirmation window open until the email arrives) but it took them about 2 days to get back to me. I don't think HW care very much. I always try and book through the place itself, as it is usually cheaper - I have found most of them just add the commission on top of their normal fees. The HI site is good though, and I ry and use that if it is a HI hostel.

lily89

Bananabelly wrote: »

I had the same problem once, but the hotel was very strange and I thought it was probably them.
Recently I booked another place and the email confirmation was missing the first day and had the prices wrong - I emailed straight away (always keep the confirmation window open until the email arrives) but it took them about 2 days to get back to me. I don't think HW care very much. I always try and book through the place itself, as it is usually cheaper - I have found most of them just add the commission on top of their normal fees. The HI site is good though, and I ry and use that if it is a HI hostel.

i was lucky using Hostle World as it was all fine for a bunch of us for Barcelona, but a friend on another triped used them and they said they had no reservation (but by luck they had room). it might be an idea to see what hostel world offer and thengo stright to them.

angel00079

My beef is with the hotel not HW. I think the last sentence on my post could have been misleading.

I contacted HW and they have been great. They have replied to my messages really quickly. It is obvious that the fault lies with the hotel. HW sent a screen print showing that the hotel had acknowledged the booking. HW has contacted the hotel but they have not bothered to respond to me.

When I asked about just taking the commission I meant that I wondered if HW would continue to work with a hotel/hostel that continually offered poor customer service. I mean several complaints, not just one or two. If this is the case if I copied the HW agent in on my messages I would just be dragging them into the saga.

angel00079

Mr_Lahey wrote: »

Used HW many many times all over the globe and not had a single problem with them.

Maybe give them call, that said if you ever turn up and they dont have a reservation just ask them to put you up somewhere else, that usually works.

I foolishly paid cash for a single room at an establishment around the corner. They could not take a card and we did not have any cash so they drove my brother to a cashpoint. Not sure if it was their establishment or someone they knew. This was after we had gone up the road to what looked like a house. I queried the price but they made out it was HW fault and they were doing us a favour. It was my choice at the end of the day to take the room. After a 45 minutes walk from the underground I think my commonsense went out the window.

They said this was the second booking problem with HW that day. I do not think it is right that they are bad mouthing HW. If I had not used HW before I could have been put off using HW again.

I have decided that I am going to e-mail the hotel and copy the HW agent in. I am not expecting HW to do anything but I want them to know the full story.

lfc321

Happened to me once a couple of years ago, but my guess is that the hostel was a fault. It wasn't a problem - I produced the confirmation email and they honoured the booking - but they weren't expecting me. If they had been fullly booked there presumably wouldn't have been room for me.

Have used hostelworld other times with no probs.