budgetplaces.com cancellation

cro-magnon

Has anyone ever had any issues with budgetplaces.com?

I was looking for somewhere to stay in Prague at New Year and found a good deal at hotel Tiepolo through budgetplaces.com so booked a room in July and the deposit was taken from my credit card. I emailed the hotel to double-check that the booking was valid and they advised that it was.

Yesterday, I received the following in an email from budgetplaces.com: "pre-authorisation of your credit card has failed. Some hotels have a policy of doing pre-authorisation on your credit card so as to secure the booking (please read the terms and conditions in your confirmation email). They do this prior to your arrival date to ensure that the card is still valid and that it has sufficient credit to cover the first night of the reservation. After check-in the establishment will release the amount pre-authorised on your credit card. If your card is invalid or without sufficient credit we strongly suggest that you contact the hotel to provide them with a valid credit card within the next 24 hours. If pre-authorisation fails, the hotel may proceed to cancel your reservation. Please see the hotel contact details in your confirmation email or reply to the hotel's address on copy on this e-mail to get in contact with them as soon as possible in order to provide the new credit card details and avoid the cancellation of your reservation."

I then emailed both budgetplaces.com and Tiepolo hotel asking why this was as my credit card does not expire until 2012, has sufficient credit and as the booking is not until the end of December and a deposit has already been paid (to budgetplaces.com) so why are they doing a check now. I received no reply to this email and today received confirmation from budgetplaces.com that the booking is now cancelled. I forwarded this onto Tiepolo hotel who advised that they received a cancellation of the booking from budgetplaces.com so yes, it has been cancelled.

Can anyone shed any light as to why this happened? Is it because I got such a good rate and now they want to flog the room at a higher price? Is there anything I can do?

2 users on Tripadvisor have had issues booking the hotel through "tour operators"
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g274707-d528637-Reviews-Central_Hotel_Tiepolo-Prague_Bohemia.html

StuieUK34

Hit the nail on the head...
Whether you can do anything about it i'm not sure, but happens alot, either by BS you had above, or being told hotel is fully booked yet when you ring the place theres lots of places, etc

FlorianBCN

Hi!

My name is Florian and I'd like to reply to this thread on behalf of budgetplaces.com. We're truly sorry about this particular case which was based on a misunderstanding and has meanwhile been resolved.

All of our bookings are instantly confirmed bookings and our standard procedure excludes any possibility of reservations being cancelled so rooms can be "flogged at a higher price".

Cheers
Florian
budgetplaces.com