Warning & query on hotel booking sites: Booking.com & Hotel.com

geoff_s---r

I booked hotels in Sri Lanka with "hotels.com" & "booking.com" & had problems with website details with both. So I'm posting a warning here to double check everything. (& I'm requesting advice about my rights & who I was actually making a booking contract with when I use these sites in another country)

Hotels.com listed a 5 star at quite a good price, they clearly said "Net" in the booking & confirmation pages, but on booking-out they insisted their prices were always given to hotels.com site as "+ charges & taxes". (they add 5 or 6 seperate surcharges adding 30% to their bills). I negotiated the price, but still paid higher than the 'net' price, so I could get on with my holiday

Hotels.com's attitude is that whatever prices & details appear on their site is not to do with them, its done direct and is entirely down to the hotel. The 5* hotel says the price mistake was a Hotel.com error. I get left in the middle.

The next hotel I booked was at night when near a station to return for an 6am train the next morning. I did this with booking.com. It turned out the hotel decribed as quite close-by, was actually 15km away. The position shown on booking.com's map was completely wrong. I got there 1am after an endless hunt by a mutinous tuk-tuk driver & scrapped a few hours sleep before heading 15km back again.

Booking.com's attitude is the same. Details on their site were all done by the hotels, it was not up to them to correct the site or compensate for any errors on it. To be fair to booking.com, after I failed to get a discount from the hotel. They contacted the hotel & continually chased until some rebate was given for the hotel's mistake.

So my question is.... If I'd booked a UK hotel from a UK site I'd be fairly confident that it was the website that I had a contract with as well as the hotel. But if I am in say Sri Lanka, booking a Sri Lankan hotel from a ".com" booking site, who do I have the contract with? I gave my debit card details to both, so I'd assume my contract was with them. They say no money was taken from the card, so my contract was with the hotels. They seem to query if reservation is a contract at all.

My warning is 1..... both market leaders booking.com & hotels.com insist the prices & details shown on their websites have nothing to do with them.

Warning 2 hotels.com don't seem to give the level of customer support that booking.com does in settling disputes with hotels.

Suggestion 2. Never trust anything on a bookings site. That booked hotel may not be local, but hundreds of miles away, it only needs a slip of the junior hotel clerk's finger with the co-ordinances. The sites themselves do not concern themselves in the details given, booking.com could not correct the map mistake on their own website, the hotel had to do it.

Suggestion 3. Try & refuse to have anything to do with any hotel that does not quote net. Try not to use any booking site that allow both to be posted. I suggested to hotels.com that it makes a mockery of a price comparison site to allow both to be shown. They say they don't control what hotels enter-up directly to their site.

These sites look professional & definative but are basically as reliable as a public notice board with hand written cards pinned to them. Double check everything. Also if traveling, photograph the computer screen, so you can show your contract to the hotel later. A mistake between what you see on the screen & what you get offered later is highly likely. Don't let the hotel blame the booking site, the details shown on the site come direct from the hotel (at least with these two)

I love the idea of these sites. I like the idea & flexability of auctioning off my nights sleep to the lowest bidder each afternoon when travelling. But I discovered, they do come with drawbacks.

Bob_the_Saver

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

hcb42

They are right. Hotels are responsible for the content. Booking.co m is uploaded direct whereas hotels . Com is fed from Expedia (which will be fed from hotel content somewhere). Tax differs from country to country, and is also down to hotel, most of uk includes vat although not always for London, whereas USA for example has a myriad of different sales taxes etc'


Edit hotels cannot actually change coordinates on booking . Com (just checked my own) but of course they are responsible for providing correct google map reference/coordinates and indeed would be fools if they hadn't done this so I guess this is a rare xception

budgetflyer

Ive used both sites for bookings abroad with out incident. I do tend to go for PRE PAY rates though.

1. They are normally cheapest
2. Rate is fixed at time of booking

Certainly, having until recently run a price comparison site, I can confirm often the lead in price is different from the actual price, but ithe final price is normally displayed

ie http://www.hotelscombined.com/SearchResults.aspx?languageCode=EN&currencyCode=GBP&fileName=Bentota&checkin=2012-04-01&checkout=2012-04-07&Rooms=1&adults_1=2&pageSize=15&pageIndex=0&sort=Popularity-desc&showSoldOut=false&highRate=200&lowRate=10&view=hc_sr_summary&scroll=1968&mapstate=contracted

geoff_s---r

Thanks for the hotelscombined.com budgetflyer, I'll try it next time


Thanks for your zzzzzzzzzz's Bob the Saver, I see you are in Thailand boasting "girls are now over £15 per night (for the matching pair)" .... Sounds like your zzzzz's are valuable & your travel may be eh... more specialised (but agreed too long & sorry to interupt)