Hotels.com won't refund a double-booked room

dopeybird

Hi,

I booked a hotel in Buffalo in the USA through hotels.com. They took payment when I booked. I arrived at the hotel at 21:00 on a Saturday night only to be told that the hotel had been fully booked that night for over 6 months because of a wedding and that no room was available for me. I was left at 21:00 on a Saturday night trying to find a hotel room!

This was over 2 weeks ago and despite numerous emails (which hotels.com have replied to, but stated my booking doesn't exist) and phone calls (they always promise to call me back, but never do) my money has NOT been returned.

As far as I'm concerned they've fraudulently extorted money from me, and because I didn't pay using a credit card (I used a debit), my bank can't help.

Legally I now have a struggle on my hands trying to get money out of a US based company. Has anyone else experienced this?

My advise to anyone - DON'T USE HOTELS.COM

phatbear

dopeybird wrote: »

My advise to anyone - DON'T USE HOTELS.COM

my advice to anyone is not to base an opinion on a company on one persons opinion.

I have used hotels.com countless times with not one problem with any of the bookings.

balletshoes

Don't you have any confirmation emails or itineraries from hotels.com OP, confirming what you booked and what you paid?

Voyager2002

If you paid using a visa debit card then your bank can help, despite what they say.

[Deleted User]

Having occasionally had problems with online bookings, i've now made it a new habit to book online, then the next day give the hotel a ring to confirm the booking

I'd go through your credit card company to get a refund on this

Looksguywalker

ringo_24601 wrote: »

Having occasionally had problems with online bookings, i've now made it a new habit to book online, then the next day give the hotel a ring to confirm the booking

I'd go through your credit card company to get a refund on this

Why would their credit card company refund the OP? The OP didn't use a credit card to pay.

[Deleted User]

Looksguywalker wrote: »

Why would their credit card company refund the OP? The OP didn't use a credit card to pay.

Because i didn't read the OP's post properly.. (and assumed that anyone booking a hotel abroad would sensibly use a credit card)

If this was me.. i'd be phoning them up a lot, asking to speak to managers

They are part of the Expedia Group, and have offices in London:
EXPEDIA.COM LIMITED
407 ANGEL BUILDING
ST JOHN STREET
LONDON
UNITED KINGDOM
EC1V 4EX
Company No. 03847519

So, they are actually a UK company also

Or.. email their USA-based CEO David Roche droche@hotels.com

We had problems with 3 and found emailing the CEO gets you put to a higher-level customer support system. With real people with real authority

ferf1223

ringo_24601 wrote: »

Having occasionally had problems with online bookings, i've now made it a new habit to book online, then the next day give the hotel a ring to confirm the booking

I'd go through your credit card company to get a refund on this

we normally avoid using 3rd parties when possible, but for a one-night airport hotel stay a few weeks ago the hotel showed no availability for our room type, but hotels.com did...so we booked through them even though it made me slightly nervous, then about a week before I called the hotel to confirm they had my booking and to get my booking reference (so I could log into their site and see it myself - hotels.com couldn't give it to me, though they did offer to call the hotel for me and confirm the booking which was nice, but wanted to confirm myself)...all was fine and actually got a slightly better rate than we would have booking direct after the exchange rate calculation.

sometimes the hotel itself will not have details of your booking until about a week before - so calling the next day, if the stay is several months out, may result in unnecessary panic...found that out many years ago the hard way.

Also confused as balletshoes is...surely the OP has a reference number with hotels.com - so not sure how they are saying that the booking doesn't exist if it does and payment was taken.

Unless the OP booked a different hotel or date (in the past) accidentally or something...