Olotels - Payment taken in Euros when currency was set to GBP

wilson115

Hi there,

I recently booked a 7 day hotel stay via Olotels. The price stated throughout the booking process (including when inputting my credit card details) was in GBP. On receipt of the confirmation email I spotted it was in Euros. I had used my airmiles credit card on the basis I was paying in GBP and therefore have been charged an enormous "non-sterling transaction fee" which I would easily have avoided had I known I was going to be charged in Euros.

Does anyone know whether this is illegal? I called them and complained but they simply said I must have "selected the wrong currency" by mistake. I have since been back to the website and it appears you can change the currency you view the prices in but there certainly is no way to change the currency you actually pay in - as far as I can tell they will always charge in Euros.

Thanks

Will

Obviously_the_best

As far as I knew they always took the payment in the hotel's local currency.

Moto2

https://www.olotels.com/terms.php

i) – Olotels charges your credit card, debit card or paypal account (as applicable) in euros and does not assume the cost of any exchange commission charged by your bank. For the avoidance of doubt, Olotels will not refund any such commission to your credit card, debit card or paypal account.

NFH

You'll have to find out whether displaying a price differently from the final transaction price breaches Hong Kong law, because all contracts concluded via Olotels are governed by Hong Kong law, even though their web server is in Switzerland. English law wouldn't come into it.