Mistake booking with credit card

mb41

Hello,

I made a mistake booking of a hotel through booking.com for £135.

Unfortunately, it's non-refundable; however I did use my credit card.

I've rang my credit card company (Halifax) - they're unable to do anything until a charge is made to my credit card. I expect this will happen in the next few days. The reservation is for March.

I've also rang Booking.com who've tried to ring the hotel to cancel this for me but the manager was not there.

Help!?

Thanks.

zerog

mb41 wrote: »

Hello,

I made a mistake booking of a hotel through booking.com for £135.

Unfortunately, it's non-refundable; however I did use my credit card.

I've rang my credit card company (Halifax) - they're unable to do anything until a charge is made to my credit card. I expect this will happen in the next few days. The reservation is for March.

I've also rang Booking.com who've tried to ring the hotel to cancel this for me but the manager was not there.

Help!?

Thanks.

80% of "non-refundable" bookings I have made through booking.com did not result in any charge to my card, instead the hotels asked for cash on check-in

The only thing you can do is to keep trying to contact the hotel

Well you can also cancel your card and tell Halifax to refuse any further transactions.

Hotel reservations rely on someone at the hotel manually entering the card numbers into their machine, they are rarely automatic unless the hotel is a not part of a chain and has its own website

TheEffect

Did you book it within the last hour? If so, Booking.com should allow you to cancel it.

If not, I'm afraid there's not much you can do if the hotel refuse to let you cancel/refund the booking.

If it's a booking that states payment will be taken when you check-in/arrive at the hotel, I guess you could just cancel your credit card, but I'm not sure of what the repercussions of that would be.

comeandgo

Phone the hotel direct. They may let you cancel. I have been very lucky with mistakes made and the hotels have canceled bookings.

mb41

Thanks all.

On the booking.com email it says:

Prepayment:
The total price of the reservation will be charged on the day of booking.

I've just rang the hotel to esquire about cancellations. I could tell from the tone of his voice it's very unlikely I'll be able to cancel and frankly I couldn't be bothered with the argument. (Online reviews warn to stay aware from this hotel! - a shame I read them after I booked.)

Because there is no indication the hotel have acted to pre-authorise my account I may cancel the Halifax card (by reporting it as lost). This way their pre-authorisation will not go through and I will escape a bill for a hotel I do not want to stay at.

Thoughts?

Many thanks everyone.

mb41

I've gone ahead and cancelled the card, and have been advised the card (and its details which Booking.com / the hotel have) is now invalid, and so I think it should be OK.

I expect a new card (with a new card number etc) in a few working days.

Learnt a lesson OK! Don't make bookings in a rush!

jonesMUFCforever

I suspect you have been given wrong advise.
You made the booking cancelling the card won't stop the payment going through given that you are on record as trying to stop the payment in the first instance.

If by any chance they do stop it then Bookings.com will be after you for breach of contract.

I think with these type of bookings you CAN cancel at anytime BUT you are not entitled to a refund.
Just out of curiosity where did you book?

TheEffect

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

I suspect you have been given wrong advise.
You made the booking cancelling the card won't stop the payment going through given that you are on record as trying to stop the payment in the first instance.

If by any chance they do stop it then Bookings.com will be after you for breach of contract.

I think with these type of bookings you CAN cancel at anytime BUT you are not entitled to a refund.
Just out of curiosity where did you book?

My past experience with Booking.com is that if the booking states payment is made at hotel, they just need your credit card details to complete the booking online, but they do not pre-authorise any amount.

If you do not turn up at the hotel, often it is the hotel that then decides whether to put through the payment or not.

If the card is cancelled, and no pre-authorisation is made, no payment can be taken.

The repercussions of doing this, i.e. what Booking.com or the hotel may do, I do not know, but this is my experience with reservations made via booking.com.

jonesMUFCforever

TheEffect wrote: »

My past experience with Booking.com is that if the booking states payment is made at hotel, they just need your credit card details to complete the booking online, but they do not pre-authorise any amount.

If you do not turn up at the hotel, often it is the hotel that then decides whether to put through the payment or not.

If the card is cancelled, and no pre-authorisation is made, no payment can be taken.

The repercussions of doing this, i.e. what Booking.com or the hotel may do, I do not know, but this is my experience with reservations made via booking.com.

Post 1 states it is non refundable which to me suggests paying now not when you arrive at the hotel.

bengal-stripe

mb41 wrote: »

I made a mistake booking of a hotel through booking.com for £135.

mb41 wrote: »

I may cancel the Halifax card (by reporting it as lost).

mb41 wrote: »

I've gone ahead and cancelled the card,

For the sake of a relatively small sum you submitted a false statement and, calling a spade a spade, you have actually committed fraud.

Nice one!!! :beer:

pvt

You've been given some terrible advice on this thread.

Cancelling your card will not avoid the charge.

When a charge appears on your bill for this hotel booking (which it still will) you will presumably now try to claim it wasn't you but was the person who "stole" your credit card. The CC provider will send you a form to sign declaring that you did not make the transaction, they do this for the very reason that some dishonest people declare transactions they don't want to pay as fraudulent, and then think twice before committing this fraud in writing on that declaration.

From the CC provider's perspective: you declared your card stolen AFTER your CC details were given to booking.com; this is the ONLY transaction you're disputing; the allegedly fraudulent booking is in YOUR name; and they'll have a document SIGNED by you fraudulently claiming you didn't authorise this use of your card.

So you decide.