IHG (Holiday INN Crowne Plaza) scam

daveypoos

Thought I would book direct, a rate was displayed, pressed on book room, 2nd page same rate was displayed with no extras, but I did not notice the total was more than the rate times the number of nights.

After payment processed the receipt shows $20 extra per night for a 2nd person pays $84 tax

Booked in the UK I do not know why it showed dollars.

They want to charge me to cancel the room.

Have notified trading standards, next stop credit card company.

k3lvc

daveypoos wrote: »

Thought I would book direct, a rate was displayed, pressed on book room, 2nd page same rate was displayed with no extras, but I did not notice the total was more than the rate times the number of nights.

After payment processed the receipt shows $20 extra per night for a 2nd person pays $84 tax

Booked in the UK I do not know why it showed dollars.

They want to charge me to cancel the room.

Have notified trading standards, next stop credit card company.

Did you book on UK site or another countries ?


Little that TS can do if you didn't book on UK site

Robin9

Is IHG (Holiday INN Crowne Plaza) in the USA

Tax as always added as an extra in the States

daveypoos

Sounds a bit thick but how can you tell, does it have to be .co.uk?

cono1717

Without meaning to sound like a rear-end. The $ symbol should of been a bit of a giveaway.

tomtontom

daveypoos wrote: »

Sounds a bit thick but how can you tell, does it have to be .co.uk?

Post a link to the site, tell us the hotel etc.

You really should have done this before going to Trading Standards.

unholyangel

.co.uk doesn't mean anything - plenty of foreign companies have .co.uk domains yet are not a UK company - best example is amazon.co.uk - which is a trading name (and not an actual company itself) of amazon eu sarl who are based in luxembourg.

To find out if a company is a UK company you may need to do a bit of digging. A website may seem to display a UK address but when you look into it, its actually a virtual address/PO box. Any decent company should have fairly well drafted T&C's and in those T&C's it should tell you 1) who the contracting entity is (ie blahblah UK, registered at 22 north st, london - for example) and also 2) what the governing law is.

If it says the governing law is anything other than english/scottish etc, then its very likely the retailer has no UK presence because if they did, they'd need to contract with consumers in UK law.

rustyboy21

The website seems to be a Global website.

If you book ( for us UK residents) a hotel in the UK then the price you see includes VAT at 20%

If you book, for example for New York, then it is shown in $ and there is a view rate button, which states prices DO NOT include VAT at 14.75%

Same with, say Madrid Their taxes are an additional 10% and price shown in Euros.

You have to click that you have accepted their T&C's before booking confirmed and on each example I have looked at, you do get the view rate here link to confirm.

I know it is easy, but you really do have to check things out before you buy online, you cannot blame other people for your mistakes. A lot of HI hotels are franchise hotels, that use the global booking site of the group. In effect it is no different than the likes of Expedia.