Travel agency v. Booking.com problem. Advice please!

Beenie

We planned out a road trip in South Africa and asked two UK travel agencies to quote for the hotels en-Route. We thought this was common practice in order to secure the best deal. Both were outrageously expensive however, so we told them we weren't pursuing the holiday via the agents.

Turning to Booking.com, we have gone online and booked direct, but have received emails from all the hotels saying that they already have bookings in our names for those dates!

We said ignore the travel agents bookings, but the hotels have said they couldn't as they get most of their business that way (from travel agents) and don't want to cause offence. So we have to wait until the agents cancel something we didn't book in the first place.

Has anyone come across this before? When you ask for a quote for anything, it's just an enquiry surely? Why would a hotel not take payment from us via Booking.com (an actual booking) in order to honour an enquiry (with no guarantee of an actual booking) from a travel agency? :mad:

SW17

It's unusual, but the agent(s) may have blocked the rooms to secure the price. More usually they'd just have "subject to availability" all over the quote.

As far as the hotels are concerned, they can't/won't cancel the bookings on your say-so, because you are not their customer, that is the agent (or their supplier) who made the booking with them. For them your booking via booking.com is no more "actual" than the other booking, unless you have booked a non-refundable rate.

Just contact the agents and ask them to cancel any provisional bookings they may have made for you.

Beenie

Thank you. A very clear explanation.