Left in limbo by hotels.com booking for closed accommodation

martin_b_4

I have an accommodation-only booking through hotels.com for an apartment in Italy. The apartment owners emailed us upon booking telling us to contact them before we travel to arrange meeting us for check-in, which the hotels.com listing also states. 

We tried to contact the apartment owners a week ago to arrange check-in but they have not responded by messaging or direct email and their phone lines are permanently down (the phone does not ring, just a message saying the number is unavailable). They appear to have closed since we booked.

My flights (booked separately) have been cancelled by the airline due to schedule changes, but I don't want to book new flights if I can't confirm the apartment will be open when I get there. Hotels.com have done nothing helpful so far, all they say is they'll keep trying to reconfirm the reservation for us.

I would be happy with a refund with the apartment but hotels.com say they need to contact the property to authorise this since it was a non-refundable booking. You guessed it - they haven't been able to make contact with them either. They have said we need to keep trying until the check in date.

We are due to travel in 7 days, and I don't think it's reasonable of them to expect me to wait until the day of arrival to potentially have to book my flights for a reservation which still says it's "guaranteed" but clearly isn't - flights could be very expensive to buy on the day, not to mention the inconvenience. I hoped there would be a reasonable cut-off date whereby they can cancel the booking if they can't guarantee it.

I'm not holding out much hope of resolving this, but does anyone know if I can hold them to a particular date they need to let me know by? And if, as expected, the apartment remains uncontactable and I don't travel, are hotels.com liable for refunding me? 

Thanks!

martin_b_4

I should add, the accommodation is not taking any new bookings for any dates at all, hence why I don't believe it will be reopening any time soon

comeandgo

Have you checked if any information on them on TripAdvisor or asked in the Italy forum on TA whether any local knowledge on what the apartments are doing?
hotels.com did not take your money so will not refund you.

martin_b_4

comeandgo said:

Have you checked if any information on them on TripAdvisor or asked in the Italy forum on TA whether any local knowledge on what the apartments are doing?

The accommodation's own website doesn't give any information, but also isn't accepting new bookings, and Tripadvisor has no recent traveller reviews or info about it. It's a good shout trying the Italy TA forums, thanks - it's worth a shot.

martin_b_4

comeandgo said:

hotels.com did not take your money so will not refund you.

My payment went through them, so I thought they had some kind of liability... I also thought they would only pay the accommodation after my stay. Probably wishful thinking.

Hl95x

I think hotels company would have to wait for a reply from the owners to see if they are re opening, I had the same problem but it wasn't during the pandemic. 

Doshwaster

I was due to go to Tenerife on Saturday. The flight was cancelled weeks ago and was quickly refunded but it wasn't until Tuesday this week that I got a refund for the "non-refundable" hotel booking through Expedia as they were waiting for a reply and many hotels are only reviewing booking on a week to week basis. Now looking to rebook the trip in October.