Hotels.Com Complaint Help.

graemeboro

Hello,

Hello I am wondering if anyone in the UK can point me in the right direction. I will try to keep this short. Basically I booked a hotel in Iceland through hotels.com for a trip in April 2020 (well before we knew a pandemic was coming). Of course that trip had to be cancelled and hotels.com gave me a voucher to rebook the hotel within 12 months. So I did and booked for March 2021 and paying extra as well. Of course the March 2021 trip never happened and in the UK specifically it was (still is) illegal to travel overseas.

Despite this hotels.com are telling me I cannot have another voucher and have to accept loosing nearly £400 as my voucher was a "one shot" and I have used it.

I have had numerous phone calls and get fobbed off and have wrote to what I believe is their head office in London. Eventually I thought I had a breakthrough as one of their customer service team emailed me to say I could re-book for later this year using the "value of my previous voucher" and they "understood" my situation.  They said I should call and re-arrange the booking.

Despite this however when I tried to do this they refused to help and Expedia have since emailed me telling me I have lost my money and its tough. It is more galling now given that they had sent the other email telling me all was OK and they were willing to help,

I would welcome any thoughts on who I should complain too as hotels.com and Expedia are simply not listening. I would consider legal action but clearly this is not cost effective for the amount but to just accept that they can do this is frustrating and angering to say the very least.

Thanks in advance.
Kind Regards
Graeme

bagand96

What were the conditions of your original booking?

If it was non-refundable rate, and the hotel in Iceland was open and available at the time, then the voucher was a good will gesture over and above what they had to do.

Upsidedownandaround

You will have to give more information for anyone to properly answer. You will have to explain what terms you booked under (I.e refundable or non refundable) and what you mean when you say “of course that trip had to be cancelled” and “of course the March 2021 trip never happened”. Do you mean you cancelled it or the hotel was not open?

mattyprice4004

If the hotel is open and you simply can't get there, this is your problem and not theirs. 
If the hotel is closed, you're entitled to a credit / refund. Which is it? 

lisyloo

How did you pay? and how much was it? 
I would ring them again but this time tell them about the email you've had with the offer. They should stick by that if you have it in writing.
SAVE that email.

CKhalvashi

As far as I can see, you haven't paid for the flexibility a refundable service would have offered you.

You have therefore purchased a hotel for specific dates, how you get there (and whether it is legal to do so) is not the problem of the hotel, so as long as the hotel was open to accept you for the room you have booked and that this room was available for your use, you have no recourse, as stated in your contract.

I am therefore confused as to why you feel you have a right to a voucher/refund for your change of mind.

lisyloo

I am therefore confused as to why you feel you have a right to a voucher/refund for your change of mind.

If someone had sent me an email saying I was allowed to rebook and I had that in writing then I'd expect the company to honour that offer even if it a goodwill gesture and not an obligation. Would you not?

eskbanker

graemeboro said:

I would welcome any thoughts on who I should complain too as hotels.com and Expedia are simply not listening.

Not sure why you'd be dealing with two separate intermediaries here, but is it possible that one may be willing to rebook but the other isn't?

bagand96

eskbanker said:

graemeboro said:

I would welcome any thoughts on who I should complain too as hotels.com and Expedia are simply not listening.

Not sure why you'd be dealing with two separate intermediaries here, but is it possible that one may be willing to rebook but the other isn't?

Hotels.com are part of Expedia Group and share the same offshore contact centres (as do ebookers and others)

CKhalvashi

lisyloo said:

I am therefore confused as to why you feel you have a right to a voucher/refund for your change of mind.

If someone had sent me an email saying I was allowed to rebook and I had that in writing then I'd expect the company to honour that offer even if it a goodwill gesture and not an obligation. Would you not?

But which party to the contract has said this? OP doesn't make this clear.

I don't believe what CSRs tell me unless it's in writing and they are employed by a company that is party to a contract. We don't have information here as to exactly who OP's contract is with, nor do we know who has sent the e-mail (from a company point of view).

The fact that 2 companies may be under the same ultimate ownership doesn't affect the legal situation here, as one company can't make representations for another. I believe that this has been complicated further by the fact that OP is in contact with 2 legally distinct entities.

graemeboro

Hello All,
Sorry for the long delay in replying. It looks like you are right and I have no where to go.  Yes lesson learned I booked on a non-refundable rate and will never make that mistake again. I don't know if the hotel was open at the time "the obviously it had to be cancelled" point was about the fact that the government made it illegal to travel so yes I chose to obey the law of land !  So as I now understand the law according to the feedback on this forum the fact that our government tell us not to travel (and doing so would break the law) means nothing as long as the hotel was open and willing to accept us.   Anyway on the other points that were made an "offer of goodwill" was made in writing by a hotels.com representative stating how they they understood my situation were sympathetic so would allow me to rebook for later this year. Then a week later a separate email came from Expedia (for clarity I am dealing with Hotels.com not Expedia (I have never been in touch directly with Expedia but I know Expedia own hotels.com) saying I am not entitled to anything.  Since then I cannot get through to Hotels.com on the phone and my letters and emails are being ignored.
So key lessons learned here, only book hotels with cancellable rates and never believe a word from customer service people (even when its in writing).  I have been a loyal customer of hotels.com for many years but this is the end of that for sure.