Hotels.com - UK Customers Beware

JoBar03

A party of 11 booked 4 rooms in London last July for a 2 night stay this June. We were advised last week that the hotel we had booked couldn’t accommodate us and a more expensive alternative was offered at the original price. Happy days. Their re-allocations department contacted us to make payment over the phone and they would pay the difference to secure the new hotel. That’s when the trouble started. My payment was declined on 3 bank cards. Upon speaking to my bank it transpired that Hotels.com were not following the new legislation when processing a telephone booking, they are wrongly processing as an on-line booking. They should send a text to the payer’s mobile to verify identity but this did not happen therefore payment declined. Hotels.com are based in America, after 15 hours of on-line chats and telephone conversations trying to explain that the problem is at their end it fell on deaf ears. I am left with a cancelled booking and a mobile phone bill of £106. We have to find a new hotel and prices have almost doubled. Fuming and frustrated! UK bookers beware - if they need to re-allocate you and you are asked to make payment over the phone you too will have your reservation cancelled as their systems are not in line with UK legislation!!