Contacted by hotel directly - when booked through booking.com

NoodleDoodleMan

I'm Lovin' It

Exodi

D_W123 said:

Hi
i had a message on my booking.com hotel reservation on Tuesday, asking for my email.  I replied on booking.com with this.  The next morning, I had an email offering me to cancel on booking.com without charges.  Then to re-book with them directly and to receive a voucher for €350 for use in their bar/restaurant.  Has anyone else had experience of this and is it a legitimate offer?

Oh wow I watched a recent documentary about scams that sounded a lot like this about a fortnight ago.

It worked whereby scammers would take pictures of a property they don't own/have a relationship with and list it on various booking sites. They would then contact people who make bookings, inventing reasons to cancel the booking and make it off-platform, giving them extremely good incentives to do so (discounts on the price, or perhaps a €350 restaurant voucher...). They would then request payment off platform via bank transfer.

Fast forward to the day, the victim arrives at the venue and (un-)surprisingly the venue has no records of the booking. It dawns on them that they've been scammed. Obviously booking.com will not help you because the booking was made off-platform (I think they even have specific warnings about this).

Not that I'm necessarily saying that's the case here, but something to keep in mind.

The most likely case is the hotelier is looking at ways to avoid paying commission to booking.com, which as others have said breaches their partner agreement.

In either case, I wouldn't risk it.

eDicky

NoodleDoodleMan said:

I'm Lovin' It

Me too, now I don't feel so bad about the price of a perfect espresso in Tuscan bars having finally risen from 1€ to 1.10€..!

NoodleDoodleMan

Although I expect the OP is reluctant to name the hotel in question for obvious reasons - he might come back here and bring closure once the holiday is completed.

It would be interesting to checkout their menu and bar prices.

saajan_12

Few comments.. 
1. Does the original booking.com terms allow free cancellation? If not, and the hotel are offering that subsequently, you may have a fight on your hands to get the first payment back. The last thing you want is to end up paying twice and S75 not returning either

2. How does €350 compare as a % of the total cost of the stay? It only really makes sense if the commission that they save is worth more than the cost of honouring the voucher. If its close then still little point. The cost of honouring the voucher won't be €350 though, as you might not eat / drink enough to use it all and they are pushing you to go to their restaurant rather than elsewhere. 

3. How legit is the hotel - can you navigate to its website on a separate link not obtained through the email, and book there? Agree via email that they'll honour the voucher once you do book. 

4. Would you be looking to eat / drink at the hotel anyway, or would the voucher be valid for other hotel costs (eg parking, laundry, spa facilities etc) that you would incur anyway? Personally I prefer to explore different places to eat, so to make use of the voucher would alter my plans a fair bit. 

snowbird20

it sounds very scammy to me.  I don't book thru 3rd party sites anymore.  You can't cancel and you can't get refunds.
I go thru the hotel's own site.  

NoodleDoodleMan

Through - unless you are American