Hotels.com Refund Nightmare.....

SuperSuze

Hello, I'm having a nightmare experience with Hotels.com and could benefit with some friendly consumer advice. Three days ago, I booked a nice hotel room in London for one night, which was non-refundable. Having booked, I realised that an old debit card was linked to my account and had been used to process the booking.

Stupidly thinking this made the booking void, I cancelled it and rebooked the exact same room for the exact same night with a new bank card. I realised my mistake when both bookings for £145.35 were charged and appeared on my bank statement. I didn't realise that cancelled bank cards could be charged or the booking would be legitimate.

Being a genuine error, I contacted the company and asked if they would kindly refund the first booking. I then entered into a fun game of run-around with their staff, who claimed they first required the hotel's permission to give a refund. They kept pretending they were unable to contact the hotel to obtain this, but I phoned the hotel reception staff within two minutes to query this. The hotel contradicted what Hotel.com staff is still claiming, as it a third-party booking.

After multiple emails, they are refusing to be reasonable. Their "Escalations Manager" was really snide over the phone, which I found very upsetting 😞 and scoffed when I said I was willing to escalate to a Dispute Resolution service.

Also, I had booked a different hotel for my birthday through Hotels.com. Their app said "payment is charged on arrival" and "cancellable until two days before arrival", but they fully charged the entire hotel stay at the time the booking was made. This annoyed me, so I cancelled this booking entirely. Luckily, they have refunded this,  after I challenged them.

Any advice? The £145.35 is quite a large amount of money for me to part with, in addition to paying another £145.35 for the actual room. My hotel stay is next week, so I'm hoping to speak with the management of the hotel for evidence.

Please avoid Hotels.com. They have so many one-star Trustpilot reviews for issues about erroneous charges and refusals to give refunds. I wish I had read them before downloading the app.

user1977

How did you "cancel" the first booking if it was non-refundable?

p00hsticks

user1977 said:

How did you "cancel" the first booking if it was non-refundable?

it's usually perfectly possible to cancel a non-refundable booking, although why anyone would want to do so is unclear given that they'll still be paying for it......

MyRealNameToo

Ultimately its user error and as far as hotels.com may be concerned you booked two rooms because you need two rooms, a friend may have said they'd come with you when you told them you were going. 

The law carves out travel/entertainment to be performed at a specific date/time from the normal cancelation rights so they are fully within their rights to refuse to refund. 

I'd speak to the hotel sooner rather than later, the more notice they have the more chance of reselling the room and so the more likely they will be helpful. Point out that it was you making a mistake rather than trying to blame others. If they agree to refund ask them to drop that in an email or such so you have written evidence. 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Hello OP

Hotels.com appears to be owned by Expedia, try emailing:

travelerresolutions@expediagroup.com 

DeathByFluffy

You've booked two non-refundable rooms - unfortunately you're at the mercy of their terms as you could have booked the other room for a friend or family member. 
All you can do is appeal to their better nature, but if the hotel refuse to refund Hotels.com then there's not a lot more to be done really. 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

DeathByFluffy said:

You've booked two non-refundable rooms - unfortunately you're at the mercy of their terms... if the hotel refuse to refund Hotels.com then there's not a lot more to be done really. 

Well accept for arguing 4 and 5 of the CRA Grey List.

However I expect OP will get a resolve from the higher level of customer service contact above.