Hotels.com not showing true price

linzi299 · 19 September 2018 at 2:16PM

Hi I made a booking with Hotels.com in June for a November this year stay in Bristol, I was using the clubcard route as I was going to use £30 of my clubcard vouchers to pay for a trip for my family. Hotels.com dont know how much in vouchers I have until I enter the voucher code from email into the vouchers section. I searched for hotel and it came up with £160 for 2 nights same as Booking.com no mention of added taxes and fees at the hotel or at checkout, I clicked on and booked entered my details card number etc this was a pre pay as its the only option with clubcard, entered voucher code and then blank. It brought me back to the details page with error, this voucher cannot be used again. After checking my credit card bill noticed that I paid £160.00 which was the price before my £30 vouchers. I need the hotel anyway so left it and thought ill use the voucher on my next booking as there must be an error. Ive contacted tesco about this and Hotels.com who have replied as said the voucher for £30 was used in the June booking and taken off. Yet I have paid the price it was on any other site without using them. I have now had this:

Thank you for contacting Hotels.com Customer Support regarding your itinerary number xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

We truly understand the importance of being able to make use of your Tesco Clubcard Voucher. We're really glad to see you keeping an eye out for ways to save up on your expenses. To resolve this for you, we went ahead and thoroughly reviewed your upcoming reservation with the Holiday Inn Bristol-Filton, and we can see that your Tesco voucher was indeed successfully applied. You may refer to the breakdown of your charges below.

23 NOV 2018 82.02 GBP
24 NOV 2018 82.02 GBP
AFTES30:UG3A -30.00 GBP
Taxes and fees 25.96 GBP

Room Total 160.00 GBP

We're glad to have clarified this information for you. We appreciate the time and effort that you have put into bringing this to our attention. Should you need further assistance, please do not hesitate to let us know, we'll be more than happy to help.

Thanks for choosing us, and have a great day.

Jamie P.
Customer Support Specialist
Hotels.com

The extra taxes and fees were hidden from the initial price and then added which came to conveniently most of my clubcard vouchers. I have paid what I would of paid without using them. Not only that there seems to be an extra £2.02 added to the £80 per night which was certainly not on the final page, showing was £160 before I even put in the clubcard vouchers. Can anyone help on this, Ive wasted my £30 with them basically and could of used them elsewhere.

jpsartre · 19 September 2018 at 2:41PM

If you look up your booking on Hotels.com there's an option to print a receipt which will tell you what you've paid.

If you're willing to use Hotels.com again, the simplest way forward may be to claim on their price match policy as the currect price listed is £160 for a non-refundable booking so you should be due a £30 voucher for the difference if what they're telling you is correct.

steve1500 · 19 September 2018 at 2:56PM

Have to say I've used Hotels.com via CC always been the same price - just need to be aware that Taxes aren't icluded

michele-p · 19 September 2018 at 3:01PM

Just a thought, do you use a VPN (virtual private network) at all? I booked some hotels yesterday and had the VPN switched on, the hotel I booked was showing as cheaper than it had the night before on a different computer, so I booked it as non refundable, then spotted the taxes being added at the property when we check in. The difference was the £29 cheaper I thought I was getting it for! Looks like UK IP addresses add in taxes on most, but other counties (asia in my case) add the taxes on afterwards.

It might be something similar for you?

jpsartre · 19 September 2018 at 3:02PM

steve1500 wrote: »

Have to say I've used Hotels.com via CC always been the same price - just need to be aware that Taxes aren't icluded

Taxes *are* included, at least on the UK site.

steve1500 · 20 September 2018 at 8:06AM

jpsartre wrote: »

Taxes *are* included, at least on the UK site.

Should have said you have to pay the taxes yourself, you can't use CC vouchers

linzi299 · 20 September 2018 at 3:43PM

I've recently had another reply from Hotels.com confirming that taxes and fees are added after the booking confirmation once the vouchers have been taken off, however the taxes and fees should be included in the search price as it was the same direct with hotel and on other other sites all priced at £80 pn using the vouchers was unnecessary i've just wasted them really. The price should have been £95pn on the comparison but then I would not have booked it because I could get the same room elsewhere or direct cheaper. Here's the reply:

Thank you for your response,

We understand that you want to verify the fees and taxed that occur when you made your booking at Holiday Inn Bristol-Filton. Kindly note that taxes will not shown when your reservation on our website is not yet completed. It will automatically appear when you finished your reservation online.

For further assistance you can call us at 800-246-8357, if calling outside US 001-417-521-0845 for real time assistance.

Leonhel M.
Customer Support Specialist
Hotels.com

sheramber · 20 September 2018 at 7:23PM

If it is tourist tax then it is charged by the hotel and nothing to do with the booking site.

The other sites or booking direct with the hotel may have had the same charge added on when paying.

You could ask the hotel about the charge.

Ian011 · 21 September 2018 at 10:26PM

All charges must be shown before payment is taken, otherwise they are in breach of the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013. See: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/3134/contents/made

jpsartre · 22 September 2018 at 2:06PM

linzi299 wrote: »

We understand that you want to verify the fees and taxed that occur when you made your booking at Holiday Inn Bristol-Filton. Kindly note that taxes will not shown when your reservation on our website is not yet completed. It will automatically appear when you finished your reservation online.

Simply not true as a quick dummy booking of any hotel will show. Did you check your receipt as I suggested earlier? What price/tax does it show?

shaun_from_Africa · 22 September 2018 at 3:02PM

linzi299 wrote: »

We understand that you want to verify the fees and taxed that occur when you made your booking at Holiday Inn Bristol-Filton. Kindly note that taxes will not shown when your reservation on our website is not yet completed. It will automatically appear when you finished your reservation online.

For further assistance you can call us at 800-246-8357, if calling outside US 001-417-521-0845 for real time assistance.

jpsartre wrote: »

Simply not true as a quick dummy booking of any hotel will show. Did you check your receipt as I suggested earlier? What price/tax does it show?

I think that the Hotels.com reply above is assuming that linzi299 is in the USA and not in the UK (which is why their contact number is the US one).
If this is the case then their reply is correct as when making bookings from the US, the prices are shown as tax exclusive and are added on when you get to the booking process.

Hotels.com not showing true price

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