Just recently booked holiday accom on various Internet booking sites, with trepidation handing over the credit card details on making the booking.
All is good getting confirmation emails of the bookings made, but tried to do the same on one site and never received a confirmation email so I assumed that the transaction had not gone through, so tried another site where I had success previously and rebooked another hotel for those dates.
I received an email from the hotel via Booking.com a couple of days after the holiday suggesting that because of the "no show" I would be charged for the nights that were booked. mmmm
Well as it happened I wrote emails to both Booking.com and the Hotel in Bali and the response from the Hotel was " sorry sir blah, blah blah.... The response from Booking.com was along the similiar automated response by some fictitious named person in "customer service?" suggesting that I should have rung the internet site to confirm the booking, despite in the terms and conditions that a confirmation email is to be sent.
The crux of the dispute was that we received no confirmation email whatsoever, so they contravened their own terms and conditions, through procedural breakdown or technical problems...
Anyway the emails continued by me and the emails kept coming back from the Hotel and the booking site...sorry its your problem.
Well, in my last email I wrote along the lines of.... I suggested illegal activity had occurred, fraud and misuse of credit card, Federal Police, Consumer affairs and a popular programme that is currently on Australian TV, "things that Happen in Bali" might all be interested in this story... not to mention on travel blog sites this has been a problem that many people have experienced.
Gee only a couple of days after this, I have just got home today to an email from the Hotel suggesting a full refund has taken place and the receipts of the transaction were attached to that email.
It pays to be persistent, to use whatever means (legal that is) and stand up in the face of adversity and the facelessness of the internet.
Not sure what communication has happened between the booking site and the hotel, if any, but Im glad I didn't have to carry through with my "advice" about the levels to which I would go to ensure reimbursement of the money owed or indeed gain satisfaction.
Just be wary..Ok 
I had fun with Booking.com where I missed the flight to Panama by 2 days, so could only stay in the hotel for one of the 3 nights I had booked. Booking.com decided that I would have to pay the cost of the 3 nights, plus whatever the cost was for the 1 night that I would have to now book.
They wouldn't accept that I should at least get the last night included, as it was part of my booking.
Luckily, the people at the hotel, despite not speaking much English, and me not speaking much Spanish, were much more pragmatic about it, and just charged me for the 1 night, and forgot about any charges for the first 2 nights. I liked their help so much I decided to live it up on their food and alcohol for the 1 night I was there. For a really budget hotel, the staff were excellent.
I think booking.com just send emails to the hotels, and at least in this case, they didn't reply to them often as the language barrier can be a problem.
Yeah the big 3rd party sites can be a pain sometimes. They do serve a purpose though.
I usually use them to find hotels in the price range I want then search for the hotel site itself once I find one I like. In most cases the hotel has it's own website with the same rate available - in Asia anyway.
That way you deal directly with the hotel.....much easier to then keep in contact and make changes if needed.
Select to expand quoteParadox said...
Yeah the big 3rd party sites can be a pain sometimes. They do serve a purpose though.
I usually use them to find hotels in the price range I want then search for the hotel site itself once I find one I like. In most cases the hotel has it's own website with the same rate available - in Asia anyway.
That way you deal directly with the hotel.....much easier to then keep in contact and make changes if needed.
Good advice. I do the same with airfares. Webjet once screwed my mate over with luggage. Never again would we use them scumbags.
Select to expand quoteParadox said...
Yeah the big 3rd party sites can be a pain sometimes. They do serve a purpose though.
I usually use them to find hotels in the price range I want then search for the hotel site itself once I find one I like. In most cases the hotel has it's own website with the same rate available - in Asia anyway.
That way you deal directly with the hotel.....much easier to then keep in contact and make changes if needed.
Next time spend a little coin and call the hotel direct and ask for a better rate,I find this works on most occasions.
