Shady hotel booking site has me boxed in
May 27, 2024 2:39 PM Subscribe
How do I change or cancel a hotel reservation in Canada that I mistakenly booked through a lookalike booking site?
Thinking I was reserving a room directly with a Canadian hotel, I accidentally booked it via a scammy lookalike booking site. (I’m in the US.) The scammy website promised no-penalty cancellation up to three days ahead of arrival. I do indeed have a reservation at that hotel in three weeks. I checked directly with the hotel. What I don’t have, and wasn’t given by the scammy website, is an itinerary number, which is the only way to get into the site’s “My Booking” online or by phone. Without the itinerary number, I keep getting a runaround. I can’t go in to change or cancel the reservation, which I need to do. The hotel won't get involved. I called my credit card company, which has a hold on the $1000, but I can’t dispute it ahead of the charge going through. That would happen when we go to the hotel. But we cannot go to the hotel on those dates I picked three weeks from now. I can’t seem to change the reservation in any way.
There are dozens and dozens of complaints about this scammy booking website but no suggestions about how to cancel, change, or alter the reservation.
Any suggestions on how to get out of this loop?
Thinking I was reserving a room directly with a Canadian hotel, I accidentally booked it via a scammy lookalike booking site. (I’m in the US.) The scammy website promised no-penalty cancellation up to three days ahead of arrival. I do indeed have a reservation at that hotel in three weeks. I checked directly with the hotel. What I don’t have, and wasn’t given by the scammy website, is an itinerary number, which is the only way to get into the site’s “My Booking” online or by phone. Without the itinerary number, I keep getting a runaround. I can’t go in to change or cancel the reservation, which I need to do. The hotel won't get involved. I called my credit card company, which has a hold on the $1000, but I can’t dispute it ahead of the charge going through. That would happen when we go to the hotel. But we cannot go to the hotel on those dates I picked three weeks from now. I can’t seem to change the reservation in any way.
There are dozens and dozens of complaints about this scammy booking website but no suggestions about how to cancel, change, or alter the reservation.
Any suggestions on how to get out of this loop?
If it were me I would continue on with making my own alternative plans that didn't include that hotel booking and then dispute the charge when it did finally hit my credit card. I have reasons for using credit cards, and a big one is definitely so I don't have to be held hostage by scams and fraud.
posted by phunniemee at 2:47 PM on May 27 [8 favorites]
posted by phunniemee at 2:47 PM on May 27 [8 favorites]
Oh but before moving it down the line to a future annoyance, I'd send the booking company an email stating my intent to cancel/inability to cancel online and take screenshots of everything stating the cancellation policy so I could send them to my credit card company in a few weeks as documentation.
posted by phunniemee at 2:49 PM on May 27 [8 favorites]
posted by phunniemee at 2:49 PM on May 27 [8 favorites]
Do you need access to the funds being temporarily held on your credit card? If not, I would try to find a way to email the scammy site (or online chat and screen shot it) to let them know that you need to cancel your reservation, but need their help locating the itinerary number since you didn't receive one.
Explicitly refer to their refund policy if you get any pushback and also let them know that you are trying to work with them directly rather than filing a credit card dispute after the fact.
If they continue to not help, file the dispute once the charge posts and your credit card company should be able to get it resolved. They likely won't ask for proof that you contacted the company, but I always like to have it since they do tend to ask specific questions about dates.
posted by Eyelash at 2:55 PM on May 27 [4 favorites]
Explicitly refer to their refund policy if you get any pushback and also let them know that you are trying to work with them directly rather than filing a credit card dispute after the fact.
If they continue to not help, file the dispute once the charge posts and your credit card company should be able to get it resolved. They likely won't ask for proof that you contacted the company, but I always like to have it since they do tend to ask specific questions about dates.
posted by Eyelash at 2:55 PM on May 27 [4 favorites]
Yep, agreed, and then document/screenshot your multiple communication attempts with the booking company for further details for the credit card dispute.
posted by RoadScholar at 3:19 PM on May 27 [1 favorite]
posted by RoadScholar at 3:19 PM on May 27 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I'm not sure if this would help or not, but when I ended up using a scam website to get a theater ticket, I sent the evidence of my booking and then a comparison of the actual website I should have used, and the differing prices, and my bank let me keep my $95. Like others said, you may not be able to prevent the payment going through originally at this point, but hopefully maybe you can get refunded.
posted by jenfullmoon at 3:22 PM on May 27
posted by jenfullmoon at 3:22 PM on May 27
Try as hard as possible to contact the booking company through all of the contact channels they provide.
Either they will be able to help you and cancel your booking; or you will have solid evidence that you tried in good faith to contact them before resorting to a chargeback.
posted by mekily at 3:37 PM on May 27 [1 favorite]
Either they will be able to help you and cancel your booking; or you will have solid evidence that you tried in good faith to contact them before resorting to a chargeback.
posted by mekily at 3:37 PM on May 27 [1 favorite]
I'm confused on a point. The charge won't go through until you actually go to the hotel...even if you go on a day different from the reservation?
posted by Stuka at 5:34 PM on May 27
posted by Stuka at 5:34 PM on May 27
Response by poster: Thanks for everyone's advice. I needed all of it. I believe I'm on my way to a refund from hotelsone.com, the booking site I mistakenly thought was the hotel itself. Here's what I did and what the outcome is so far:
1. Over the last two days, I made a total of six phone calls, four of which were "dropped" including one of two calls today. I told the Agent #1 today that I was recording the call, which made her nervous. I told her I had full screen shots of their misleading "My Booking" page, which made it impossible to use. That's when the Agent #1 call got dropped.
2. Went through the rigamarole again with Agent #2. I said the "Manage My Booking" page did not work since I received no confirmation email from them nor the required itinerary number needed to manage my booking. I informed her my full screen shot showed no "I am not a robot" box required to get into "My Booking." I told them they were being recorded for my credit card company. I demanded an immediate email cancelling my booking and authorizing a refund while we were on the phone. Huge runaround about that. Agent #2 said she couldn't do it, that there was a third party agency that had to send the email. I stood my ground and repeatedly insisted that she immediately send me an email cancelling my booking and refunding my money. Thoughout, I kept asking not to be dropped and was she still on the line. She was damned rattled at this point, and I wasn't the coolest cucumber either. But I kept at it.
3. Finally, after a good 15 minutes of this nonsense, I received an email saying they were cancelling my booking and would refund the money.
So I have documentation if I need it for my credit card company and fingers crossed that I will get my money. Thank you for the roadmap. Now I need to rebook because I have no hotel room in two weeks!
posted by Elsie at 6:53 PM on May 30 [1 favorite]
1. Over the last two days, I made a total of six phone calls, four of which were "dropped" including one of two calls today. I told the Agent #1 today that I was recording the call, which made her nervous. I told her I had full screen shots of their misleading "My Booking" page, which made it impossible to use. That's when the Agent #1 call got dropped.
2. Went through the rigamarole again with Agent #2. I said the "Manage My Booking" page did not work since I received no confirmation email from them nor the required itinerary number needed to manage my booking. I informed her my full screen shot showed no "I am not a robot" box required to get into "My Booking." I told them they were being recorded for my credit card company. I demanded an immediate email cancelling my booking and authorizing a refund while we were on the phone. Huge runaround about that. Agent #2 said she couldn't do it, that there was a third party agency that had to send the email. I stood my ground and repeatedly insisted that she immediately send me an email cancelling my booking and refunding my money. Thoughout, I kept asking not to be dropped and was she still on the line. She was damned rattled at this point, and I wasn't the coolest cucumber either. But I kept at it.
3. Finally, after a good 15 minutes of this nonsense, I received an email saying they were cancelling my booking and would refund the money.
So I have documentation if I need it for my credit card company and fingers crossed that I will get my money. Thank you for the roadmap. Now I need to rebook because I have no hotel room in two weeks!
posted by Elsie at 6:53 PM on May 30 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: And, by the way, the third party email I received via hotelsone.com came via Expedia Partner Solutions! So no more Expedia for me.
posted by Elsie at 8:37 AM on May 31
posted by Elsie at 8:37 AM on May 31
Response by poster: Final thanks to everyone. After all the back and forth, I got the credit from hotelsone.com. today. And I called the hotel to claim the same room and paid them directly, my original intent. They thought the booking was through the main Expedia site. However, hotelones.com just uses Expedia Partners to carry on their booking shenanigans. Lesson learned.
posted by Elsie at 1:17 PM on June 3
posted by Elsie at 1:17 PM on June 3
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posted by bowbeacon at 2:45 PM on May 27 [1 favorite]