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
