travelingmom72

I contacted them a few days ago, they are reviewing if they will take it on, they (meaning his team) were quite helpful but not hopeful with this situation.

balthy

There isn’t anyone who doesn’t have sympathy or feel the pain of such a problem. But it doesn’t change the fact that neither BDC or the hotel are at fault. But you are putting the blame on them when it isn’t their fault. If you tell them you think it’s their fault, it will not help you.

Chris Elliott will be a waste of time.

You stored your credit card in a profile on a booking site which was to be used for future bookings and then purchased a non refundable rate then immediately cancelled it. What is he going to do?

Booking direct would not have helped, non ref rates are also bookable direct.

What might have helped is instead of immediately cancelling, would have been to contact the hotel right there & then and explain you made an error, can they help you?

Can they on this occasion refund you or at least part of it because you made a genuine error. Errors happen & hotels can make goodwill gestures, depending how you play it.

I’ve forgotten to cancel my own hotel bookings & been penalised with no show fees. I’ve pleaded and been honest & sometimes they waived it and other times not.

I still think you can - it’s not up to BDC or the hotel to find a solution, it’s up to you to ask for one & negotiate it if you can.

There isn’t a get out clause anywhere, it’s down to pleading with the hotel, but maybe not after you’ve cancelled on them. I think that made it worse as there was no chance of a human looking at the situation and no possibility of them manipulating the reservation & possibly overriding the non refundable rule or whatever.

And hotels don’t follow same booking path as air, 24hr cooling period can’t apply to hotels.

And there’s no such thing as changing a hotel booking. It’s always a cancel and a new booking, modification doesn’t exist. You will see that if you ever cancel & rebook, you always get a new hotel confirmation number with any “change”. Because it’s a new booking & a cancellation of the original.

AJPeabody

I follow Elliott. There are times when all they can do is plead for a goodwill mercy settlement. That often works if there is no animosity in the error-prone traveler's previous contacts. You have nothing to lose in the attempt.

janisj

I said I wouldn't post again (you think I work for Booking which is absolutely ludicrous). But a helpful suggestion -- your issue is with a LONDON based hotel. Concentrating on remedies based in the States isn't likely to bear fruit.

All the major UK newspapers (Times of London, the Telegraph, etc.) have columnists for consumer complaints and specifically travel disputes. IMO you'd have a LOT more success contacting one of them.

tom_mn

I tried using the booking.com app to reserve a stay at TiTiwangsa (a Malaysian name) One and at least today there is no way to prepay a stay, it's fully cancelable stays offered only. I guess that's kudos for booking.com to realizing that there is a problem with this property and no longer allowing prepayment through their site.

jacketwatch

Very good info. Thank you.

tom_mn

It's not a mess, it's really a straightforward small claims court issue (or whatever your state calls it).

Go after the bank (defendant) since they are the ones who are taking your money. File a small claims filing yourself, don't be tempted to hire a lawyer, it's not worth the money for this and they won't be allowed to present in small claims anyway.

Just prepare a 45 second spiel for the judge/justice of the peace/whoever is assigned, and say:

1. The contract is not valid because you had no intent to enter into a contract.
2. You received no benefit or services from the action.
3. The Hotel suffered no loss.

And you will get your money back.

AJPeabody

But small claims courts are limited to much smaller amounts, in general.

tom_mn

Where I live there's a $15,000 cap. Limits vary from $2500 to $25,000. $10,000 is average.

mlgb

I believe California is $10,000. We don't know where the OP lives though. Hopefully not Kentucky.


https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclope...uch-30031.html

travelingmom72

I noticed that too,

tom_mn

Even if it’s over the cap for your state the receipt is for 70 items, so put as many nights in there w/tax and say in your narrative that you are suing for losses from July 1 to July 25, and say that losses for July 26 to September 5 are not included. That alerts the bank legal team that your intention is to split the total cost into rolling suits. Even if that’s not allowed by law they will have to send a lawyer to your county courthouse to fight any additional suits.

The most important thing is to not burn out and lose interest because of emotion wasted on fruitless efforts. Speaking from experience, the legal approach works.

Sassafrass

https://legamart.com/articles/sue-so...egal-disputes/

I am no lawyer but it does not look as if you can sue someone in small claims court who does not have assets in the U.S. Advice in one article says to carefully discover and follow all steps for suing in another country, by first first contacting the U.S. embassy in the country where the wrong took place, and asking the procedure (including specific steps required and how to accomplish them), applicable laws and how to go about filing a lawsuit against the hotel. There are causes for suits of people in different countries, but from the very little I read, you might have to do it in the country where the event took place.

tom_mn

Booking.com and the bank are both an integral part of this debacle and legally exposed.

travelingmom72

great article, thank you!

travelingmom72

I agree, the simple 2 click booking on Booking.com is a liability for them. I have an account and knows where I live and what currency I use for transactions. They generally always show the currency exchange when I am booking overseas, in this instance they did not, hence why I went through a couple more screens hoping it did not conversion later, When I did not get this in the final screen I went to exit and I had double clicked the previous screen and it booked it quickly. This is irritating. I think for Non refundable bookings they should have an extra step or ask for the CVC number as a stop gap.

tom_mn

Also, in addition to having to be intentional a contract has to have a reasonable outcome. Add to above:

4. The outcome is unreasonable.

Keep your argument to 60 seconds. The defendant has to then justify taking your money. Make them get into the weeds, then respond with details later.

mrwunrfl

You go to court and get a judgement in your favor

how are you going to collect?

cafegoddess

Just like sassafras I don’t have any help to offer. I feel so bad for you. I hope you get at least some of your money back. That hotel sounds awful!.
I am notorious for leaving my cc number on places I shop online, not anymore

balthy

A) it is nothing to do with booking.com, the hotel decides on the rates and rate conditions
B) the dates I am looking at do have non refundable rates which have to be paid for in advance. Rates and their conditions vary by dates.Because you don't see it for your sample dates does not mean they don't exist for other dates
C) the non refundable prepaid rate has this info:

<<Cancellation
If you cancel, modify the booking, or don't show up, the fee will be the total price of the reservation.However, you can reschedule your stay once until xxxxxxxxx for the same or higher price. You’ll only be charged if there’s a price difference between your new and old dates.

Prepayment
The total price of the reservation is charged at the time of booking.>>

And that was one of the problems with the OP, they booked, realised a mistake had happened and immediately cancelled but it would have been better to call the hotel and explain what happened and hope they would get let off what happened and get a refund. But cancelling it made it worse. The hotel also offers the option to reschedule the non ref prepaid rates, which may not have been any good any way.

And it seems pretty shocking that a transaction of this amount can go through without the credit card/bank asking for a CVC or any other online payment security process. I cannot pay anything online over a certain amount without receiving a text message to confirm the transaction.