Hotels.com
Reviews and Complaints

If you are planning any hotel booking online, do not trust the policy written by this company. Go to another site. I make a booking for a full refundable hotel in Osaka Japan and my credit card was charged immediately for the total amount. The policy clearly stated that my credit card information will only be used for booking confirmation and will only be charged only the day before my arrival.
I wrote an email requesting for refund and it went into a black hole. Luckily the amount was refunded a couple of days later. What get me angry was the refund was not in full. Almost USD30 was missing from my refund. I wrote another email to request for a full refund and clear explanation but it went into black hole again. Customer service hotline is totally useless. No one picking up the phone.
My lesson learned from this company, don't trust their policy. If you have a better option, please stay away using hotels.com to plan your trip. I have many transaction with Booking.com and it far better.

We booked a room for two adults and two small kids one of which has asthma the other in a wheel chair for three nights through hotels.com. To start the pictures on line are misleading. The phone had no cord and when i went to get one they tell me the phone wiring is messed up. The ac did not blow anything but black mold. We had dirty towels hidden behind bathroom door, we could not breath in room. We had to leave at midnight to go find another room at another hotel. We find out that this place condemned and was supposed to have been torn down. I can not believe that in our Disney World coupon book that this place is listed as a good place to stay. I will never book through hotels.com again or come back to Florida. To top it off we could't get a refund.

My wife booked our first vacation since 2005. She booked tru hotels.com. We were to stay in the same hotel in the miami area for 7 days. When she booked, she had only 2 requirements: a continental breakfast and onsite laundry. My wife booked for the week. When we checked in, they had no breakfast. They had no onsite laundry. The hotel desk rep stated that there was a laundry just across the street. The laundry that was supposed to be just across the street, was not. It was a block away in an area I would not want to spend much time in. Did I mention it had been closed for a number of week due to renovation? After a number of calls and e-mails, we were offered $100 off our next hotel.com reservation in the next year (With many more restrictiions.) we don't travel. We son't travel in the next year. We explained this to them an this was there final offer. They sold us something we did not receive. There are litterally hundreds of motels we could ahve stayed at in the miami area. Had we known we would not have booked with hotels.com in that hotel.

I had made reservation through Hotels.com for a Holiday Inn in Florida. Trip fell through and 7 days before the arrival date I called the hotel to cancel.I was informed that since the booking was made through Hotels.com I had to cancel through them as well. Agent at Hotels.com immediately told me that the booking was non refundable and claimed that that was Holiday Inn's policy. I explained that I had dealt with Holiday Inn as a customer many time in the past and have had to cancel reservations and have never had any issues. I was told that I would need to call hotel directly which I did. Not surprisingly the hotel manager informed that a cancellation and a refund was not a problem but that I would have to go through Hotels.com.
I called back and explained the situation to another agent. She again told me that this was non refundable and I challenged her to call the hotel directly and her the managers name. the agent came back online and issued the refund.
I explained that 1. The agent at the time of purchase NEVER informed me that the reservations were supposedly nonrefundable 2. I never received a confirmation email 3. I waned to know whose policy it actually was to refuse refunds.
I never received a straight answer. The fact that I had to call the hotel personally and then had the agent cal anyways to verify the veracity of my information was insulting at best. The fact that the company representatives could not or would not answer the policy question was troubling.
I strongly urge you to consider using another booking agent or better yet deal with the hotel directly.
I will never use Hotels.com again and will make sure that others are aware of the disingenuous behavior I encountered.

Delta Airlines and Hotels.com/Expedia.com/Microsoft are refusing to return a prepaid deposit on a hotel reservation which guaranteed "Free cancelation", which is of course fraud. I'm preparing a possible class action law suit against all parties involved and would like anyone with similar complaints against these companies to please email me at [protected]@embarqmail.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

I booked today & noticed the confirmation email did not have the right number of guests. We were only booked for 4 but it should have been 5. I called customer service hoping to correct the mistake and I was told that I could either upgrade to a larger room at TWICE the booked charge or cancel at a rate of $50 fee plus one night's stay. There's where my problem comes in, the confirmation email I received from them clearly states that the cancellation fee is $30 USD. When I told my non english speaking customer service rep this, his response was "prove it". He told me to send a copy of that email to an email address & his "team" would take a look at it and reply accordingly. Just as I figured the email was returned, not a working email...go figure! So looks like I'm going to let my kids call customer service so that one of these scammers can tell them that thanks to venere.com ripping us off 60% of our budget we can no longer afford to re-book! I only wish I had read the scathing consumer affairs reviews before I was taken for a ride by this company...BEWARE

I called Hotels.com because they had contradicting information regarding "Cancellation." On the website, there was a promotional comment right under the price stating "Free Cancellation." However, the details of the hotel's cancellation policy stated a one night cancellation fee (my reservation was for 3 nights). So "to be certain, " of the facts, I called Hotels.com. The agent assured me that the Hotels.com "Free Cancellation" would guarantee no cancellation fee, as long as I cancelled 48 hours before the check-in date. As my plans did change (my team lost - so no need to go watch the Final Four!), I attempted to cancel eight (8)! days before my check-in date. Now I am being charged for one night as a cancellation fee and Hotel.com simply says, "Oops." (And that was in very hard to understand - broken English from their Singapore call center.)

Next time, I will deal directly with the hotel. I can't afford to work through an undependable and unprofessional organization like Hotels.com. I'm concerned what misrepresentation/mistake will be made next time...

I have booked a room through Venere, as I have done many times before, and although the room wasn't advertised as prepaid, Venere charged my credit card. This is a problem as it was a business trip and I could not get the receipt at the hotel, and Venere customer service constantly ignores my e-mails... The receipt is needed as it was a business trip so I need it for accounting purposes.

Does anyone know what can I do if the customer service does not reply to my messages, which higher instance can I turn to in such a case?

Hi,
I had booked a hotel from Hotels.com in the month of Sep 2012. Since they have a price-match guarantee, I wrote to them and called them regarding this matter. They promised me to refund the price match amount in Oct 2012. Since then I have written them several times as well as called them nearly 10-15 times, however they have not refunded my money. Every time I call them the concerned agent puts me on hold for more than 5 minutes and says that he would personally look into this and make sure that the amount will be returned in maximum of 3-7 days. This has not happened in the past 4 months. They also mention that they will call me back in 24 hours and confirm. However till date there have been no return calls and no price-match money coming to my account.
When I email them, I receive a reply that someone will revert in 3 days. Out of 10 emails I have not received a reply for 7 emails. Pathetic service. I stay in Saudi Arabia. Every time I have to call regarding this issue I have to call either India or UK as they do not speak English when you call on Saudi Arabia no. I have wasted more money in calling them as compared with the Price Match Money. I wrote this complain yesterday (17-Jan-2012) and called up on their UK call center no. I had a talk with their rep named Shirley who acted very stern and assured me that she will make sure that my money is refunded by 11 am Jeddah Time Today and also mentioned that she'll drop me an email with her contact details incase this does not happen so that I can directly get in touch with her. Till now (12:58 pm 18-Jan-2012) nothing has happened, neither the mail nor the money. I had informed her that I'm gonna post their review on this and other websites if she/hotels.com fails to resolve my issue. However I guess they don't care. If someone from a consumer forum is reading this then I would seek your help in taking an action against these guys.

My case no is REQ:M-3155962 (Itin: [protected])
My email Id is prashant.[protected]@gmail.com
I can provide all the related documentation available for this complain. Thank you
Prashant

We booked a one night stay in B&B Relais Sul Mare via Venere in Naples in october 2012. Everything was fine until we returned from the trip and I noticed that the B&B had made fraudulent transactions on my credit card (which information I had only insterted to Venere.com) worth 1200€. When trying to solve the mess I also contacted Venere.com and they said it's been a mistake and the B&B will return the money. I never saw the money again and finally the credit card company continued solving the problem. However, Venere is well aware of the frauds the B&B is doing yet they still have this B&B in their listing. I would never use Venere again because you really can't trust the company. They will give away your credit card details and they don't care if the companies they do business with are frauds or not.

I booked a hotel on this site in August, the price was great and I received the confirmation immediately. When I arrived at the SpringHill Suites in October, the hotel found my name in the system and it showed that I paid through Hotelclub.com, but the hotelclub credit card was declined. We spent over an hour on the phone with these people trying to get them to pay for something that I had already paid for 2 months in advance. To add insult to injury, I learned that if I had called the hotel, I could have gotten a better rate. This site is not worth the the few bucks you think you will save. STAY AWAY FROM HOTElCLUB.

Recently my elderly father-in-law who lives in Spain was rushed to hospital. My wife immediately booked a flight out from London to go and see him the next day and she booked a hotel in Torrevieja for 4 nights using Venere.com. They sent an email saying that the reservation was confirmed. After a difficult journey, she arrived at the hotel in the evening only to be told that they had no knowledge of any reservation and that the hotel was completely full!

Fortunately the hotel was very helpful and managed to find another hotel not very far away that did have a room available and after a time the problem was solved (although it did entail a long walk with a suitcase). However it was a very stressful time for my wife.

When I found out what had happened I wrote to Venere for their comments but they ignored my email completely.

My recommendation is that if you want to be sure that there is a room waiting for you when you believe that you have a confirmed booking - do not use Venere as a booking agency.

On August 7th 2012 I booked a room by Venere.com as below:
"Your reservation has been confirmed.

We suggest printing a copy of this email and bringing it with you to the hotel.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Reservation Summary
----------------------------------------------------------------------
NAME: F... de S... T...
EMAIL: [protected]@xxxx

RESERVATION NUMBER: IHR15331185
RESERVATION STATUS: confirmed

CHECK-IN DATE: 15 September 2012
CHECK-OUT DATE: 17 September 2012
NUMBER OF NIGHTS: 2

Inn: Gästehaus Alba
City: Rust

ROOMS BOOKED:
1 Double Room - Free Breakfast Daily total

15/09/2012 80.00 EUR 80.00 EUR
16/09/2012 70.00 EUR 70.00 EUR

Total price : 150.00 EUR
...
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Price, Deposit and Payment
----------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTAL PRICE: 150.00 EUR
...

Your credit card will not be charged by Venere.com.
Payment is to be made directly to the hotel.
If the property requires a deposit or advanced payment, this information will be indicated in the following section.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Cancellation Policy - Penalty
----------------------------------------------------------------------

! You may cancel the reservation without being charged the penalty indicated by the property by:
>>>>>>> WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 15, 2012 at 11:59 pm (GMT +2h)
You cannot cancel your reservation if you selected and booked a room indicated as "PREPAID/NON REFUNDABLE".
Venere.com never charges a penalty for cancellations.
! The Inn Gästehaus Alba has the right to charge a penalty for cancellation requests made after the deadline indicated above and/or if you do not follow the instructions specified in the section "How to Cancel Your Booking".
! Free cancellation can be made up until 30 days before the check-in day.
For cancellations made after this time a cancellation fee of 80% of the entire stay will be charged. All times refer to the local time at the property. For no-show, 90% of the entire stay will be charged.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
How to Cancel Your Booking
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Please access your reservations at the following address:

Insert your registered email address and the password sent to you and follow the cancellation procedure.
Venere.com does not accept cancellation requests sent via email to our Customer Service Department, even if the request is sent before the cancellation policy expires. All cancellations need to be made following the above instructions."

On August 8th I cancelled the reservation as described in the "How to cancel your booking" and Venera.com sent me the following confirmation:

"2012/8/8

this is a copy of the message that has been sent to the property.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hotel Gästehaus Alba (Rust)
Attn: Reservation desk
The IHR reservation number [protected] has been cancelled.
Reservation request code: IHR [protected]
Name: Francinne de Souza Torres
Reservation was made on: Tuesday, 7 August 2012 17:37 (GMT +1h)
Check in: Saturday, 15 September 2012
Check out: Monday, 17 September 2012
Rooms requested:
1 Double Room - Free Breakfast 150.00 EUR
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks and best regards."

And that's my credit card bill:

"Movimentações Internacionais em Dólares (US$)Data Descritivo Crédito Débito
FRANCINNE S TORRES N° 4007 70** **** 4155
08/08 GAESTEHAUS ALBA (93, 02) "

Please note the sentences marked with "!" and ">>>" on the texts above. According to the first email sent by Venera.com, I would be able to cancel my reservation without paying any fee until "WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 15, 2012 at 11:59 pm (GMT +2h)". I cancelled it on August 8th, 7 days before the deadline, and.. surprise! A cancellation fee was charged on my credit card on the same day I did it!

I want my money back! I was foolish by this website and no one answer my emails.

First and last time I used their services, ever!

Refused to honor booking for agreed room. Sent me a confirmation email that stated I would get a room with two king beds and a sleeper sofa. When I arrived with two elderly women and two kids under ten the hotel informed me they didn't have a room that would accommodate us. After I drove 10 hours I had no choice but to pay for extra room. When I called them, in India, they told me to email the complaint dept. the next morning I had to pack up and move all our stuff to another hotel. Without a kitchenette without free wifi without free parking. With two beds and a rollaway. This is unacceptable, it is not what I paid for back in march and I will not stop until I get this resolved to my satisfaction.

I have experience the price guarantee offered by hotels.com. For my feeling, hotels.com just like "cheating" its customers. I deal with them in accordance with the T&C of the price guarantee. But, they say that my booking is non-refundable booking so it is not under the scope of the price guarantee.

However, I have read through the T&C of the price guarantee. There is no wording about "non-refundable" booking. I make a complaint to them and they were not willing to handle and not reply at email promptly ( 30 days no response from them even with repetitive reminder to them). Eventually, I request them to call back me. However, I just received an email telling me that they are not suppose to make outgoing call.!

So, their service is very bad and the guarantee is just like rubbish.

I experienced horrible scam from Hotels.com before, so tried to avoid this place. However, I did not know some other places are also belonging to Hotels.com. Bad experience again, what a waste of my life!

I booked a hotel one month before via another hotel site. Confirmation email came to me from another name's hotel reservation site. It made me uncomfortable. I realized some other places had been keeping my itinerary information.

Upon arrival at the hotel, I was told my reservation was NOT there.
We asked who is in charge of the reservation in the first place, but never were informed details. ( for their security, they said)
Our experience with Hotels.com ( other subsidiaries, too) was always terrible. I learned I should only book any hotel directly from now on for my security.

I would not recommend to use them unless you want to

I had booked reservations throught hotels.com for a three night stay at Regency Inn, Fort Walton Beach, FL, March 15-17, 2012. Generally, I am a frugal traveler and will spend less money on a hotel so that I can use the extra cash on nonessentials. In no way is there a beach nearby like hotels.com summarizes. When I arrived, I called and informed them that they were very misleading and that I was unhappy with the condition of the room. The hotels.com agent I spoke with the evening of the 15th advised me to stay the night and that they would cancel the next two nights. All that was requested of me was to check out on the morning of the 16th before the check-out time and than to call hotels.com. The next morning, I did as instructed-Checked-out before 11am. I than called hotels.com to let them know that I had checked out and had to repeat my reasoning for checking out. The agent was very considerated and advised that my refund would be issued within 3-5 days but after the 5th day if I havent received it to contact my bank because it would be on them to issue the credit. Two months, numerous false promises, and 30+ calls later, no refund. They continue to point the blame on the hotel chain and like I explained to them, that was an issue that management will have to take up with the hotel chain because they acted on my behalf as my agent and I paid hotels.com for the room not Regency Inn.

I am writing to complain about an experience that I had with booking a hotel online with hotels.com.
In September 2011 I tried to book a hotel in Paris. Using hotels.com I got to the final stage of a booking (name, address, email address, credit card numbered entered and check for terms and conditions) but when I clicked confirm nothing happened, my browser just kept waiting for the site to respond (I tested the Internet connection for another site, which was OK). I left my booking waiting for around 15 minutes but nothing happened. I did not receive any confirmation email.
I was concerned about this because I had got to the final stage of the booking and had provided my credit card details. The next day I telephoned hotels.com to find out the status of my booking and I was told by the agent that it had not gone through. She apologised to me and she even persisted to try and find me another hotel, which I declined.
I found and booked directly with another hotel and enjoyed a wonderful autumn weekend in Paris.
At the end of the month I received my credit card bill and noticed that I had been charged by the hotel that I had originally tried to book through hotels.com (not only for one room as I had originally requested but for two rooms!). I contacted the hotel and was told that they had received a booking from venera.com, which I requested a copy of. Sure enough, there were clearly two bookings made for two nights each in my name from venere.com and the hotel had charged me the full price because I did not show up and did not cancel the reservation.
I was a bit confused at first because I had made the booking through hotels.com, but I discovered that venere.com is owned by hotels.com (which in turn is owned by expedia group).
Because I was dealing with one of the biggest online booking sites, I thought that this would not be too difficult to fix, but that has not been the case. First of all they could not find my booking, then the booking mysteriously appeared and they tried to get me to take this up with the hotel (who have not done anything wrong), then they admitted a faulty system and directed me to head office in America (via a fax number) where I have been practically ignored (I did receive one message four weeks ago telling me they were dealing with this and it would be completed in 72 hours – at least this confirmed I had the correct fax number!). Each of these steps involved dozens of phone calls and emails and has taken almost six months with considerable persistence and patience. I continue to email, call and fax but keep going around in circles.
The reason why I am writing to you is to share my story with you and ask if you have any advice for me to get this resolved? Hotels.com have displayed incompetence with their booking system and their customer service. Although this is not a huge amount of money (320 Euros) I am angry at how poor their booking system and customer service is. I feel I should fight this not just for my sake but for other potential victims of their booking system problems.

Reserved room at Golden Nugget (Las Vegas) for two nights through hotels.com on Dec 6, 2011. Found I could not make the trip; called to cancel reservation Dec. 8. Printed form shows reservation canceled that day and promises refund ($199.82) within a maximum of 14 days. Credit card statement shows charge billed by hotels.com Dec. 6. No further activity (no refund). Jan. 19, 2012, I contacted hotels.com to ask about refund. After being placed on "hold" several times (to "check resources" and "call the hotel") the refund was promised to be processed within 72 hours. At one point, the agent asked me the reason I had canceled. I told her that was none of her business and had no bearing on the promised refund. When I asked "why?" the refund was not processed as promised, she continually skirted the question by blaming a "system problem." I would think long and hard about using hotels.com again. First, I do not feel it is appropriate to charge a complete reservation fee to one's credit card immediately (Orbitz does this, as well). If you have made a reservation for a lengthy stay, you may be billed hundreds of dollars far ahead of your visit. Second, it is obvious hotels.com does not follow through on its promises of a refund. While the statement provided states, "All refunds will be made to your credit card within 14 days" that, in this instance, was a lie. The fact I had to spend over a half-hour on the telephone to receive yet another promise of my refund demonstrates that quite well.

Hotels.com does not honor their price match guarantee when a coupon is applied. On Nov 17th, 2011, we booked a hotel in San Antonio for Saturday through Tuesday. The rates were $189.99, $144.99 and $144.99 respectively. We also had a ten percent off coupon that we applied to the total. On Nov. 25th we found the same hotel room for $159.99, $144.99 and $144.99. I called Hotels.com to get the price difference of $30 on the first night. They said because we used a coupon the price match didn’t apply. I asked to speak with a supervisor and he gave me the same excuse. This is just another gimmick they use to avoid paying a price match guarantee. The Saturday night room was $159.99 on both their site and Expedia irrespective of the subsequent 10% discount. Be aware of these tricks. I will never book with hotels.com again!