So….. I had reserved a room this past Saturday and very soon afterwards, I ended up finding somewhere else to stay for the night for free. I decided to cancel the reservation about 30 minutes later, which was very well within the cancellation period. When I went to the app to cancel, the selection bar was grayed out and there was no way to physically select the cancel booking option. I remember I selected the “pay at property” option as well. So, I figured I wouldn’t get charged for it since I’ve done it in the past with no issues. Well, the hotel charged me for the room anyway even though I didn’t check in. I spoke to a “virtual agent” who assured me it was a technical error on their part and I have a valid claim to get a refund since I was charged without checking in, even though I was under the pay at property option. He then called the hotel and claims the manager was not on duty at the time so there was nothing that could be done until the next business day. I even called the hotel and attempted to speak to them myself and the person who answered the front desk didn’t speak English well. He said I need to take it up with the third party website, basically giving me the run around. So, I then called my bank immediately, and they told me that I would have to wait until the transaction was no longer in pending status. Once it posts, then I can dispute the charges. On Sunday I received and email from hotels.com stating that they cannot issue me a refund because it was “within the penalty period,” even though the customer service agent assured me I have a valid claim. I’m not even sure what within the “penalty period” means anyway. So, on Tuesday (yesterday) the charge finally posted and I called my bank and filed an unauthorized transaction. They refunded me my money. I will never use hotels.com ever again. I was a loyal customer for years. Plus their rewards program is a complete joke. We used to get a free room after the 10th room we book. Now we get like $2 in rewards for each stay. It made me laugh.
