ComplaintsforHotels-Rates.com

• Initial Complaint

  12/26/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  1. When I called the number on the website I found in ****** for a hotel in ******* ** to make a booking, the representative on the phone misrepresented himself as the hotel booking rep while he was only a Hotel-rates employee from a call center.2. The person on the phone assured me that my booking had been confirmed and everything was ok but when I went to the hotel, the receptionist told me that that they never confirmed the booking because they were fully booked for days 3. When I called the company to ask for a full refund that said they would investigate with the hotel and get back to me but never did.There is no evidence of me checking in to the hotel since I was turned away immediately, therefore, I believe I have to be refunded immediately and not waste time in useless attempts to keep my money for a service that was never provided.

  Business response

  01/02/2023

  Greetings,

  Please find the response below received from the department handling the guest booking. 

   

  Department Response:

  Dear Partner,
  
  With reference to your booking ID ********* as detailed below:
  
  Customer First Name: ******
  Customer Last Name: said
  Arrival: December 23, 2022
  Departure: December 24, 2022
  Hotel: ************************************************************
  City/Country or Region: ******* (**)/*************
  
  
  We hope this email finds you well.
  
  We have received confirmation from the property that they were not able to accommodate the guest for this booking, hence, the booking has been canceled free of charge.
  
  Please note that we have initiated a refund back to the original payment method. All refunds made to the original payment method *** take anywhere between 14 - 30 business days or until your next bill cycle depending on your bank's processing time.
  
  Please be advised that the mentioned timeframe *** vary as well according to your bank's policy and the timeframe advised does not include weekends and any general public holiday that *** be observed by your bank.
  
  We sincerely apologize for this inconvenience.
  
  Regards,
  *************************

   

  Regards,

  Hotel-Rates

  Customer response

  01/04/2023

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  Savvas Said

• Initial Complaint

  11/13/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  On 11/13/22 I booked a motel room using this site and had over $51 dollars added to my room rate of $109. A small portion of that was tax and the rest just plain old ripoff. You can’t cancel the reservation and can’t speak to anyone.

  Business response

  03/24/2023

  Greetings,

  Thank you for contacting us in regards to our mutual guest inquiry. Attached you will find the mutual guest reservation and below you will find further information in regards to the charge allocated for taxes that our mutual guest is inquiring upon. 

  ((The following policy was agreed to at 2:34PM CST on 13-Nov-2022 at the time of booking, from IP address ****************************************))

  TAX RECOVERY CHARGE
  The tax charge on Pay Now hotel transactions is a recovery of all applicable transaction taxes (e.g. sales and use, occupancy, room tax, excise tax, value added tax, etc.) that we collect from customers and pay our vendors (such as hotels, etc.) in connection with our customers' purchasers. We are not the vendor collecting and remitting such tax to the applicable tax authorities. The vendors bill us for applicable taxes and we remit such amounts directly to our vendors. We are not a co-vendor associated with the vendor with whom we book or reserve our customers' travel arrangements. Taxability and the appropriate tax rate vary greatly by location. The actual amount paid to a vendor may vary from the tax recovery charge, depending upon the rates, taxability or other factors in effect at the time of the actual use of a given travel service by our customers. We do not incur the cost of sales tax from vendors located in Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon, as these states do not impose a sales tax. Also, certain jurisdictions impose a hotel occupancy tax or other type of transaction tax upon the renting of a hotel room, an automobile, etc. The type of tax collected by a vendor will vary by service and location. We use third party distribution channels for individual reservations.

  Please let us know if you have any further questions.

  Regards,

  Hotel-Rates

• Initial Complaint

  07/05/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE ON PLANET EARTH!!!! DO NOT USE THIS BUSINESS. BOOK ON HOTELS-RATES.COM AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!! On June 30th, I made a reservation for a hotel in Niagara Falls for September 4-September 11 2022 through hotels-rates.com. I noticed that the reservation was non refundable so I purchased insurance as well in the event I was sick and could not attend my vacation. Less than 1 hour later, I made the realization that I accidentally chose the wrong hotel! I called them back in a panic and they assured me they had contacted the hotel and the hotel would allow the cancellation without a penalty. However they still refused to refund my money! I have called many times since then and they will not refund my money no matter what. They are telling me I need to go through my insurance, however this is not covered by the insurance. It was simply a mistake made during booking, and I called them IMMEDIATELY to fix the problem and they will not refund my money. They are stealing over $1200 from me.

  Business response

  08/12/2022

  Greetings,

  Thank you for contacting us. On the guest behalf the department contacted the hotel who provided a one time exception for the cancellation of the guest booking and as such the guest booking has been cancelled and refund will be processed back to their account. 

  Please note that refunds normally take between 7 to 14 business days to be allocated back to the mutual guest account. 

  The guest was sent a copy of the reservation showing that it is cancelled in our system.

  Regards,

  Hotel Rates

• Initial Complaint

  05/11/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  We had a guest arrive tonight with an email from hotel-rates.com verifying a reservation with our hotel, **************************************************************************. We do not have a reservation for this guest, we do not do business with hotel-rates.com and per the email they sent him they have already charged him. He needs to be refunded for those charges. We believe this is a scam company and it needs to be stopped. I have emailed them and asked them to remove our property from their website immediately. I've never even heard of them before and now in doing some research I see that they have tons of scam complaints against them. I do not want the ************** to be on their website, I do not want our business associated with them in any way.

  Business response

  05/17/2022

  Greetings,

  The guest has been issued a refund in full for their booking and they can expect the funds to be allocated back to their account in the next 7 to 10 business days. 

  Refunded($145.76)

  Regards,

  HotelRates 

  Customer response

  05/18/2022

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me however, they need to stop taking reservations for our hotel.  There is no mechanism in place for those reservations to integrate in to our system and therefore we are having guests show up thinking they have a reservation and they don't.  
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ***************************

• Initial Complaint

  04/05/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  We booked thinking we were directly calling ********. Upon arrival to hotel they told us two separate rooms had been reserved/charged for and that this a site notorious for mimicking hotel sites and taking your money. My credit was billed for $377 twice!! Hotels.rates.com won’t answer multiple phone numbers to address their booking error, which they likely made on purpose to get more money and never respond to issues. They were also known by the credit card dispute agent we filed with. They don’t respond to their customer service email. The live chat and contact us buttons on their emails don’t even work! They take your money and run. And they charge more than the real hotel itself would.

  Business response

  04/22/2022

  Greetings,

  A refund has been issued ((Refunded $377.23)) for the duplicate reservation that the mutual client booked. The guest can expect the refund to be allocated back to their account in the next 7 to 14 business days. 

  Regards,

  HotelRates

• Initial Complaint

  11/02/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I booked a hotel room through this merchant ( reserve.hotel-rates.com) and encountered an issue with the hotel who comped 1/2 of our stay. Hotel says they issued the refund to the booking site reserve.hotel-rates.com and reserve.hotel-rates.com doesn’t have competent customer service in so far as I’ve contacted their customer service phone number and The agents have hung up on me three times. The booking site is not refunding the refund the hotel issued. Isn’t this theft? This is 2 months old so reserve.hotel-rates.com has had ample time to do their due diligence in getting a refund to a customer. Instead they lost my future business and everyone who will listen to me too.

  Business response

  11/04/2021

  Greetings,

  We are unable to action any items on this booking including refunding the booking as the guest disputed the charge for the booking. Once a dispute has been initiated we no longer have the ability to process any refund for the booking until the dispute closes in the merchants favor. Please have the guest provide documentation that the dispute has closed so that we can better assist.

  Regards,

  HotelPlanner 

  Customer response

  11/06/2021

  Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because:the dispute is closed. Why is this business holding my money?
  
  
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ****** **********

  Business response

  11/09/2021

  Greetings,

  We sent an email to Ms. ****** ********** - Confirmation Numbers **********************  on November 4th requesting a copy of the bank letter confirming the dispute is closed. We have yet to receive a reply. Please advise Ms. ********** to reply to the email sent so that we can better assist her.

  Regards,

  **** 

  Customer response

  11/09/2021

  Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because:
  I did not receive any communication from this merchant. 
  
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ****** **********

  Business response

  11/09/2021

  Greetings,

  Guest responded to our agents email - information has been sent to our Dispute Department that will review the bank information with our merchant service. I have advised the guest that they will be updated accordingly per the update we receive from the Dispute Department. 

  Regards,

  HotelPlanner 

  Customer response

  11/10/2021

  Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because:
  This company has my money and will not release it. 

  Their customer service agent have hung up on me repeatedly 

  And I will not accept any response but my refund which they’ve held now causing me financial 

  Trouble for 3 months. They should NOT be in business. 
  
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ****** **********

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩