booking hotel

popsy09

I am trying to book a hotel in Poland for my stag party
I tried hotels .com first and after a lengthy phone call managed to book 12 rooms with free cancellation and full payment on arrival

I wanted full payment on arrival as it's much easier rather than trying to gather money from everyone and pay myself

I get an email saying 40% deposit was taken from my account approx 1600 euros as you can imagine I'm not happy

Rang hotels .com and demanded money back and I let them know that they told me numerous times and I can't stress how many times I was told no deposit / pre authorisation of any kind and this happened

After a few days I got money back but still had no accommodation so I rang back hotels .com and they got somewhere else for me and wanted my card again which I refused as I told them what happened previously but eventually I gave in but I transferred money from my account into a separate account and sure enough I got an email saying tried to take deposit from account but declined as insufficient funds

So I'm back to the start now with no accommodation, is it worth my while following up a complaint with hotels .com ? I'd imagine I wouldn't get very far with it

Is it possible to book a hotel and pay completely on arrival ??

Thank you

Aka Ishur

Hiya, most hotel groups will not accept a reservation for more than 8 or 9 rooms without some sort of deposit. My experience is with the big groups however but I imagine similar rules filter down to the independent operators.

popsy09

Aka Ishur wrote: »

Hiya, most hotel groups will not accept a reservation for more than 8 or 9 rooms without some sort of deposit. My experience is with the big groups however but I imagine similar rules filter down to the independent operators.

When booking I told them if they need a deposit do not book , try find a hotel that won't need a deposit and they said they found one that wouldn't need one

That's what annoyed me , if I have to gather deposits I will but it's easier if I didn't have too

Aka Ishur

If that was with Hotels.com my experience with them is they will agree to guest conditions no problem and then cross their fingers hoping the hotels will play along. You'd be much better off calling hotels directly. (but as I say, I wouldn't take more than 9 rooms without a 33% deposit, I imagine it will be the case with almost everyone.)

Good luck with the search.

uck51js9zml2yt

The hotel is setting aside a large number of rooms and probably a high percentage of its accommodation.
To think they wouldn't want to protect themselves against a no show and potential loss of substantial revenue is naieve on your part.

Your expectations need to change as they are unrealistic.

coylemj

Jamari Enough Mirage wrote: »

The hotel is setting aside a large number of rooms and probably a high percentage of its accommodation.
To think they wouldn't want to protect themselves against a no show and potential loss of substantial revenue is naieve on your part.

Your expectations need to change as they are unrealistic.

+1 OP, you are expecting the hotel to (1) deal with a middleman (hotels dot com) and pay them commission and (2) hold 12 rooms for you with no comeback if you don't show up.

Dream on.

popsy09

I understand they are setting aside rooms for me , my point is I was told no need to pay until arrival so I went ahead and booked based on what I was told

If I have to give a deposit fair enough but when I was told full payment on arrival and never gave permission to take 40% deposit that's my problem

Aka Ishur

I wouldnt blame popsy for this, she is only going off info provided.

coylemj

popsy09 wrote: »

I understand they are setting aside rooms for me , my point is I was told no need to pay until arrival so I went ahead and booked based on what I was told

If I have to give a deposit fair enough but when I was told full payment on arrival and never gave permission to take 40% deposit that's my problem

That's one of the principal problems when you book a hotel through a third party, you are dealing with a call agent who (1) doesn't know (and probably has no way of discovering) the specific hotel's booking policy and (2) is under pressure to get a booking so is liable to tell downright lies to close the deal.

VincePP

Firstly, Hotels.com are one of the more expensive sites. Try Trivago.ie and see what comes up.

However the best prices will nearly always mean paying in advance. Very few (if any) hotels will take a bookng and allow you pay on arrival. They don't know you from adam, they have set aside 9 rooms, added staff to service those rooms / turned other customers away and then they would have no guarantee you will turn up to take those rooms.

Best way is to choose a hotel, check they have plenty of rooms and tell everyone to book their own room.