I made a reservation for 3 nights stay in Novotel Paris Vaugirard Hotel via Hotels.com for 17.05.2008. Just one day before I had a serious last-minute health problem in my family i.e. bypass surgery so I had to cancel everything. I informed hotels.com that I had to cancel per above reasons I can document it and I would like a refund. Agent listened and told that he has to call the hotel for it and held me online, I do not think that he really called the hotel, anyway he informed that it is not possible. I asked the hotel myself and got the answer that refund is possible per hospital documentation. But because of poor language and general communication skills they first told they would refund themselves kept me waiting for a week and then after various calls decided that expedia can do the refund. I called expedia, I am not mentioning how many minutes they keep you waiting to reach an agent(it's a lot!!) agent listened again and told me that he would call the hotel altough I have forwarded the written confirmation for refund from hotel. He kept me on the line and it got disconnected. When I called again, the other agent told me that the one talking to me already left for the day without even notifying me at all. Imagine you are waiting at an international call, believing that the agent is doing smth while you are waiting and he already leaves at that time. New agent this time named Nicole, had to bear my terrible frustration, listened again and guess what decided to call hotel, could not reach front desk manager as she told and did not call me back altough she was going to next morning. Today I called there again and by chance I reached the agent that left me on the call, I asked him to put me through his supervisor, the guy listened and told that he would send an e-mail so that I can forward my mail to them about confirmation, it is unbelievable that they do no even check the mails of their own company and that mail fro him did not come. I am still after this, this is the worst service I have ever got in my whole life. I do not recommend hotels.com to anyone at all. If you want to be dissatisfied please be my guest in this adventure!!!

Hotels.com is a rip-off, DO NOT USE!, When I went to get quotes from the hotel, they told us a rate of 64.99, we called hotels.com to get a cheaper rate. They quoted us 60.00 flat rate + tax, so I accepted that rate and setup my reservations. I booked the room for 3 days, which should have been around 65.00 per night which figures to be 195.00 for the three nights. On last day of my stay, when I checked my account they had withdrew 235.00. They charged me instead of 60.00 per night 71.65 per night (which is more than the state tax required). I also notice they charged an additional charge of 19.74 for an extra guest, (but it was only for two people which is the rate they gave me of 60.00 for the two of us). I then called customer service to discuss this and they told me it was a charge of tax and service charge that the hotel charged, and those charges didn't have anything to do with them. When I went to discuss it with the hotel, they said they couldn't discuss the bill because I went thru hotels.com that I would have to take that up with them. After the run-around, I called hotels.com back and they said once again that Extended Stay America had charged tax and service charge. So I didn't get anything resolved with them after going back and forth from the hotel to hotels.com, so I will never ever use them again, the prices that the hotel gives you in the end will be a better price. I don't put any of the blame on "Extended Stay America" because I didn't go thru them but thru hotels.com. My stay at the room was good, I didn't have any problems with the stay, except that I had to pay 5.00 more to use their internet and the tv only went to channel 30 which was more news channels, so I had to go rent movies, other than that the stay was good.

This complaint is still in process with the BBB in Texas where HOTELS.COM corporate office is located.

This is my orginal letter to the BBB and below you will see hotels.com response

Complaint to BBB Case # 91061406

Hotel was HORRIBLE!!! The problems with the room were: NO DOORKNOB ON THE DOOR JUST A BIG HOLE WHERE THE DOORKNOB SHOULD BE. WE TALKED TO THE MANAGER ABOUT THIS WHO SAID HE WOULD COME UP AND TAKE A LOOK AT IT WHICH HE DID AND HIS REPLY WAS: YES, YOU ARE CORRECT THERE IS NO DOORKNOB.... SHOWER HAD CHIPS IN TUB AND MOLDLY CAULKING, DIRTY UNDERNEATH BED (WE HAD TO SEE UNDERNEATH THE BED TO PULL OUT CHILDS BED, ROOM WAS FILTHY AND WAS NOT CLEANED, REQUESTED A ROOM FOR 3 ADULTS WHAT WE GOT WAS A QUEEN SIZE BED AND A PULL OUT CHILD'S TRUNDLE BED. WE HAD TO PICK UP THE QUEEN SIZED BED AND MOVE IT AGAINST THE WALL AND PUT THE NIGHTSTAND IN THE CLOSET JUST TO GET THE CHILDS TRUNDLE BED OUT. THEY ADVERTISED FREE COMPLIMENTARY PARKING ON SITE. WHEN WE ASKED ABOUT THE PARKING WE WERE TOLD THAT THE FREE PARKING WAS ANYWHERE ON THE STREET IF YOU COULD FIND A PLACE. WE WERE TOLD WE COULD PARK IN A CITY PARKING LOT BUT WE HAD TO PAY THE NORMAL FEE THAT THE CITY CHARGES. ROOM CLEARLY NOT BIG ENOUGH FOR 3 ADULTS I was told at the time of making the reservations that even if we cancelled there would be no refund I personally called hotels.com 5 or 6 times to try and settle this issue. Each time they would try and call the hotel we stayed at and each time I was told to call back that the manager was not available. I sent an email to hotels.com asking for a resolution I got no response. Hotels.com did offer me $100.00 and told me that was the best they could do. I told them that was unacceptable. I even have pictures and I will be more than happy to provide proof of my allegations.

Your Desired Resolution:
I want a total and COMPLETE refund. We were in Paris on vacation and if it had not been for the no refund policy and if other hotels had been available (there was a big event going on in Paris and most hotels were booked up) we would not have stayed there a second night. Not only was the hotel room horrible but also their description was total false advertising. I do not want any gift certificates, discounts or anything short of a full refund in cash/check/money order ect

HERE IS HOTELS.COM RESPONSE

On December 04, 2007, the business provided the following information:

We apologize for any inconvenience Mr. Hills may have experienced while using our services. Hotels.com appreciates the opportunity to address his complaint.

On 9/27/07 Mr. Hills contacted us to book a hotel in the Levallois Perret, France. The hotel of Mr. Hill's choice was the Campanile Paris Quest required check in date 10/05/07 for two nights and three adult occupants. Our agents are trained and monitored to recap the pertinent details of each booking at the close of the call. This includes but not limited to the room type, hotel name/location, number of occupants in the room and all terms and conditions. The cancellation policy is also read during the booking process and must be agreed upon prior to the completion of reservations. The cancellation that applied to Mr. Hill's reservation is as follows: At Hotels.com, we understand that sometimes plans fall through. Hotels.com does not charge a change or cancel fee.
However, this property (CAMPANILE PARIS OUEST) imposes the following penalty to its customers that Hotels.com is required to pass on: cancellations or changes made after 07:00 PM (W. Europe Daylight Time) on 10/04/2007 are subject to a 1 Night Room & Tax penalty. The property makes no refunds for no shows or early checkouts. All terms and conditions are also detailed in the email confirmation/receipt sent to Mr. Hills on 9/27/07. The email confirmation/receipt also has our listed disclaimer which states smoking and bedding preferences are not guaranteed.

Hotels.com understands that there may be times when the property may not meet the expectations of the guest and may lead to their dissatisfaction. We encourage our customers to contact us immediately when there is a problem during their hotel stay, this usually gives us a chance to resolve the problem at the time it occurred. Unfortunately Mr. Hills did not contact us until 10/12/07 after his completed stay. Contact with us after a completed stay limits our ability to resolve our guest's issues.

We are unable to honor Mr. Hill's request for a full refund. Our agents have made attempts to reconcile with Mr. Hills by offering refunds and coupons which have been declined by Mr. Hills.

Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns regarding this case.

Thank you,

Jennifer Buemtello
Consumer Relations
Hotels.com
817-333-5000 ext. 3415

HERE IS MY RESPONSE TO THEM

Hotels.com was contacted as soon as I returned home from my travels. To say that that bedding preferences are not guaranteed is ridiculous. When I book a room for 3 adults common sense would say there will be enough bedding for 3 adults and not a Queen Sized Bed and a child’s bed. We did not check out early since there was NO OTHER PLACES to stay and we would have been charged for the room regardless!!!!! Hotels.com understands that there may be times when the property may not meet the expectations of the quest and may lead to their dissatisfaction

HOWEVER
I do not think that MY expectations of:
A DOORKNOB, and NOT JUST A HOLE IN THE DOOR WHERE A DOORKNOB USE TO BE
A CLEAN ROOM,
A ROOM BIG ENOUGH FOR 3 ADULTS,
ADVERTISEMENT ON HOTELS.COM WEB SITE THAT OFFERS FREE COMPLIMENTARY PARKING ON SITE ONLY TO BE TOLD PARKING IS REALLY ON THE STREET THAT IS IF YOU CAN FIND PARKING!!!!,
AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST A BATHROOM THAT DOES NOT HAVE MOLD GROWING ALL OVER IT……..

IS ASKING TO MUCH.

After several attempts to resolve this issue hotels.com finally offered a measly $100.00 which I did refuse
At no time were COUPONS offered and if they had been they too would have been refused.

At this point I really want to ask, “Whatever happened to just doing the “right” thing?” I do not believe hotels.com did this on purpose but I do believe that you need to take responsibility since you were the agent that was used in booking this hotel reservation. If you can not as a company personally check out the hotels that are listed on your site then you as a company have to be prepared to assume liability when
there is a problem.

I am not some person complaining about a hair in a sink trying to get a refund. I had some real problems with this reservation and this room.
Would you stay in a room with no doorknob?
How about mold growing in the bathroom?
Would you subject your family to this? Would this be acceptable to you?

If the answer to any of the above questions is a no then please try and understand why I am so angry over this and why I am still wanting a total and complete refund of $417.60. At some point it becomes a much bigger issue than just the money. It is the principal of it. Yes, I am still demanding a refund, but it is the principal of it the drives me to seek justice. I will keep going up the chain as far as I have to if that is what it takes to get this resolved to my satisfaction.

I realize that as an employee of hotels.com it is your job to fight off complaints, save the company money, try to resolve issues and hope the complainers eventually are satisfied or hope they just go away assuming it is not worth the time and effort to peruse it. I’m not going away and the only way I will be satisfied is with a total and complete refund of $417.60


IF I RECIEVE A RESPONSE I WILL POST IT HERE AS WELL... I SUSPECT THIS WILL NOT BE RESOLVED. I DO LOVE THE LINE IN THEIR RESPONSE THAT SAYS:

"The email confirmation/receipt also has our listed disclaimer which states smoking and bedding preferences are not guaranteed."

ARE THEY KIDDING ME????????

THEY ARE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE PEOPLE DO NOT USE THEM
TAKE THIS AS A WARNING THEY DO NOT GUARENTEE ANYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On May 1st we made several reservations with hotels.com help by Jessica Turner who is employed by them. Out of the four reservation one was book incorrectly. After many emails, several phone calls and being disconnected because they insisted that the connection was bad, 4hrs later I later of persisting calling I was help by one of the supervisors and the correct package was made. I was promised that the other package was being cancel and the money was being refunded to my credit card, and that all I need it was to pay for the new package witch I did.

It has been more then a month since this transactions where done by hotels.com and no money has been return back to the credit card but they did charge the package that was made in oder to correct there mistake.

I strongly believe that it is not corrected for me to be paying changer for the 1st package that was made incorrectly by them on my credit card that I am not going to used.