WARNING – HOTELS.COM BOOKED NON-EXISTENT ACCOMMODATION AND ARE NOW REFUSING TO REFUND!”

On 18 August 2022 I made a booking for accommodation in Plettenberg Bay through Hotels.com. The name if the venue is not disclosed by me for privacy reasons. Hotels.com required full payment upfront in the amount of R 20 000-00 (which was paid by my husband) and stated that there was a no refunds policy. I then received a booking confirmation from Hotels.com stating that my booking was guaranteed. After this, I did some investigation into the property and saw a review where the accommodation had been “double booked” and that when the people arrived there on the day the owner of the accommodation was of no assistance and told them to speak to the company who they booked through as this was the entity who was liable. This immediately raised my suspicion and I made contact with Hotels.com and asked them to confirm the booking in writing from the owner otherwise we wanted to cancel. On 20 August 2022 I received an e-mail from Hotels.com stating that they could not get a hold of the owner and because of this they could not arrange the cancellation and/or refund as there was a no refunds policy. This lead to further investigation by me. I managed to track down the owner of the property through Facebook and was advise by him that the property is no longer being hired out for holiday accommodation and that he told Hotels.com to remove the listing on three separate occasions. This was brought to the attention of Hotels.com on Monday, 22 August 2022, by my husband who required that they either provide us with the requested confirmation in writing (which is impossible) or a refund by close of business Wednesday, 24 August 2022. We also gave Hotels.com the contact details of the owner as they had previously stated that they could not get ahold of him. Our e-mail was responded to by Hotels.com where they advised that we would be contacted within 48 hours. Both these timelines have come and gone and we have not been contacted by Hotels.com nor have we been refunded the payment made. I accept that there is a no refunds policy but surely this cannot apply where there is no accommodation booked in the first place! We are taking appropriate steps against Hotels.com but warn all persons against using them in the future.”