Travel scams are horrible experiences to go through, but travel scams that occur during the holidays seem to hurt the worst.
Reportedly thousands of people have just had their Christmas and New Year hotel bookings dropped by HotelQuickly, a booking platform listed on TripAdvisor.
HotelQuickly recently informed customers that their hotel reservations had been canceled because of some "unforeseen issue." The booking platform claimed that they were "working very hard to come up with a manageable solution."
HotelQuickly offered refund vouchers to be used on their website, but some people are reporting that the vouchers, which are links, are broken, and therefore, not usable. It's been a week and travelers have not heard anything from HotelQuickly, prompting many to call the booking site a scam.
School teacher Debbie Hamilton was among many who had their holiday plans canceled by HotelQuickly. She had booked a hotel stay at two luxury resorts over the New Year's holiday through the site after spying it on TripAdvisor.
"I booked one hotel in August, and another in September - one in Chang Mai and one in Phuket," Hamilton told the Daily Mail Australia.
Then on December 9th, she received news that her hotels had been canceled.
"I rang both hotels, and they both said the booking had been made but canceled on December 6," she said. "They said they hadn't received any money from them and hadn't heard from them."
Hamilton added, "I frantically re-booked straight away, but had to pay an extra $400 [as well as the original price] all up for the booking, as it was peak time."
HotelQuickly soon sent Hamilton a $1,200 voucher to be used on their site, but when she clicked on the link, she realized it was broken.
After contacting her bank to cancel her payment to HotelQuickly, Hamilton feels a bit defeated.
"I was in tears that whole Sunday," she said. "My husband said to me when I settled down: 'I haven't seen you in tears for years - I didn't know what to do.'"
"I felt like someone had come in and burgled me. I felt very vulnerable and I was panicking that the bank wouldn't come to the party."
Hamilton's story isn't the worst, though.
The Daily Mail Australia reported that one man had his hotel booking canceled just an hour before he boarded his plane. Gill Fernando's review of the site on Facebook explained that he booked his hotel in August, paid in full, and arrived at his hotel in December to discover it had been canceled.
While the site remains online, many hotels don't appear when you search various dates.
Hamilton and others are wary of booking their travel online from now on-especially with TripAdvisor who advertised HotelQuickly on their site.
"My husband and I travel regularly, and I always book accommodation through Trip Advisor, but I don't know if I can trust them anymore," she said.
"I have a travel agent friend who always says 'you should come to me' - at first you think [booking online] is cheaper, but now I think it's not worth the stress."
TripAdvisor has suspended HotelQuickly from their website after learning about this incident last week.
A TripAdvisor spokesperson said, "We are very concerned to hear about the difficulties some HotelQuickly customers are experiencing with their bookings."
"Whenever we become aware that an accommodation supplier or online travel agent is no longer able to honour bookings or offer adequate customer support, we are prepared to take swift action to remove their prices from our site."
For the latest travel news, updates and deals, subscribe to the daily TravelPulse newsletter.
Topics From This Article to Explore
