I’m a dumbass for not looking VERY carefully when booking a non-refundable room
in a town where 70.00 is a bit high for a low-rent motel
except on Parents’ Weekend
They quoted me 76 bucks. Non-refundable - but I knew rooms were going rather fast, and needed to book something.
I figured the total would be 85ish bucks. Glanced only briefly at the “are you sure” page before paying.
And was gobsmacked afterward clicking, to see my total was 112 dollars - due to a 35.00 “tax recovery fee”.
Trust me, there is NO resort fee involved at this place, and the only services in the process are the sort you refer to when talking about cattle reproduction.
So I repeat #1, I’m a dumbass for not being more careful.
But they are still scammers.
Check 'em out on Trustpilot.com - evidently this is their standard business model. The website you get is reservations.com but the confirmation comes from getaroom.com.
On the plus (?) side, getaroom.com DOES seem to respond, quickly, to the criticisms on trustpilot. We’ll see what, if anything, they do; several people said they made it right.
In the meantime I’ve reported them to the BBB (not that they can do anything) and the attorney general in their state.
I have always found it is better dealing with the hotel directly. Sometimes throwing in extras such as free Internet- however I suppose it depends on the hotel. Good luck in trying to get a refund.
[anecdote] Four decades ago I was cheated in a similar way. (I thought it strange that hotel never took an impression of my credit card, nor did I ever sign anything! This was 40 years ago, before on-line booking existed. As it turned out, the cheaters may have deliberately avoided a charge slip! )
I wrote a letter to the credit card company (CitiBank) contesting the charge. They wrote back saying they couldn’t proceed without a copy of the charge slip. “There was no charge slip; I never signed anything. As I told you in the first letter.” I wrote back in a larger font. I got a 2nd letter from them, asking again for a copy of the non-existent charge slip.
I started calling the CEO of CitiBank person-to-person! (Toll calls California to New York were expensive in those days, but I knew he’d never come to the phone.) Eventually I squeaked loud enough that TWO managers at CitiBank refunded the excess charge. TWO refunds — I turned a profit!
I sometimes do this. I’ll look on aggregate sites like Expedia or TripAdviser or whatever, which helps to find a whole bunch of options, and when I find the one I want, I’ll get in touch with the place directly.
Did you only find out the total charges AFTER checkout? Or did you just overlook them during the checkout procedure?
If the former, that’s scammy. I refuse to do business with anyone who doesn’t tell me the total charges before I pay. If the latter, then I guess you just got a $35 lesson in paying attention on the internet. Still sucks when it happens, though.
Unless there’s a time crunch, always reserve through the website or by speaking directly to the hotel/reservation department. The property will gladly match or beat the third-party booking site (because no booking commission.) Plus there’s only one level of bullshit to deal with if the reservation is direct. I don’t know how many hours I’ve wasted telling people that no, I can’t change or cancel their room, because they contracted with a totally separate entity - I’m basically just the subcontractor.
On preview: exactly what mhendo recommends, but also why.
I went through the process again just to see - and the 35 dollar fee was there (before checking out) but a small, light font.
Like I said, I’m pitting myself for not being more careful - and at least it’s only 35 bucks (25ish really; there’d have been 9+ bucks in room tax in any case).
So I posted on trustpilot.com - and was actually contacted by getaroom.com. They do respond to complaints there. They’re going to refund 25 dollars after my stay. And they asked (but did NOT make it a condition of the refund) that I revisit my review of them.
I said I would be happy to, though I couldn’t give a 5 star review in all honesty, because there was such a pattern of this and they continued to do business with reservations.com.
So in summary: getaroom.com MIGHT be ok to deal with if you go directly, but PAY ATTENTION (like I didn’t). Reservations.com though… well, they have every bit as many complaints at trustpilot but they don’t respond to them.
