genadriver2018

I received an email from Booking.com saying my reservation from my stay at The Lodge at GSP had been canceled almost a month AFTER my stay was complete and said I owed an additional 25$ due to a tax increase. I have receipts from BOTH Booking.com and the Hotel stating that I'm paid in full. After a little research to increase the price after you confirm is not an industry practice. Has anyone else had this happen to them?

AJPeabody

It sounds like Booking screwed up with the original charge and is trying to save itself the $25 that it owes. Tell them pleasantly that there is no such thing as a retroactive cancellation so have a nice day.

genadriver2018

I booked through a third party site(Shop Kicks) in order to receive points by using "retroactive cancellation" I lose those points because SHOP KICKS believe the transaction was cancelled and I got my money back. Upon research my last trip booked through Booking.com was ALSO listed as cancelled and not completed as all my other transactions are listed on my account. That stay was completed without problems to my knowledge.

Seamus

Booking.com is a third party site, so if you piled shop Kicks on top of that you are dealing with a fourth level entity.
Agree with AJ's suggestion - just calmly tell them you reject the charge. If they try to put it through to your credit card, protest it.

janisj

Welcome to Fodors. Are you sure the e-mail is generated by Booking? On payment issues I typically get an e-mail 'from' Booking but it is actually from the hotel and is merely forwarded by Booking. Like my last booking in May my credit card was rejected when it was supposed to be processed 30 days before the stay and the message was initially from the B&B (the charge was rejected by the over zealous fraud dept and was cleared up w/ a 5 min phone call)

Booking doesn't put the charge through - it is the hotel or B&B and it is them one would have to deal with.

I have absolutely NO idea what happens when a 4th party has been injected into the transaction.

Jean

I doesn't sound legit to me. Taxes don't usually amount to a tidy, round number with no cents.

Are you sure the email is actually from Booking. (There are so many scams these days.) I'd call them...

janisj

That was my thought as well. When ever would 'taxes' total a nice round number?

mlgb

About 10 years ago, I stayed at a booking.com lodging in Ecuador. The clerk forgot to enter that I had arrived and paid (some lodgings are pay on arrival). I got an email from "noshow@ booking.com" that started:

"Please be informed that your reservation has been cancelled"

"We're sorry to hear that you were not able to complete your stay at Hotel ... (Did you stay at the hotel? Please let us know (link) with our apologies for any inconvenience). We hope you are satisfied with our services; if there's anything we can do to facilitate a better booking experience for you in the future, please (link)."

I was still in town, walked over to the hotel and spoke to the the clerk and got a paper receipt. He admitted that they probably didn't get around to acknowledging that I had checked in and paid.

I sent booking a reply email stating my receipt (Factura) #, Room#, Date of stay and requesting that they reverse one of the two charges. I'm not sure who was in charge of running the charges through, the hotel or booking.com

The $25 could be legit. It should be easy enough to find out if there is some new fee in that amount.

I would call Hilton billing first and ask what is going on, before you go to a credit card dispute. If new taxes or fees were in effect, the lodging should have charged you directly when your stay was complete


I don't know anything about your fourth party website.

I've also had issues with corporate chains not acknowledging a timely cancellation.

Christina

I don't even understand the whole concept of booking through some other person to get booking.com who is already a third party in order to get points for "retroactive cancellation". What does that even mean.

I agree with the idea maybe the hotel didn't notify them promptly but if these really were taxes, I don't think legally you can refuse to pay them, credit card or not. Taxes are not levied by the hotel or booking. You won't legally get away with reporting to your credit card if you damage something in the room and they find out after you left and charge your card, that's what it is for, for example.

Taxes at that hotel (if it's the one in Gulf Shores) were increased 2 pct per night as of 9/1/22, So it could easily be $25 if the original rate total was $1250 for the stay, as that tax is per night.. The city council did it, I don't think you can refuse to pay taxes. Taxes could easily total a round number as they are percentages. If the room rate were $200, any percent tax increase would be a round number, not include cents, if the percentage didn't involve decimal points.

mlgb

All the credit card company will do is investigate. If the charges were legit (e.g. you stayed after taxes were raised) and it took Hilton a while to charge your card, I doubt you will be refunded. Credit Card companies expect you to at least try to resolve a dispute with a merchant first. It's typically much faster (e.g. a few weeks at most).

sludick

My only bad experience with booking.com was also with a Hilton property. In that case, we had a reservation at the Nashville airport, and booking's reservation gave us a cancellation date that Hilton subsequently refused to honor. We had to cancel due to a covid diagnosis, booking.com confirmed that we were in the free cancellation period, and yet Hilton charged my card anyway. No efforts on Booking's part or on mine were to any effect. I disputed the charge to no effect. And yes, I had screen shots of the terms, the date/time of cancellation, of the chats, letters to Hilton management both local and corporate as well as to booking.com, etc.

Hilton may be the bad actor in your case here. Good luck.

mlgb

I went back and confirmed that it was a Hilton Brand (Hampton Inn) but my reservation was via hotels.com, not booking.com. Hotels.com made sure I was refunded and also gave me a small $$ amount coupon for my inconvenience.

A friend stayed the particular hotel that I cancelled and said it was chaos. Worth noting that most Hampton Inns are operated by franchisees.