A bill, but no reservation
Question: We’re having a hotel reservation problem, and can’t seem to get any help. I hope you can do something for us.
I recently booked a hotel room in Singapore through Orbitz. I never received a confirmation online, and when I inquired about my reservation, I was told Orbitz had nothing listed under my email address. So I booked a hotel room through another travel agency.
Imagine my surprise when I discovered a $74 charge for the hotel on my next credit card statement. Orbitz has refused to refund the money for the last 10 months. Can you help? — Wendell Mrugala, St. Paul, Minn.
Answer: If Orbitz didn’t have a reservation for you, then it shouldn’t have charged you.
But did Orbitz make a reservation? Yes, because you were charged for a room. So what went wrong?
I checked with the online agency, and according to both of your accounts, your reservation was retrieved using your email address. When you filled in your email address, Orbitz says you mistyped it.
That might explain why Orbitz couldn’t find your reservation when you contacted it. It was looking for the wrong email address.
But I think there’s plenty of blame to go around. Why couldn’t Orbitz retrieve your reservation by name or phone number? I think the representative you spoke with should have made more of an effort to find your hotel room instead of telling you that it didn’t exist.
There are a few things you could have done differently, too. Obviously, you should have typed in your information more carefully. When you’re self-booking — acting as your own travel agent — it’s important to double- and triple-check names, dates and addresses.
Most online agencies give you the option of either making a one-time reservation or creating a user profile, where you register and provide a username and password. Taking that extra step would allow you to retrieve your reservation online at any time.
Finally, when there’s a question about a possible charge, it’s important to monitor your credit card regularly. Don’t wait for your monthly statement. Log on to your account within 24 hours and check to see if you’ve been billed. That way, if you’ve been charged, you can try to fix the problem as soon as possible. The longer you wait, the harder it becomes to resolve an issue like this.
I contacted Orbitz, and it offered a $74 credit toward a future purchase.
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Don’t know about Orbitz but other sites the I have to enter my e-mail address give me a notice of invalid e-mail address when I enter a wrong one.
ANYONE that uses Orbitz, Travelocity, et al deserve everything they do not get! PUN intended! Online booking engines are not the ’second coming’. If anyone uses them, then definitely Caveat emptor, buyer beware. My questions is: who’s time is worth making reservations online, then having to follow-up with the supplier, sometimes by phone [and phone calls are not free!], where is the savings? Does anyone believe that the hoteliers, and other suppliers, actually offer their full inventory to the online booking engines? NOT! They only offer ‘distressed’ inventory. When I find out that a supplier is offering a extraordinary percentage of their inventory to the online booking engines instead of travel agencies, then I cut them off when I can change the client to a vendor that supports the travel agency distribution system more than they support the online booking engines. Is anyone paying attention to the ‘financial health’ of the online booking engines. I understand they are all operating seriously in the red.