OT A cautionary tale - hotel reservations for a bike trip

[NHAero]

I'm a nitwit, as many have noticed.

In early May I'm headed down to Front Royal VA for a few days to ride and to see if the photos that Baron Blubba posts in the Photos from your Rides thread are real or generated by AI. The Baron suggested the Super 8 by Wyndham as a convenient and affordable place to lodge, so I Google that hotel, and click on the link and make my reservation. I get the confirmation email and see that it's not from Wyndham Hotels, but rather from Reservations.com. ***? I Google that web site and see things like "As others have stated, you think you're on the legit hotel website but reservations.com hijacks it and diverts you to their booking system."

I look further and then go to the Wyndham site and re-book, and what I was charged $666 for on the Reservations.com site is $525. Both have the basic room charges of $472, but the scam site adds $140 of taxes and fees, and a service fee of $54. The actual taxes/fees are $53.

I cancelled the Reservations.com reservation but lost the non-refundable $54 service fee.

The reason it is the first link is that it is a sponsored link, and it is on top of the sponsored legit link from Wyndham. So Google has no motivation to drop what they likely know is an exploitive company.

I am regarding the lost $54 as a payment credited to my annual Stupidity Tax.

[Likes2ridefar]

That is frustrating! I use a pi hole so can’t click on ANY ad supported link.

I only use hotels.com app or direct through the hotels site and will make sure to continue that practice!

[NHAero]

Originally Posted by Likes2ridefar

That is frustrating! I use a pi hole so can’t click on ANY ad supported link.

I only use hotels.com app or direct through the hotels site and will make sure to continue that practice!

I use Expedia or Hotels.com to search prices and availability, but never to make the reservations. The reservations I made through Priceline for the Philly Bike Expo, which I was unable to attend, were not eligible for a refund through Priceline but if I'd made them directly the second night would have been. Another payment of Stupidity Tax. I will never make a reservation for flights (learned that lesson years ago via Expedia) or now hotels through a third party site. Even if they aren't scammers like Reservations.com, they have no pecuniary interest in keeping you happy, whereas I've found hotels will work with you to a point.

[AngryScientist]

Yea.

Thankfully, the big companies, including the airlines have put in a good effort to clean up the pricing landscape that used to be a real mess with third party booking agencies. I now find I can almost always get the best price by going direct. These days, i book hotels directly on Marriotts site and Air Fare direct through United.

It used to be slimy companies like expedia, hotels.com, etc would entice you with a slightly cheaper rate and draw you in. That's all well and good until any little problem arises during travel, and you wind up screwed or massivly inconvenienced.

It's true that these days with search engines and doctored search results, you have to be extra careful you are directed where you think you are. I see a lot of AI creepint into search results recently too, further complicating things. It seems like kind of a mess out there on the www these days.

Be careful. Check twice before entering CC info!

[benb]

There's an even worse gotcha these sites can cause.

I had it happen to me with Expedia.

I got a reservation through Expedia. When I got to the hotel the hotel had sold the reservation itself to someone else who had booked directly through them. And the hotel was now sold out, and they couldn't help me. I had to scramble to find another hotel fairly late at night. Luckily I was traveling alone and had the car so it wasn't horrible like it would be in a city with no car & a whole family.

Apparently these sites can offer you a reservation but it's not necessarily guaranteed you actually got the reservation. Seems kind of like the airline overselling shenanigans.

This was some years ago, I've been pretty careful since then.

[echappist]

Originally Posted by NHAero

I'm a nitwit, as many have noticed.

In early May I'm headed down to Front Royal VA for a few days to ride and to see if the photos that Baron Blubba posts in the Photos from your Rides thread are real or generated by AI. The Baron suggested the Super 8 by Wyndham as a convenient and affordable place to lodge, so I Google that hotel, and click on the link and make my reservation. I get the confirmation email and see that it's not from Wyndham Hotels, but rather from Reservations.com. ***? I Google that web site and see things like "As others have stated, you think you're on the legit hotel website but reservations.com hijacks it and diverts you to their booking system."

I look further and then go to the Wyndham site and re-book, and what I was charged $666 for on the Reservations.com site is $525. Both have the basic room charges of $472, but the scam site adds $140 of taxes and fees, and a service fee of $54. The actual taxes/fees are $53.

I cancelled the Reservations.com reservation but lost the non-refundable $54 service fee.

The reason it is the first link is that it is a sponsored link, and it is on top of the sponsored legit link from Wyndham. So Google has no motivation to drop what they likely know is an exploitive company.

I am regarding the lost $54 as a payment credited to my annual Stupidity Tax.

Nah, don't be so harsh on yourself, and thanks for the PSA.

If I were in your shoes, I'd file a charge back.

Reservations.com isn't even the worst when it comes to booking sites. The worst are the ones that advertise a really low rate but doesn't in fact process the booking (you see these sites on aggregators such as tripadvisors or google hotels, often with the unrealistically low prices). These sites often count on vacancies and hope to secure the actual booking mere days (or even hours) before the arrival time, and then pocketing the price difference. Except when there is no vacancy, the customer gets no hotel room. To make it worse, they do process an occasional legitimate booking, as to give such sites a veneer of respectability.

The whole "Sponsored Results" thing by google is manipulative as hell and part of the enshytefication of the internet. Years ago, I was trying to download a publicly available software (I think Symantec), and in my haste, I clicked on the first link that showed up. That one ended up being a malware. Talk about irony...

[NHAero]

A lot of the online complaints about Reservations.com is exactly that, the people showed up and there was no reservation.

[Mr. Pink]

Booking.com, or, recently I discovered Orbitz. I have used Booking so much I usually get a ten percent discount. Just be warned, if there is any issue with booking and you want to extend a stay or cancel or whatever, you will have to deal with the reservation app service, not the hotel.

[Likes2ridefar]

Wow that is awful to show and have no reservations. Sounds like I need to move away from hotels.com as well!

I’ve never had an issue with them though and use it only to book when I can’t find a hilton or Marriott chain to stay in (their pet policies and consistency)

[avalonracing]

Originally Posted by NHAero

I Google that web site and see things like "As others have stated, you think you're on the legit hotel website but reservations.com hijacks it and diverts you to their booking system."

I

There is a scammy Southwest Airlines site that does something similar.

[paulh]

Reservations

[ridethecliche]

Originally Posted by avalonracing

There is a scammy Southwest Airlines site that does something similar.

Southwest is bad enough as it is sometimes. Took me a moment to realize that they charge separately for each way of an RT flight unlike anyone else!

[yarg]

Same thing happened to us last year when my wife booked a hotel. We ended up canceling the bogus one and rebooking thru the legit site. We claimed an invalid charge to our credit card on the service fee. In the end it was resolved, and we got all our $ back.

[benb]

The whole southwest scrum for seats thing drives me up the wall.

LIKE *** they still have to build & maintain a whole ticketing computer system why build something where people get aggressive/competitive about seats.

[verticaldoug]

It doesn't hijack anything, the site uses techniques to search engine optimize versus google to appear at the top. The site unethical thing is the way the site creates a website that appears as the legitimate hotel. It often just takes photos off the legitimate site.

The best way to fight this website is to complain to the real company. I did this with IHG for Paris Le Grand. I think Wyndam hotels are in a better position to sue GuestReservations for stealing IP (photos from the legitimate hotel websites and other scrappings). It won't make the company stop impersonating all hotels, but it may stop the wyndam hotels from being impersonated by GuestReservations. It really is just whack a mole with a lot of things on the internet.

Also, you may think you are using different websites, but as example, Expediagroup is comprised of Expedia, Hotels.com VRBO, Orbitz, Travelocity, trivago and a few others.

I'd love to know the real UBO for GuestReservations.