Twice unlucky? There won't be a third! Hotelclub sucks, but the service is improving
Written: Sep 24 '07 (Updated Sep 27 '07)
| Ease of Ordering: |
 |
|
| Customer Service: |
 |
|
| Selection: |
 |
|
| On-Time Delivery: |
|
|
|
| Full Review |
The summary says it all really, but if you don't mind a useless and tiny range of hotels from cities in Europe where any other search engine will give you masses to choose from...and most importantly you don't mind the high risk of getting your confirmed reservation lost, misplaced or otherwise dumped such that when you arrive at your carefully selected hotel in some foreign parts, you are to be greeted with "sorry we have no reservation" ...then book away!
I booked and was confirmed in fall of 2005 to stay in Venice during a busy conference period. Arrived at hotel (and like so many other complaints I now find on sites like this and tripadvisor's forums) turn up at reception to be told "sorry no room at the inn". After a lot of wasted hours with hotelclub "help" desks and receiving no support at all, the hotel in the end saved me and found me a room for the first night when they were busy until they could offer me a room the following night.
Two years on, memory dimmed, old age, maybe just a sucker to give it another go and use up the £20 worth of Member points....I book last minute a hotel in Geneva for 1 night. All confirmed, Amex card billed, ready to travel...until 24 hours before flight, an email from Hotelclub saying sorry but your reservation is cancelled and we will send you back your money in next 10 days. Top marks for sending me the email, but not a lot of use to me! Seems the hotel industry is adopting the airline overbooking policy and bumps the lowest paying guests, but book through Hotelclub and thats their commitment to you over with. AuRevior, Goodbye, Hope to see you another time.
Like hell. Useless help desk person has no answers, can't escalate the issues and can offer only a sad 2* motel like experience way out of the city at the end of airport runway...er no thanks.
Bottom line, if you want to avoid the hassles so many people seems to report with Hotelclub and RatestoGo reservation service...don't touch them or their archaic website and booking service with a barge pole.
PostScript - Not for a moment to suggest my comments here had any impact on anyone at HotelClub, it is only fair that I update readers on my experiences mentioned here.
About 48 hours after writing and uploading this opinion, the quality Assurance manager from the agency behind HotelClub emailed me directly in response to my complaint email. She was very sincere and apologetic and admitting that "On the odd occasions, booking “hiccups” do occur", and that she recalled (or had at least looked up and acknowledged) my previous Venice experience as well.
In summary they made clear that it was in no way the fault of the hotel and entirely their own mistake and that they should have helped me find alternative accomodation (easier said than done sometimes in Geneva). They also agreed to compensate me for the difference in additional cost I incurred booking through Expedia.
So rather than 0/5 I originally would like to have given them for customer support, I have now updated that to an Average 3/5 to allow for their good handling post complaint. They weren't so hot to start with but made up for it in the end.
Ultimately it doesn't change my overall comments and experience regarding their lack of choice of hotels and the hit and miss methodology they seem to employ for confirming bookings will actually happen.
Recommended:
No
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? Hotel Room
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
robberbobbles
|
|
Reviews written: 1
Trusted by: 0 members
|
|
|
HotelClub.com
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.