Booking of hotel thru internet
with credit card
Booking of a hotel
thru the internet with your credit card isn't always an easy, fast and
cheap experience. See the story below regarding the booking of a hotel in Bahrein
with a Master card credit card of the Dutch bank the Rabobank thru
www.hotels.com.
In August 2006 we made a
Bahrein hotel booking with our
Master card credit
card of the Rabobank via
www.hotels.com
.
It was a reservation of a 2
night stay in the “Ramada Palace Hotel” in Manama which should have costs only Euro
115,95.
Instead of for only a small
deposit, an amount of Euro 413,88 was charged on our credit card within a few
days which was withdrawn from our
Rabobank-account a month later by a Ramada Palace hotel related travel agency
called Aljaberiya Travel & tours (www.aljaberiyatravels.com)
in Manama.
After making a phonecall to
transaction mediator Interpay (now called
Equens) they advised us to contact the Ramada
Palace Hotel ourselves. Also after a complaint at www.hotels.com
(answered by www.travelnow.com) , we were referred
to the hotel once again.
At Ramada Palace Hotel they
told us they could not find the transaction in their system, but they would do
some more research. After a few weeks the problem was still not solved and we
made another phone call to Interpay/Equens. There they suddenly told us that we
should have ask to cancel the transaction within one month and that they were not
able to do anything anymore. What an advice the very first time that we called them.
After a long period of
emailing with Ramada Palace Hotel (mr Mr.Prakash & Mujtaba Ahmed (Business Development Manager) ,
www.hotels.com /www.travelnow.com (
Elizabeth R. & Thomas K. (employees of www.hotels.com
apparently don't have family names) and the travel agency Al jaberiya Travel Manama
(mr. Sajid Sheikh) the problem still wasn't solved, so hotels.com in
the name of
Elizabeth R.
adviced us to cancel the booking, because then the whole process would be followed
in reserve direction and we should get back our money "the easy way".
This easy process could still take a couple of weeks. Sounded easy, so we did so
right away. However after these couple of weeks we still hadn't received
a single penny. After questioning Ramada Palace Hotel again, they still said to
be busy with their administration and they kept on promising we would receive
the money soon. So far (few months later) still without any result.
After questioning the Rabobank
itself we were referred to Mastercard (Eurocard) and at Mastercard we were
referred back to the Rabobank again.
Apparently nobody wants to
take responsibility for the mistake(s) which were made and apparently at the
involved companies there is no fund to cover such losses and these losses
fully go on the expenses of the customer.
Herewith a public request
to the Rabobank, Eurocard/Mastercard,
Ramada Palace Hotel, Al jaberiya Travel & tours, www.hotels.com /www.travelnow.com
and Interpay/Equens to solve this problem and/or to advice how this problem can
be solved.
All other readers are
requested to give suggestions (maybe from own experience) how this problem can
be solved. You can reach us by
e-mail
.
Thank you very much in
advance for your feedback.
Addition Late 2007
November 18, 2007 we finally
got a fax-message from Bahrein with a confirmation of both the Ramada Palace
Hotel and the National Bank of Bahrein that we would soon get the refund
through our credit card. December 5 this message was followed by a letter from
the Rabobank saying that we would receive the money at December 7 on our banking
account. (We will forget about the fact that the Bahrein dinar devaluated a lot
in the mean time). A few weeks later we still hadn't receive anything, so December
21 we phoned the number mentioned in the Rabobank letter. This number of the Interpay (now Equens)
organization was not even in use anymore, there was only a tape mentioning a new
phone number which turned out to be of the Rabobank itself. When calling this
number it turned out that Equens didn't handle the new credit card transaction,
but they do handle old ones like ours. The young lady of the Rabobank call
centre couldn't do anything else then sending a fax message to Equens with our
request, because direct communication through the telephone was not possible
between these two organizations. The lady promised that we would receive the
money within one week. Let's wait and see.
Addition January 2008
Early January 2008 we finally
got the message that we got back the money stated in Bahrein Dinar, so in Euro's
around 20% less than the original amount. The Ramada Palace Hotel didn't
reply messages about this loss due to the devaluation during the extremely long
period which they needed to undo the transaction.
Only a few days later we got
another credit card statement of the Rabobank. This time with a wrong
transaction of Budget Rent-a-car regarding the car rental at the
International Airport of Malpensa near Milan. How funny. A credit card keeps one
busy.
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Nepal
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Hotel
Londen Manchester /
Sky beds - flat bed / travel and leisure
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Los Angeles California /
Dutch
version
25-07-2009
keywords: hotel, booking, master card, Rabobank,
internet, credit card, ramada palace, Bahrein, Interpay/Equens, experience
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