OTEL.COM

[MRNARRA]

Has anyone had problems with this company,especially since covid started? Arrived home from America on 23rd March and sent them an email to ask can they put my May 6-12 booking in Dubai into a VOUCHER. Below is the response I got, on the 30th April,nearly 5 weeks later............

Dear Guest,
Greetings from Otel.com
Kindly be advised that we do not have a direct contract with the hotel for this booking, which means that we have a hotel supplier working between the hotel and Otel.com. and we need the hotel supplier's approval to be able to issue a refund.
Please note that without the hotel supplier's approval, we are not allowed to provide a refund.
We have been contacting our supplier regarding the refund request, however since the booking was made under non-refundable conditions, unfortunately, the hotel supplier did not agree to waive the fees for this booking even though we tried our best.
We are sorry for the negative response and we appreciate your kind understanding.
Please let us know if you need any further assistance.
Kindest Regards,

Sahar Dashti

Customer Experience Specialist


I realise my booking was a non refundable booking,but these are not normal times.If I can't fly, how can I stay !!
So I figured I would ring the hotel direct, and see what they could do.
They told me that Otel.com CANCELLED the booking on the 11th of April,19 days before the above email arrived !!!!
Needless to say they were sent several emails,and I tried to ring, but of course there is nothing,no one answers the phone, and no one returns emails..

 

[Kerrodt]

If you paid by credit card try a chargeback through your bank, presenting the infornation you have mentioned above as evidence of them lying to you.

 

[NM]

I realise my booking was a non refundable booking,but these are not normal times.If I can't fly, how can I stay !!
So I figured I would ring the hotel direct, and see what they could do.
They told me that Otel.com CANCELLED the booking on the 11th of April,19 days before the above email arrived !!!!
Needless to say they were sent several emails,and I tried to ring, but of course there is nothing,no one answers the phone, and no one returns emails..

As you have noted this was a non-refundable booking, so I expect your only avenue available will be through travel insurance, so long as the trip cancellation is accepted as an insurable event. Otherwise there will be little more you can do. I doubt a credit card charge-back is valid since you originally agreed to non-refundable conditions and its not the hotel's fault you cannot get there to occupy the booked room, so it is not a case of them failing to deliver the service/product you agreed to purchase.

 

[MRNARRA]

I'm not blaming the Hotel,how can Otel.com cancel the booking 19 days before they send me an email to say the hotel supplier who is WORKING BETWEEN Otel .com and the hotel, said sorry,no refund.which I wasn't after anyway.Only a voucher. I don't want to go down the insurance road, but I cannot contact them, so it looks like they win this one.BUT I WANT TO MAKE SURE THEY DO NOT DO THIS TO OTHERS,STAY AWAY FROM THEM
THANKS .

 

[samh004]

Perhaps a more appropriate solution would have been to contact Otel.com (surely any website that plays off the fact you're mis-typed a word into a search engine or address bar shouldn't be trusted) and tell them that in light of the booking not being able to be cancelled, you may as well go ahead with it, and can you get an updated booking reference number because the one you have isn't valid anymore (or you contacted the hotel and they don't have your reservation details on file). I see now that you've pretty much lost this opportunity as the booking window has passed though.

In this case the company has clearly cancelled the booking and kept the change, within their rights perhaps. However, if they hadn't cancelled the booking, they'd have had to pass the cash along to the hotel when you no-showed, and the hotel would have pocketed the change. And I'm sure you'd feel happier with the hotel receiving the cash than a shoddy website that's preying on people.

 

[Kerrodt]

As you have noted this was a non-refundable booking, so I expect your only avenue available will be through travel insurance, so long as the trip cancellation is accepted as an insurable event. Otherwise there will be little more you can do. I doubt a credit card charge-back is valid since you originally agreed to non-refundable conditions and its not the hotel's fault you cannot get there to occupy the booked room, so it is not a case of them failing to deliver the service/product you agreed to purchase.

I’d be reading the fine print of the cancellation conditions before accepting a defeat here. The fact that the website operators cancelled the booking before the traveller sought a voucher reeks of dodgy business practices to me.

 

[travel_bug]

I would give the booked hotel a call to confirm whether or not they ever had a booking in your name to begin with. A quick Google search of this provider brings up quite a few trustpilot and tripadvisor threads on how other customers made bookings through this company that allegedly were never passed onto the hotel - leaving them high and dry at a check in desk.

If the hotel never received your booking to begin with, I would go straight to a chargeback for services not provided with your credit card, the services not rendered being them as an online travel agent not making your booking. I would also ask that hotel whether they're even open at the moment for bookings, as I understand Dubai has a very heavy lockdown going on at the moment. They can't penalise you if the hotel wouldn't even accept to check you in.

I agree with the above that it's very dodgy that this provider apparently went straight for a cancellation when all you asked for was a voucher to begin with, for all they know you could have continued with your booking if they advised that no voucher was possible.

 

[NM]

I’d be reading the fine print of the cancellation conditions before accepting a defeat here. The fact that the website operators cancelled the booking before the traveller sought a voucher reeks of dodgy business practices to me.

I guess it depends on what was requested in the initial email to Otel.com requesting a voucher. If that email requested the booking to be cancelled and the value retained for later use, then they may well have cancelled the reservation with the hotel and spent 19 days "negotiating" to get a refund so they could place the funds into a credit voucher. With so many parties involved, nothing is clear.

Whenever I make a non-refundable hotel booking, I understand that I am wearing the risk if my travel plans change. Hence I rarely make non-refundable bookings unless very close to travel date. I will often make a no-deposit booking directly with the hotel and watch for other deals closer to travel date. And if suitable deal is found, cancel the no-deposit booking.

But in this circumstance I would be starting down the travel insurance path. There does not seem to be any reason to expect either the hotel nor the booking agent to cereate a "voucher" for the booking value unless that is a defined option in the booking terms and conditions.

 

[MRNARRA]

THANKS TO ALL FOR YOUR INPUT,my initial request was to ask for a voucher,as I said to them,if I can't fly there how can I stay there.And yes the Hotel did have a booking with my name.Just cancelled very early...lol. I still cannot contact OTEL.COM, so it looks like I go down the insurance road..

 

[MRNARRA]

Also,to samh004 I tried many times to ring them,but it lead to a dead end, you got ...blah blah ,press 1 blah blah press3 ,then it rings for 3 or 4 times then cuts you off......

 

[Danger]

THANKS TO ALL FOR YOUR INPUT,my initial request was to ask for a voucher,as I said to them,if I can't fly there how can I stay there.And yes the Hotel did have a booking with my name.Just cancelled very early...lol. I still cannot contact OTEL.COM, so it looks like I go down the insurance road..

I empathise with your frustration with Otel but I think you should remember it's not Otel's fault you can't fly.

 

[MRNARRA]

I empathise with your frustration with Otel but I think you should remember it's not Otel's fault you can't fly.

The point I was trying to make was,if I can't fly there their should be no reason you can't put the booking into a voucher.But it was Otels fault to tell me they tried to get the money,when they cancelled the booking 19 days before they sent me the email.ANYWAY.... obviously I won't be using them again .