From what I see here, the answer to that is "no". It's "being processed" and then they claim the refund has already been completed when you ask for it?
Hmmm, that would be a bit surprising and obviously bad news.
I would think a more likely problem would be them refunding your money less their $15 change fee (basically them arguing that you forfeited it by "abusing" their system -- trying to get a little money back from this fiasco would probably appease their beancounters).
I can see no legal justification for them keeping your entire prepayment.
Well my guess is that they may be doing some of this by hand. My earliest reservations made, back in Nov. are the ones being canceled first. Time on the emails shows the earliest to the latest in a natural progression.
Probably time to start disputing everything immediately. If you don't get credit right away, or even if they keep $15 you should dispute everything. You did not cancel and they have no evidence you did. Their CC processor shouldn't like them after this.
IMHO, anyone suing HotelClub is on much weaker terms than the Priceline incident. There, you "named your own price" and it was accepted. It took them weeks to claim mistake. And the mistake was hardly obvious -- for instance, I've stayed at that hotel for $50 on a priceline bid.
Here, we all knew (or should have known) that hotelclub was under no obligation to honor multiple email accounts. Indeed, I recall someone previously posting language from the site noting that it was "one bonus per customer." So while I hope as many people (including me!) get their future reservations honored, I'm not going to encourage anyone to go down to the courthouse and "fight the SOBs."
You're wrong. If anything, we knew that $25 for a resort (bidding as a 3* and being upgraded as $40 is the minimum if you bid resort*) that was charging $600+ for a room in-season, when I went, was a mistake.
Name Your Own Price means nothing. The hotels load a rate in the priceline system themselves and that one was misloaded by Hilton (La Quinta Resort). Priceline assigns a hotel based on what you "bid" if you meet or exceed that minimum for the hotel class and quality level you are "bidding" for and priceline pockets the difference. There really is no bidding process, it's just blindly buying a room. I should know, I am one of the original moderators on BFT predating it to the Yahoo! Priceline board.
There was no "one bonus per customer" language AND IT STILL DOESN'T say that that on their promos (read the t&c's). The person who posted that was incorrect and I posted they were incorrect. I make purchases over and over using the same coupon codes and often receive free or very cheap merchandise (even Hertz is offering a free car for a weekend day but they're limiting it to once per month clearly) so I certainly would not agree that "we should have known". It's up to them NOT US to use language to limit the use of their promos. Some of these booking ARE being cancelled weeks or months after so it is EXACTLY the same as the Priceline/Hilton La Quinta Resort fiasco.
I have many legal protections from travel companies in my state, California, and if it comes down to it, you can bet I WILL BE in court against them (I'm sure it will be their parent company, Orbitz). They have NO legal right to cancel these competed (paid-in-full) transactions and the La Quinta Resort case LEGALLY proves that.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by iahphx
Hmmm, that would be a bit surprising and obviously bad news.
I would think a more likely problem would be them refunding your money less their $15 change fee (basically them arguing that you forfeited it by "abusing" their system -- trying to get a little money back from this fiasco would probably appease their beancounters).
I can see no legal justification for them keeping your entire prepayment.
Well, there's no way they're going to be keeping any money of mine if any of these are cancelled. I'll just cry "scam" and that be the end of it, and forward in my receipt showing amount paid and other documentation.
For those who have reservations still standing - PRINT PRINT PRINT!
We'll have no recourse against their cancellations if we don't have the reciept in hand (well, it will be harder, at least!).
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CalItalian
You're wrong. If anything, we knew that $25 for a resort (bidding as a 3* and being upgraded as $40 is the minimum if you bid resort*) that was charging $600+ for a room in-season, when I went, was a mistake.
Name Your Own Price means nothing. The hotels load a rate in the priceline system themselves and that one was misloaded by Hilton (La Quinta Resort). Priceline assigns a hotel based on what you "bid" if you meet or exceed that minimum for the hotel class and quality level you are "bidding" for and priceline pockets the difference. There really is no bidding process, it's just blindly buying a room. I should know, I am one of the original moderators on BFT predating it to the Yahoo! Priceline board.
There was no "one bonus per customer" language AND IT STILL DOESN'T say that that on their promos (read the t&c's). The person who posted that was incorrect and I posted they were incorrect. I make purchases over and over using the same coupon codes and often receive free or very cheap merchandise (even Hertz is offering a free car for a weekend day but they're limiting it to once per month clearly) so I certainly would not agree that "we should have known". It's up to them NOT US to use language to limit the use of their promos. Some of these booking ARE being cancelled weeks or months after so it is EXACTLY the same as the Priceline/Hilton La Quinta Resort fiasco.
I have many legal protections from travel companies in my state, California, and if it comes down to it, you can bet I WILL BE in court against them (I'm sure it will be their parent company, Orbitz). They have NO legal right to cancel these competed (paid-in-full) transactions and the La Quinta Resort case LEGALLY proves that.
We probably have enough people on this thread to warrant a class action lawsuit!
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You're wrong. . . . . I have many legal protections from travel companies in my state, California, and if it comes down to it, you can bet I WILL BE in court against them (I'm sure it will be their parent company, Orbitz). They have NO legal right to cancel these competed (paid-in-full) transactions and the La Quinta Resort case LEGALLY proves that.
Well, I still have a copy of the Tube promo and it clearly states: "Offer valid for new HotelClub.co.uk members only."
If you want to argue with a straight face that every time you signed up you were a "new member" be my guest.
I'd also suggest a less combative tone (at least to fellow flyertalkers -- argue all you want with hotelclub!). This situation is VERY different from the Priceline La Quinta dispute whether you care to acknowledge it or not. La Quinta was a clear case of "wrong": it's pretty crazy to argue that your price was too low on a bargain hunting "name your own price" website -- much less weeks after the fact. Here, "right and wrong" are far more ambiguous. I hope you're able to see this moral (and legal) distinction.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jaymar01
So far, it has been a small number of posters who report their bookings are cancelled.
It may be a bit premature to be retaining Perry Mason for litigation.
I agree, I was just being coy. I don't actually think I'd ever take them to court over this, in the slight chance that what we did could be justified as illegal.
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"# HotelClub may change the Member program rules or program benefits from time to time with or without prior notice. These changes may affect the value of Member Dollars already accumulated.
# HotelClub also reserves the right to terminate the program, or any part thereof, in any jurisdiction, at any time with or without notice, even though such termination may affect the right to accumulate Member Dollars or redeem Member Dollars. HotelClub is not liable to Members in any way for any value or benefits Members may lose as a result of any changes made to the program."
So it appears that HotelClub has every right to do what they want, though it's arguable for pre-paid bookings.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dante
Under the General Conditions of membership,
"# HotelClub may change the Member program rules or program benefits from time to time with or without prior notice. These changes may affect the value of Member Dollars already accumulated.
# HotelClub also reserves the right to terminate the program, or any part thereof, in any jurisdiction, at any time with or without notice, even though such termination may affect the right to accumulate Member Dollars or redeem Member Dollars. HotelClub is not liable to Members in any way for any value or benefits Members may lose as a result of any changes made to the program."
So it appears that HotelClub has every right to do what they want, though it's arguable for pre-paid bookings.
I saw this as well, but I'm pretty sure stealing one's money by not rendering services wouldn't fly well with my credit card company. I'm sure they'll be eating up the whole, "they told me I get $50 to use on hotel rooms, so I used it and paid the difference, and then they cancelled them and won't give my money back!" explanation.
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I saw this as well, but I'm pretty sure stealing one's money by not rendering services wouldn't fly well with my credit card company. I'm sure they'll be eating up the whole, "they told me I get $50 to use on hotel rooms, so I used it and paid the difference, and then they cancelled them and won't give my money back!" explanation.
Yeah, that would be the "injustice" here -- not hotelclub realizing tht it will be god-awful expensive to allow flyertalkers' to mercilessly exploit a loophole in their money-off promotion. (And, I would note this is REAL money they have to pay out. It seems their commission is about 20 percent -- so if you book a $50 hotel room, they lose out-of-pocket 40 bucks in this deal).
I think everyone who gets a room cancelled will get their money back. But, if history repeats itself, there will first be some "drama." After all, if they were screwed up in offering this promo, they're likely to be screwed up in correcting it.
If you want to argue with a straight face that every time you signed up you were a "new member" be my guest.
I'd also suggest a less combative tone (at least to fellow flyertalkers -- argue all you want with hotelclub!). This situation is VERY different from the Priceline La Quinta dispute whether you care to acknowledge it or not. La Quinta was a clear case of "wrong": it's pretty crazy to argue that your price was too low on a bargain hunting "name your own price" website -- much less weeks after the fact. Here, "right and wrong" are far more ambiguous. I hope you're able to see this moral (and legal) distinction.
It does NOT say that on their other promos and it does NOT say limit one per customer, as I have already stated (go look at the current hotelclub.com/us30 or the hotelclub.com/us50 and find ANY restriction). It also does not say $49 is what you will get in bonus money, for that matter, on that promo either.
Again, it is NOT any different than the La Quinta Resort Priceline/Hilton fiasco LEGALLY. You continue to be wrong. This is a company that is doing business under laws of states and countries worldwide. If they complete a pre-paid transaction, they are on the hook to deliver the goods and services. PERIOD and we have LEGAL precident in California for this. Something YOU can't deny.
FYI. There is no such thing as "Name Your Own Price" on Priceline. That is a marketing gimmick. The rates are set by the hotels and this was a misloaded rate by a Hilton/La Quinta Resort employee. RESORTS NEVER GO FOR $25 on PRICELINE. EVER. If you're lucky enough to guess what the lowest rate a hotel with an assigned quality level in a particular zone and has put inventory in the system, you bought yourself a room. Priceline does not buy and resell rooms like Expedia, Travelocity or other like services.
