Earlier this week, our hotel code thread had a good hotels.com coupon: $30 off a 3-star, $40 off a 4-star, and $50 off a 5-star hotel. A great code if you used it for one-night stays, but certainly not unprecedented. That said, hotels.com quickly pulled the discount, suggesting that perhaps they didn't mean to be so generous.
A few minutes ago, I got this email from them:
Re: Your recent Hotels.com bookings
We are writing to you regarding your booking itineraries listed below.
xx, xx, xx, xx
We have discovered that, in relation to these itineraries, coupon codes were inappropriately used to make speculative bookings or bookings in anticipation of demand as restricted by the terms and conditions found on
www.hotels.com.
We are advising you that all of these bookings will be cancelled immediately in accordance with these terms and conditions. Any money that you paid will be refunded back to the credit card you used to make the booking. Hotels.com will process your refund within 24 hours. It may take your bank up to 30 days to post the credit back on your account.
If you would like to rebook the same itinerary at the prevailing rate, please do so using
www.hotels.com. Or you may wish to call and speak with a hotel expert that can assist you with your booking. Use the coupon code to receive 10% off your booking.
Obviously, I wasn't making "speculative bookings" -- I was making bookings I fully intended to use. Indeed, I cancelled some other reservations I was holding once I secured these.
Does anyone think there is any consumer protection available in this case? I would certainly not say this was an "obvious" error -- it just looked like a good sale that could be very efficiently used if you were savvy about it. Being "savvy" (aka, unprofitiable to hotels.com) doesn't seem like a good justification for getting your reservations cancelled.