Based on a conversation with Roomer customer support, my understanding is that in a perfect transaction:

1. Person A lists their reservation on Roomer.

2. Person B purchases that reservation.

3. Roomer contacts the OTA or booking center that the original reservation was booked through requesting them to completely change the reservation from Person A to Person B.

4. The OTA or booking center contacts the property to completely change the reservation from Person A to Person B.

5. Once the OTA or booking center confirms to Roomer that the reservation has been changed, Person B received their confirmation email and everything is all set.

The problem is that there are too many points where human error can occur. Most often it seems at the hotel level when the OTA or booking center contacts them to change the reservation. Instead of doing it properly, it seems that many front desk agents just add on Person B as an additional guest. In my instance, my name was only added in the notes. After everything was resolved, the desk agent explained how difficult it is to change the name on a reservation in their system. I suspect that is the same at many properties, or that the front desk agent receiving the call either doesn’t understand/care enough to get it done correctly, hence the relatively high number of problems with Roomer.

So back to your concerns, according to Roomer’s business model, there isn’t anything to worry about. But in the real world, it’s a legitimate possibility. I think that’s a pretty unlikely scenario though. I’m sure most people enter into much riskier situations on a daily basis, but then again, no one should ever do anything they aren’t comfortable with. I’m still keeping my eye on the site for good deals.