Southwest Hotel booking site appears to be a scam ...
OK update as of 2pm on 10/19/17. The problem is WAY worse than I thought.
The Director of Sales from Hotel Beacon just called. It turns out that Hotel Beacon NYC has been refusing reservations from the booking company on the Southwest website for at least two months now. So the fact that the hotel STILL shows up on the Southwest web page is a mirage. I've asked Hotel Beacon to take my reservation directly. I'll try to get a refund from the Southwest booking company. Although I suspect it is not important, I did use my Southwest RR Chase CC to book this.
So until you hear more from me:
- Booking a hotel through the Southwest web page is, at best, untrustworthy. The booking company appears to be a borderline scam. It is good I didn't need the RR points. I'm giving up 34,000 here. I have three phone numbers and an email address for the 'Southwest Hotels Concierge'. I get no (or much delayed) response from the email address. Two phone numbers go directly into voicemail and the third number is permanently busy.
- Check ALL your hotel reservations done via the Southwest web page directly with the hotel. Do NOT assume anything.
- This sucks. I'll be contacting Southwest to make them aware of this scam. Can anybody recommend an individual to call at corporate? This crap is very embarrassing to both Southwest and the hotel(s).
- I'd like to make clear that the hotel appears to be the innocent party here.
- Here is the quote from the 'Southwest Hotels Concierge'. It is a complete lie:
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Thank you for contacting Southwest Hotels.
This type of situation rarely happens and we are sorry for the inconvenience. The hotel advised us that they are SOLD OUT for your selected room/bed type which is Standard King Room. We can follow up with our hotel partners to cancel your reservation and process a full refund so you can rebook on whatever hotel you prefer. Would you like us to proceed on cancellation request?
We await your response. Thank you.
Kind regards,
Southwest Hotels Concierge
1.844.782.9792 (US & Canada)
1.773.770.4953 (International)
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Last edited by mike_la_jolla; Oct 19, 2017 at 3:40 pm