Originally Posted by
nctaitingfong
I accidentally booked a hotel on United website. I tried to cancel within seconds, but was unsuccessful. I made multiple calls to hotel, United Customer Care, Website support (radial button to cancel was not an option - "website down"), Chase to cancel. No one could help me, because they couldn't see reservation. However, hotel did assure me that my card was not charged. Chase United Explorer would not reverse charges. What or who could I have called - should I encounter this situation again?
does the reservation allow for cancellation?
looks like United is using TRAVELSCAPE/VACATIONSPOT (both expedia owned) as the actual OTA. (check the Terms&Conditions on the website)
typically for OTA bookings, hotel wont see your reservation until the night-before/day-off, and wont know your credit card (hotel gets a temporary OTA credit card)
call united or the OTA directly. dont bother calling hotel, or chase (unless you really want to chargeback, not something i recommend in this situation)
and next time, understand why booking (hotels, airlines, cars) thru OTAs can be a headache. book direct if you want to avoid some of the headaches (can still have issues booking direct)
(terms and condition)
You can cancel your Reservation either online when signed into your account with our affiliate, or by calling its or our (as the case may be) customer service agents.