Hoteling.com bankruptcy?
 

After finding a "deal" on a hotel in Miami Beach through TripAdvisor price comparison that had Hoteling.com featured as the click through booking site to access deal. While the rate was suspiciously lower then hotel direct or the other OTAs,my assumption was TripAdvisor would not have a potentially problematic company as a link through supplier. Yesterday, I learned hoteling.com as part of the www.lowcostholidays.com group has ceased operations. Worse yet,they are not ATOL protected as would have been required in EU, so refund will likely never happen. What a disaster..

I immediately called hotel and they had already received word on this and cancelled my booking as they were advised they would not be paid. Rebooking would be at almost double rate I have "paid" already. Highly advise anyone who has upcoming reservation on Lowcostbeds or Hoteling.com call the hotel and hopefully can protect reservation, although hotels will and rightly so require payment as they did not receive from these companies in advance.

Look in this post from Argentina
 

Trip Advisor and Hoteling connection
 

If i cannot get money back from www.hoteling.com,which looks highly unlikely as I saw it as lowest price partner offer on Trip Avdisor site as initial contact, trusting this was screened for credibility..since Trip Advisor was part of the travel flow linked in sone way for this does any responsibility come back to them? Noticed all the pages on the subject of hoteling.com on trip advisor shut down or they say "on vacation"..hopefully not witb a hoteling voucher in hand!

credit card? dispute charge?

This really gives me pause on booking anything farther out than the 90 days the credit card company allows for a dispute. I am looking at booking a hotel for February on a site that is a little shaky, because I can save $1500 on it. That $1500 is nothing though if the company goes tits up before my stay, and the hotel is not paid. No recourse.

standard practice should be to confirm hotel has received payment

is credit card dispute always limited to 90 days?

Typicall 60 or 90 - but there is often some leeway, though based on their goodwill only. The exception is airline tickets which I understand is extended by law in the US. Ask a senior manager (GM) at the hotel via email if they are willing to honor the rate at the original rate. This would not be unusual as they were willing to sell it at that rate in the first place.

Most times the hotel does not receive payment from the OTA until you check in/out, so no, even confirming that the hotel has your reservation does nothing to protect you.

not when 100% prepaid at booking to 3rd party (often not an OTA)

Not sure what you mean. All the Expedia and Priceline companies pay the hotel after the stay, not when the reservation in made, even when you prepay. Most other OTA's as well, none I can think of off hand that prepay the hotel.

i said "often not an OTA" and paid to "3rd party" like original luxurylink

edit - a number of FTers got hit by LL, there were threads

Yeah, I know with our hotel, Luxury Link had a direct bill account set up. Which means we billed them AFTER the guest stayed.

We had another account similar to Luxury Link, where the guest prepaid, that recently went under. All the reservations they had in our system got an email letting them know that their reservation would be cancelled unless we got a CC to confirm.

Here is a link to a story about Luxury Link, and the customers who prepaid being left without reservations....

http://www.travelweekly.com/Luxury-T...dly-shuts-down

lowcostbeds had contracts with hotels, and paid at the time of guest departure, not up front. This is how many of the 3rd party sites work.

Ugh desperately trying to get my money back from PayPal and Chase bank.... And now need to pay for a new hotel:(

I would advise you immediately putting a "fraud" claim through whatever card you used to book this. Even if you paid for it legitimately, if the company fails to honor their side of the agreement, a bank or credit card company will side with you and eat the cost and refund your money if the company can't deliver.