Booking.com review: Royalton splash cancun

I never received any information from Booking.com or Royalton Splash Riviera Cancun about their 14-day cancellation policy. If I had received correspondence about their 14-day cancellation policy from Booking.com or from Royalton Splash Riviera Cancun, I would have cancelled before the deadline; or in my case, I would have requested that the trip be postponed due to reasons beyond my control. There is no way that I would cancel and forfeit $1,178.10. I am disputing the denied claim for the following reasons:

1. Booking.com never sent any information to me concerning the cancellation fee. It was sent to Bank of America after I requested that Bank of America reverse the charges from Booking.com. Furthermore, the dates listed on the correspondence that they sent to Bank of America are incomplete. The requests did not begin on 7/18/2023. I had begun calling them since 6/28/2023.

2. I also went on the hotel’s website to gather information about their cancellation policy before I cancelled the reservation, and no information was available.

3. The information from Booking.com says to go to the hotel’s website, but the hotel does not list its cancellation policy.

4. The only information I received from the hotel after booking with Booking.com was more advertisements about additional events and services available upon my arrival.

5. When I called the hotel’s customer service number, no one answered the phone.

6. I had to cancel my reservation due to a passport backlog in the United States. I even contacted my state representative to get my passports to me on time. I received the passports after the trip would have taken place.

7. I contacted Booking.com on several occasions and was never told that I was ineligible for a refund from the hotel. On the contrary, they told me that they were calling the hotel in Mexico for me and could not speak to a live person. That occurred each time I called Booking.com.

8. When Booking.com was able to speak to a live person, (they never included me in on the call) they advised me that the representative in Mexico said that they would be happy to issue a refund to me, but that the request must be made in writing from Booking.com.

9. I asked the representative from Booking.com to send me proof that they sent the information to Royalton and was told that it was confidential information. I asked for them to forward the information to me. I was told that they would, but I never received it.

10. I called on several occasions and was told that they were waiting for a representative in Mexico to issue the refund. Booking.com told me that they could not do anything about issuing a refund until they heard back from Royalton Splash.

11. Each time I called Booking.com, they put me on hold and said they would call the hotel in Mexico. After about a two-to-five-minute hold, I was told that no one answered the phone.

12. As a result of the issues with Booking.com and Royalton Splash, I requested the charges be reversed from Bank of America.

13. After I was given a credit from Bank of America and it was later denied, because Booking.com responded, I called the hotel in Mexico after purchasing a long-distance plan through my mobile company and was told by a representative in Mexico that they would be happy to issue the refund and that Booking.com should stop telling customers to contact them about refunds because the refunds were issued through Booking.com.

14. I then called Booking.com and joined them in on the call with a representative from the Mexico hotel, but another representative answered and said the other person that I spoke with was not available.

15. That same day, Booking.com asked me to send the correspondence that I received from them to an email address: [protected]-fhyp.dmda.azkt.[protected]@property.coming.com so that they could investigate the issue, the email was returned to me undeliverable.

16. The dates that I contacted Booking.com were as follows:

a. 6/15/2023—I received a message that Booking.com would be charging my card the following day for my reservation at Royalton Splash.

b. 6/16/2023—Made payment (When I click on the link to get information about the hotel, it goes to Booking.com’s website.) Absolutely no information about the hotel’s cancellation policy is available.

c. 6/26/2023—I received a message from Royalton Splash with a confirmation number and my reservation details offering more services and advising of available amenities.

d. 6/28/2023—I cancelled my reservation due to my passports not arriving in time (although they were applied for in April of 2023 and expedited). I received an email from Booking.com letting me know that my reservation was cancelled and that I did not need to take any further action and that I would receive my refund in 7-12 days. I waited 12 days when I did not receive the refund and saw at the bottom of the email, it stated that the cancellation cost was US $1,178.10. This is when I began to call Booking.com almost daily.

e. 7/14/23 Krishaine S said that she was waiting from someone in Mexico to issue my refund.

f. 7/16/23 I received an automatic reply asking for my experience with customer service.

g. 7/18/23 Regie S said that he had sent the written request to Mexico and was waiting for them to issue the refund because it was never done. I was also told to email Booking.com and advise of my issue if I did not receive the refund.

h. 8/1/2023 I requested to speak to a manager at Booking.com. The “manager” was only able to show outrage at the amount of money that was at stake and could not help with the situation, stating that I need to understand that it was up to Mexico to issue the refund. This was unacceptable because he could not get in touch with someone at the hotel to advise why I was being told conflicting information from both Booking.com and what they claimed the representative at Royalton Splash had advised them.

i. 8/7/2023 I emailed [protected]-fhyp.dmda.azkt.[protected]@property.coming.com explaining that I requested a refund on 6/28/2023 due to passport issue. I advised that I could not get a hold of anyone at Royalton Splash and that the phone number that booking provided for the hotel is not a working number. I did not get a reply to this email.

j. 9/14/2023 I purchased an international plan to call Mexico and was given false information as stated in item #14. That same day, I told Booking.com (Crezielle Ann G.) that I did not receive anything from them in writing advising of the 14-day cancellation policy. Booking.com advised that I email them the information that they sent to me with my confirmation number. I sent it to them and did not hear back from them.

k. 9/14/2023 the email was returned to me undeliverable.

Throughout this entire process with Booking.com and Royalton Splash, there has been a language barrier. The representatives at Booking.com do no seem to fully understand their refund policies and they are trained to tell the customer that they will call the hotel, place the customer on hold for several minutes and then advise that they cannot get a hold of anyone at the hotel. Again, I was never advised in writing or verbally that there was a 14-day cancellation policy. I was only advised of this when Booking.com responded to Bank of America. This has created a great deal of stress for me. In addition, my son suffered a medical emergency on September 8th and that is the reason I have not continued to pursue Booking.com nor was I able to re-open the dispute with Bank of America since September until now, December 9, 2023.

Booking.com’s practices are unfair. They should clearly advise customers of their policies and they should train their customer service representatives in their policies. They should not advise customers to click on their link to be joined to the hotel’s cancellation policy if the hotel’s website does not provide the information. The whole point of using Booking.com is that they are the ones who communicate with the hotels. Furthermore, Booking.com only responded to my issue when Bank of America became involved in the claim. They never reached out to me concerning my issue. It is very convenient that they found the hotel’s cancellation policy when Bank of America became involved, but never advised me of the policy. Their story changed.

Again, had I been advised of the cancellation policy, I would have either cancelled in the appropriate amount of time or postponed the trip; I would not have forfeited my refund of $1,178.10. In addition, a cancellation fee of the entire hotel stay is an unfair practice, especially if the cancellation is due to unpreventable circumstances.