winnie19

We booked a reservation through Otel.com for a hotel is spain. You need to give your credit card details. They then tell you that unfortunately there are no rooms available at this time. We then booked the same hotel with another provider and when we arrived at the hotel found our credit card was declined! We had to use money we had brought with us for our holiday and pay with our debit card for the room. We then checked our credit card account and found that Otel.com charged us full amount for a room that didn't exist. When we contacted them we were told it was a toll free number in the UK under a sister company METGLOBAL.COM. This is in fact a phone number in the Phillipines that takes money out of your phone bill! We asked them when we could get the refund and they said 5-7 working days which we still have not received (20 days later). We told them we had no money with to enjoy our holiday and they said they would upgrade us to full board until the refund was settled. We thought this was a nice gesture however we have since found that the price of this was also deducted from our credit card at our expense!! We declined the offer of full board at the hotel as soon as we found out about this. To date OTEL.COM / METGLOBAL.COM have charged us for a room and full board which they never had, and also the cost of multiple NOT toll free numbers to the Phillipines. We have sent multiple e mails which they have not responded to. These were sent to a girl called MACY in Istanbul, and MONICA CO in the Phillipines. We have had to contact our solicitors who are looking into legal action. DO NOT USE OTEL.COM / METGLOBAL.COM

Graziella5b

This is valuable information,someone along the way when we were making reservations told us to use otel.com,fortunatelly we did not. But if I am not misstaken it might have been someone in fodors or in slowtravel. Please be aware, I guess we should stick to sites we are familiar with.
lately I have been making reservations mostly directly with hotels and obtaining good deals.

Graziella5b

Follow up, however I think I did check the otel.com site, hope nothing bad comes from that.

Robert2533

Have you denied the credit card charges with you credit card company? You should be protected from this type of scam.

josele

Check also this post here in Fodors: Has Anyone Heard of Otel.com? by tamarat
it's been going on for some time, somebody from otel.com answers, and there are mixed reviews.

joannyc

I used otel.com 4-5 years ago to book some hotels in Germany and didn't have any problems.

basingstoke2

That does sound very strange and does not reflect my own experience with Otel.com which was fine. In fact, the rate for the room I had booked increased before I got there, but the Otel.com rate was honored - I even got a free upgrade.

Robert2533

Otel.com is another discount booking site. You generally get what you pay for. In this case, problems. You should always book with the hotel's own website to make sure the rooms are available at the price you want to pay. Outside of the hotel's own web page, booking.com is probably the next best thing, but not perfect.

derichon

bonjour,

je suis passé par le site otel.com pour reserver une chambre a l'hotel nikko de shanghai du 14 au 16 fevrier 2012.

ma carte a été debitée le jour meme d la reservation.

le jour de mon arrivée a l'hotel nikko la reception me dit qu 'il n'ont pas recu de réservation.

apres discussion avec otel.com ils ne comprennent pas la situation et m'indiquent que le probleme va etre réglé rapidement.

rien du tout en fait.

il a fallu que je regle a nouveaua l'hotel lors de mon départ le 16.

malgre des relances aupres d'otel .com a ce jour le 8 mars la situation n'est toujours pas réglé.

ce site est nul et totalement incompétent pour regler des situations inconfortables pour leurs clients.

a eviter a tous prix.passer par agoda ou boking.comqui sont bien représentés en asie

serge VEDERE

nytraveler

Someone else who should contact their credit card company and deny the charges. I hope you used AmEx.

This is one of the reasons we use AmEx whenever possible. On the rare occasion when there is a problem with a charge (and we did have one mystery charge for over 400 pounds for a hotel in the UK when we hadn't been there in more than a year) they resolved them quickly and without any fuss. And always in our favor.

Have had one or two disputes with Visa charges and they are a PIA - and really don;t go to bat for the customer.

In any case there are enough booking sights out here not to use otel.com.

bulldoguk

derichon I wish you luck in dealing with Otel (Metglobal based in Turkey).


They will converse and correspond in English, but their business ethics are totally Turkish Bazaar. I have been communicating with Caroline for six months and its like talking to a computer with pre-set unemotional responses. They do not understand the concept of customer service.

I had to pay an extra 326 euros for a one night stay in Barcelona (September 2011) when I found I had no reservation at my Hotel., Metglobal had accepted my booking and taken payment in January, nine months before. They also confirmed the booking two days before my stay.

I must give the them credit, after two hours and a number of phone calls around the world, they did find me another hotel. Unfortunately! for me, the Metglobal business credit card they had used to book the room was “rejected “, so I had to pay again. They did send me an email confirming they would refund my money in full . They did pay 80% of the refund, three months later. I am still waiting 6 months later for the balance.

I was told by Caroline shortly before she answered your complaint , “that she was no longer in customer service“. I challenged Caroline, and asked her why she was still replying to complaints. Quote

“While I am no longer in customer care, my change of department is new and hence I am still taking care of some customer care issues that need my assistance until such time that the new manager in customer care is fully inducted. My colleagues in the customer care team will be happy to continue to assist you”

I have been corresponding only with Caroline for six months and I still require the balance of my refund. I can only think it’s the Hotel booking agents equivalent of “get lost

I again wish you luck.

.

kappa1

If you do book through a 3rd party, after having done it, do try to contact the hotel yourself to say hi, to tell your room preference (lower floor, quite room) etc, and at the same time you can check if the hotel does have your reservation. I do always because I'm a bit worrying kind but that does work even if most of the time that's not necessary.

I do use booking com and venere com. Have tried Otel once but did not use it at the end for another reason. They had the best rate but required pre-payment (makes sense). The other 2 usually don't but with higher rates which is ok with me. They usually let you cancel 48 hrs before without fee. Otel.com with maybe the lowest rates don't requring pre-payment. You need to choose one or the other considering these conditions.

May_Yassawi

I require a fast respont and a solution to my below booking
I have booked my accommodation through www.Otel.com in February 2012, received paid in full on February 4th as below
TRACKING NUMBER : OA-50696418

Hotel booking details:
RESERVATION STATUS : Confirmed
DESTINATION : Cannes
HOTEL : Best Western Cannes Riviera
CHECK-IN DATE : Jun 21, 2012
CHECK-OUT DATE : Jun 28, 2012
ROOM TYPE : Double, Double
MEAL PLAN : Cold Buffet Breakfast
Total price : 1757 EUR

wanted to get other rooms and contacted the hotel directly and booked and asked them about my booking above as I got a pre-paid voucher as below
http://w3.metglobal.com/voucher.php?...id=OA-50696418
the hotel responded that the did not accept this recervation and I dont have resrvation and they have contacted otel.com and told them this booking is not acceptable, I contacted otel.com several times and had a chat with customer service based in Manila, a lady called Mae and Marie and Trinitie and Jim and Ila, all insisted on my reservation is correct, the hotel reply to was as below

Just to keep you informed: today we called and emailed Exclusively Hotels regarding your reservation with them. The reservation was first refused back in February, and since then we have sent multiple emails refusing the reservation as we do not accept bookings from Exclusively Hotels during that period in June (when it is conference-time in Cannes and so room prices are higher than normal). We have again refused the reservation today, and requested that the booking be cancelled and you be refunded any payment made as the booking was never accepted.
I have send mgs to otel.com through FaceBook and another email to met global to '[email protected]' asking for a respond and wanted to talk to someone in-charge not customer service and till date nor feedback from them
I am based in New Zealand and what will happen if mt issue is not solved and I travel all the way to south of france and find no booking waiting for me
I need an urgent solution and a quick feedback to solve my current situation, please email me directly to [email protected]
thank you
May

kawh

i am glad to be reading this and anxious to see how it's resolved. have started to use otel before, but got a little freaked out at the amount of info they required before even giving you a firm price. (i think that was why i was so suspicious.) so have avoided them so far... maybe that was lucky.
kawh

May_Yassawi

I still have time, will wait and see what will happen. they promissed they with solve my problem, will update you

bulldoguk

May- Immediately contact your credit card company and request a “charge back” for the amount you paid

Do not expect any help from Metglobal. Do not except a full refund, if offered . Metglobal will refund at to- days exchange rates and you will have bank charges to pay.

There are plenty of hotels available in Cannes for your dates. Try Venere.com

Rubicund

Thanks Leo for that ringing endorsement of otel.com on a two and a half year old thread for your first post on Fodors.

Work for otel.com?

Robert2533

Another first timer, another promo for a new company? Looks like they've only been around since May of this year.