Maritime basketball team‘s travel headache a cautionary tale about online trip bookings

The Internet has become the default location for just about anyone who is researching and booking travel arrangements. We largely trust in the sites, enough that when we show up at the hotel lobby, we expect the desk clerk will have our reservation and the room will be ready.

In most cases that’s what happens. But what if it doesn’t?

A group of young basketball players and their chaperones from the Maritimes found out exactly that when reservations they thought had been made through the online travel site Hotwire evaporated.

The 40-member group, teens with the We Will Win Youth Association’s basketball team and their parents, had reserved 17 rooms at the hotel to attend a tournament over Thanksgiving weekend. But when they arrived, they were told the booking had been cancelled by Hotwire.

They’d already paid for the reservation but now were left scrambling to find other accommodations, according to CBC News.

Hotwire initially stayed quiet on the problem but after media reports, the online site refunded $3,500 and blamed the issue on a communications breakdown. Apparently the hotel was not able to honour the reservation but no one at Hotwire contacted the trip organizers.

Transactions conducted in cyberspace can be riskier than those done through a traditional travel agency says Evan Kelly, senior communications adviser for the Better Business Bureau’s B.C. branch.

“When you don’t have a brick-and-mortar store to deal with your refund you’ve got to wonder where the recourse is,” he told Yahoo Canada.

Essentially, you’re relying on the good faith of the site’s operators if something goes wrong through no fault of your own. If they don’t step up, you’re largely on your own, said Bruce Cran, president of the Consumers Association of Canada.

“Is it easy to rectify?” asks Cran. “No it is not.”

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That’s a little chilling, especially since a survey done last month for Travel Tech, the Washington, D.C.-based association for online travel service providers, found 55 per cent of U.S. travellers choose online travel companies most when searching for hotels. Almost 70 per cent viewed booking through online travel sites as convenient and safe.

Clearly, most people have a good experience using sites such as Hotwire, Hotels.com, Expedia and Travelocity, which offer the potential for savings on hotel rooms, car rentals and other travel arrangements.

Some travellers returning to traditional agencies

While the use of online travel sites continues to grow in Canada, Phocuswright, a travel market research firm, said the trend is slowing.

Claire Newell, who operates a Vancouver travel agency and is a frequent TV and radio commentator on the industry, said Phocuswright data for the last four years shows people are migrating back to traditional travel firms.

“Part of that reason is because of the customer service issues,” she told Yahoo Canada.

Bricks-and-mortar agencies provide a more personal service and offer a higher level of control, said Newell, whose agency also has an online presence.

“These are people who have come in or spoken to somebody over the phone, made a reservation and are in control,” she said.

They’re better than online sites’ help lines at sorting out missed connections or disappearing hotel reservations, said Newell. She recalled booking for a large group for an extended stay in the south of France, who discovered their hotel could not take everyone.

“We fought tooth and nail to make sure that the clients either got a better hotel or they got a full refund at their choice,” she said.

But the prospect of getting compensation for disrupted plans from an online agency are often slim, especially if you’re a typical Canadian who prefers not to make a fuss.

Cran said most providers’ first response to a complaint is to deny it’s their problem. If the money involved is relatively small, a lot of people get steamed but take things no further, he said.

“If that gets rid of half the people who want to make a claim because of the size of the amount and the rest of it, they’re free of them,” said Cran.

“But if you’re persistent, they probably will do something. But there’s no way for you to easily enforce something on an online supplier. You don’t even know where half of them are.”

The incorporated company operating the site most likely is not located in Canada, making it hard to pursue a complaint through small-claims court or elsewhere.

“It’s very difficult to take it to the nth degree and take it into court if you had to,” said Cran. “That’s a more expensive proposition than most people want to be involved in.”

In situations like that, added Evans, most people will take their lumps. The service provider may lose some customer goodwill, but given the size of the online travel industry, it might be considered a reasonable trade-off for them.

Yahoo Canada tried to contact Travel Tech to ask whether there were set industry standards for resolving customer complains – their posted statement of principles doesn’t mention anything – but no one responded to telephone and email inquiries.

Another approach is to file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, said Evans, though that may entail tracking down the company’s headquarters and contacting the BBB branch in that location.

“Filing a complaint with the BBB where this company is registered, they’re going to have an office somewhere,” he said. “That’s certainly a place to start.”

Some sites may not be BBB members, though.

Cran and Evans recommend would-be customers arm themselves with knowledge before they start trolling for bargains.

Start out maybe by looking at reliable sites that provide consumer feedback. Marketwatch, for instance, recommends Sitejabber.com, operated by the U.S. National Science Foundation.

Check travel site’s terms and conditions

Look at a site’s terms and conditions to get a sense of what it will be responsible for and what it won’t. Most of us, if we’re honest, don’t read the many pages of fine print and simply check the box to say we did before confirming the transaction.

For instance, Hotels.com’s document says if a hotel changes or cancels your reservation, the site assumes no liability for additional costs incurred in making other arrangements.

If you do book, use a credit card or PayPal, not a debit card. If there is a dispute it’s good to have the credit card company (or in the case of Visa or Master Card, the issuing bank) on your side. Credit cards may also offer some refund protection whereas paying with debit is essentially a cash transaction and that money is gone.

Evans also recommended verifying the booking directly with the hotel.

“Once you’ve made the reservation online, contact the hotel directly to make sure they’ve got confirmation of your reservation,” he said.

But if you want to be absolutely sure, use an old-school travel agent, said Cran, whose services are covered under provincial consumer-protection laws. In B.C., for example, the Travel Assurance Fund, will reimburse customers for services that aren’t delivered, such as airline flights and hotel bookings.

“What they’re being paid for is to provide you with security and protection, which you may not get if you go through something like Hotwire,” said Cran.

Bargain-hunting travellers will always be drawn to online agencies but don’t necessarily realize the gaps in service that exist if something goes wrong. Those deep discounts are also illusory, she contended.

“There are some better deals out there potentially online but those deals are fewer and further between,” she said. “That, along with customer-service issues, are why people are going back to traditional agencies.”

For simple A-to-B trips booked at the last minute online may be the way to go. But for complex holiday plans it’s worth comparing the potential savings online offers against packages offered by traditional agencies that can also offer more personal service.

“I’m not dissing online agencies; they definitely have their place,” said Newell. “One of the things that they’re lacking is maybe a bigger customer-service presence.”