HotelPlanner

This group is willing to pay Google a more than anyone else, so their search result shows up first, even ahead of the actual hotel one is searching for. People call thinking they are talking to the hotel, then make a reservation. Everything can go downhill from there, credit card is charged immediately, and their reservation service fee is added. Once arriving at the hotel staff explained they have so many problems with these types of services, leaving them in a position of trying to resolve problems they did not create. They suggested to me I should never use this service, or any service similar to this again. The reservation was sent in based on old prices that are no longer valid, then HotelPlanner sends the hotel a purchase order made out for far less than that, because they also want to keep part of the hotel rental rate for themselves in addition to their service fees. Stiff the hotel owner, force them to accept a very low payment without any agreement in place, HotelPlanner does not care. Obviously, the hotel refused to accept the reservation and payment, and refused to provide a room, even though HotelPlanner keeps saying it's confirmed. Then it's impossible to cancel through HotelPlanner, because it was recorded in their system as non refundable. All attempts to communicate with HotelPlanner are then refused, despite being given a few case numbers. 300 $cdn has evaporated, non recoverable, when a reservation was not even obtained. It's a business that revolves around deceptive communication, refusals to communicate, and outright scamming. Itinerary No. H******* Confirmation: *******459

Another thing to learn from this is to no longer trust Google search results. Any business that shows up high in a Google search must have paid an extremely high fee, and will have to be overcharging or providing a lower standard of service to make up for that. No longer will I trust any business that pays these high fees to Google.

I sent a final request message, before pursuing a way to escalate this. To my surprise they sent a new voucher to replace the refused voucher. However, the vouchers they have sent have a spelling mistake in the name that will probably prevent the voucher from being accepted by a hotel. So far they have not acknowledged or responded to my requests to correct the spelling. Although I have a voucher again, it's probably useless. If I try to use it and it's refused due to name not matching, then I will once again be told that the booking was non refundable. Argh.