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REPORT ON HOTELS.COM (TRAVELNOW.COM) AND THE HAWTHORN NAPA HOTEL (HYATT HOTELS)

On April 23, 2005 I booked two rooms online at the hotels.com website for the Hawthorn Napa on the nights of July 15th and July 16th. Within minutes, I received three separate confirmations rather than the one I was expecting. The last two confirmations were entered at the same precise minute (01:42 CDT), four minutes behind the first one (I have the original emails to back this up). Since these seemed to be obvious duplications, I immediately called the site's toll-free number. The operator assured me that he would cancel the last two bookings and that, in any case, these entries would be seen by anyone in the firm who looked at them to be an obvious misbooking.

When we arrived at the Hawthorn Napa around 3:00 p.m. on July 15, 2005, the clerk informed us that six rooms were still booked under our name. He told me that he could delete these reservations then without charge. Moreover, we were told the next morning that the hotel had been completely booked that night. On July 16, 2005, my American Express account was billed for the two rooms we occupied and only these rooms.

However, on July 17th, my American Express account was billed $667.52 for the other four rooms on a no-show basis. I telephoned the manager of the Hawthorn NapaMr. Anand Patelon receipt of this bill. He told me that his hotel had no responsibility and that I would have to claim reimbursement from hotels.com. Hotels.com sent me an email informing me that the dispute would have to be directed to the hotel.

I asked American Express for help. They eventually gave me a copy of a letter they received from Mr. Patel (dated September 23rd.) This letter states that Beth at Travelnow [417-864-3600 x8886] confirmed to Mr. Patel that my reservations were made at different times, which confirms there were no duplications. Because I can prove that the last two bookings at issue were made at precisely the same minute, I telephoned Mr. Patel again when I received his letter to Amex. He urged me to call Travelnow. When I called this number on October 21st, I was connected to someone named Ida, who claims that the firm now has no record of the transaction at all. I faxed some records to her, but did not receive the further response she promised. I left a voice mail message with Mr. Patel, which he also failed to answer.

On November 1, I re-faxed the material to another supervisor at Travelnow, whose initials are KJ. Like the other parties, she has failed to acknowledge receipt of the message or respond in any other way.

Edward
Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts
U.S.A.