CentralR hotel bookings Unreliable hotel bookings site Internet

I strongly advise against using this website for hotel bookings, as bookings made with them are not reliable.

I made a booking in October 2013 for a hotel in Vilnius, Lithuania. The booking process was simple enough, and I immediately received a confirmation of the booking, together with theinformation that a deposit had been charged to my credit card, and that the balance should be paid to the hotel on departure. So far, so good: this was within the terms advertised.

A few days later I received an email informing me that there was in fact no hotel room reserved for me. This was extremely annoying as the booking was for a very busy in Vilnius, and hotel prices in the meantime had become VERY high indeed (many hundreds of USD per night). Even worse, I received an automatic email telling me that it was ME who had cancelled the booking, and the deposit would not be refunded.

it happened like this:

A few days after making my booking, I started receiving email from another website (travelmed.org) that I had never heard of, demanding that I provide them with credit card details via email or fax. This sounded like possible dishonesty. I contacted them and told them that I did not have access to a fax and was unwilling to send credit card information via email as it is insecure. I explained that I could provided details by phone - if they could explain who they were and why they needed my card information. But they said sending details by phone was not acceptable, and that I would lose the room if I did not do as they asked.

At this point I contacted CentralR.com by phone. It has to be said that the person I spoke to was friendly and tried to be helpful. He explained that the other website was some kind of agent for the hotel itself and that they needed the credit card details as a safeguard against no shows. But he had already provided them with the card details (without me knowing). He explained that the card details must have been correct as CentralR.com has used them to collect the deposit. He advised that I contact travelmed.org again to offer card details by phone. I did so, but they again refused this. A short time afterwards travelmed.org announced that the room was no longer being held, and had been given to someone else, and that no other rooms were available.

Another phone call to CentralR.org resulted in a friendly apology and a promise that the deposit would be returned, despite the email saying it would not. But it did NOT result in a hotel room being obtained for me. travelmed.org proposed another hotel. But it was located far from the city, and received very bad reviews, so I considered it unsuitable.

In the end, as hotels are now impossibly expensive for the dates I will be there, I am going to sleep on the floor in the hotel room of a friend who was wise enough to book with a reputable site.

Summary: if you book with this website, you cannot be sure you will actually have a room, even if they send you a booking confirmation. And be aware that they may pass your card details to a third party. They may be friendly and apologetic on the phone after such incompetence - but that does not help you get a room.