Straight Talk: Avoid falling for scams when booking a hotel
Spring and summer are near, and we are all itching to plan an upcoming trip. BBB warns consumers to keep an eye out for hotel booking scams. BBB Scam Tracker has received multiple reports of travelers falling victim to lookalike websites while making hotel reservations.
How the scam works
You search for hotels in the city you plan to visit. Among the top search results is what appears to be an official hotel website or a legitimate travel booking agency. When you click the link, you find a website with professional photos from the hotel and reasonable pricing.
Everything looks normal, so you decide to book a room. You enter your credit card information and check out. However, when you review your credit card statement, you notice you have been charged a much higher rate than you agreed. It turns out that you were not on the official hotel website after all. You accidentally clicked on a third-party site that is not affiliated with the hotel.
One consumer reported this experience: “I was redirected without knowing it to a 3rd party website … which looked like the hotel website. I made what I thought was a reservation for two nights. But when I got the email confirmation, I saw that I was charged almost $1,000. I was immediately concerned and located the ACTUAL hotel, and they said that there is no reservation under my name/email and booking number which doesn’t even line up with the format that they use.”
When you contact the company to cancel your reservation, you may not be able to get through to anyone. If you do, they will likely say that you have made a non-refundable reservation. The best they can do is cancel your reservation, but charge you for it anyway.
How to avoid hotel booking scams
• Only book hotels through official websites. Double-check the URL to ensure that you are on an official hotel website before you enter your credit card information. Scammers are pros at building fake lookalike websites to fool you into giving up your information.
• Only make reservations through secure websites. Check to see if the URL starts with https:// and displays a padlock symbol. If a web page is not secure, close the tab.
• Watch out for misleading ads. Look at search results carefully, and know that scammers can pay for high-ranking ads that appear at the top of a search result.
• Research businesses you are not familiar with. Search for reviews on third-party websites and keep a close eye out for reports of scams. Never share your personal information with a person or business until you know they are trustworthy.
FOR MORE INFORMATION – Visit BBB.org/Travel for more tips and advice on planning your next vacation. If you spot a hotel scam, report it at BBB.org/ScamTracker. Your report helps to boost consumer awareness and stop scammers in their tracks.
FOR BBB INFORMATION – Visit BBB.org or call us at 330-454-9401 to look up a business, file a complaint, write a customer review, read tips, find our events, follow us on social media, and more!
This article originally appeared on The Alliance Review: Straight Talk: Avoid falling for scams when booking a hotel
