Said It Here

Hotel says they don't have my third-party booking

Third-party booking platforms and hotels frequently fail to sync reservations, leaving travelers stranded at the desk with sold-out rooms and no immediate place to sleep. Platforms often compound the issue by refusing to rebook alternative lodging, offering only a delayed refund while sticking to strict cancellation policies.

What people tried

Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.

  1. 1
    Calling or emailing the hotel directly to confirm the reservation beforehand
  2. 2
    Checking back by phone occasionally to ensure the reservation is active
  3. 3
    Checking email immediately after a booking appears to fail to see if a confirmation was actually sent before trying again
  4. 4
    Calling customer service and putting the hotel front desk on the phone to confirm cancellations
  5. 5
    Obtaining a cancellation letter from the hotel, scanning it, and emailing it to the booking platform
  6. 6
    scrambling to find alternative accommodation at the last minute
  7. 7
    Checking reservations directly on the airline website
  8. 8
    Verifying that a 13-digit e-ticket number has been issued rather than just a PNR
  9. 9
    Regularly checking back on the reservation status

In their words

Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.

“When we arrived to the hotel we opened the Super app and showed the clerk. Clerk stated the hotel was sold out, no rooms available and that our reservation was not found.”source ↗

“3 hours later, Super informed me the reservation had been cancelled and nothing they could do. They could not find us another hotel and would only refund our money at the last second.”source ↗

Several-Plantain-797 · r/travel

“Checked my email, and I was shocked to find 2 separate confirmations for both bookings.”source ↗

“Next day, Agoda sent me an email saying after checking with the hotel partner (I suspect there is a middleman between Agoda and hotel), they would stick to the no-cancellation policy and not able to cancel one of the bookings.”source ↗

Acefr · r/travel

“Then, on September 12, essentially as my client was arriving to check in, the hostel cancelled the reservation.”source ↗

“We refused that option and had to scramble to find alternative accommodation ourselves at the last minute.”source ↗

Prize-Scientist944 · r/travel

“Anyone have a way to get in touch with Expedia, phone bots won’t put me in touch with a person”source ↗

“Got presented with an error page but my card was charged an hour later. Then I got a flight confirmation from my airline with tickets but nothing from the car rental place or Expedia”source ↗

-verycontent- · r/travel

Where this came up

r/travelaccommodationcustomer servicerefundstraveltravel booking

People with this problem also raised