Pre booked a hotel that is now overbooked

December 28th 2007

You visit one of the various hotel booking sites on the web and prebook and purchase a hotel. You arrive at the hotel and find out there's no room for you and are subsequently sent to a nearby hotel that you have to pay for. You get a refund for the first hotel, but what about hotel number two?

If you ever encounter the situation above, here are some tips on what to do to get your money back.

First off, hotels customarily accept reservations than they have actual rooms. Their database systems calculate the number of possible no-shows which allows them to oversell. Most times this works, but every so often someone has to get turned away regretfully.

If you've prepaid and prebooked, don't leave the original hotel so quickly. Call the vendor or site from which you booked. That agency could send you to another hotel where you can apply the credit. Even better, ask the hotel, which supposedly reserved a room for you, if they will cover the room at the next place.
Most important tip of all when traveling, never assume and always ask questions. There are no such things as dumb questions here.