I attempted to cancel Booking.com Cardiff lodge as I used to be in hospital… however received scammed: CRANE ON THE CASE

In the summer, I booked two separate nights at Hotel Indigo in Cardiff as I had plans to see friends. I used the website Booking.com and it cost £207 altogether.

Unfortunately, I was admitted to hospital in November, two weeks before the first stay. I tried to cancel but couldn’t manage it as I was so ill. 

Three weeks before the second stay in December, I realised I still wouldn’t be well enough. This time, my friend phoned Booking.com on my behalf to cancel. 

After some back and forth, she was told she would have to transfer £45 to cancel, so I told her to leave it. 

However, later the same day I received a Whatsapp message on my own phone from Booking.com customer service. 

I filled out a form they sent me to claim a refund, but then the person told me to download an app to receive it. I found this odd so ended the conversation. 

I wrote two letters to Booking.com’s head office asking for help and sent them by recorded delivery, but it didn’t reply. 

Why doesn’t it respond to letters and can I get my money? D.W, Monmouthshire

Helen Crane, This is Money’s consumer champion replies: When you contacted me, you had a feeling that something wasn’t right. 

When cancelling the first stay in November, you called Hotel Indigo but it said you had to cancel on the Booking.com app instead. 

You told me you aren’t especially tech-savvy, and couldn’t manage it in your unwell state. 

You were therefore willing to let the money go for that date – but what happened when you tried to call off the December stay struck you as much more sinister.  

Why would Booking.com charge you to get a refund, and what was it doing asking you to download Lemfi, an app that offers ‘global accounts for African professionals?’

I’m sorry to report that you have been the victim of a nasty scam. 

Here is what I believe happened. When your friend phoned Booking.com to cancel the December stay, I think she Googled the firm’s customer service number. 

But instead of the genuine details, the first result that appeared was unfortunately that of a scammer. 

This is called Google spoofing, and it works like this: A scammer takes out an advert on Google, so that when someone searches for (for example) ‘Booking.com customer service’ the fraudster’s own phone number will show up as the top result.

In this way, they can trick people into phoning them, or visiting their website, instead of Booking.com. They will set up a convincing fake website or phone line, to fool customers looking for help into thinking they are genuinely in contact with the company in question. 

I think that you and your friend both spoke to and messaged a scammer, rather than Booking.com – with your being tricked into handing over your mobile phone number as part of the phone conversation. 

Then, when you filled in your details on the form they sent you on Whatsapp, the fraudster had your bank information – which was the aim of this particular fraud. 

Thankfully, they didn’t take any money from you. 

While you were messaging the scammer, you started getting fraud alerts from your bank and it quickly froze your account. 

I think telling you to download the Lemfi app was another way to try and get money out of you. If you had agreed, the scammer may have asked you to transfer money into the app, or hand over the password to your Lemfi account and use it as a back door to transfer more money from your current account.

Often, scammers want to direct people to these payment apps, as they aren’t as likely to spot scam activity as a bank. 

It can also be harder for the customer to get their money back via, for example, a chargeback.

This all seemed odd to you, so you decided to return to good old pen and paper and wrote two letters to Booking.com’s head office in London, asking for help cancelling the reservation. You sent these via recorded delivery but concerningly, neither received any response or acknowledgment. 

You told me this was what really annoyed you about the whole case. 

‘I know that in the grand scheme of things this was a trivial amount,’ you said.

‘It’s the refusal of these companies to acknowledge complaints, especially when sent by recorded delivery that really infuriates me.’

As the first letter was sent several weeks before the hotel stay, and given all the trouble you had been to trying to get the refund, I felt you were owed you your money back for the December stay. 

Usually it’s the hotel’s responsibility to refund you, as Booking.com acts as an agent and your contract is with the accommodation provider. 

However, as Booking.com ignored your request for help, I felt it had a part to play in this, too. 

I contacted both organisations. Initially, Booking.com said it would not pay your money back as both your reservations were non-refundable. 

It contacted Hotel Indigo, which is owned by Intercontinental Hotels Group, to ask if it would be willing to pay you the cash which amounted to £114 for the December stay. 

Booking.com said the hotel declined to do so, citing again the non-refundable nature of your booking. 

When I expressed my disappointment, though, Booking.com had a change of heart.  

It has given you a refund of £114 in cash for the December reservation, as well as a credit of £95 for the first stay which you can use towards another reservation made on its website. 

After all this, you told me you won’t be using the site again, however.

A spokesperson said: ‘In addition to travel insurance, we do advise guests to book stays with free cancellation, in case plans do need to change at the last minute.’

They added: ‘If there is an issue with a reservation our online help centre details the way our customer service team can be reached. 

‘As hotels are responsible for their own cancellation policies (in this case both were non-refundable) we also provide their contact details in the reservation confirmation, and they too can be reached via our help centre.’

When I visited the help centre, there was a warning at the top of the page stating that Booking.com would not contact customers on Whatsapp, or ask for payment information via phone or email. 

If you need to phone a company, it’s always safest to visit their official website and use the phone number stated there, rather than using a number on Google search.  

I also contacted Intercontinental Hotels Group, but Booking.com refunded you before it responded.  

I asked Booking.com on multiple occasions whether it responds to customers who write to it in the post, and it didn’t give me a proper answer. 

I’m therefore left to assume that the answer is no. If that is the case, it is unfortunately not alone. 

Almost every week, a reader will get in touch with me saying they have written to a company and been ignored.

Of course most people prefer to pick up the phone or go online, but it isn’t right that people who can’t – or who get bored of sitting on hold or talking to a useless chat bot – are simply disregarded. 

Have you had a letter in the post ignored? Get in touch with me on [email protected]. 

CRANE ON THE CASE