Otel.com

Victim Location 29466

Total money lost $571.30

Type of a scam Online Purchase

I was planning to stay in Las Vegas in October 2020 and on 9/22/2019 I made a reservation (772797D) with the Platinum Hotel and Spa for 3 nights 10/2-10/5/2020. At the time of booking I paid $571.30 to otel.com Booking in Istanbul. I also had to pay a $17.13 international transaction fee. I had Free Cancellation of the room until 9/25/2020. I received voucher confirmation 1482705. On July 23, 2020 I called the hotel and stated they had my reservation but did not have my money therefore otel.com had my money. On July 23, 2020 I cancelled through the otel.com website due to the coronavirus after initially trying to call the number provided on their website +90 8505027769 and got a recording that the number did not work. A few days later Otel sent me a voucher 5DV1J5BW6 expiration 8/21/2021 that I was supposed to use when staying at a hotel. This was totally unacceptable to me and I responded that I wanted the full refund of my money I was entitled to. I started to check around the Internet and found many complaints against this travel agency. There are hundreds of complaints on Trip Advisor Bargain Travel Forum, there is a Facebook group with hundreds of member titled “Scammed by otel.com", many negative reviews on Trustpilot as well as with the Better Business Bureau.

A week later from one of these websites I got the email address of General Manager [email protected] and contacted him by email about my refund. He got back to me and gave me these excuses that I would be repaid 30-90 days. The website Terms and Conditions states refunds will be returned in 7-15 days which I pointed out to him. He stated that was old. He gave me the excuse that he could not refund me my money because of Covid and I told him that my money was not a loan to operate his company. Subsequently especially though the Facebook group Scammed by otel.com I discovered many people have been going through similar issues regarding refunds. Promised refunds never sent, vouchers used that were no good so people had to pay again at the hotel and endless promises of refunds. The successful ones to get their money back are in Europe that have different laws regarding using a credit card, but even some of these people have been challenged by otel.com to return their money. Of course the US has a 60 day limit and I am well past that time otherwise I would use that mechanism too. otel.com continues to accept reservations and continues to rip people off and I am trying my best to stop that. I filed a complaint with the FTC and e-commerce. I also filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and initially they got a response from Hotelspro but then nothing. I doubt you can get my money back though that would be great but I definitely want to do everything I can to stop this company from ripping more people off. I asked our Facebook group of 772 if ANYONE had received money back from otel.com and I got 0 responses. Think about that not 1 person received money back from otel.com except those who could do bank claims. Even some of those with bank claims were charged again by otel.com! I know that ASTA has a code of ethics and this company is violating that code. I would be grateful for your response and cooperation to address this matter to do what we can do to stop this travel agency. I have all my communications to substantiate this claim..

Victim Location 29466

Type of a scam Travel/Vacations

On 9/22/2019 I made a reservation with Platinum Hotel and Spa in Las Vegas for 3 nights 10/2-10/5/2020. I had Free Cancellation until 9/25/2020. At the time I paid $571.30 to Metglobal via Mastercard who gave me a voucher. On July 23, 2020 I cancelled due to the trip being cancelled because of Covid. I submitted a request through the website Otel.com for a refund. A couple of days later they sent me an email for a voucher to last until 8/1/2021. This was unacceptable to me and I responded that I wanted the refund to my card. I started checking around and found there were 100’s of complaints regarding this company Otel.com on a Trip Advisor forum and on a Facebook group "scammed by otel.com" as well as BBB. Even if you go to the Otel.com Facebook pages there are 100’s of complaints against this company. A week later I attempted to contact [email protected] who I found from one of these websites as a General Manager and got no response. This company I found out is based out of Istanbul Turkey which is why I can’t give a lot of information about it because I dont have it. People should be aware not to do business with this company as they are unscrupulous.