[drmohitg]

Hi,

This is to bring to your notice that the travel website: Hotelqickly.com ( hereby referred to as HQ) is a fraud website. I recently got scammed by them. They were apparently doing good 3-4 years back but have hit rock bottom since last 2 years. Bankruptcy is part of the business and is acceptable. But what HQ is doing is that they are continuing to take money to make reservations across the world with the clear intent not to honour your reservation near the date of travel. This is how the scam works:

1. They continue to have a presence online in form of their own website and also present across all major travel portals like TripAdvisor ( hereby referred to as TA), Trivago, Kayak etc.

2. They will take your booking, accept payment and email you both your booking confirmation and payment receipt details. All good so far.

3. In some cases, the end hotel that you booked will also confirm that a booking has been made in your name while in others the end hotel never actually gets any reservation.

4. Just 2-3 days before your date of travel, HQ will mail you that they have cancelled your booking from their end due to some issues with 3rd party vendors and they will issue you credit vouchers instead. The company is listed in Hongkong and the call centre number does not work. They do reply to Email ( in my case they did) and would stick to their version that they have cancelled the booking due to issues at their end. Interestingly their system does not allow a credit card payment reversal and they can only issue you a credit voucher for a future travel. The credit voucher is valid for 6 months across the world, but it comes as no surprise that as soon as you enter the voucher details through their portal, you will find no room available anywhere across the world.

And that is the end story with your money gone. The scam has been going on for last 1 year now with travellers across the world getting the exact same Email with the same end result. In a few cases where people have paid through Paypal, they have managed to get their money back. I have not come across any concrete post on the web which said that they could manage to get a refund otherwise.

Thing to Note: Beware of travel portals like TA, Trivago, Kayak etc. I have used TA since long and have trusted them. The wealth of information available there is amazing. But as a result of that trust, I let my guard down and allowed TA to redirect me to HQ for booking the hotel. TA in a reply said ( and so has Trivago to other customers) that they bear no responsibility and are merely a aggregator of sorts. They do not have any vetting process for the service providers that are present on their portal. I do not know if legally this argument will stand since I searched for the Hotel on TA and they directed me to HQ while also taking a commission or advertisement fee from HQ in the process. But of-course I do not have the time or energy to take the legal route.

I have raised a payment dispute with my bank and keeping my fingers crossed if they can provide me with a solution.

Lessons to be learnt:
1. Try to book directly with the Hotel if the fair difference is not too much. Sometimes they offer a bette rate.

2. Always confirm your booking with the end Hotel directly.

3. Try using payment services like Paypal etc where there is a level of security for your money although with an additional cost associated.

4. Do some research on the travel website that portals like TA, Trivago etc are directing you to. I might only limit myself to the major 3-4 players from now on.

Here is a link to a whole thread on TA reporting this scam ( I came across this later after getting scammed myself) : https://www.tripadvisor.com.my/ShowT...in_Travel.html

[Rudra Sen]

Mod note: Thread moved to Route / Travel Queries.

[GTO]

Thanks for the heads-up! Total fraud. I did read online about their liquidity crunch.

Originally Posted by drmohitg

Lessons to be learnt:
1. Try to book directly with the Hotel if the fair difference is not too much.

Or use a reputable portal like MakeMyTrip. Almost all my bookings with them turned out as expected, with just an exception or two (i.e. hotel cancelling after confirming). That's why, even if I book on MakeMyTrip, I always:

2. Always confirm your booking with the end Hotel directly.

[drmohitg]

Originally Posted by GTO

Thanks for the heads-up! Total fraud. I did read online about their liquidity crunch.

I understand liquidity crunch. But the fact that they are continuing to accept bookings and then cancelling them all without issuing a refund is clear intent to fraud.

Or use a reputable portal like MakeMyTrip. Almost all my bookings with them turned out as expected, with just an exception or two (i.e. hotel cancelling after confirming. That's why, even if I book on MakeMyTrip, I always:

True. Even I have made a mental note to prefer MMT or Goibibo from now on. More so being Indian companies, one atleast has that sense of security (even if it might not amount to much in the end) that if something goes wrong, they can approach these companies. HQ, for instance, being in Hongkong is a ghost/faceless company for me in that regard.

The biggest culprit here is Tripadvisor. Honestly i trusted them to have some basic screening in place to prevent such companies from having a presence on their platform. The thread link that I shared dated back to January 2018. And even after repeated complaints from travellers across the world, TA turned a blind eye and kept directing more and more people to HQ to fall victim to the same scam.

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by GTO

Or use a reputable portal like MakeMyTrip

Originally Posted by drmohitg

The biggest culprit here is Tripadvisor

Tripadvisor has long left any iota of playing a sensible role in the travel industry. It's the network, huge source of existing information and strong userbase that's keeping it going and ahead of the competition.

The Guardian had done an excellent detailed analysis on Tripadvisor - while the heading and initial paras are glorifying the site, in the following sections, they had listed several dark and (technically) illegal practices that are continued openly on the forum, quite a few of them by TA itself.

Link

[narayan]

If you have raised a dispute with your card issuing bank there is close to 100% chance that you will get your money back ( max after a 90 day investigation period ).

I am also surprised they have a LIVE PAYMENT GATEWAY for 1 year through which these frauds are happening - I frankly find it a bit unbelievable - and here is why.

If repeated frauds are reported on a merchant ( HQ in this case ) - in no time does the card association (VISA/MASTERCARD) raise a red flag to the merchant acquiring bank and suspend their online acceptance business.

Hence 2 possibilities exist

1 They possibly weren't duping a whole lot of people and only very few lost their money like you
2. No one has reported this fraud to their respective card issuing banks ( very very unlikely )

Anyway good thing is they are still active and doing business online/offline because THAT IS PRECISELY what will get your money back. Your card issuing bank will get a refund from the association through HQ's bank against other pending collections they have on "genuine " bookings once its established that your version of the story is correct.

[ajayclicks]

Thanks for the heads-up. I almost always book through MMT and so far so good. I also almost always confirm the booking with the hotel directly. And lately I have started using this MMT feature where I book with Rs.1 and the balance gets deducted 2- 3 days before the booking date.

[deep_bang]

Originally Posted by drmohitg

Hi,

This is to bring to your notice that the travel website: Hotelqickly.com ( hereby referred to as HQ) is a fraud website.

Thanks. Meanwhile there seems to be a typo error in the website name. I think it should be hotelquickly.com. please change it if possible as it also helps searches whenever people need information.

[drmohitg]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

The Guardian had done an excellent detailed analysis on Tripadvisor - while the heading and initial paras are glorifying the site, in the following sections, they had listed several dark and (technically) illegal practices that are continued openly on the forum, quite a few of them by TA itself.

Interesting article. I learnt the hard way. But even now, it goes without saying that TA is your go to website to plan your vacation. Every minute aspect is covered and that too very extensively. You also get latest updates from fellow travellers. It is only the fact that despite such a thread exisitng on TA's own platform and many of them having raised it with them over Emails, TA continues to channel traffic to HQ.

Originally Posted by narayan

If you have raised a dispute with your card issuing bank there is close to 100% chance that you will get your money back ( max after a 90 day investigation period ).

Its a huge amount (nearly a month's salary) and I would be very glad if my bank is able to get me the money back. But to my surprise, not many people have mentioned actually getting refunds. Almost all have mentioned raising a dispute with the credit card company but no mention of the refund per se. I hope it is due to the lethargy that sets in once you get your refund.

Originally Posted by ajayclicks

Thanks for the heads-up. I almost always book through MMT and so far so good. I also almost always confirm the booking with the hotel directly. And lately I have started using this MMT feature where I book with Rs.1 and the balance gets deducted 2- 3 days before the booking date.

The problem with HQ was that in many cases they did make the reservation and then went ahead cancelling them on their own closer to the date of travel. Basically I feel they cancel the reservation near to the date of payment release to the end hotel.

Originally Posted by deep_bang

Thanks. Meanwhile there seems to be a typo error in the website name. I think it should be hotelquickly.com. please change it if possible as it also helps searches whenever people need information.

My apologies. It is hotelquickly.com. Thank you for pointing out.

[//HB]

Originally Posted by drmohitg

I have raised a payment dispute with my bank and keeping my fingers crossed if they can provide me with a solution.

Hi drmohitg, as I see you have apparently paid by credit card, and have already raised the dispute, then it it almost certain to be settled in your favour. Just ensure you give your bank ALL the possible supporting docs you can (emails, chat transcripts etc.) and a solid case in your favour should mostly ensure you're saved from the scam. Just be aware that banks and card issuers have STRICT timelines to be adhered in case they ask your responses on the matter, so be sure to reply any such query on TOP PRIORITY to ensure you're not outside the stipulated time.

Aside to Mods - kindly consider editing the website name in the opening post, even though the subject captures it correctly.

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by drmohitg

Hotelquickly.com

One question, Is there any reason to book with this site? Since this is a relatively unknown name (atleast to me) and yours was a big ticket purchase (going by your answer to narayan)

1. Try to book directly with the Hotel if the fair difference is not too much. Sometimes they offer a bette rate.

This I agree with. Sometimes I even book on hotel site, even if there is considerable difference, especially on longer trips where the stay is critical and happens on peak days like Xmas day. The peace of mind is worth the premium.

Have had a couple of bad experiences even with popular ones:

1. Prasad Executive in Solapur - This was a prepaid accomodation via Cleartrip and when we went there like 6pm, they were giving excuses like they couldn't find our reservations. Eventually were given one about an hour later. This was on day 2 of a 10-day trip.

2. Treebo Ram Leela in Rameswaram via Booking.com - This was even strange. They said we'd have got SMS or Emails from Treebo after we booked. Which never happened. Thankfully this was not a prepaid, I managed to call up and get an accomodation a km away

Originally Posted by GTO

Or use a reputable portal like MakeMyTrip.

Makemytrip (along with GoIbibo) were in news recently where MH & GJ hoteliers weren't accepting bookings from these sites.

[the_skyliner]

Thanks for the heads-up.

TA has limited liability here as they can not control the actions of 3rd party. But they should definitely act on negative feedback received from many and block the particular website.

There is one more portal one should be careful of: mytrip.com.

They offer cheap air tickets however there are numerous reviews online saying the airliners didn't honour the booking at the last moment.

Don't have any experience with them but did read a lot of frustrating feedback from the ones who got duped.

It's listed on Kayak, etc.

[R-Six]

Thank you for sharing this experience! I’m surprised to hear about the way TripAdvisor handled the entire issue. Washing off their hands after tricking the user into the HQ website is just absurd.

While I do all my research for the trip using TripAdvisor, I have stopped using them for making an actual booking. For the last couple of years, I have started sticking to MMT or Goibibo for all my bookings.

But, with all the wealth of information available about any given destination around the globe, TripAdvisor is still the best place to do your groundwork and research. Be it about the destination or about the hotel. But I have always noticed that the prices and offers on the TripAdvisor were a bit more than other travel portals like MMT and Goibibo, which was the main reason for me to shift to these for the final booking.

Even better if you can book the hotels from their corporate website if the prices or deals available online are almost similar or close to each other.

[drmohitg]

Originally Posted by narayans80

One question, Is there any reason to book with this site? Since this is a relatively unknown name (atleast to me) and yours was a big ticket purchase (going by your answer to narayan)

None at all. It must have been the fact that there price that day must have been the cheapest. My fault is that I blindly trusted TA. From my past experiences in last 2 years since I started planning and booking my holidays. Earlier it was always the old tried and tested travel agent route.

So in these last 2 years, I found out that booking things yourself after doing your research on TA, comes out way cheaper. Your regular next door travel agent just cannot match the prices being offered online. So I started doing my booking via TA. What TA does is show you prices from all these websites and I assumed ( my fault) that all of them are trustworthy. I have successfully booked hotels via TA on booking.com, agoda.com, Hotels.com, MMT so far and each time it was just because that website was offering the most competitive price. The fact that I never faced an issue made me further trust TA and this time it directed me to HQ.

[typlo]

Sorry to hear about your situation. I almost exclusively use OYO now because of their credibility and accountability. The experience has been great for me. No hotel cancellations and high standards maintained for hygiene. Costs a little premium for the nicer hotels though but not by all that much. The issue is, portals like goibibo and MMT are certainly trustable but have no control over actions of hotels. I've been, thus, been denied check-in a total of 2 times for absurd reasons.

You can request your bank for a chargeback. I once got cheated by an online retailer and requested a chargeback from my bank. The bank allowed me a temporary credit and it took over 26 days for investigation to complete. This is a nuclear option one should use if all else fails.