I canceled my Hawaii family vacation. Motels.com will only give me a voucher | Travel Troubleshooter

Beth Tananbaum cancels her Hawaii getaway at the peak of the pandemic. But Accommodations.com will only give her a voucher for her lodging — and it’s about to expire. Can she get a refund?

Q: I booked a family excursion to Hawaii for Could of 2020. Then COVID-19 shut anything down. Everyone refunded my income completely other than Resorts.com, which issued vouchers for the a few rooms I experienced booked.  

The vouchers expired just before Hawaii even reopened. Then I been given an email that they were being extending the vouchers to this December. Hawaii didn’t reopen thoroughly right until the conclude of July.  I can’t get to Hawaii prior to December because some of my children are in faculty.  

I hardly ever agreed to a voucher, and I didn’t cancel my vacation by preference. I have spoken to the client service reps at both equally Accommodations.com and Expedia (which owns Motels.com), who say the hotel denied my ask for for a refund for the reason that of the hotel’s coverage. 

The lodge claims that its coverage is to completely refund clients in this circumstance. I investigated, and it turns out that the hotel hardly ever even obtained the money from Lodges.com. It only will get the dollars the day in advance of I verify in. Hotels.com had my revenue. 

I sense that Inns.com has stolen my revenue. Can you support me get my $4,000 back? — Beth Tananbaum, Plantsville, Conn.

A: You booked a nonrefundable reservation at the Outrigger Waikiki Seashore Resort (great lodge, by the way). Nonrefundable usually means that you simply cannot get your revenue back again if you terminate your vacation options. But if the resort cancels your reservation, you unquestionably are entitled to a refund.

You forwarded your paper trail between you, the resort and Lodges.com. It seems to be like you contacted a profits supervisor at the Outrigger, who opened a circumstance with Expedia. As a consequence of that investigation, Expedia promised to concern a whole refund within just 7 to 10 days. But you hardly ever acquired the dollars. 

Hawaii shut to tourism throughout the early times of the pandemic. Most hotels canceled their bookings and issued refunds. So one thing went awry with your canceled holiday. I feel Expedia’s guarantee to refund the funds makes this an open-and-shut situation.

If you operate into a difficulty like this in the long run, you can always attain out to an government at Expedia or Accommodations.com. I publish the names, quantities and electronic mail address of the Expedia and Accommodations.com client services contacts” target=”_blank”>Expedia and Accommodations.com consumer service contacts on my consumer advocacy web site, Elliott.org. 

I think getting in contact with the Outrigger’s income supervisor was an great strategy, mainly because it led to opening a circumstance with Expedia. You also saved a meticulous paper path and all of your receipts and records. Lodges.com claimed that Outrigger denied your declare because it is versus the hotel’s plan to refund a nonrefundable place. However, an Outrigger agent reported the resort did refund all resort visitors.

It is noticeable that your circumstance had been taken around by some kind of automatic technique that sent you vouchers you could not perhaps use. Which is all the extra motive to try to attain a human at Lodges.com or Expedia.

I reached out to Expedia on your behalf. Separately, you also reached out to the Expedia executives. The enterprise reviewed your scenario and issued a refund.