Jeremy Durham

I had a very interesting situation happen today; bear with me through the details. I booked a hotel room online through travelocity for $124.00 on Friday morning. I arrived at the hotel on Friday and attempted to check-in. The hotel’s kiosk told me it could not charge my card. I thought it was a bit strange, but figured maybe Travelocity just books the room, and I actually had to pay on arrival. So, I gave the man the card. Saturday morning, I checked out, and paid the $100.00 the hotel has charged me for the room. Apparently, I’m now one of the many people who have been double charged. The interesting bit is that not only did I get double billed, but the hotel actually charged me 24 dollars LESS than Travelocity. That’s almost 20% LESS.

So, what do I do? If it was a simple issue that the hotel charged me and so did Travelocity, I would just contact the hotel and ask for the refund. I book through Travelocity mainly for convenience, but also under the impression I won’t get ripped off.

My advice? Before you rent through Travelocity, I would contact the hotel directly to see if you can get a better price. Chances are, you can. Sometimes significantly better. Now, this was only one day, and only 24 dollars, but imagine if it were, say, 7, or 10? Now you’re talking about a family license of Leopard or an iPod Touch. Don’t overpay.