hostelworld.com beware

esperanza

Has anyone here ever reserved with hostelworld.com. My friend made a hotel reservation on this site over a month ago, and paid down a deposit. On her arrival, we discovered that the site had closed down or the hotel was no longer working with the site in question. As she never double checked the reservation by telephone, her room was not reserved as expected. :mad:

This so-called reservation site is based in Rathmines in Dublin if the internet site is to be trusted. There are no contact details apart from the postal address, so I am already convinced that the outfit is a con!

Please, anyone who knows anything about the site or who has any advice to offer on how to go about getting my friend's deposit refunded, I'd be very grateful.

beware to everyone who books online, make sure the site has a good reputation or you have email contact or telephone contact with the site!

testicle

I've had no problems with hostelworld.com before, and have used it on numerous occassions in the past, both at home, and abroad.

As for who owns it :

Web Reservations International Ltd.
1st Floor Brighton House
121 Lower Rathmines Road
Rathmines
Dublin 6

01 4980700

penexpers

I've used hostelworld.com on tons of occasions without any trouble whatsoever. I know quite a few of the people working for it too.

hostelworld.com has a very good reputation (it's one the most used sites in the world for booking hostels)

decob

esperanza wrote:

Has anyone here ever reserved with hostelworld.com. My friend made a hotel reservation on this site over a month ago, and paid down a deposit. On her arrival, we discovered that the site had closed down or the hotel was no longer working with the site in question. As she never double checked the reservation by telephone, her room was not reserved as expected. :mad:

This so-called reservation site is based in Rathmines in Dublin if the internet site is to be trusted. There are no contact details apart from the postal address, so I am already convinced that the outfit is a con!

hostelworld/webres are far from a con, and are in fact quite a reputable company.... and i'm not saying that cos i know quite a few people working there.. _looks in brown envelope_ Woohoo!

esperanza wrote:

Please, anyone who knows anything about the site or who has any advice to offer on how to go about getting my friend's deposit refunded, I'd be very grateful.

beware to everyone who books online, make sure the site has a good reputation or you have email contact or telephone contact with the site!

from the about us section on hostelworld.com

"Hostelworld.com is fully owned by Web Reservations International Ltd. (WRI) For further information on WRI please visit www.webresint.com."

Did you or your friend bother to go to the webres site? click on the contact button at the bottom of the page? and try and contact them?

StickyMcGinty

i used them only 2 weeks ago for an amsterdam hostel and they worked great, not a bother.

comet

Yep I agree with what people have said it's a very reputable site no doubt about that, started up by Irish guys and now an international success.
However last year I used it to book a hostel in Galway, when I got there they had no record of any booking, luckily they had a spare bed and they gave me that, plus the hostel i think gave me back the booking fee i had paid hostelworld.com which was pretty sound. I think the lesson I learned is to ring ahead or email and confirm the booking with the hostel a day or 2 before just in case, thats always good practice for any booking anyway.

Irish-Lass

I booked for 3 of us to go to New York in March and the hotel was exactly as they described it and not a problem at all.

Booked to stay in Madrid new year just gone 4 of us used them again and the hotel was great.

Certainly will be using them again

bringitdown

Never had a problem, once I even obtained a refund on a deposit despite the fact it was my own fault (I didn't read the T+C's of a particular hostel properly).... very nice guys.

There is a mechanism for contact them via the booking page, your friend should have the link in their confirmation email that they got originally.

Chavster

As above. I'm just back from Holland where I stayed in a hotel booked through hostelworld. Absolutely no problems whatsoever.

If booking through a 3rd party you should always call/email the hotel to confirm that they have the booking.

There are no contact details apart from the postal address, so I am already convinced that the outfit is a con!

Just above the address is a link to a form which you can fill out for problems/queries.

BC

I used hostelworld about a month ago and had no problems at all.

Jambo

Im with everyon else on this one - never had a problem or known of friends having problems using hostelworld.com !!

p.pete

Is it possible that the hotel / hostel in question is to blame? If there's a breakdown in working relationship between the two then hopefully hostelworld themselves will be able to provide feedback as to what went wrong.

esperanza

Thanks for your all of your answers. Well, I am beginning to think that the hotel is at fault. Like p. pete said, a breakdown in communication. The hotel seemed to be making the website out to be the bad guys. My friends had to spend their first night in another hotel, which the guy at reception was kind enough to organise and for the following nights, they could all stay in the hotel originally booked. They were just lucky though!

Yes, I agree it's normal practice to call beforehand to confirm the reservation. I was shocked when I heard my sister hadn't!

I'll send a letter to hostelworld.com, I have sent an email but still no response, so written correspondence seems the best at this stage.

Carmel1

Hi,I am the Hostel Relations Manager in Hostelworld.com

Hostelworld.com works with over 10,000 properties worldwide and facilitates over 5,000 confirmed reservations daily at these properties for customers using our website. We have been operating for 6 years as an online accommodation provider .All properties working with our system upload their own allocations of beds for sale online. Customers can then book these properties in real time online by paying a 10% deposit to secure their booking.

In the event of any property for whatever reason closing down or no longer being able to run as an accommodation provider they are legally obliged to contact the customers and assist them with finding alternative accommodation. In the rare occasion that this occurs, we also ensure that we contact all customers and assist them with finding alternative accommodation.

This link http://www.hostelworld.com/faq/faqs.html takes you to our FAQ section on Hostelworld. All queries submitted here are replied to within 24 hours, unfortunately at the weekend this may take up to 72 hours
We would hope that any customer that this rarely happens to would contact us about this first before they post a message.

Events that your friend experinced are rare but unfortunately possible and this applies to all means of reservation – telephone, fax, e-mail or online. Our primary goal is to always provide as accurate information as we can to our customers and to ensure that any issues like this are resolved as quickly as possible

If you can please send me on your friends confirmation or contact details and I will look further into your complaint.

Regards,

Carmel Dunne

Hostel Liaison Manager

HarryD

Have used em loadsa times..
I just had one problem where I tried to cancel a reservation 40hrs before arrival,
and couldn't, despite the hotel owner stating cancellation had to be 24hrs before arrival.
I got charged the full whack.. for a room I didn't use

esperanza

Carmel1 wrote:

Hi,I am the Hostel Relations Manager in Hostelworld.com

Hostelworld.com works with over 10,000 properties worldwide and facilitates over 5,000 confirmed reservations daily at these properties for customers using our website. We have been operating for 6 years as an online accommodation provider .All properties working with our system upload their own allocations of beds for sale online. Customers can then book these properties in real time online by paying a 10% deposit to secure their booking.

In the event of any property for whatever reason closing down or no longer being able to run as an accommodation provider they are legally obliged to contact the customers and assist them with finding alternative accommodation. In the rare occasion that this occurs, we also ensure that we contact all customers and assist them with finding alternative accommodation.

This link http://www.hostelworld.com/faq/faqs.html takes you to our FAQ section on Hostelworld. All queries submitted here are replied to within 24 hours, unfortunately at the weekend this may take up to 72 hours
We would hope that any customer that this rarely happens to would contact us about this first before they post a message.

Events that your friend experinced are rare but unfortunately possible and this applies to all means of reservation – telephone, fax, e-mail or online. Our primary goal is to always provide as accurate information as we can to our customers and to ensure that any issues like this are resolved as quickly as possible

If you can please send me on your friends confirmation or contact details and I will look further into your complaint.

Regards,

Carmel Dunne

Hostel Liaison Manager

Thanks for your replu. I am still unsure how I should go about making this complaint. If I send the information by post, will it be OK?

esperanza

http://www.bugeurope.com/reviews/France/Provence-Alpes-Cote_dAzur/Nice/fr017/

Looks like others had the same experience in Hotel Antares in Nice. Hostelworld.com should stop working with this hotel before more people end up in the same situation!

Enii

Used them to book a hostel in Clare - absolutely no problems!