bookonline.com

(US) Don't use bookonline.com

I wanted to book four weekends at the Even Hotel, Waco TX. I googled "the even hotel" and thought I was clicking on their phone number, but I unknowingly was connected to someone at bookonline.com. I realized it this morning when I called The Even Hotel about one of the reservations and they have no record of it. I then tried calling the number on the "reservation confirmation" and kept being put on hold, given the run around and then hung up on. Apparently, this bookonline.com is a known scam, according to the Even Hotel. [BBB Scam Type: Online Purchase] [Business: Even Hotel Waco Imposter] [Location: Austin, TX, USA - 78731]

Don't use Bookonline.com I recently reserved a hotel via an Internet website. I thought I was using the known hotel's website to reserve the room. The website does a very good job of impersonating (faking the appearance) of the hotel chain's website so I thought I was using the hotel corporation's website when I was really using BookOnline.com's website. BookOnline is a third party booking source for (what they claim) thousands of hotels. This oversight resulted in a scam that cost me $211.77. This happened in the following manner: I Googled the hotel I knew I wanted to stay at. A variety of sites came up from the search. I chose one that resembled (impersonated) the appearance of the hotel website I wanted to reserve. I made the reservation without knowing I was using a third party booking service. The email receipt included one line of small text at the bottom of the receipt for the following: "Tax Recovery & Fees: $330.88 USD". I later negotiated a reversal of $119.11 of the original scam for $330.88. However, I still lost $211.77 in booking charges to this scam. To avoid being scammed the safeguard is simple: carefully inspect/read the website's address (URL) when it first comes up. Make sure it is the name of the hotel's company and not some third party website impersonating (looking like) the hotel's primary website. [BBB Scam Type: Retail Business Business name BookOnline impersonating Country Inn by Radisson] [Business: BookOnline impersonating Country Inn by Radisson] [Location: CO, USA- 81212]