I was on-line looking at Rome hotels for our trip next September. I was looking at rates for a particular hotel (rated pretty well on Trip Advisor) and saw a rate of €350/night. I saw a 'Special Offers' button and clicked on it. It took me to a page where a 12% discount was offered plus an additional 5% if I signed up for e-mail notifications (which I did). At the next page, I noticed that my dates defaulted to this year and I had to go back and change them (this happened twice). After inputting the correct dates and selecting the special offers, it took me to another page to book the room and it showed the room rate as being €199/night which was quite a deal. I saw that the rate allowed for cancellations and then clicked through to the "book it" page and entered my credit card information. When I received the e-mail confirmation, I noticed that I had booked 5 rooms for 1 night instead of 1 room for 5 nights and I noticed that the rate was non-refundable. Unfortunately when I booked the reservation, I was on the internet on my cell phone which I probably shouldn't have done because I didn't notice that the rates at the top of the page were non-refundable and the rates at the bottom were refundable for a higher nightly rate (which is what I thought I was selecting).
In any case, I immediately e-mailed the hotel and advised of my mistake. I asked them to cancel the reservation and allow me to start over but was told that they can not refund me the money or cancel the reservation. I immediately called the hotel and spoke to someone who told me twice that they can not refund a non-refundable reservation because it's against the law and that he could go to jail for doing so. It sounded crazy to me but of course Italy has different laws. I checked my credit card and sure enough, the reservation was immediately charged. In any case, the person I spoke with was adamant that they could NOT refund my credit card but said he would change my reservation to 1 room for 5 nights. I was very upset & frustrated but then a few hours later, I received an e-mail stating that I owe an additional €304 (even though my e-mail confirmation states a different total. He asked me to authorize that they charge my card for the additional amount or his manager authorized him to offer me a "bank refund" in which case I need to supply them with my bank address and account number; but not a refund to my credit card. I then received yet another e-mail 5 minutes later stating the additional charge should be €309 instead of €304. I just looked on line and this additional amount represents the total rate for the refundable room yet I supposedly booked a non-refundable room and am being told that I owe the additional amount (the e-mail even says "This is the charge in case you wish to keep the no refundable rate."
I am VERY frustrated and don't know what to do. I'm not comfortable providing them with my bank account information and I don't understand why they won't refund my credit card. Can anyone give me advice as to what to do &/or whether it's truly "against the law" to refund my credit card for a non-refundable rate? Thank you in advance for reading my long post & weighing in with your advice.