possible scam making reservations-anyone know about this?

Which sites did your book your hotels through? They should be able to help you with any changes.

Donna

If you booked through booking.com all changes should be made through them. They will answer the phone 24/7. You probably need to call them asap. I use them frequently and have never had any problems...

Well, she says, head hanging low ..... I did the first bookings thru booking.com. BUT when I was talking to the Airline, she said she could help me if I wanted. so Florence, Rome, Bari, one night in Rome were booked by the airline.

Problem I had was that my emails went answered when I needed to make a change. Today, when I found this site I really got scared ..... then remembered the problem reservations were the ones the airline made.

Everyithing is OK, on the up and up, etc. I told her to tell them they need to answer their emails, tho. It was a rocky 24 hours or so.

Now I am so relieved I feel like a wet noodle!!!!!

Going to Italy. Got my flight, got my rooms, going with my son; what else do I need :)))

Hi Nanc, so glad it all worked out. Now have a glass of wine and think about all the good times ahead.

Just the other day I realized that anything that even looks like a problem multiplies exponentially for stress as my travel date approaches. So many things to juggle. And I travel a lot.

So thanks for letting us know it turned out okay. I'm flying into Fiumicino tomorrow, who knows how the Terminal 3 fire will affect that.

Glad it worked out. In non-English language speaking countries, when emailing with the hotelier, I use Google Translate to also add my correspondence in the language of the country, and that seems to help with response times. A couple of places I rented did not speak English very well, and we went back and forth in Italian and I just had to use Google Translate to figure out what was being said. It sounds like you have the perfect attitude to enjoy this trip. Have fun!

Thanks, everyone! So glad it worked out. The problem was that whoever did the travel for the airlines did NOT answer my emails, BUT the changes I had requested had been made. Weird, but turned out OK.

Google Translate is a low OK. I would use short sentences, not many adjectives or adverbs that aren't necessary. Be sparse with your words. Also have you noticed that you can highllight a non-English word by clicking on it. Then pass your mouse over the various meanings. Sometimes there is a real difference.

I had a hotel reservation cancelled in time for a full refund with this "[email protected]". They are a scam and I recommend do not use "hotelreservations.com" or "hotel reservations" at all you will never get your money back and they charge you right away after doing the reservation. I had the credit card help me call them several times after a dispute using the credit card would not even help . They even said that the reservation number and cancellation number had nothing to do with them sty away from them it's an Expedia affiliate that is amazing but a real scam

Hi nanc1930. I'm confused, can you clarify? At first you mentioned a website and referred to it as 'a real scam'. But then later you said it's all OK, everything is on the up and up. Which is it?

To All;

"ian.com" is not a scam - it is a part of network infrastructure that Expedia employs. Expedia owns Booking.com as well as Tripadvisor (and others). The "[email protected]" is just the email address of the computer that generated confirmation message sent out when you make a reservation. Sending a reply to this address is kind of like sending a letter to "dead letter" box at the post office. It's just too bad that Expedia doesn't explain this like other companies who clearly state "Do Not Reply To This Message" when sending computer generated emails.

Just to clarify... Expedia does not own Booking.com. Booking.com is part of the Priceline network. Expedia Affiliate Network is a group of third party sites that source rates and inventory from Expedia.

This is one reason I always book directly with hotels directly, rather than going through third parties like Expedia, Priceline or whatever. If there are problems, it's much easier and simpler to deal with the supplier rather than involving a buck-passing middleman.

nanc, it's great to hear that everything worked out for you.

Agreed, Ken, and that goes for domestic and abroad. I certainly will use the middleman outfits to comparison-shop hotels and B&B's and to initially get information, but when it comes time to fire in, I will contact the vendor's website directly. I guess I did go through VRBO to secure my apartment in Florence, but after the PayPal deposit was made, any further communiques were with the apartment owner direct.

And that goes for transportation as well. Airlines by the carrier, northern Europe train travel with SBB (Swiss), Trenitalia for Italy.

Ken. A bit unfair to imply booking.com is a buck passing middle man. We had an isssue where our credit card number was stolen and after we replaced the card the new card number was also stolen and used fraudulently. I had my suspicions that it must have been an Italian hotel that had our credit card details as a result of a booking with booking.com - as after the first card was stolen I had updated my cc details with booking.com to keep the booking and the hotel receives this.

Anyway, I contacted the hotel and let them know they may have a problem with the security of their booking system. I got a dismissive email back.

I then contacted booking.com and their fraud team investigated the matter and they convinced the owner to have his systems checked by a professional. It turned out his/her system was hacked.

The bank covered my losses but it was booking.com who got the owner to address the matter. Needless to say I booked alternative accommodation and canceled the original booking.