I want to warn you about an experience I have had with the My Story Hotel in Lisbon. I reserved this hotel some months in advance as an extension to a Rick Steve’s tour in Portugal. Sadly because of an injury I had to cancel the entire trip including hotel extensions. I duly cancelled which the hotel confirmed but they then said that because of a “problem with their systems" they would not refund my deposit by my credit card which was the original method of payment but only do it by international wire. Long story short, the hotel did try to make the wire transfer and have a receipt of that attempted transfer but the somewhat complicated international wiring instructions were incorrect and the refund never went through to my bank. The simple thing to do at that point was for the hotel to trace the payment to see that payment failed and resend with corrected instructions which I provided. But more than a dozen calls to Portugal and as many emails later they refuse to do the trace. The reservations department blames it on their “financial people” and consider the matter closed. The great people at Rick Steve went beyond the call of duty to help me, writing to the hotel to ask them to resolve this issue but their requests too were ignored. The hotel seems too busy to pursue this.
It is not a huge amount of money, $220 for one night, but this is a first for me in decades of years of travel.
If you are thinking of reserving here and think you might have to cancel and request a refund I would consider booking somewhere else.
Posted by
Massachusetts
1428 posts
I am sorry you were injured and could not go on your trip and the difficulties with the hotel refund. Was the reservation with the hotel non-refundable? Did you have travel insurance that could reimburse you for the hotel? If the hotel rate was refundable and you notified the hotel before the deadline, you are due a refund. Since your original payment was with your credit card, you should be able to go through your card company for a refund. Have you reached out to your credit card company about this?
Posted by
OP
126 posts
Thanks for the sound advice. The reservation was refundable up to a day, or a few days before the first night and the hotel confirmed that it was refundable. I did also try to dispose the charge with my credit card but because I had made the deposit so many months before the day of arrival, I was too late to dispute it. Thanks so much.
Posted by
OP
126 posts
My trip insurance would not cover this because although I could not travel it was a preexisting injury. so I was not covered. The most exasperating part of all of this is that it should not be a guest's problem that "their systems" as they say could not refund me via the credit card I used and compel a guest to secure instructions to use international wiring which is somewhat complicated involving "Swift Codes" and correspondent banks etc. it never should be this burdensome to get a refund back for any hotel and when I corrected the wiring instructions they don't have the time to look into that.. Thanks again for your thoughts .
Posted by
TN, USA
2244 posts
Call your credit card company and open a "dispute with the merchant," especially since they refused to refund by your original method of payment (the credit card). I would be surprised if your credit card bank cannot help with this. ( EDIT: Oopps...I just noticed, after posting this, that Mary already made this suggestion.....so I agree with her. Keep us posted on how it works out for you...and it SHOULD work out for you. Then the hotel can try to track down their money thru "their financial people" later, after they are charged back by the credit card company. Seems fair and in order to me.
Posted by
OP
126 posts
Thanks but I cannot dispute the charge because it was too long after I made the original payment. I did talk to them and they tried to be helpful but the time had lapsed.
Posted by
OP
126 posts
FYI, Specifically, it is a policy of Visa (and I suppose other credit cards too) to not allow a credit card dispute more than 60 days following the charge. I was aware of that policy but wanted to be sure I'd secure the room without the hotel being sold out. I never dreamed that the hotel would do something like this to me but lesson learned. Thanks again.
Posted by
Republic of Texas / U.S.A. / Magyarország / Budapest
23287 posts
If you gave them the wrong wire instructions did the transfer go through but to the wrong account? If so they did their job. If the transfer was blocked or failed, then they should try again.
Posted by
OP
126 posts
Hi. That’s an excellent question. My bank informed me that with the address they used it could not have done anything other than fail to go to any account and be returned to their account similar to a bounce check. It had my name correctly but left out the a necessary account number that was necessary so the transfer failed and the payment would have been returned to the hotel within a few days or a week. If the hotel merely would do a trace of the transaction as I and the Rick Steves people urged them to do they could have seen that and that’s my point. I clearly don’t want the refund if it had in fact gone through to someone else but that couldn’t have happened. Thanks.