A very interest article in Travel, New York Times, strongly suggested that Guest Reservation web site is a fraud or scam since it appears to make the reservation but then tacks on enormous service fees. Since I take the New York Times, I don't know if the article is behind a paywall. But give it a try as it is worth reading.
Posted by
Green Bay
23608 posts
Posted by
Washington, DC USA
988 posts
Th link worked for me. Thans!
Posted by
PA
3153 posts
It is paywalled (but my parttner has access). It is also a couple weeks old, I remember seeing this already.
Posted by
3808 posts
Thanks for posting! I'm a Seth Kugel fan, but somehow missed this article.
IMHO, I would never trust a website called "Guest Reservations" - that sounds pretty fishy ex facie.
Posted by
Duluth, MN🌲
12398 posts
I posted a link to that same article when it first came out, and there's some really interesting information in it.
I highly recommend reading the article and checking it out. It almost fooled me when I was trying to book something, and I found myself on the Guest Reservation website. They're tricky. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/transportation/the-click-that-cost-11-000-and-other-travel-pitfalls
Posted by
Lexington, KY (formerly Southeast US)
4717 posts
Good article. We all really, really have to stay on our toes these days.
All the time
Everywhere
Trust no one
Well, maybe that last one goes a little too far
Posted by
California
555 posts
Not sure how much they pay but their site is always the first to pop up when I'm doing a hotel search. I almost got fooled once, and now pay extra attention to website address when booking a hotel.
Posted by
121 posts
Thanks for posting this. I know to pay attention to domain names, but the fact that the NYT found damning information that makes it appear that Priceline is running this company tells me what I need to know about ever using Priceline again. Just when you think that the scammers are all foreign companies, it turns out that legit companies are willing to scam people, too.
Posted by
Northern Minnesota
1063 posts
It got me when we were searching for Texas hotels for the eclipse. I was looking at several hotels on their official sites, and then decided on one, quickly googled it again, and clicked on submit just as I was realizing it wasn't the official hotel site. I had to pay $20 to cancel with Guest Reservations.
Posted by
Virginia
1434 posts
More and more i find myself starting my hotel search on Google Maps. It seems to cut through all the noise of a Google search and I can vet the physical reality. I can purge from consideration hotels that are booked only through the likes of booking.com or third party sites, it gives me the direct website, user photos and user reviews. Those that make a shortlist I certainly make sure to bookmark the site.
Posted by
1 posts
Guest reservations site is 💯💯 a complete SCAM! Please don’t book through them! They masquerade as the hotel itself then went to charge me $139 extra to my card. Called the hotel & they didn’t help. Called this guest reservations # & the person on the other side said the EXTRA $139( more than my room itself) was to “pay the employees”😡. He just kept repeating that there was nothing they can do. The hotel itself only got paid $220 for my 2 night stay. Guest reservations charged my CC a total of $359. They are scam artist so please DO NOT book through them. I also emailed them so they blocked me.