My mother was charged $16,000 - yes, that is not a typo - for unknowingly booking through Getaroom.com and hotelvalues.com which are both official Priceline.com partners.
My mother called the Grand Hotel Majestic gia' Baglioni in Bologna. My mother speaks fluent Italian and knows Bologna well.
She thought she was speaking to the hotel directly, but the call had actually been transferred to the Priceline /GetaRoom /hotelvalues reservation agent. That agent acted as if she was from the hotel itself. After giving my mother a price on the phone, which she agreed to, they emailed her the confirmation. The agent had given my mother a price per night, but made it sound like it was the price for the entire stay. The confirmation email looked as if it was coming from the Grand Hotel Majestic gia' Baglioni in Bologna. When my mother looked at the confirmation email, it showed a total of $16,000.
Obviously my mother immediately called back to cancel the reservation. She called back within ten minutes. When she called back she was told the reservation had been cancelled. At no point during that conversation was she told that the reservation was NON-REFUNDABLE. Moroever, she now had no actual place to stay. Needless to say she was shocked when she saw that outrageous charge on her next American Express Bill.
As we got more involved in the topic, it became clear - through documented correspondence - that these scammers, have formal relationships with Priceline in Norwalk, CT. These scammers change their names but Priceline continues to work with them; GetaRoom was sued in 2020 in a class action lawsuit. https://topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/money/fees/getaroom-com-class-action-alleges-deceptive-hotel-booking-methods/
Hotelvalues.com seems to still be in business.
The Grand Hotel Majestic gia' Baglioni in Bologna should be ashamed too, for allowing these types of reservations to be made. They shirk any responsibility for what is going on and claim that they are powerless refund the charges since the reservations are made through a third party. Yet it is their hotel and their rooms being reserved. At what point are you responsible for what is going on in your house?
Surprisingly and shamefully, American Express has been no help either - the fact that they take bookings from these terrible sites reveals that they too are a big part of the problem. It is hard to imagine that Am Ex can't flag scammers that have been flagged many many times before.
This scam has been reported by many others on Rick Steve's - there was an April 2024 forum on the topic. This occurred in September 2024 and we are still fighting it - which is why I wanted to flag it here. The scammers are still scamming.
Everyone seems to have something to gain financially from these charges- except my 84 year-old mom.