SCAM, DECEPTIVE TRADE PRACTICES VARIOUS NAMES THE COMPANY USES INCLUDE: GET A ROOM.COM; (THE NAME OF A HOTEL).GUESTRESERVATIONS.COM, ie: HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS. GUESTRESERVATIONS.COM; CCI*HOTEL RES; hotelvalues.com

PREY: ANY UNWITTING CUSTOMER ATTEMPTING TO MAKE AN ONLINE RESERVATION FOR A HOTEL.

COMMITMENT TO CUSTOMER SATISFACTION: NONE
They are not concerned about the reputation of their company name. When the name becomes generally known as a scam site, they change their name to something else.

DECEPTIVE TRADE PRACTICES: IN ADDITION TO INCORPORATING THE NAMES OF LEGITIMATE HOTELS INTO THEIR NAME (ie BESTWESTERNHOTEL.GUESTRESERVATIONS.COM), THEY MIMIC THE LOGOS AND APPEARANCE OF THE LEGITATIMATE WEBSITE TO DECEIVE THE CUSTOMER INTO THINKING THEY ARE BOKKING DIRECTLY WITH THE HOTEL OR A VENDOR APPROVED BY THE HOTEL.

SCOPE OF PRACTICE: They Appear to be world wide

my scam story:

I googled "hotels, fredericksburg, tx"

holiday inn express in Fredericksburg popped up under: holidayinnexpress.guestreservations.com

I booked it thinking it was holiday inn. I accepted terms and conditions of no refunds for no shows because we were definitely driving there the next day.

When we arrived at the holiday inn we were told we did not have a reservation. After some digging, the gal at the front desk was able to confirm that we had been booked into a holiday inn in Fredericksburg, Virginia!

A hotel in the wrong state showed up on their website, however they had no interest in correcting the problem. They had collected our money within 30 minutes of the booking. transaction complete. Instead of working to improve their website and taking responsibility for the search engine mistake, they hid behind the legalese of the terms and conditions: "no refunds for no-shows" and "by booking this reservation you have accepted the terms and conditions".

They successfully kept our $145 fee, our credit card company could not prevail in the dispute, and after looking into this, I am just grateful that all we lost was one night of booking, others have lost so much more.