Booked this apartment-style rental the evening before planned arrival. I paid in full through hotels.com like usually. Everything seemed fine… until the next morning.
There I received an email demanding a photo of my government-issued ID and a photo of my credit card and a bank wire transfer of an exuberant amount as a damage deposit.
No reputable hotel or short-term rental would ever demand a wire transfer for a deposit, especially not without prior warning or visibility on the booking site.
Wire transfers are non-refundable, unprotected, and impossible to reverse. There’s no fraud protection like with a credit card hold, and of course, the money would never have arrived in time anyway.
When I declined to wire the deposit, they refused to grant me access to the room. They also refused to issue a refund, hiding behind internal “policies” that are not visible or disclosed on Hotels.com at the time of booking.
I later read reviews from other travelers stating that they hadn't received their deposit back, even weeks later.
I was forced to book a room in a different hotel last minute.
The whole experience feels like a predatory trap designed to exploit unsuspecting guests. It flirts with the line of outright fraud without technically crossing it, and it’s disgraceful that this is even allowed on a major platform.
Do not book here unless you enjoy sending your most sensitive data via unsecured and being extorted.