After searching for good hotels at Indore on Booking .com, on 25th Jan 2017 I shortlisted and booked Lemon tree hotel, Indore for my 3 night hotel stay from Fe 18 to 21 Feb 2017 and was quoted for Rs 11908.33 with breakfast for a business class twin sharing room. The bold advertisement in red never showed anywhere that once booked cannot be canceled. The agency, however, insisted me to share credit card number with name exp date(no CVV) for accepting booking which I did. In the meanwhile, within a gap of 11 minutes after an independent search I got a better deal in another hotel at Indore for the same standard of rooms and hotel and booked my reservation and I canceled the booking of Lemon tree hotel simultaneously.
The confirmation of booking mail from Booking .com and Lemon tree hotel and subsequent mail and telecon with the hotel it was made clear that full booking amount with taxes will have to be paid for cancellation even with a gap of one minute after booking without any recourse to retain my booking against cancellation.
On 26th January 2017 I received SMS from my banker that an amount of debit for Rs 15456.92 which included all taxes service charge etc(for not occcupying the hotel or for no show) from Lemon tree hotel against cancellation. Fearing further fraudulent actions by Booking .com/ Lemon Tree hotel in association with Lemon tree hotel I blocked my card The Hotel and Booking .com used my card number without any recourse or authorisation from me took access to access to my CVV and 3 D pin based on VISA card number raised bogus charge slip through HDFC bank to prove their fraudulent action to convince my bankers that the payment has been authorised by me.
The above action of the Booking .com and Lemon tree hotel is akin to blade companies and fraudsters to send emails on winning prizemoney etc and encash credit card amounts from banks. Surprisingly the hotel is recovering taxes and service charge for a room that was not being used or occupied by me or other prospective customers on cancellation. This is a very serious unethical practice needs to be widely published through newspapers to create awareness
Incidentally, my bank Kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC bank are private sector banks who hardly follow banking practices and only look to maximize their income through dealing with corporates and fleece the gullible banking customers.
Booking .com do not have a toll-free number and is an Amsterdam, Netherland-based agency with some franchise for contact through mail services to manage their affairs. All international web agencies follow this practice of collecting credit card numbers and raise direct debit to your account. I am in the process of filing legal case and FIR to redress my grievance.
So friends never ever share your credit card details except for direct payment transactions after due process of a 3D pin, CVV or OTP for verification and think twice before you deal with booking .com and their misleading advertisements.
Umesha Sorkala Prabhu