They have an incredible rate at Rubens at the Palace which is way cheaper than any other site or the hotel itself. Seem to good to be true and I just wanted to make sure they're legit!

Yeah, I've used them. And <b>I never will again.</b>

They advertised a Family Room at a certain property with a rate listed for four and a supplement for a fifth.

After I booked it and got a confirmation from the system, I received a curt e-mail informing me that the property didn't have any rooms for five.

Very well, I said. Just refund my payment and all will be well.

You have to cancel it, was the reply, <i>and our cancellation fee is $35</i>.

<b>WHAT?!</b> Your system allows booking rooms that don't exist, and then you charge a cancellation fee to undo them?!

<b>WHAT A SCAM!!! NEVER AGAIN!!!</b>

(Please drop them an e-mail if you decide not to use them. Tell them I sent you.)

Thanks, Robespierre, that's exactly what I feared. I knew it seemed to good to be true.

Don't know if you've tried londontown.com but we found it to have the cheapest rate for the Rubens on our last two visits. Their rate does include the breakfast buffet but not VAT. The cancellation policy is 48 hrs prior to arrival thru the londontown.com website. Otherwise, you pay the hotel directly when you check out.

As the owner of London Hotels Guide I would just like to make other readers aware of a few points when they are using any hotel booking website:

The majority of hotel booking sites are affiliates of booking networks, and as such, do not handle the actual booking process, instead passing this on to the network, which in the case of London Hotels Guide is through ActiveHotels/Booking.com.

Before booking through an affiliate site I would suggest you ensure that the site provides you with some contact details other than those of the hotel booking network in the event that you encounter difficulties. Personally I want to see email address, phone number and postal address before I deal with any ecommerce site.

Cancellation terms vary between hotels and are imposed by hotels, not usually the booking network. Cancellation terms should be available to view within the hotel details page prior to booking. Cancellation charges are generally made when reservations are canceled at short notice, typically 1 or 2 days.

In the case of Robespierre above, it would clearly be inappropriate to make a cancellation charge when the hotel or booking network were at fault. Had Robespierre contacted me directly I would have ensured that he was refunded.

London Hotels Guide does not send emails involved in the booking process. These would have been sent by the ActiveHotels booking engine.

The suggestion that this is a scam of some sort is incorrect.

Any room rates displayed on London Hotels Guide for a selected date have been input by the actual hotel staff, onto ActiveHotels' system, from which my site draws its information. There is therefore no misinformation. It is in my interests to make the site as clear, transparent and informative as possible in order for visitors to find the best London accommodation for their needs. To this end I provide price comparison, previous guest reviews, the best room deals during the forthcoming week and I'm always contactable in the event you experience any problems before, during or after your stay.

Please also note that London Hotels Guide now forwards to my UK Hotels site at http://www.uk-hotel-accommodation.co...tels-guide.cfm due to an issue with a certain search engine!

I used http://www.centralr.com/ three times. I am very satisfied with the results.