Something you may not know about booking with Worldby.com (Veniceby.com, Romeby.com, etc)
 

I am not slamming worldby.com, a reputable company. I just want to share my experience so the same misunderstanding doesn't happen to another fodorite.

I made reservations last fall at Villa della Fonte in Rome through Romeby.com, their booking agency. Our stay was split up; one night when we first landed in Rome in June, then two nights a few days later, after our time in Positano.

In March, we decided to change our trip and go to Paris instead. Using the Romeby.com website, I canceled our reservation (so I thought). I recently received a notification from Worldby.com stating that we were a "no-show" and were being charged one night's stay, 160 Euros. After reading the fine print, I see now that in their system, they filed our stay as two separate reservations. According to them, I canceled one but not the other, even though some of my correspondence directly with the hotel had the stay lumped as one unit.

This still has not been resolved, but I'm hoping that in the name of good customer service, Romeby.com will retract the charges. So, if you need to cancel a reservation with worldby.com, read over the dates very carefully to make sure ALL of your reservation is canceled.

Good information presented very levelheadedly. Thanks. I like the Worldby sites generally but I do know that you have to be very definite about what their cancellation policies, etc. are.

Thank you, Julie, but now I am ticked. I looked through my credit card statement and they have charged me the $194 US. I wonder if it is worth contesting the charges through the credit card company? Looking back, I made the original booking on a single request form and the "we received your booking request" response was for the conglomerate dates. The first time the reservation was split up is when they sent "vouchers" for the hotel. They are label request *****9AAA and *****9AAB (the same numbers). When I requested a cancellation, the fine print in the cancellation confirmation lists some of the dates, but not all. So, technically, I guess they've got me because I could have looked over the fine print and figured out, wait they may not have canceled the ENTIRE reservation, but come on! What should I do here?

Can't hurt to try. I'd alert my credit card company to hold up on payment and send both them and the Worldby people the same explanation contesting the charge. See if they won't do right.

Hi Julie,

Worldby.com just sent me an explanation of why they are charging me. Again, legally I think they've got me, but the whole thing seems very unclear, if not deceptive. They actually charged my credit card three days before they even alerted me that they'd be doing so. I don't know if it's too late to contest now, since they charged me on 6/28. I just sent worldby a scathing email. If nothing else, it made me feel a little better, lol.