Has Anyone Heard of Otel.com?
 

Is Otel.com (as opposed to hotel.com) secure and reliable? I have never booked a hotel on the web and this is the only site that has the hotel that I want available. I'm worried about booking on the web. (I called the hotel directly and they said nothing is available - on Otel.com though, they say a room is available.)

thanks,

tamara

ttt

I would make sure you confirm and reconfirm with the hotel, if you did get the room.

Hi Tamara and I have just seen your post,and even though a little late I wanted to write a quick reply for you.

I would like to assure you that we are a well established and reputable company where I personally have worked for the past 8 years. Otel.com helps clients to get the hotel that they want at the best prices. As well as this, Otel.com is verisign secure as well as being members of the BBB and ASTA

Hope this helps and feel free to drop me a line if there is anything else...

Kindest Regards
Caroline
Customer Care Manager
[email protected]

I have used Otel.com since 2006. Everything has worked out perfectly. Their rates are consistently the best available and usually include breakfast (in Europe) when other wholesellers' rates do not. I would not hesitate to book through them and have never felt the need to phone the hotel to confirm my booking.

According to the New York BBB, OTEL.com is NOT accredited with them. They have had 5 complaints in the last 36 months, against them. Really not that bad, most have been settled.
http://newyork.bbb.org/Find-Business-Reviews
Company started in 2000, and was incorporated in 2008 in DE.

Yar

DON'T USE OTEL.COM!!! I should have looked it before booking a reservation with them!!! They charged my credit card TWICE!!! for the same reservation! My bank called me to inform me of this and they blocked it right away! Thank God!!! I called Otel.com, and they just ignored me, told me that my bank was wrong!!! NEVER AGAIN!!!

Hi again! Just wanted to let everyone know that I just talked to my Bank again regardin "Otel.com", and they tried 6 times to charge my credit card!!! I am so mad!!! STAY AWAY FROM otel.com!!!

Hi jodanick / JocelyneHR

Thank you for your post and Ias I mentioned on Trip Advisor am truly sorry to learn of this situation.

As I mentioned previously I do wish that you had of contacted us at the time so we could of had the opportunity to assist you.

If more than one charge has infact been processed this has more than likely occured due to the ‘SUBMIT’ button on the booking page being clicked more than once. I understand that this is easy to do especially if you are anxious for the booking to go though. We will change the text on the website to point out that the SUBMIT button should only be clicked the once.

I requested your booking tracking number previously so I could help and check on this issue. However as only one charge was made by our company and you did not get back to me with proof of 6 additional charges I have been unable to proceed any further

Caroline

Customer Care Manager

[email protected]

Hello. I have recently booked a room in Vegas (Paris Hotel) with otel.com, and I am astonished by their customer service. Long story short, I have had issues with the booking, but everybody their made their best to help, answering my emails and regularly following up (Caroline above who exchanged emails with me is especially to be praised).

So I enthusiastically recommend the use of their site : good prices & beautiful service, what else could we ask from a booking site ?

tamarat, I'm suspicious. The only people who had anything good to say about Otel.com are people who just registered here today. A coincidence? Hmmmm

After reading these, if I were going to book a hotel I'd go to one of the popular ones. Good luck.

Okay, to be fair do a search on Otel.com. Right up there next to your Title question is the search button. You'll find that some people have booked with them and have been happy. But apparently you have to pay the whole thing up front.

If you want to see how many times someone has posted or if they are a regular, click on their name.
Good luck.

Lsky, you are right to assume that my recent registration is connected to Otel.com : for once, I am so happy with a service that I decided to tell about my positive experience ! But feel free to ask me details if needed.

Also, now I will of course comment about other trip experiences I have on Fodor.

So in a nutshell, I am no regular poster (I am totally new !), but I recommend their website because my experience with them was a very good one.

I also made a booking in a Hong Kong hotel via otel.com. I got concerned when the HK hotel failed to locate my booking in their system, so I chanced upon this thread after doing some research. I emailed Caroline of otel.com above, sure enough, she was very helpful and sorted out my problem within 24 hours. I got the final confirmation directly from the hotel.

Needless to say, we shall be using otel.com again.

Thanks, Caroline.

bookmarking

I have booked rooms thru Otel.com several times and have never had any problems. they consistantly have the lowest prices and more perks than any other booking site, esp for European hotels.

Hi everyone,
I just used otel.com, yesterday. but they asked me to send my ID and credit card and AUTHORIZATION FORM to them. Is anyone in this situation before? is it reliable to do it?
appreciate any help.

sorry, should be the COPY of my ID and credit card and AUTHORIZATION FORM via fax or email

Hi Poconolady

Thank you for taking the time to write your post and share your feedback of Otel.com I am delighted that you have found our hotel rates to be the most competitive. We also have a Loyalty 5 progremme which rewards you with credits each time you book with us.

Caroline
Customer Care Manager
[email protected]

Hi 1qaz2wsx

Thank you for your post and for booking with Otel.com

If a hotel booking has been made by a third party then for the protection of the card holder we do request 3rd party documents.
This security measure is not to cause any inconvenience but merely to protect the credit card holder against any credit card misuse.

Please feel free to drop me a line and I shall be happy to check your booking details for you

Caroline
Customer Care Manager
[email protected]

I will just add to this that I have used otel.com maybe 4 or 5 times in the last 2 years. It all went ok except the last time when I thought I had paid for a room with breakfast for several nights, and the hotel claimed that otel.com only paid them for one breakfast for one person for one day. We tried to call otel.com several times from that hotel to sort out the problem and we were just on hold forever. The hotel tried to force me to pay for the rest of the breakfasts but I refused and I never heard anymore about it. But, it was rather unpleasant and I haven't used otel.com since.

We haven't even left for our trip and I'm already unsatisfied with otel.com ... Me and my parents made two bookings for a 10-day stay in Cancun, but there was an error in the booking processing (maybe on our end, maybe on theirs, who knows).

My parents' booking did not include a transfer voucher from/to the airport, while we did select the option and it was charged to our credit card. This was over a month ago. We immediately opened a support ticket, contacted otel.com support by international phone call (guess what, they told us to open a support ticket). We sent several e-mails, including to miss Caroline above here. No response, no resolution. Our flight leaves in 10 hours from now, some service that is...!

Hi Trons

Thank you for your post and I am very sorry to learn that you have been unsatisfied with our services.

Can I kindly request your booking reference number so I can check on this situation. While the travelling date has passed I should like to have the opportunity to check that everything went smoothly and that you received a timely response.

Caroline
Customer Care Manager
[email protected]

I booked via OTEL.COM 3 nights in Alanya at Kleopatra Develi Hotel. Later I added one night. I have payed and I got vouchers. I called the hotel and they said they cannot confirm since they don´t work with computer system. I asked if they´d heard about OTEL.COM but the person hadn´t heard about them. Hm. I have emailed the caroline-email, lets see if I get answer. A bit worried.... /Tobias Drejby

Well, I hope I have a room when I come to the hotel. I get back here to tell you how everything went afterwords.

OK Guys no problemo everything worked out fine so from now i trust the company :)

I've used Otel several times and never had a problem. I would have no problem using them again.

Another good report for otel.com. I booked the Andaz in London on their site for a good rate that the Hyatt could not beat a couple of weeks ago for a December trip. Just to make sure I emailed the Andaz directly a few days later to confirm my reservation. They emailed me back the confirmation.

Caroline, could u reply my mail related to my [email protected] Just now?
Honestly, I've tried to contact the Customer Service from Otel.com but the all international number and toll free is unavailable. Am so disappointed right now !!!
Tries to call the hotel but they said there has no reservation under my name until now !!!
Please help, cause otel.com already charged full payment on my CC !!!
Really need a good advice and feedback.
Thanks in advance.

My Regards,
IvanaTaroreh

Hotel may times do not get YOUR name for the reservation until a few DAYS before you arrive.
An agency will have several rooms booked, however the hotel finds out whom they are booked TO at a later date. At least this has been my experience in a few cases.. I, too, was VERY concerned but the receptionist on the phone told me not to worry and call back three days before arrival.

nothing but good experience with www.otel.com

for me on numerous occaisons.

I also had only good experience with otel.com. My last booking with them was at Stemples in Haarlem. Stemples rate had gone up after I made my otel booking and not only did they honor the booked rate, but upgraided us to a superior room. Especially impressive in that the hotel was rather full at the time.

We booked a reservation through Otel.com for a hotel is spain. You need to give your credit card details. They then tell you that unfortunately there are no rooms available at this time. We then booked the same hotel with another provider and when we arrived at the hotel found our credit card was declined! We had to use money we had brought with us for our holiday and pay with our debit card for the room. We then checked our credit card account and found that Otel.com charged us full amount for a room that didn't exist. When we contacted them we were told it was a toll free number in the UK under a sister company METGLOBAL.COM. This is in fact a phone number in the Phillipines that takes money out of your phone bill! We asked them when we could get the refund and they said 5-7 working days which we still have not received (20 days later). We told them we had no money with to enjoy our holiday and they said they would upgrade us to full board until the refund was settled. We thought this was a nice gesture however we have since found that the price of this was also deducted from our credit card at our expense!! We declined the offer of full board at the hotel as soon as we found out about this. To date OTEL.COM / METGLOBAL.COM have charged us for a room and full board which they never had, and also the cost of multiple NOT toll free numbers to the Phillipines. We have sent multiple e mails which they have not responded to. These were sent to a girl called MACY in Istanbul, and MONICA CO in the Phillipines. We have had to contact our solicitors who are looking into legal action. DO NOT USE OTEL.COM / METGLOBAL.COM

I've just booked and paid for a hotel in copenhagen on otel.com for 1 night. Am now checking up on the site and have come across this post. Should I be worried/ check booking with hotel nearer the time? or just relax, but reading these reports has made me nervous!

I am like Squid_ink with this difference that i reserved a hotel in Como, Italy, reading this reports made me nervous too! maybe i cancel my reservation.

I need to retract the endorsment of Otel.com in my above post. Looking through some papers the other day I found that I made the reservation for Stempels through Hoteliers.com, not Otel.com

I did use Otel.com once and everything worked as it should have.

I just returned from Florence & used Otel.com
At first, I was a little nervous because the rates for our hotel were so low compared to
other web sites. ( too good to be true type of thing ) After I received our hotel voucher
via email, I emailed the hotel to confirm our reservations & everything was fine. I would
use them again, but would also contact the hotel for confirmation before arriving.

I reserved my hotel in como,Italy for Feb. 2012, I emailed the hotel and they confirmed my reservation, it seems everything is right up to now, Hope it will continue.

Before booking with otel.com you might want to read this:

http://www.elliott.org/blog/my-hotel...agent-refused/

** PLEASE READ IF YOU THINKING OF BOOKING ANYTHING WITH THIS COMPANY **

My girlfriend and I had a terrible experience with Otel.com

We both have very stressful jobs and decided to get away to Bath for some pampering one weekend in November. We booked a hotel WELL in advance and paid everything up front. The day we were due to travel by girlfriend rang the hotel to say we would be arriving after 9pm and could they please make sure that there was a key for us somewhere. The hotel had never heard of us or (as far as I am aware Otel.com)

My girlfriend called Otel.com customer service and asked what was going on, they said that they would get back to us "within 24 hours". After explaining that the booking was that night we were assured that the matter would be fixed that afternoon.

We received a reply BY EMAIL (just lucky we checked it) saying that the booking was no longer available, but they were pleased to offer us a booking in another city ...

We very nearly didn't go, but as explained we both have stressful jobs and really wanted to get out of London

When we got to the train station, the same thing happened again - we called our new hotel and they had no record of us either.

Furious, we called Otel.com again and they said that they would call us right back. They failed to do so and when we called again we had to explain the same situation for a third time that day.

After a little while Otel.com contacted us and assured my girlfriend that the second hotel had now been booked, at the same time I was on the phone to the hotel and they had recieved no booking, only a "strange email asking if we had a spare room that night" (which I assume, but cannot prove was Otel.com)

After 2 hours of stressing and panicking the hotel was booked for us.

During this 2 hours we found out that
1) the hotel we originally booked still had rooms (they were expensive, but they had some)
2) the hotel we ended up in was SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper than what we paid

When we got back we made a formal complaint to Otel.com and they pretty quickly made us an offer of compensation. Lets just say it was laughable and nowhere near covered what we went through.

Since then, despite over a month of asking for updates we have heard nothing

I will let you all know what happens with this - I am still hoping that Otel.com may make an effort and send us on another holiday or something, but until then I would tell anyone that asked me not to go within a mile of Otel.com