Consumer Alert: Online agents are no longer responsible for the hotels they sell — or are they?

Some travel sites insist they are just platforms for selling hotels and other services. That's nonsense.

Illustration by Christopher Elliott

When Glenn Fogel checked into a hotel in Frome, England, for a six-night stay, he was underwhelmed by what he saw.

The roof leaked, and "I noted a strong, musty smell," he recalls. He stayed in the property one night and then contacted Booking.com for a refund. Fogel wanted a $733 refund for the remaining five days.

You can probably guess what Booking.com did. It offered a half-hearted apology, a $50 voucher and told him to contact the hotel directly if he wanted more.

Instead, he took it up with my advocacy team.

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