Consumer Alert: Your refund request will fall flat — unless you do this

Talk is cheap when you want your money back from a hotel. Here's how to get what you want.

It's not hard to guess why Rodelyn Mullins felt uncomfortable when she checked into a high-rise hotel in Panama City Beach. She had reserved the room through Booking.com — for a Spring Break week.

So the hotel was probably a madhouse. And when she asked a manager for a refund, he readily agreed. After all, the room would probably be quickly filled with more raucous college students.

But what Mullins didn't anticipate was that her refund would never come. The money had to go through Booking.com, and after months of waiting, she had run out of patience.

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