On August 28, I reserved and paid for two different rooms at Royal Lahaina in Maui through LastMinuteTravel.com website. One was for September 12 for Garden Cottage and the other reservation for September 13 through September 16 in a Ocean view Room at the same hotel. I received confirmation e-mails from LastMinuteTravel.com on the same day. Thereafter, Man named Michael Suro of LastMinuteTravel.com contacted me on September 8 at around 8:20 am (PST) and sent me an e-mail from [email protected] asking me to contact him regarding my reservation.
It is my belief at this time, after some research, that Tourico Holidays is doing business as LastMinteTravel.com. And owns partially or fully the LastMinuteTravel.com. I returned call immediately and was told that the Royal Lahaina was over booked and that they needed to relocate me to another site for Sept. 13 through Sept. 16 only. He told me that Sept. 12 reservation has gone through so I needed to move on Sept. 13 to a different location. He offered Outrigger Maui Eldorado which is a condo that does not have any restaurants, not at beachfront location, did not have any wireless service and had quite a few bad reviews from people who stayed there.
After doing the research on the property, I voiced my concern and asked for another hotel option that matched more to my original selection which I had already paid for. He said he would have "people work on it" and call me back before his lunch hour but he did not. His associate "Scott" called me back around 3:30pm (PST) and told me that I needed to make decision right then and there to either accept their choice or to get a refund. This was only three days before my trip and I had no choice but to accept since I did not have enough time to get another hotel room without paying for such last minute booking.
I unwillingly accepted and Scott said he would send a revised confirmation e-mail out to me that same day. He did not. I went out of town that evening and came back on Sept. 11 evening. After checking my e-mail and saw that I did not have any confirmation, I called the LastMinuteTravel.com myself. I was then told by one of their representative that I only had one reservation and that was for all Sept. 12 through Sept. 16 at the Outrigger Maui Eldorado. I demanded to speak to a supervisor and a man who identified himself as "night supervisor" named John answered the call and told me that the "note" says that I am staying my entire trip at the Maui Eldorado and that decision was made the day before which was Sept. 10.
So I was NOT notified of this change at all and they never got authorization for that additional change and it was too late for me do anything about it since I was due to leave the next morning at 8:30 am. John also said he had no authority to make any changes or do anything except confirming my room at the Maui Eldorado. I have to question whether this is LastMinuteTravel.com's schem where they trick people in believing that people are one hotel but end up getting another cheaper place of LastMinuteTravel.com's choice so that the company makes more money.
I had a roomy one bedroom suite at the Maui Eldorado but I was far from beach, I had no internet access, air-conditioning of my room was not working for 3 days out of my 5 day stay, etc. When I was checking out, to my surprise, the hotel demanded me to pay for my room which I thought I already have 19 days prior! They informed me that they never received any payment for my room and that they had no record of such company as LastMinuteTravel.com being involved with my reservation.
I ended up paying for this room that I never wanted TWICE and as soon as I came back to Los Angeles, I sent few complaint emails before my departure and at least 3 e-mails after my return demanding my money back without any response from the company who fraudulently took my money.
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