Booking platform bookit.com has suspended operations, posting the following notice on their website:
In response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Crisis now unfolding, BookIt.com has paused normal operations, and the international destinations we service have closed their borders to arrivals.
Due to the nature of this unprecedented pandemic, we have had to close our call centers in Florida, Jamaica, and El Salvador. This, effectively, means that we will be unable to provide agent assistance in cancelling any upcoming trips.
BookIt also states that they are in the process of cancelling all upcoming trips. Customers with bookings have reported that:
- They’ve been unable to leave resorts without payment as the resort is stating the trip has not been paid for (despite paying in full through bookit)
- They’ve been unable to receive any sort of refund or communication
You can view more complaints customers have been making on Twitter. If you have an existing booking with Bookit.com it might be worth contacting your credit card issuer to discuss your options.
Hat tip to TPG
My husband and I had our vacation planned for April 26 through bookit.com nothing was paid for to the resort 😫 now no one answers the $2200. We filed a claim through out bank and are still waiting on a response. This is frustrating, it’s our yearly vacation savings.
Same for us, Our travel was suppose to be MAy1-9th. 2350.00, still waiting for CC company, they claim to need more information. I wish they would throughly do some investigating on this company and they would see more clearly why I want my refund. My downfall so far has been that I booked back in Nov of 2019, so I was past the 90 day window my cc company claims. But now they still want more info??? I don’t get it.
I’m currently seeking my $2300 refund from Bookit myself. I guess this is normal protocol for bailing? Definitely, “Ponzi Scheme like”. Bookit is located in Panama Beach City, FL. I will be looking up Mr Bud Finlaw ( CEO) and his son, Jamin Finlaw (when I’m down there.
Same. 2351.94 to be exact, credit card company is dragging their heels on this, wanting more information…….I attached 5 documents and stated everything I possibly could for this refund. I have also filed with BBB, FDAC, and Florida’s Attorney General office in Tallahassee. Not giving up!
Found Bud and Jamin’s home address and phone number and personal email addresses I entered that information for my complaint with the attorney general. Jamin mainly operates Mazarine Dock Boxes.
Any suggestions on how to get our money back?
Refuse to pay anything more than what you paid originally. That was the understood fees when you booked.
Pay with the same credit card it you have it available.*** Have the hotel issue statement that the reservation from bookit was invalid/not accepted. Dispute bookit reservation with the credit card.
Not necessary, but I’d rather have both on the same card. If bookit responds to the charge the credit card company could see that you had to pay a second time.
I don’t think bookit could come back from this. Legal fees, FCC fines etc, would be too great.
Any suggestions on how to get our money back?
In the way the post is worded, they almost go out of their way to NOT apologize for any inconvenience. Maybe a legal decision..
I totally agree.
I never understood why ppl use bookin or other travel portals. Alot of the time its more than the direct flights from the companies. Just duuumb
Sometimes it’s the only way to force a booking in a particular currency (I’m looking at you, airlines in Asia that can only charge in the currency of the originating country). Back when the Citi Costco card still charged FTF, I could use Expedia to book trips within Asia and be charged in US dollars from the US while trying the same booking but direct dinged me the FTF.
For hotels the 3rd party booking apps have their place. Most of the mom and pop beach hotels on the east coast do not have websites.
That too. There’s a hotel I particularly liked staying at in Hong Kong, but the booking process on their own website consists of a “contact us” webform where you fill out the dates and room type you want, they get back to you with availability, then you have to e-mail them your card details. No, no, no, a thousand times no. I only book them on Expedia or Rakuten Travel now.
I booked my first Cancun trip on bookit back when i knew nothing about travel and before the credit card points boom. Over 10 years ago. There are always people like that just starting out traveling. They had a nice site back in the day. made every property look amazing. Not sure what it looked like recently.
Shut up and have some compassion.
What a bummer! I loved those personal pan pizzas from the hut 😢
I worked there, many years ago. It was a good program.
Tangential travel question. How safe are American Airlines Gift Cards. I got some from CC deals, and wouldn’t use them even in more travelly times. I’ve never sold a gift card, but will probably have to sell these. But are they in danger of being voided if AA goes under?
If AA goes into actual bankruptcy, like Chapter 11, you’d be an unsecured creditor, and possibly screwed (see Borders Bookstore) depending on how the courts and AA chose to handle gift cards. Recent Chapter 11 filings have preserved GC like Kona Grill and Toys R Us, if only for a set portion of time. Odds of that happening are rather low though. The Big 3 are likely safe.
The only issue you can have is to be able to redeem them before expiration date (I don’t know how much you have…). Gift card are safe otherwise except if the company has to close operations (it is AA, so no). I would be worried about miles, they might devaluate them, idk.
Sounds like they bookedit out of there.
Nice
Is there a chance the big OTAs run into the same issue? Wondering if I should cancel a booking I have for late this year thru hotels.com in case these OTAs run into liquidity issues…
Hotels.com is part of expedia, which is a publicly traded company worth $7 billion. I’d be surprised if expedia pulls a stunt like this.
Yeah Expedia owns CarRentals.com, HomeAway, Hotels.com, Hotwire.com, Orbitz, Travelocity, trivago, Venere.com and Vrbo. Fake competition.
Holy moly, I have never heard about this. Thanks for the info.
Thanks for the valuable information!! I could never figure out why everytime I booked with Hotels.com… the hotel would tell me I booked with Expedia. Have a blessed day!!
They’re actually not totally in good shape. CFO resigned in December, layoffs were scheduled before most of the travel crisis, leadership talking about [actual quote] “a disappointing 2019 business performance”
Derek, I am intrigued as I was thinking that very thing, they closed so abruptly, leaving customers stranded by not paying the hotel portion of the trip etc. I am disputing with my CC as of right now, not getting to far, buy any information I can find like this would help my cause.
Simply put, they used the pandemic as an excuse.
Highly unlikely to be an issue, but then again, erring on the side of caution isn’t perhaps the worst play if you can get a full refund and not a “site credit.” as the parent company Expedia was laying off people before most of this crisis and their CFO resigned in December.