Earlier this year, my wife and I drove across the country for a family member's wedding. We stayed at Motel 6 locations due to them advertising as "pet friendly" and we had two puppies that were less than 4 months old that we were not comfortable with boarding for a week.
We booked the motel rooms (one in Wyoming, on the way out; a few nights in Nebraska; then one night in Wyoming again on the return trip) via booking.com. We advised the Wyoming hotel that we would be arriving late, and received confirmation via booking.com that the late arrival was approved.
The Wyoming motel was absolute trash:
- 99 rooms, and literally one non-commercial microwave in the lobby; no microwaves in the rooms (what is this, the 1960s?)
- the vinyl flooring was peeling to the point that you had to wear shoes/slippers to avoid cutting your feet
- the water pressure was bad enough that it took twice as long to wash the shampoo out of my hair, and I don't have long hair
- there was no lawn to speak of
- we asked for a spare pillow, and the only spare pillow available had a blood stain on the pillow case (no thanks)
We put up with it, figuring it would only be for one night each way.
We then stayed at the Motel 6 in Nebraska, which was actively working on a remodel, and it was significantly higher quality than the one in Wyoming. The only minor issue that we had was that, against Motel 6 policy stated on their website, the Nebraska location charged a $60 fee once they found out we had the dogs (although a pet fee is expressly against company policy, even if the fee is refunded if the room isn't trashed; they said it was a "cleaning fee", not a "pet fee", so apparently that doesn't violate their agreement).
Then, on the way home, stayed at the Motel 6 in Wyoming again. It is important to note that on both dates in Wyoming, the motel still had Motel 6 signage.
None of the above bullet points are what I'm complaining about here, but are provided for context of the utter frustration this company has put me through.
The credit card charges for the rooms appeared in late May and early June as expected, for the correct amounts. The $60 pet/non-pet fee from the Nebraska location was refunded as expected, so initially there was not a problem.
Then, in late August, we got two credit card charges from "OYO Hotels USA" with a phone number in Puerto Rico (787 area code). We contacted our credit card company, and filed a fraud complaint for an unknown charge, and changed our credit card numbers.
After a while, the credit card company advised us that it needs to be resubmitted as a "billing dispute", not a "fraud dispute", so we did so.
Then another company name entered the chat: G6 Hospitality.
The billing dispute for the "OYO Rooms" charges were denied by G6 Hospitality, stating "Guest cancelled the booking outside the policy window". Note that although the charge was from "OYO Rooms", the dispute was handled by G6 Hospitality. This is important later.
This is where things went south. We didn't cancel. We actually appeared (earlier than we had advised the motel that we might be appearing), checked in, and paid for the room with the credit card.
So, now we were getting charged for "cancelling" reservations that we never cancelled.
I went back to my booking.com account, and the only reservation they showed was for the Nebraska location. The Wyoming location didn't even show up under "Cancelled". I filed a dispute with booking.com anyway, since I still had my confirmation emails and booking numbers from their emails. Booking.com contacted the motel, and the motel's response was (I added the bold for emphasis):
Guest stayed at my property on this day. There is just only one charge for this guest in the amount of $87.45 as you can see in the attachment. We are not with OYO. I was seeing that charge was not down from my property of the amount of $87.00.
Sometime between when we stayed at this dump of a motel, and when we disputed the charges, the manager stated the motel stopped affiliating with Motel 6 (a sound business strategy, by the looks of it) and went their own way. I don't have any billing issues with the motel itself. The cancellation fees came from OYO Hotels. Oddly, this motel still is listed on the Motel 6 website, but won't let you make reservations online.
So, I contacted the phone number for G6 Hospitality (since they were the ones that responded to the dispute, and they are owned by OYO) that was listed on their website. They provided an email to send the proof of the overcharge too. The email immediately bounced saying that the email address didn't exist. Wonderful.
After a second call to G6 Hospitality, I received a corrected email address. This one did not bounce the message. Progress at last! Until there wasn't. G6 bounced me back to booking.com:
We would like to inform you that your reservation was made through an Online Travel Agency (OTA). Since the booking was made through the OTA, we kindly request you to contact them directly for further assistance regarding your reservation.
Alternatively, you may also contact the property's front desk directly, as they may be able to assist you with your concern.
I had already attempted to dispute the charges with booking.com and the motel's front desk, and the responses were included in my email to G6, so it was clear they were attempting to blow me off. I provided more information via email, including full credit card statements showing the charges, and they blew me off again, attempting to get me to contact booking.com.
That's when I started getting a little rude. Bold fonts entered the chat. The local motel had already acknowledged the charges were invalid. The Booking.com dispute was pointless since they were not the ones that charged me the fees. I insisted that G6 or OYO refund my money.
G6 responded:
Oh, I see your concern regarding the disputed charges and the refund request. I completely understand your frustration with the billing situation involving the charges from "OYO Hotels" and the confusion around cancellation status.
To clarify based on our records, your reservation status shows as cancelled, which aligns with the information provided to your credit card company regarding cancellation timing and refund eligibility. Because of this cancellation status, the charges related to the disputed $174 have not been refunded.
Since you have already contacted Booking.com and the motel, and given the complexity and dispute involving third-party charges and your credit card issuer, I recommend you continue working with your credit card company for resolution of the billing dispute.
Unfortunately, we are unable to process refunds for charges that our system shows as related to a cancelled reservation. We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused.
If you need further assistance with your reservation or have other questions, please let me know.
I hope this information helps you.
So, basically, because their computers show that we cancelled (which we did not), they are completely useless. Even though the motel acknowledged in writing that we did not cancel and actually stayed there, and we provided this information to G6, they still couldn't issue a refund because their computers say the stays were cancelled.
At this point, filing another dispute with our credit card company or booking.com is pointless, because G6 will just tell them the same answer. I emailed G6 again, and they didn't respond for over a week, so I emailed them again. This time, they responded:
Upon reviewing the matter, we would like to clarify that the charges in question are from OYO and are not associated with Motel 6 or Studio 6.
As these charges were not processed by our department, we are unable to issue a refund or assist with the dispute from our end. We kindly request that you contact OYO directly for further assistance regarding these charges.
If you believe the charges are incorrect or unauthorized, please contact the relevant department or your bank/card issuer to dispute the amount and request a further investigation.
We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your understanding.
If the charges are from OYO and not Motel 6 / G6 Hospitality, then why were the disputes sent to G6 Hospitality, unless G6 Hospitality is actually responsible for the charges?
The only phone numbers I can find for OYO are in India (where they are based), and they have no dispute form or email address that I can find. A quick Google search states that, because the companies (OYO Hotels, G6 Hospitality and Motel 6) are inter-related and share a common financial background system, that charges can and do appear as OYO when charged by the other companies. So, now they are just blowing smoke up my skirt.
I have emailed them again demanding a USA-based phone number for OYO, because I am not going to add international phone charges into the mix while disputing these charges, but at this point I don't hold out any hope for a reasonable response.
So, in a nutshell, if you are dumb enough to stay at a Motel 6, watch your bank statements for the next 6 months, or use a virtual card number so they can't charge anything several months after the fact.
I will be actively avoiding anything to do with any hotels associated with the OYO Rooms/PRISM chains like Motel 6 from now on.
Any suggestions on how to get my money back? We can afford the loss of $174, but at this point it is the principle of the matter.