Do you think a refund is in the cards?

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By Christopher Elliott

Bev Eberly’s discount hotel card doesn’t work. How can she get the $50 she’s been promised?

Question

We recently stayed at a Best Western hotel in Seaside, Ore. We made the reservation through Priceline and took advantage of a promotion run by the Hotel Card. The card promises we will receive $50 back as a refund from our stay. It’s been four months since our stay, and we still haven’t received a refund.

Numerous attempts at emails and phone calls to the number on the website have been to no avail. Calls to the number listed on their website have not been returned, and you can never get a live person. Can you help? — Bev Eberly, Portland, Ore.

Answer

If the Hotel Card offers a $50 refund, then you should have received one shortly after your stay. But a review of the card’s terms online suggests that’s not exactly how it works.

The Hotel Card, which was a Priceline partner at the time of your stay, is a discount card that allows you to “save” $50 off the price of a hotel. Once you enter your Hotel Card number in the designated place during the booking process, $50 will be subtracted from the lowest price. That $50, it promises, will show up as an “instant” credit.

I’m not a big fan of discount programs like this, precisely because so much can go wrong. Running a promotion through any coupon or card automatically reduces the redemption rates, which means that customers like you end up holding worthless scrip.

Now, to be clear, I’m not calling the Hotel Card worthless, but you have to jump through a few hoops to collect the discount, and that hassle means some customers will fail to take advantage of their cards. In fact, after four months of waiting, it looks like you might be ready to give up. (I’m usually the last person someone contacts before throwing in the towel.)

The unredeemed hotel card

The Hotel Card should have credited you right away, as it promised. But if it didn’t, you still had two other avenues of appeal: Priceline and Best Western. Failing that, you could have disputed part of your credit card bill, which would have been a lengthy process that may or may not have worked.

Generali Global Assistance has been a leading provider of travel insurance and other assistance services for more than 25 years. We offer a full suite of innovative, vertically integrated travel insurance and emergency services. Generali Global Assistance is part of The Europ Assistance (EA) Group, who pioneered the travel assistance industry in 1963 and continues to be the leader in providing real-time assistance anywhere in the world, delivering on our motto – You Live, We Care.

By the way, you can reach a Priceline executive through my website. Here are a few names.

This isn’t the first complaint we’ve received about Priceline. A brief, polite email to a Priceline executive might have convinced the company to pressure Hotel Card to review your case. It’s possible that, because of heavy demand, the Hotel Card was overwhelmed by requests from consumers. Rest assured, it’s unlikely the Hotel Card would have also ignored questions from Priceline. (Here’s our guide to resolving your consumer problem.)

My advocacy team and I contacted Priceline on your behalf. It got in touch with The Hotel Card (unlike you and me, it has a working number for the card) and someone from the card contacted you in person and offered either a credit or a check.

You asked for — and received — a check.

Was Bev Eberly's offer too hard to redeem?

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Christopher Elliott

Christopher Elliott is the founder of Elliott Advocacy, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that empowers consumers to solve their problems and helps those who can't. He's the author of numerous books on consumer advocacy and writes three nationally syndicated columns. He also publishes the Elliott Report, a news site for consumers, and Elliott Confidential, a critically acclaimed newsletter about customer service. If you have a consumer problem you can't solve, contact him directly through his advocacy website. You can also follow him on X, Facebook, and LinkedIn, or sign up for his daily newsletter. He is based in Panamá City.

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