Can I get a refund for my nonrefundable hotel? | Travel
I booked a room at the Hotel Tzekos Villas in Santorini, Greece, last year through…
I booked a room at the Hotel Tzekos Villas in Santorini, Greece, last year through Hotels.com. The reservation was nonrefundable. Due to the virus, we were unable to leave the U.S.
I called and emailed several times to cancel and get a refund or a voucher for a future stay. Neither Hotels.com nor the Hotel Tzekos Villas would refund our money. After calling several times and receiving no response, we disputed the charge with our Chase Visa Sapphire Reserve. The credit card issuer sided with Hotels.com. Can you help me get our $592 back or a credit? — Noemi Freeman, Aventura, Florida
A: Hotels.com should have helped you with a refund. After all, Europe was closed to Americans at the time you were supposed to visit. And if the hotel and the booking site couldn’t assist you, then your credit card should have been able to help with a chargeback. It didn’t.
What’s going on here? First, your case is one of hundreds of thousands of refund requests. It took weeks and often months for travel companies to sift through all of them. Yours was also a complicated case, because you paid for part of the hotel with a Hotels.com gift card. It looks as if you pushed forward with a credit card dispute relatively soon after your cancellation. I understand that you wanted your money back, but once you initiate a chargeback, it limits some of your other options.
