My Nonprofit Reviews

Elliot Advocacy, and its founder Christopher Elliot, was instrumental in resolving an impasse with Booking.com. We had booked a hotel in Jasper, Canada and pre-paid Booking for the stay. A massive wildfire broke out the night before we were scheduled to arrive, causing the entire town to be evacuated and the highway closed. Tragically, the hotel, along with much of the town, burned to the ground. However, the hotel staff, once they returned made a commitment to refund all reservations which had been cancelled. As it turned out, Booking still had our payment, never having forwarded it to the hotel.

"Customer service" at Booking deferred any action pending an investigation. This began an interminable process of delay. Many weeks later we filed a dispute with our credit card company. Booking next informed us that we were eligible for a refund but, that since we had filed a dispute, we first had to withdraw the claim, which we promptly did.

After many hours on the help line with numerous email back and forth, Booking told us, that we had been "successful" with our claim and therefore Booking was excused from any obligation to us (even though they kept our money). Over the course of 8 months, Booking sent us back and forth between their help line for customer service and their finance group, sometimes asking for a 50-day waiting period, or promising to investigate further. Since the hotel never got our money, and by having us withdraw our dispute, the credit card company was barred from helping, Booking.com delayed again and again, ultimately saying the case was closed.

Elliot Advocacy and Christopher Elliot agreed to look into our claim against Booking.com. Initially even they were given a run around, falsely being told by Booking that we had been refunded the hotel reservation. Which was completely untrue.

Christopher Elliot ultimately broke through the logjam. Booking agreed to, and actually made, a refund.

Thank you Elliot Advocacy.