I never saw a total charge until after I committed to the reservation. I never saw that their cancel/change policy imposed a 100% penalty until after I had made the purchase and saw that I had inadvertently booked two nights instead of one. I called hotelplanner within a half hour and spent about 20 minutes or so on hold waiting to talk to someone. When I finally got a live person on the other end they spent most of the call complaining about my cell phone reception and quoting their 100% penalty policy for changes.

After complaining loud enough and often enough I was finally promised that the one night would be refunded as long as the hotel agreed to the change. I was then placed on hold while he called the hotel (the front desk confirmed later that they had called and that the change had been made). He told me that the difference would be refunded within 24 to 48 hours. This was on a Tuesday.

Thanksgiving was that Thursday, so we allowed a little extra time and called hotelplanner again Friday. This representative was more accomodating, but I spent a LONG time on hold waiting for him to do “whatever”. An initial, “please hold for 2 to 3 minutes while I work on this” became a second “2 to 3 minute hold” which was more like 9 or 10 minutes. Finally this rep came back on the line, apologized for the long hold and told me that my money should be refunded to me within 24 to 48 hours.

I complained that I had already been told the same thing on Tuesday. In the end he assured me that I would receive my money.

It is now the following Wednesday morning (four and a half days later, with two weekend days and two business days between), and no refund. I will be making a third call to hotelplanner.

I will NEVER, EVER use hotelplanner.com EVER again. Not even with a promise of four free nights. I do NOT trust this service AT ALL.