I booked an hotel in Malaga through Opodo. The booking confirmation clearly stated that I would be charged £341.69. The hotel actually charged us 484 Euros which when converted back to sterling came to £360.41. Despite raising this with Opodo they have refused to refund the difference. Be warned, if you book an hotel abroad through Opodo then what they say you will be charged and what you are actually charged may well be different. Opodo will never see my business again.

Hi, I doubt there is any website where you book hotels abroad that the price you see is the price you pay, you would normally pay for the hotel when checking out and the transaction is normally paid for in local currency and we all know that exchange rates fluctuate, the followoing is a paragraph from the OPODO terms & conditions.

Currency Converter

Currency rates quoted in the Site are derived from a number of sources and may not in all cases be updated daily. You may wish to verify actual rates on the date of booking. In addition, where hotels are payable on check-out, the exchange rate may have changed since the time of booking.

RTW2005

Shown below is the relevant section from Opodo's booking confirmation. Maybe I'm a bit thick but when a supplier clearly states the cost of the service they are providing then I expect them to stick to it. They would save themselves a lot of grief if they just quoted everything in Euros.

Item

Description

Total price:

Hotel: 5 Nights 1 Room

Hotel Barcelo Malaga

GBP 341.69
(EUR 484.00)

Amount to pay to hotel:

GBP 341.69

Hotel Barcelo Malaga reserved on following card

Card: Amex

Card Number: **** **** *** *****

Total

GBP 341.69

**

Hi think we would all like to pay the price we see but when you start talking about foreign currencies and credit cards things work out a bit different

was the price on the hotel bill (not credit card bill) listed as the EUR 484.00 or was it higher, as you paid the hotel and not opodo you may find that the "contract" was between you and the hotel and not opodo.

below is a part of AMEX T&C

12. FOREIGN CHARGES

12.1 If you make a Transaction in a currency other than in Pound Sterling, that Transaction will be converted into Pound Sterling. The conversion will take place on the date the Transaction is processed by American Express, which may not be the same date on which you made your Transaction as it depends on when the Transaction was submitted to American Express. If the Transaction is not in U.S. dollars, the conversion will be made through U.S. dollars, by converting the Transaction amount into U.S. dollars and then by converting the U.S. dollar amount into Pound Sterling. If the Transaction is in U.S. dollars, it will be converted directly into Pound Sterling.

12.2 Unless a specific rate is required by applicable law, you understand and agree that the American Express treasury system will use conversion rates based on interbank rates that it selects from customary industry sources on the business day prior to the processing date, increased by a single conversion commission of 2.73%. If Charges are converted by third parties prior to being submitted to us, any conversions made by those third parties will be at rates selected by them.

I was also wondering about the ** shown underneath the total price so i did a run through of booking an hotel on opodo and found the following

**Additional local charges and taxes may be payable at the hotelFor payments to be made at the hotel, prices displayed in Euros/GBP are indicative only (local charges and exchange rates apply)

The only time I have paid the price shown for foreign hotels is when i have paid a travelagent in the uk in Sterling

I now tend to use hotels own websites rather than 3rd party sites.

RTW2005

Thanks for your reply.

Yes the hotel did charge EUR 484.00. No local taxes or charges were added.

Unfortunately the extract from the booking confirmation I posted above lost it's formatting.

Opodo clearly state three times the amount to be paid is GBP 341.69, the EUR 484.00 is only displayed once in brackets. I admit I was surprised that they didn't quote a Euro price. I think they may be guilty of misleading people, surely if they want there to be no misunderstanding then they would make their booking confirmation look thus:

Item

Description

Total price:

Hotel: 5 Nights 1 Room

Hotel Barcelo Malaga

EUR 484.00
(GBP 341.69 at current exchange rate of 1.nn to the GBP)

Amount to pay to hotel:

EUR 484.00

Hotel Barcelo Malaga reserved on following card

Card: Amex

Card Number: **** **** *** *****

Total

EUR 484.00

**

I'll leave you to decide whether it is me or Opodo that has been taking the stupid pills. ;-)

Opodo double charged me for a booking, after assuring me this would not happen during a period of trouble with their servers. Consequently, a huge amount of money that has gone from my account, which for all accounts they hoped to keep - check your transaction statement guys! In addition, their hotel reviews are completely in-accurate, Opodo obviously have no idea how a star rating works. I personally will never use these guys again and I would recommend that you look elsewhere for travel.

just as an afterthought, when i book hotels i tend to go check with a few hotel search engines including the one at travelsupermarket.com and one i swear by is http://www.hotelpricefinder.com/ they check the 30 top hotel sites for availability and list & compare all the rates for the 1 room type with all the providers. i find this an ideal choice. it certainly shows up the best value.

the only downside of checking on this site and others is the detailing of taxes, some suppliers will show them and others are unknown until you proceed directly to the suppliers site.

a great wee site to check reviews is http://www.holidays-uncovered.co.uk/

david i dont think you are taking the funny pills. i find that that ive been taking (it seems like) bottles of them during my search for flights, hotels etc... especially when ive been recently in a dispute with an airline for their delay on a flight from edinburgh - paris that made me miss one of their long haul connecting flights thus arriving 12 hrs late to a hotel that had given my room to someone else and spending a day and a half before i could find something. everything worked out eventually on all fronts after learning the hard way.

regards jim