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I booked a room via booking.com and when I reached the hotel to check in I came to know that the room I booked was not air conditioned. So the hotel staffs offered me another room with air condition facilities. Now the site is sending emails like I'm not checked in at the hotel.

Will I have to pay the cancellation amount? I checked in the hotel which I booked, but for another room and the transaction was direct only.

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    Have you spoken to the hotel checkin desk about this? They should have registered your arrival against the original booking, but maybe they took advantage and registered you as a new booking, especially if you paid direct rather than say a supplement on the original cost
    – Traveller
    Jun 26, 2019 at 8:48
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    The fact that this happened after a change of room is almost certainly a coincidence.
    – David Richerby
    Jun 26, 2019 at 16:35
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    @DavidRicherby: I disagree. It is easy to imagine a scenario where the receptionist books the new room without cancelling the booking for the original room.
    – TonyK
    Jun 26, 2019 at 21:02
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    @TonyK It's much easier to imagine a scenario where no new booking is made and the receptionist simply assigns the customer to a different room. Why would you need a new booking?
    – David Richerby
    Jun 26, 2019 at 21:42
  • @DavidRicherby: The receptionist could easily make a mistake. Certainly somebody did; why do you think that it was "almost certainly" booking.com? In my opinion, it was at least as likely to be the receptionist, given that a mistake was made (Bayesian probability!).
    – TonyK
    Jun 26, 2019 at 21:44

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In my experience there are two possible explanations. The least likely one is that the person who checked you in does not understand the booking.com procedures. The more likely explanation is that the hotel is trying to save the amount of the commission due to booking.com. Bring the matter to the attention of the hotel reception and reply to booking.com that you checked in to the hotel on time. When you check out be sure to get an itemised bill and keep it until the matter has been resolved.

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    If you do get charged the cancellation fee, remember that you can challenge it via your card provider, assuming you used a credit card when you booked.
    – Traveller
    Jun 26, 2019 at 10:57
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    @Traveller That's from the US perspective; a debit card would be fine in the UK. The question is about India; I'm not sure which rule applies there.
    – David Richerby
    Jun 26, 2019 at 16:34
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    Debit card is also just as good in US as long as it's Visa/MC logo and you ran it as Visa/MC, rather than as ATM-at-POS.
    – R.. GitHub STOP HELPING ICE
    Jun 26, 2019 at 17:36
  • @R.. ATM cards in the US actually have stronger protections wrt. resolving erroneous charges (including unauthorized ones) than credit cards. However, IME, the people that you deal with at banks will often not be aware of the requirements and/or not follow them. The requirements for handling erroneous electronic funds transfers, including ATM card transactions, are in 15 USC Sec. 1693f, which is part of 15 USC Sec. 1693, which covers electronic funds transfers.
    – Makyen
    Jun 27, 2019 at 5:26
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    Booking.com probably has a contract with the hotel that the hotel can't just offer you a new room without their commission and cancel the booking.com deal. Although the hotel may try it anyway. So taking it up with booking.com would be the best course of action if that is what happened.
    – Stuart F
    Dec 16, 2021 at 10:36

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