April 14, 2019 was Victor D’Vita’s lucky day. The La Mesa resident won two tickets to Six Flags Magic Mountain. He logged on to Hotels.com to reserve a room near the amusement park to make a mini-vacation out of it.
“We made a reservation for a Rodeway Inn,” D’Vita told NBC 7 Responds. “The next day we found a cheaper one so we canceled the first reservation, all within 24 hours of making it.”
But D’Vita’s good luck ran out this past June. After returning from his trip, D’Vita noticed he was charged for the hotel reservation that he had canceled.
“When I saw it, I was shocked. I was, like, I need to stop this right away,” said D’Vita.
He said he called the hotel but the manager never called him back.
He called Hotels.com. The company confirmed that the reservation had been canceled.
“They admitted fault right off the bat,” said D’Vita. “They looked at their stuff and they admitted, they were like yea you are right, it was on our part. We will reach out to the hotel and fix it.”
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The charge drove his bank account balance in the red. As other charges posted, D’Vita started to see overdraft fees from his bank. In all, D’Vita says he owed more than $200 for the reservation as well as in overdraft fees.
“I got overdrawn. I was lucky it was a holiday weekend so nothing really hit until the following Tuesday,” he said.
But D’Vita says the hotel was unresponsive.
“I was spiraling downward. I was upset. I was feeling personally upset. I was feeling depressed.”
That’s when D’Vita decided to call NBC 7 Responds to lift his spirits.
Within two days, D’Vita received a call from Hotels.com.
“The representative let me know the hotel would be refunding me the money and that he would also give me a credit for another hotel as well as a hundred and twenty five dollars to take care of overdraft fees.”
A spokesperson for Hotels.com told NBC 7 Responds that the hotel had made an error and confirmed that a refund was issued.
