Booked a hotel, arrived at the correct address, Hanoi customer was shocked to see only shoes for sale

Ms. NH (An Khanh, Hoai Duc district, Hanoi ) just had an unpleasant experience when booking a room on the Traveloka application (an application platform for booking hotel rooms and airline tickets) on the occasion of the April 30 holiday.

On May 5, sharing with reporters, Ms. H. said that she had used this application to buy plane tickets and book hotel rooms since 2017. However, this was the first time she encountered this ridiculous situation.

Guest's payment receipt for room reservation (Photo: Provided by the character).

Specifically, on April 28, she logged into the app to find a hotel room to stay overnight from April 30 to May 1 in the Hoa Lu ancient town area, Ninh Binh . After researching, she chose to book 3 rooms at a hotel called Canh Dieu.

"When I booked the room, the system reported that there were only 4 rooms left. At that time, I felt lucky to have booked the last rooms. I paid 100% of the room fee, a total of more than 1 million VND," said Ms. H.

After booking, this woman was assured that her family would have a decent place to stay in Ninh Binh during the vacation.

On April 30, she took her relatives out, then had dinner at a restaurant 3km from Hoa Lu ancient town.

At 10:30 p.m. the same day, Ms. H. returned to the Canh Dieu Hotel on Nguyen Van Cu Street to check in and was shocked to learn that the hotel had been closed for nearly 3 years.

"The hotel's nameplate is still on the second floor, but the first floor has been rented out as a shoe store. Sales staff on the first floor said that on the same day, some guests booked rooms on the app but only found out when they arrived that the hotel was closed," said Ms. H.

At the same time, Ms. H. arrived at this hotel with 4 foreign guests who also encountered the same situation. That very night, she had to rush to find another place to stay and help find rooms for the foreign guests mentioned above.

According to Ms. H., after the incident, she felt like she was "cheated" when booking a room through this application because the accommodation facility had stopped operating for a long time but still allowed guests to book and collect money. Because the application kept all the money she had paid, the guest sent an email to ask questions and waited for a resolution.

Arriving at the correct address, the customer only saw a shoe store (Photo: Character provided).

Immediately after receiving information about the incident, Dan Tri reporter contacted Traveloka representative to find out information.

Through discussion, the representative of the booking application said that regarding the incident recently reported by customers, the company's customer care department proactively contacted to update information and provide appropriate solutions to ensure customer rights.

"We always value customer feedback and consider it a driving force to continuously improve service quality. The company's call center and customer support channels are always ready to receive all feedback and complaints. We are committed to handling each case with a high sense of responsibility, transparency and dedication," the representative said.

Along with that, this unit also commits to minimizing similar incidents that may occur in the future.

When contacted again, Ms. NH said she had received the company's support plan of fully refunding the deposit into the account, and receiving an additional discount code for the new order.

In fact, during holidays or peak tourist seasons, it is not uncommon for tourists to book rooms through applications and encounter similar problems.

Mr. Le Cong Nang, CEO of Wondertour, commented that online booking platforms have very good technology in management. However, the technology of accommodation establishments is often not applied synchronously. This leads to interruptions in the flow of guest booking information, causing confusion and difficulty in managing bookings.

Therefore, to minimize risks in similar situations, Mr. Nang shared that when tourists book rooms on platform applications, they should cross-check information with the hotel about the booking before arriving.

Guests can find the accommodation's hotline number, confirm the operating status and room availability. In addition, guests should prepare carefully and verify information to help have a smoother travel experience and avoid unwanted situations.

Finally, booking through reputable travel agencies is also a safe option. Through this channel, tourists will be supported if problems arise.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/du-lich/dat-khach-san-den-dung-dia-chi-khach-ha-noi-ta-hoa-chi-thay-ban-giay-dep-20250508130817666.htm