Potential Booking Scam Beware!
I made a booking in early August for a three night stay in September at the Lime Hotel directly via their website.
Everything appeared to be fine until two weeks before departure when I received an email stating that I had provided incorrect card details and could I resend my details so that they could take payment.
The email that they sent was very abrupt basically saying send the card details again or they would cancel the booking.
This obviously appeared very suspicious to me despite the email address that the message had been sent from looked legitimate.
I replied to the email asking what the issue was as they had appeared to take the initial deposit from the same card so I was at a loss as to how they had incorrect details. I once again received a very rude message asking again for the card number or for me to send them payment via a bankers draft.
I explained that I wasn't happy sending my card details in response to this message so I advised that I would contact them directly via their website.
I messaged them directly two days after receiving the first email, asking if they had been in contact with me regarding payment. They failed to respond to my message! The following day, I contacted them again and asked them for an urgent response. Once again they did not respond!
The following day I received a message sent via the original email chain simply stating that my booking was now cancelled!
I have no idea if this was a scam. All I know is that the hotel would only respond via the original email chain created by them. They would not respond to me directly. Initially I put the rudeness of the messages down to the staff’s poor command of English, however, I’m not so sure now. Their correspondence was incredibly unprofessional, basically one line messages saying “send card details or we will cancel”.
I wish that I had booked via a booking platform rather than directly with the hotel. Obviously I can not comment on what the hotel is like as we are not staying there, however my advice would to avoid booking directly with them if you insist on staying there,
I have since booked an alternative hotel that looks to be of a similar standard and was a little cheaper. In the end I am relieved not to be staying at the Lime Hotel!