Club1Hotels Has Folded
A LoyaltyLobby reader alerted us that the Club1Hotels that we wrote about last year, “Reader Question: Is Club1Hotels A Scam?”, has ceased operations. It seems that the modus operandi for this company has been to sell highly discounted travel bookings, charge consumer multiple times (by […]
A LoyaltyLobby reader alerted us that the Club1Hotels that we wrote about last year, “Reader Question: Is Club1Hotels A Scam?”, has ceased operations.
It seems that the modus operandi for this company has been to sell highly discounted travel bookings, charge consumer multiple times (by a “mistake” and promise refunds), sell gift cards at a bonus or discount, and provide consumers with reservations that are later cancelled, and the guest is prompted to pay upfront when trying to check in.
Our Reader’s Case From Last Year:
I live in Europe, and I am a member of Club1Hotels ( https://members.club1hotels.com/lang/en/bookings/agentsignin) for 8 years. I made several bookings each year at Club1 Hotels-not only for myself but for my friends as well. It worked very well throught the years, whenever I contacted Club1 they answered and solved the problems immediately- until this august.
I made 3 bookings for my friend – Park Royal Pickering Singapore 3 nights, Apurva Kempinski Bali 5 nights and Conrad Singapore 3 nights. All prepayed at Club1 Hotels, all confirmed.
At Park Royal Pickering front desk told my friend at check in that the reservation is cancelled. My friend told me, I wrote email to Club1- they told they do not understand, but will cover the costs after the trip. After direct mail to the Kepminski they told it was cancelled too. Conrad was ok.
The trip was from 16th to 27th August.
Since the end of the trip my friend did not get the refund (around USD 7.000) from Club1 Hotels, and I can not communicate with them about the refund.
Middle of september Club1 Hotels charged one of my friends credit card 2 times for more than USD 4.000 without any reservation. They had the credit card details from a previous reservation. Club1 said this is an error duplicate charge due to a software upgrade and they will refund this immediatley. They did not, and for already 2 weeks they do not answer to my questions about this fraud charges.
As a european I would like to ask you, what are my friends possibilities to get back their money. Is there any association to protect my friends rights or to help them, or any authorities to write.
I would really appreciate if you would share your opinion and thoughts about this issue.
Reader Question: Is Club1Hotels A Scam?
Some Recent TrustPilot Reviews:
The problem here, and always has been, with these travel-related scams is that the consumer pre-pays the hotel stay to the company they book through, but the company doesn’t usually pay the hotel until the guest checks in using a virtual credit or debit card.
You can promise high discounts, deals, and sell gift cards with discounts and bonuses, until you cannot.
At some point, what is effectively a pyramid scheme collapses when there are not enough new buyers willing to prepay for future reservations, and the cash flow collapses.
When you search for Club 1 Hotels information, you get the following:
Business Name: Club 1 Hotels, LLC
Founded: 2016
Headquarters: 1000 N. Milwaukee Ave, Suite 303, Chicago, IL 60642, USA
Industry: Hospitality and Travel Technology
Website: club1hotels.com
CEO: Robert Falor
When you then search for Robert Falor on Google News, it is clear that there is someone in Chicago with the same name (unclear if the same person) in the hospitality field who got into trouble and was jailed in the early 2010s:
Conclusion
When something appears to be too good to be true, it usually is.
I recently came across another company promising extremely cheap stays, advertising on Meta. I took a screenshot of their ad and planned to look into what was wrong with them.
Double/triple charges and not having a valid reservation when you try to check in are all huge RED FLAGS, and you should immediately dispute the transaction(s) with your credit card company.
There are, however, sometimes deals to be had with smaller online travel agencies (OTAs) that offer discounts on hotel stays, and I occasionally take advantage of these for independent or non-chain hotels.
On a side note, it is pretty fascinating to look at who have been promoting various deals from this company….
