Making a cancellation on a booking is a regular occurrence. Travel plans can change and when they do, you either change your booking or cancel it and book something else.
When booking hotels, I usually check Kaligo and Rocketmiles. These two companies reward people who book with them with frequent flyer miles. Sometimes the miles awarded are substantial so it makes sense to book this way.
Both companies require payment in full upon booking and you usually can cancel for a full refund up to a certain time before the stay commences.
Cancellation With Rocketmiles
When visiting Ibiza recently, I had one booking with Rocketmiles and another with Kaligo for two different hotels on two different nights. A week or so before I travelled, I noticed my preferred hotel had reduced in rate.
Cancelling a booking with Rocketmiles is simple. You click in to your booking and cancel it. Very nice and very 2017. I did this on 12 May and the money was returned to my credit card on 15 May. All good.
Cancellation with Kaligo
Contrast this with Kaligo. I did the same thing on the same day as the room I booked had reduced in price and I was still able to cancel. Therefore, to save money I cancelled the night and booked it again at the new rate. As easy as Rocketmiles.
Much to my surprise, the web site advises it will be 4 to 6 weeks before your money is returned. In 2017? With a computerised booking system?
Contacting Kaligo
I contacted Kaligo to ask about this and a rep wrote back quickly to advise it could take 4 to 6 weeks to appear on your credit card statement. That sounded okay as it would take this long with a paper statement.
However, we live in the age of the Internet and you can see pretty quickly on Internet Banking whether money has been returned or not. It has now been 18 days and no refund as yet. Interestingly, the rep did say they would contact accounts to try to expedite my refund.
Overall Thoughts
It looks to me like Rocketmiles have an automated system whereas Kaligo have a manual system. I would expect a refund to be processed much faster than what it has been so far. What annoys me is that I have to leave my credit card in debit so the refund won’t put my card into a credit balance. This means I run the risk of being charged interest, which I would rather avoid.
Over many bookings with each of the companies, I have never cancelled a booking. In future I will be much more wary just in case I need to cancel again. Waiting for a refund should not happen in this day and age, so Kaligo should really have a close look at their systems as it really ruins the customer experience from my perspective.
Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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