Beware of hotel scams

If you are a traveler you should be aware of this hotel scam. I had experienced it long back in Kolkata, experienced recently in Mangaluru.

Hotel business is tricky- they have a set of rooms to sell- they want to make max profit but if they list their rooms at very high price, prospective customers will book other hotels that are cheaper and rooms will go empty, which is lost revenue. But if they list these rooms for very less price, they will get some bookings but can't make profit.  

So some hotels do both. On one booking platform list at higher price, on other platform, list at lower price.If some customers book at higher price, they can make more profit, if not hopefully few will book on lower priced platform so that at least some money comes in and rooms don't go empty. Problem happens when rooms get booked on both platforms. Now they have 2 customers for same room, obviously one of them will have to be turned away. When this happens, hotels will honor whoever is paying more and customers who booked on platform that showed lower price will be turned away giving some excuse.

How to detect this hotel scam?

• Check how much your hotel is costing on other platform. 5-10% variation might be ok, but if the difference is too much then it is a red flag, maybe avoid such hotels
• Never trust online confirmation. Call, msg the hotel and confirm your booking
• Where possible, opt for pay at property option, which reduces your risk