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Call Kurtis: Family Disneyland Trip Nearly Sunk After Travel Site Goes Under

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) —Sonia Shields booked a surprise trip for her family to Disneyland, but the travel site she used to book a hotel went belly up.

Having so much fun at Disneyland last year with her husband and kids, Sonia wanted to treat the family.

"We don't get much time together. My husband works weekends, I have weekends off," said Sonia.

She decided to book three nights at a hotel through Hoteling.com. The company also goes by Low-Cost Holidays. She received the confirmation email when she booked the trip back in March.

But halfway through the summer, the Spain-based website shut down, impacting 100,000 travelers.

The Shields were out $500 and had no reservation.

"I felt angry that something like this could happen," Sonia Shields said.

Before booking online, CBS travel editor Peter Greenberg recommends seeing where the company is based.

"Once you cross the border, once you're in international territory, all bets are off," said Greenberg.

Harder to get a refund he suggests after booking people should call a hotel directly to confirm the reservation.

"Just getting a confirmation on email is not enough, just because its online doesn't mean it's true," he said.

Sonia suspected they were protected, because she booked the hotel using her Chase Bank debit card. She challenged the charge, but Chase said too much time passed from the booking and they were denied.

We reached out to Chase, the company told us they had made a mistake. Normally debit card charges can only be disputed for up to 120 days after a charge, but since the services were to be delivered later, Sonia had 540 days to dispute it.

With that, the family got a refund, which saves the trip to Disneyland.

After almost losing money and a trip to the happiest place on earth, Sonia is apprehensive about future purchases.

"It makes me a little leary about doing business online," she said.

TIPS FOR BOOKING ONLINE

  • Search online to find the best deal you can and then call the hotel to book the deal directly.
  • If you choose to go with a third-party site, always confirm the reservation. Don't just trust that email confirmation.
  • Visa, MasterCard, and Discover give customers 120 days to challenge a charge.
  • If you learn of a problem after 120 days, push for them to help you.
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