Those who cannot see will be happy.
Travelers are always looking to find the best possible deals for their trips. Companies trying to help us find those deals have sprung up like weeds. Priceline, Expedia, trivago, Hotwire, Orbitz and Kayak are just a few of the biggest sites. Recently, I decided to give Kayak a shot to help me save on an upcoming trip to Chicago. I started with my airfare. Kayak laid out the options, and I ended up getting my airfare without a hassle. I then booked my rental car. For some reason, Kayak provided the wrong dates for the trip. After fixing it, I then got my rental car. Time for the hotel. I found a rate and was taken to a site that I didn’t recognize called Amoma.
The site looked genuine enough, and it was through Kayak, so I assumed that it had to be a decent company. I found a room for my trip. The Amoma site claimed it was the last room available. Lucky for me. I proceeded with the process, then the first red flag appeared. They wanted me to pay with PayPal. That’s odd for a legitimate travel site. They optionally will let you pay with a credit card, so I chose that.
Everything proceeded as one would normally expect. I was informed that I’d get an E-mail with my details. I received two. One was a confirmation of the booking with Amoma. The other was a welcome message with details on how to access my Amoma account and manage my trips. The E-mails seemed typical. What happened next was not. I received a notification from my credit card company (American Express) that I’d been hit with with a large foreign transaction fee from Amoma. No such fee was ever referenced during the transaction. That obviously didn’t sit well with me. I decided to just cancel the reservation and start over with a different service. On Amoma’s site, there’s a simple Cancel Reservation option. I clicked it. A pop-up appeared, telling me that there would be a fee for canceling. The real eye-opener was that the fee was equal to the entire price of the reservation. They had to be kidding!
I decided to call the hotel directly to complain about all of this, only to find that they had no such reservation and had never heard of Amoma. That’s odd. I looked over the confirmation E-mail again. It listed no actual reservation number — just a confirmation with Amoma. I then noticed in the very fine print that it said that the reservation was nonrefundable. In the cost breakdown, it got even more interesting. It showed a 17% charge in “taxes and fees,” which is exorbitant. There was also a 4% fee tacked on for using a credit card. Seriously!? All that, plus the foreign transaction fee, made this so-called deal anything but.
I tried to send the company a complaint via their on-site support link. After typing a lengthy description of the problem, the Send button simply didn’t function. Great. I then started doing my own poking around. I went back to their site on a hunch. I searched for a hotel in Raleigh six months down the road. They had a room, cheap, but I had to hurry because it was listed as the “Last Room” just as my first booking had. I picked another hotel and a date farther out. Surprise, surprise. They had another great price, but it was the last room again! I tried a few more. It always showed the cheapest option — the one that the majority of people will want — as the last room available. There was just no way that was possible. Raleigh isn’t New York, and there are always plenty of rooms a month in advance, let alone six months in advance. Something wasn’t right. I called a couple of the hotels. They had plenty of rooms on the dates in question.
I started poking around the Internet. It was chock-full of a litany of varied complaints about the company. Countless people found, only upon showing up at their hotel, that they had no record of any reservation. When they called Amoma, a rep offered two options — a refund or a new reservation at a lesser hotel farther away for the same money. Those who took the refund were left hanging in a city without a room. Neither option is acceptable.
In the middle of the night, I got a reply from Amoma in response to my earlier request to cancel the reservation. They could not process it because they claimed that I chose an option for nonrefundable tickets. No such language ever appeared during my transaction — at least nothing that any normal person would notice. My guess is that all of their reservations are for nonrefundable tickets even though very few legitimate hotels ever offer such options. The next day, I began to plan my attack by having American Express overturn this charge. I then noticed a support phone number on Amoma’s site and called it. I reached a foreign support rep. She told me that I needed to be transferred to the Cancellation Department. That wasn’t good. Any company that has to have a department for cancellations is a company with which you likely don’t want to be dealing. That rep listened to my long explanation and then tried several different approaches to get me to keep my reservation. I finally told her that she had two options — give me my money back, or I get my money back from American Express and they end up with a large charge-back fee and a ding to their business credit. She put me on hold, came back a few moments later and exasperatingly agreed to a full refund (which ultimately did materialize a few days later).
The deeper question I have is how a company like Kayak can risk their brand by dealing with companies like this? It’s clear from the Internet that huge numbers of people have serious problems with them. My own basic research shows that their tactics are, at the very least, questionable. Several people online are certain that Amoma’s real business model is to collect your money and then gamble your trip with it. How? They’ll book you in your chosen hotel at a later date, but only if the price goes down during that interim to the point where they can make a real profit off the transaction. If that doesn’t happen, then you show up sans a room. If the hotel sells out, you’re likewise out of luck. I did speak with a Kayak representative, but that exchange was rather unhelpful. The rep seemed entirely disinterested in my experience and could only offer that they’re nothing more than a search site for travel fares. That is a cop-out and no way to respond to a real problem.
Amoma is one travel site that needs to be put on permanent vacation, while Kayak needs to explain why it is that they feel just fine exposing unsuspecting travelers to such a risk.
UPDATE: Several times we’ve received generic comments, all coming from one group of IP addresses, that are suspiciously similar in tone all trying to suggest that Amoma’s a great service that worked. None of the e-mails or accounts associated with them can be found to have ever been used before on the Internet. The only time I find that is when they were just created to post false commentary to sites like this one.
I have also been contacted by people very familiar with the inner workings of Amoma and many of my suspicions have been validated. There are some differences. The thing that seems most important is that Amoma is a reseller of rooms dealing with several different vendors all around the world. Thus, they’re at the mercy of countless different companies all with their own ways of conducting business. Amoma really has very little control over the process. My main concern is that the buyer has no idea any of this is going on. It remains an exercise in gambling with your trip. Some will win. Many will not. Is saving a few bucks (potentially) worth that risk to you? I would advise, at the very least, using a credit card that protects all purchases as there’s a real risk of loss here. If your credit card company offers such an option then you at least reduce your overall risk to a minimum with respect to your money. Your actual trip is another matter if you arrive and have no accommodations.
218 Comments
Everyone should be aware of this company and their unscrupulous tactics. Quite shocking. My favorite part of it is their logo which suggests you’ll be happy as long as you remain blind.
i wish i had read this prior to making a booking, they’ve just taken money from me for a twin room charged at 202. and sent the invoice for a double room at a much leser value. the choice of a double room was an option but i decided to pay the bit extra as planned on a couple of days shopping with my BFF so twin beds were more appropriate. they’ve emailed me and said that as i asked for a refund(clearly i wasn’t asking for that) i want what i paid for, robbing, untrustworthy
b££Far^s
Hey, did you ever get to stay at this hotel?? I am currently dealing with the same exact issue – and am wondering if I should just file a claim with my bank and get new rooms!
A huge scam . I booked a room in Miami for one night . Amona took the money cancelled the booking and did not return the money
I was able to request a cancellation for a hotel booking after realizing that I was overcharged by Amoma! The cancellation unfortunately had to include a cancellation charge which was the only thing that was written below the actual amount charged at check out! It took them a couple of days to confirm the cancellation via email, after sending an email to follow up on the cancellation request! To my surprise the amount they confirmed that they were going to refund was less than the amount that I had computed minus the cancellation fee that they already included. I called to complain but they said that there was another amount which had to be deducted because it’s a card fee and they could not refund it! What a bunch of crooks! I have been dealing with travel related sites for years and I have never heard of a hidden card fee that you don’t hear about until you request cancellation! It seems that I may only get my money back if I Dispute the transaction through my bank! I’m beginning to doubt that they are even a legitimate business!
In Aug. 2016, I made reservations using credit card A. Before my trip I was billed to pay 267.00 dollars. When I arrived at hotal in Oct. I used credit card B (I’m elderly) and paid for my room using credit card B. But credit card A says I need to call Amoma to have the charge from credit card A Refunded back to my credit card A. I called Amoma and reprsentive naimed Damian tells me I need to send an email and explain my situation. I sent email on 12-5-2016. In my heart I feel that this company will not do right. This company should be avoided.
Buyer beware indeed! Made reservations through Amoma for hostels in London and Paris. Paid extra for a private room to get better quarters via a special deal they offered. Wound up in 12-bed dormitories. It was horrible. The reservations were not even in my name but in my guest’s name. Thank God the hostel people thought to check her name. Customer service will admit to no wrongdoing on their part. One word best describes their service – worthless.
Same thing happened to me. Made my reservation and then called motel where reservation was to be made. No reservation was made at the hotel. I tried to get Amoma involved and they only told me a bunch of lies. My credit card company is going to refund my money. I had to stop my original credit card and receive a new oneso that Amoma could not take any more money from me. A few people may get a room, but ost will just lose money with this scam
The worst travel site ever!!!
I use travel sites on a regular basis at least twice a month & the experience i received from Amoma was the worst ever!!!
Firstly they book me on wrong days & to change the dates they’re charging me 99% of my booking amount.
despite numerous emails they send me a standard email reply with absolutely no clarifications or even remorse for getting our travel dates wrong!!!!
Avoid like the plague; pay a few dollars more but steer clear of these fraudsters!!!!
#amomafraud
Hi, i know this was a while ago but can I ask if you got your dates changed/money back? I am having the exact same problem with them now!
Jennifer, for what it’s worth, I got my money back, but I really had to play hardball with them. I worked in the e-commerce industry for many years and know the soft spots. You need to make it clear that you WILL charge this back and that it will cost them more money (their biggest concern). Never use anything but a credit card with protection for this stuff. You have control then. PayPal is a close second, but that’s less a given.
had very bad experience with Amoma. I booked a hotel, booking numbertel:43242753 and their team confirmed by email and by phone that I can refund it 100% with no penalty, when I submitted the cancellation request when I found better option on the Amoma itself, I received a confirmation email that 0 deduction will be made however, I found that they deducted 60$ when they made the refund. I emailed them with no response. Then after I posted it on trust pilot one from their CS called me asked for the credit card statement which I sent,he apologize when he saw the mistake and told me it will take 30 days to solve it. When I objected they sent me an email saying according to the clause number 4 and 5they don’t have to refund anything. Almost 5 different people emailed me with nonsense replies. Pure scam!
I am currently having issues with them. I purchased tickets yesterday morning. I keep calling the hotel and my reservation is still not there. AMOMA is telling me that it takes a while for the hotel to get the actual reservation.
Yes Carmen it takes about 5 days or so for them to reach the hotel. It doesn’t happen ASAP. But you shouldn’t worry I had no problems with them at all. Definitely nervous though seeing other questionable reviews.
I did the same thing. Give it 72 hours. Trust me, I stressed out about it… Within the 3rd day, the booking reached the hotel. 100% satisfied with this so far! What would have been $611.16 booked through the hotel. We are booked for $388. No difference but monetary
I want to point out that Adam’s case is Adam’s case. He got a random partner that was reliable and entire based on his trip. The rest of us likely did not get the same partner. That’s the catch with wholesale business with many suppliers.
Could not agree more. I had one woman who was nice on the phone, but the whole situation is very frightning. They send an e-mail and literally in the same minute they call me on the phone and trying to get me to agree on some things that are unable to understand. I told them in an e-mail that the situation I have is something to be dealt with by them and by the hotel as the hotel would take care of the situation. However Amoma completely ignores it and continues calling, even after 10PM!
This is the most horrifying company I had ever to deal with and I wish they go down as hard and fast as possible. Adam, you aren an exception to be this lucky!
Hey, did you ever get to stay at this hotel?? I am currently dealing with the same exact issue – and am wondering if I should just file a claim with my bank and get new rooms!
Hi
I booked a hotel,(Feb 2016) while in Bangkok for Bangkok and had none of the above problems, I received 2 emails which I couldn’t print off my phone and was a little apprehensive, but when I arrived to the hotel everything was in order BUT I arrived at this forum because I’ve tried to book a hotel for Phuket later in the year and their web site won’t let me navigate past the first page … So I’m thinking I should contact them and find a alternate company 😕
I Made a booking last night with them and got the most bizarre service. Booked a hotel only to be informed after I put in my banking details and followed the full process that my application had been declined for that hotel. They thereafter proceeded to offer me alternate hotel options which I was not happy with and emailed them not to proceed. Received a call from them guaranteeing that they can book the room that I initially requested but had to pay a small fee extra which I did. Thereafter once I made full payment they phoned to tell me that there is no bed for my children… This is a total unfair process! Surely they should not advertise for 4 people if the room does not cater accordingly and furthermore inform your client prior to payment made! What an inconvenience…..
This is poor customer service and is my first and last experience with Amoma! I cancelled my booking immediately…..
I was in process of booking a room in Gatlinburg and was at final step for completion with PayPal.
On of your agents contacted me to offer a “better” deal at same resort. I took him up on his offer. And started over with new purchasing stream. I was then contacted again by same booking agent who called to inform me that I had lost the room I was trying to book!!!??? It was booked during the time we were discussing the updated, best thing since sliced bread pricing. I was , as you can imagine more than pissed. The agent was not professional and not sympathetic toward my dilemma. My family was looking forward to this trip as they do every yr and we tried to recover by booking elsewhere to no avail.
I am angry and frustrated as hell!
If he did not call we would be fine and on our way and, booked thru your business. Now just plain angry.
Feb 2016 – I was a bit wary after this review as I had used them for two rooms an airport hotel in Iceland, I arrived and the hotel booking was fine with no problems at all.
So I can recommend
I had the same positive experience. I read the reviews, and was weary, but decided to try anyways. I called them, and someone picked up pretty quickly, answered my questions, and helped with the booking. He said it takes 3 days for the hotel to get it. I called the hotel today, and they received the booking, and the hotel emailed me a confirmation, and everything is just fine…I got a $475 room for $258…awesome deal!!!
Could you pls give me the number you called? Pls pls, I wish I have read the review before making a reservation with them.
I’m so sorry, but my experience was so long ago that I no longer have any idea what that number was. Plus there’s a different number based on what country you’re in.
Amoma is a rude deceitful online portal. Book a suite described as double room suite upon check in only 1 room!
All my e-mail n web form no response . the hotlineenu was not in English.
They were rude make no effort to fix my problem and offer no solutions.
Avoid them at all cost !!!
I couldn’t agree more! Their website screwed up the date of my reservation by one night. I sent them three messages through their ” manage your reservation” portal, telling them there had been a mistake and I needed the room one day earlier. They finally responded the night before I left, basically telling me “tough shit,” and that I could cancel my reservation for more than the cost of the room!
I had to eat the cost of their reservation and find another hotel for the night that I needed. Never use this company
Be aware of this company!!!!!
They will charge you for everything and even if your reservation is refundable , you would never see your money in full, there is always some kind of hidden charge they will hold.
We had to cancel our hotel stay due to health reason and at first Amoma start claiming that hotel did not provide full refund.
I sent them written proof from the hotel that ALL money were refunded.
Still after 90 days Amoma is holding my $1500 and refuse to refund it since “their provider needs to confirm the refund”??
never heard anything more ridiculous.
Do not trust this company. $20-30 per night do not worse those aggravation and definitely now, I’m so sorry i did not go with all verifiable sites.
I was just about to book the Backbay Hilton. I found a great rate on Kayak which took me to Aroma. The rate quoted was $150 per night cheaper but something didn’t seem right. I am glad I found these reviews. Thanks for saving me the trouble.
1 Reviews
Published 44 seconds ago
If you want a no hassle booking use a different site!
I had booked a hotel through this website recently for our anniversary, 2 days before they email and call me to move my reservation to another hotel. I accepted this on the grounds that there would be no further changes to my booking. Amoma promised me this.
1 day before my trip they call me again then email me at 1 am to say they are moving me back to original hotel, I decline referring to earlier conversation.
Day of my trip just as I’m about to leave, another call from amoma insisting that I had to stay at original hotel as the booking in new hotel was gone. I argue that this is not acceptable changing so often and we had an agreement not to change hotels again.
To make matters worse I was told there might not be a booking at either hotel but to call them if I had any problems at the original hotel.
So driving to a different city not knowing if I have a booking or not is an amazing way to start off a well deserved break. I will never use this website again.
I have complained to them and basically AMOMA.com has not taken responsibility for this chaos instead they ask the hotel to compensate me. The hotel declined to offer any compensation which I understand totally, my problem is with AMOMA.com they took my booking and my money but try to pass my complaint onto the hotel.
Anyway save yourself the hassle use another site, anyone but amoma
I too was had by Amoma. I wanted a hotel in AZ which I picked out through Travago. When paying for it like you they transfer you to another site Amoma. They also wanted Paypal but since my husbands account was hacked for over a thousand dollars we cancelled Paypal so I paid with a charge card. When I got confirmation through my email their was an extra charge. I called and they said it was because they were dealing with a credit company. I then gave them a debit card one that I don’t use often and one that has minimal money just in case this website was corrupt. Yesterday I noticed that my bank charged me a foreign charge fee. Who knew that Amoma is foreign??? If these companies like Travago and Kayak use companies like this to process your request they must know what they do. I think if I was told prior to the transaction. This seems just wrong.
Please can you give me a contact number for Amoma as they have taken the full amount for my hotel booking but I have no confirmation and the hotel say I have no booking. I have called the number on the website but it never gets answered.
Thank you
Gill, St Helens
So true. I also had a bad experience when AMOMA took my money for a booking that was for different dates to which I requested. I only noticed the incorrect dates when I received my confirmation letter. Then it’s too late as bookings cannot be changed and will not be refunded. DO NOT USE THIS BOOKING AGENT
Hey, its crazy i booked a hotel the same day April 11, 2016. They did in fact take my money but i called within seconds cause noticed my days were wrong also. they couldn’t change the dates so they refunded my money (so they said) when i checked my account they took the money out twice and claimed that they didn’t and that i was looking at my statement wrong smh. So now going back and forth with the bank and them i spoke to the supervisor names MONIQUE (who was rude btw) and she said the money will be refunded in 3-5 business days. SO we’ll see if its true indeed. My suggestion is you still have time, harrass them until you get an answer. That’s what i did
He! I am having exactly the same! I immediately contacted Amoma and the hotel about the wrong date. The hotel canceled the booking for me and we made a booking for the right date, but Amoma keeps saying that they will not refund my money. This comapny is true bullshit!
My experience in using AMOMA in the last 3-4 weeks has been POSITIVE despite severe trepidation so after reading this blog and one hiccup in the system. Using AMOMA, I booked a hotel in Rome, Florence, Venice and Milan with no hidden charge for a debit card purchase. One of the hotels was booked on a credit card and my bank eventually hit me with a currency exchange fee for that booking. that is rather strange since both cards are with the same bank and the debit card attracted no such fee.
The voucher AMOMA sent me appeared rather simplistic and so I sent an email to each of the hotels, using their contact address from their own websites, asking for confirmation.
Three hotels were quick to confirm my booking. The fourth said they had not received a booking, despite my email being about 14 days after I had initially booked with AMOMA.
From Australia and using Skype, I phoned AMOMA and quickly got through to a very helpful young man.He said my booking was live on their system but would contact the hotel and reconfirm my booking with them. I thanked him but then wondered if it was all too good to be true and determined that I would wait a week and again contact the hotel.
Five days after my call to AMOMA, they phoned me – to tell me that my booking was now confirmed with the hotel and they would send this confirmation by email as well. I got the email but contacted the hotel anyway and they also were happy to confirm my room was reserved with them.
Obviously some people on this site had bad experiences for one reason or another. I see some were angry that their hotel was unable to confirm their booking only a short time after using AMOMA and maybe they wrote here too soon.
I, for one, am happy with their service and would use them again whenever I have the time to check my information when I make the booking and to match it to the details they send me. I would also give them a few days to complete their process in sending details to the hotel, but then I would still check with each hotel.
This is an Amoma employee response!!! This experience is far from reality. Amoma (author of this comment), please do not further insult our intelligence. YOU’RE A SCAM OUTFIT and what goes around will come around!
I booked a room in Vegas through Amoma.com this morning and 8 hours later I called The Bellagio to confirm and they had my reservation and all my information. I got one heck of a deal, I guess I lucked out.
Definitely don’t use this site!!! I was looking for a hotel in South Beach and the one I wanted stated it was sold out on the hotel’s website, but on Amoma they had 1 last room….I went onto another site that linked me to Amoma and then it said there were 3 rooms available for cheaper prices but every legit sight stated the hotel was sold out!!! Be very careful. Im glad I followed my intuition and decided to do research, I would have been so freaking pissed!!!!!!
Someone I never heard of made reservations through Amoma.com on my CC. We don’t know where they got the CC number since it never left my purse and I had not had it very long. The thieves failed to show up or cancel the reservations so the hotel charged me $207. I think they may be setting me up for something bigger but we caught it before that happened. If you meet Imani Murphy anywhere don’t write him a check…if he exists. Amoma was no help when I tried to get information as to who made the charge against my credit. Lura Horn is shown as the card holder but that is also a name I do not know. All three of these entities are fraudulent.
Do not do business with this company unless you like losing hundreds of dollars.
I used Amoma in Jan 2016 to book a hotel for one night. Everything was fine – hotel had my reservation. A couple of days ago (July 2nd) was checking my credit card statement online when I noticed a transaction from Amoma for $833.5O. What the ????
I tried ringing Amoma – no answer.
I’ve now had to cancel my credit card and order a new one. What a hassle.
Would not recommend using this company because you may well get a nasty surprise on your credit card statement a few months later!
lol your funny, however i would like to share My experience with them
They never did me and my son wrong we are still on our holiday in Las Angeles as I am writing this
at the Hotel that we got through this company.:-)
This is the WORST company with the most arcane “no refund” policy I’ve ever encountered. I cancelled my reservation one week after making it … and they are saying I have to pay the full amount ($529 Canadian) anyway. I have phoned the hotel … they hotel doesn’t have my money. I phoned the Canadian phone number for this company and have reinforced how annoyed I am and I WANT my refund. They have to “negotiate” with their partners. Of course, they can’t tell me who their partners are.
So DON’T USE THIS HORRIBLE company!
Hello. I was looking for a room in Copenhagen, and Amoma was seriusly cheap… I was transfered to Amoma from a large norwegian website called Finn.no, who is the largest web site in Norway for buying and selling stuff. BUT when i had written inn my personal details and just started with the bank info, I got a call from Amoma.com. He told me that he would send me a better offer than the one I already had accepted…. ??? I then asked him if I should cancel my booking and use the nw booking by mail, and he confirmed this… OK, this was suspicius, so I finished my banking details, but I got an error telling me that my bank did NOT accept that my card was used at this web site… Did really not understand why they called me to give a better deal eventhe fackt that I already had accepted the rate… This smell faud, I trawel a lot in my job, and will nevertry to use them again.. Check also getaroom.com, seems to be tha same people behind…
I’m sure I’ve just been scammed as well. Booked a hotel in Houston for next February, gave them my Amex details & got an email back the following day saying that they were issuing me with a refund as there was no availability. I re-booked with them on the phone as they offered to find me alternative accommodation and subsequently sent me a hotel reservation voucher and definitely confirmed the reservation. Needless to say I paid again via Amex. Contacted the hotel to make an enquiry on the room and got a reply this morning saying that no reservation has been made and they are full. Now going to contact Amex to cancel payments. Amoma apparently are a Swiss company with a call center in Bucharest contactable through an English telephone number. Don’t go near them not worth the aggravation. Fraudulent company.
Tried to book a room in Vegas. AMOMAhooks you in with a low price and then when you try to book they say the last room at that price has already been booked. Deleted my cookies, went back in searched again, got the same issue. Low price offer, then got switched to a higher price when I tried to book…..Bait and Switch much??
The worst travel site ever!!!
I use travel sites on a regular basis at least twice a month & the experience i received from Amoma was the worst ever!!!
Firstly they book me on wrong days & to change the dates they’re charging me 99% of my booking amount.
despite numerous emails they send me a standard email reply with absolutely no clarifications or even remorse for getting our travel dates wrong!!!!
Avoid like the plague; pay a few dollars more but steer clear of these fraudsters!!!!
#amomafraud
Agreed! Unbelievable! so many hidden fees, and what century are they in to charge for any use of CC! I’m so mad seeing my final $ amount on my CC statement wasn’t at all what I agreed to pay on their website!
It is a pure scam. I just cancelled a reservation and they have not refunded my money and it has passed almost three weeks. I disputed the payment over the bank and I have emailed and phoned them and no response yet. It is a fraud, please do not use that page,
I myself have had trouble with this company..i booked a room with free cancellation..i cancelled within one week of booking and they will not refund me this was 7 weeks ago and they have not even notified the hotel til this date.
I booked through AMONA recently for accomodation in Western Australia. I subsequently cancelled and was told and knew I was entitled to a refund. They have continued to refuse to refund because they say they need a BBAN. In Australia we have an IBAN but no such thing as a BBAN. My private banker at the Commonwealth has tried repeatedly to explain this and still they will not refund the money. I have referred the matter to consumer affairs.
I had a bad experience as well and am trying to resolve it now. I started to book the room in Vegas which said it was refundable, however, once I put it in my cart, it stated if I canceled there would be a $60 fee. Because of this, I decided not to book it through them and would try again to find a room through someone else in the morning. A few minutes late at 12:58AM I received a call from an agent who told me he could give me a better deal. I explained to him that I wanted a fully refundable room, not one with a fee attached. He told me he could do that and put it in writing. I accepted, but he then said it would not allow him to book it from his end, possibly due to me having it still selected but not purchased. He advised me to make the purchase and he would modify it once I did. Well, once I made the purchase, he then said he could not modify the purchase and it was totally non-refundable. I dealt with this until just after 1:30AM and they said they would contact me in the morning regarding a resolution. I received an email around 7:30AM stating I was basically out of luck. They would not cancel the order without me having to pay the FULL AMOUNT! Terrible company, I will never use them again and I will be contacting my credit card company.
Same SCAM with AMOMA. They cancelled our room and have our money. PAYPAL Should NEVER be used. They will not support you with Amoma. We will never ever use paypal again. We tell everyone we can not to use paypal or Amoma.
AMOMA is a criminal organization . They tried to steal money from my VISA account after they made the wrong booking date. Phone number is a fake. I have now learned, buyer beware.
I’m going through the EXACT same thing with Amoma right now! Buyer beware!! My conversations with 5 different customer service reps (if you can call them that) sound verbatim of what you wrote. I’m in the process of disputing the charges and requesting a refund through my bank VISA card.
I have booked with Amoma.com on 2/26/16. I just spoke to the hotel concerning my reservation for 3/15/16. Was told they don’t have one for me. Sent Amoma an email to ask what happen. Waiting on a response.Does anyone have a phone number. Please help!!
Good Afternoon Daphne. I have the same problem at the moment. There are four people going to a hotel and I called the hotel to check they had received the reservations and they told me that two of the reservations had been cancelled. I have spoken to 6 different Customer Care people at Amoma and sent emails . They tell me that the booking is live on their system and on the system of their supplier but I have told them that the hotel does not have it. We have a couple of weeks to sort out the problem so fingers crossed but how did they resolve your problem with them?
They do not have a working phone number, they are criminals, plain and simple
I tried to get my VISA payment stopped at my bank too but was unsuccessful.
I would never recommend anyone to use this website company. I found a very good deal in New Orleans for a Marriott Hotel. Booked it on June 8 and was charged right away and was emailed a “confirmation” and a “hotel voucher”. One week before my trip something told me to call the hotel and verify everything because we would be arriving pretty late in the evening and I did not want any surprises. When I spoke with the hotel staff they told me that they did not have any reservations under my name for those date or any dates. I got worried and called AMOMA and spoke with several people in their customer service department, all of them kept telling me that everything was fine and that they needed more time to get a hold of their supplier to verify the booking. So one week before I am scheduled to leave I came to find out that I did not have a hotel reservation. I started researching and reading reviews all of which had the same thing happen to them. Of course there was an occasional positive experience but way too many bad ones than good. I gave them over the weekend to contact the supplier and on Tuesday(today) I finally had enough and demanded the cancellation and refund. I think what happens is that the price that AMOMA posts is fictitious with hopes that they will find a hotel at that price. In slow times it may not be a problem but on high travel times they will have a hell of a time. Which is what I believe happened in my case. All the hotels in that area were at least 250 US dollars more than what they charged me. What a reputable company should have done is taken the loss and booked me a room. I am not sure how this is legal. Now let’s wait and see if my money is refunded as quickly as it was taken. I have contacted my bank and they have assured me that as long as I have my cancellation request and email confirming the cancellation that I will be covered through my bank even if AMOMA decides to play more games. Stay clear of these guys unless you do not mind take a gamble.
I am surprised with all these reports from Amoma.com and its affiliated partners. As travel metasearch sites should have used XML API platform (in real time) to compare prices and instant e-booking. I work for a travel metasearch company based in Thailand and have never dealt with cases like these.
Where is the best practice in business moral? It seems sketchy with all the hidden charges and no refund policy. Shame to find Amoma as affiliates partner on established sites like Kayak, Momondo, etc. Partner sites should held responsible or offers first assistance to urgent cases like aviation industry. Unacceptable and should be warned at Consumers report.
Just reading through this thread an fam wondering why does it take a few days to confirm their bookings or for the hotels to receive their bookings 😳 Online booking Sites are connected to real time live inventory, rates and system of the hotel so bookings filter through to the hotel right away. Utmost maybe an hour or a few due to connectivity. I don’t get that!!!
The answer to your question is that Amoma isn’t going through the hotel. They’re going through a litany of different third-parties that buy rooms various different ways, but mainly delayed. Thus, the hotel often has no clue about your “reservation” until much later. Thus, the gambling aspect and why this is such a questionable way of dealing with something as important as travel plans.
Please tell me if I must book through amoma.come or not yes or no I am booking a holiday in phuket and they have offered the best rate so far do I trust them or not please advise
Avoid them. There is nowhere on Earth that requires you to book through Amoma.
I have real concerns regarding the positives you see out there. Their business model seems so clear and yet these responses don’t seem to match any of the realities the rest of us have seen. They use the service, get a room and it’s booked right away and it all goes great. Sorry, I’m not buying it.
If you look at the review site they themselves push you towards, their reviews are horrible with virtually every recent review held back from publication as they routinely dispute every single one of them. They lose virtually all of them, so the reviews go up, but visitors will have to wade through pages of unavailable reviews to get to the real story. That alone should be enough to warn people.
booked a hotel in nyc through trivago where Amoma had the best rate. Disagree with all comments above. Process was seamless easy and legitimate. I called their customer service a few times to confirm and got right through. New York palace had my record of my reservation within 24 hours. Amazing 4 star hotel in midtown for a really fair price.
Totally agree I had no problems. I am concerned that some of these negative reviews are just ficticious
Stu, to be frank, that doesn’t make sense and, to my ear, that raises questions about the validity of your comments. Why would all of us tell virtually the same story? What do we gain???? Also, upon reading how this service works, how do you find it odd that people would have different experiences? Amoma is using a wide array of suppliers with all different varied policies and approaches to provide for each trip. It only seems obvious that the outcome of such an approach would result in wide variability in service.
Hi Stu,
I agree with Rich, I’m Australian, I booked a Hotel in Bangkok, while in Bangkok, I received two emails, that I couldn’t print from my phone so I was a little apprehensive, I arrived at my hotel and everything was in order… Perhaps I was one of the lucky one’s, BUT I’m definitely a legitimate poster !!!
They are not fiction they are true! Amoma is a very bad service at its best.
I wanted to have a hotel room at the airport but it was fully booked on all websites I could find … no Amoma offered me a room … wow .. .I call them … procedure as described above …
but I got suspicious as they want the full amount prepaid which usually never happen to me … and I travel A LOT.
After I go back to the website (my room, the last one is on hold for me waiting for my payment) … there Amoma offers several more rooms … what???
I call the hotel … “Yes we are fully booked” … “yes, it is possible that other companies have ordered rooms” “NO, we do not know Amoma, we do not recommend to use such a company!” … Thank you! Stay away from Amoma… that are my 5c in this.
I unfortunately started down a booking path with them yesterday, then got nervous about the price, and started researching them. Nothing good, so I called yesterday they assured me all was well, and they sent me the hotel’s booking confirmation. I called the hotel this morning, and they have no record of me at all. I went to their website, and pulled up my booking and it shows cancelled. WTF. Luckily for me they only charged me a 82.50 deposit. I have already stared the dispute process with my bank. They will get the charges reversed. I am also going to report it as a scam. I am going to try and reach Kayak, and Trivago and find out why they are allowing them on their website.
Good luck. Kayak blew me off claiming they’re just a lowly aggregator of travel sites. That’s nonsense. They simply choose to be blind.
Avoid like the plague. I am trying to get a promised refund from them for two months now.
I had a 2-night stay at a 5-star hotel in Abu Dhabi using Amoma back in Nov 2014. i made the booking in july 2014 and choose to pay by Paypal and the funds were immediately charged. An Amoma hotel voucher and Amoma’s booking reference number was emailed to me. A month before I was to fly out to Abu Dhabi, I contacted the hotel to verify my reservation and was surprised to learn that they did not a reservation under my name. I then became saddened to hear all the poor reviews about Amoma.
It was very difficult to locate a phone number to reach Amoma Customer Service but eventually found it through googling thru travel forums. They had different phone numbers for customer service and none were toll-free and so it was all long distance calls. I wasn’t able to get anything useful while talking with Customer Service other than, that they will follow up with it. I called multiple times with the same run around that they will look into it, sent emails which gone unanswered. A few days before my departure, I emailed the hotel directly and thankfully, they confirmed that they had a reservation and they provided me with their reservation #. A couple days later, Amoma sends me a message that they have guaranteed that there is a valid booking with the hotel. When I got to the hotel, it was smooth check-in process and I enjoyed my stay. The hotel will ask for the Amoma voucher. I think I was one of the lucky ones. This is just way too much effort on the customer’s end to ensure a valid reservation and very difficult to reach customer service. Because of that, I will never book with Amoma again.
I think it’s a false post, my experience was excellent, Amoma fulfilled all contracted, this post seems made by competitors to discredit the company.
On the Internet there are too many false things written by people with false names and titles.
I let this comment through for a specific reason: It’s one of a myriad of posts we’ve received that keep showing up with zero ability to prove their legitimacy and lots of accusations with zero details. Mr. Rozenbaum believes my piece is a false post. I provided explicit details of my experience. It’s one that I can easily verify as well. Plus, it matches literally countless other examples of nearly the same challenges from others across the entire Internet. He erroneously suggests that I must work for a competitor. I do not. Anyone can Google my name and easily see I have nothing to do with this company or its competitors, or the industry itself. However, what you cannot easily do is Google Mr. Rozenbaum. His IP address comes from Tel Aviv, Israel and one Facebook hit comes up with zero details. Otherwise his e-mail address comes back with zero hits anywhere. So, Mr. Rozenbaum, what exact evidence would you like to put forth that I’m not who I say I am? What about my name is false? What about my title is false?
Amoma is a total fraud. I understand how you feel. I had the worst experience in las vegas with them this weekend. To the point that I had to spend hours of my vacation trying unsuccessfully to fix the situation. Not only do they make false promises and give you a hard time. Worst customer service ever. I had a representative call me through a fax # to argue with me and tell me to shut up and stop bugging. How the hell did he get my personal information.
I have to share that I actually did have a positive experience booking a room at the Best Western Sonoma Inn through amoma.com. The first time I ever heard of this company was after I was doing a search through Trivago. I was looking for a weekend stay in August 2015 in Sonoma Valley, California — wine country. Similar to your experience, I think it also showed that the room was the last one available. I was trigger happy and booked right away then the skepticism set in. Long story short: Our room was booked, we didn’t have any problems, and we had a great weekend in Sonoma, CA.
The longer story: After I had already paid, I started doing some on-line research and was coming across some bad reviews. What have I done?! I did call the Best Western Sonoma directly and they told me they didn’t accept any vouchers from third parties (Amoma had said they would provide a voucher that I would present when I arrived at the hotel). However, I called a few days later and they did have a room reserved under my name. In fact, just to double-check, I called again to confirm. Given the negative stuff I had read, I wasn’t fully RELIEVED UNTIL I arrived in person and there were zero issues. Somehow, I even got upgraded to a suite! I had a great experience with Amoma.
I booked and prepaid 3 nights at a Hilton about six months ahead of my stay. Called the hotel a few weeks later who said they had no reservation. Called Amoma who said they’ll send a confirmation closer to my travel date. When I arrived I had no issues with my reservation, however, when it was time to check out of the hotel, the hotel had a bill for me for the full price of the room. When I explained that I had prepaid, they told me that my reservation was through a company called Gullivers Travel and that they had only guaranteed the first night and that I’d have to get my refund from whoever I paid because they never forwarded the money I paid. Obviously I was pissed. I reached Amoma who awkwardly apologized, blamed some mysterious ‘partner’ for the mixup. I won’t feel comfortable with this transaction until I receive my credit card statement. Don’t trust Amoma.com!!!!
Avoid Amoma, really not a company you can trust.
Having had some very bad experience with them I tried to leave my first poor review on Trustpilot. I noticed that has suspended many poor reviews that have been “flagged” by Amoma. This in itself is also highly suspicious and seems to be indicative the poor customer service from Amoma. It is VERY disappointing that Trustpilot is aiding Amoma in concealing its suspicious business practices.
The entire Trustpilot scenario is yet another facet of this that demands real answers. Anyone taking the time to just look at the situation there can clearly see a major problem. Never before have I seen a situation like this where a company feels compelled to report so many comments as problematic. Mine was reported by them as well. After several days it was approved anyway as absolutely nothing in my review violated any terms of service. It appears from the outside that most, in not all, negative reviews will get this response from Amoma initially in hopes of reducing as many as possible. If I were Trustpilot, I’d have to take some sort of action against the company for continued abuse of the reporting system.
What’s more telling is that so many of the positive reviews — driving up their rating — have nothing to do with the service at all, but simply report on the venue the customer claims to have stayed at.
https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.amoma.com
I actually received a call from the PR firm for Trustpilot in response to my reporting this. They initially agreed that things did not look the way they should. They said I’d hear back the very next day. Nothing. I called them back and they now ignore my calls. Seems another company that consumers should consider putting little faith in.
Thanks for your comments. After getting first email to complete purchase I became suspicious and started googling Amoma. No where before booking did they mention a voucher….only after I gave my email the rep explained that part to me. I was very clear with my questions especially the cancelling policy. The answers were vague and did not put me at ease. I did not go through with reservation and went through another site….paying more but worth the peace of mind! This has encouraged me to share my experiences online, good or bad, to help people like myself being put in similar situations.
I had never heard of Amoma until they popped up on Trivago with an incredible deal for the hotel I wanted to book for my upcoming trip to Seattle. After I booked the hotel I found your website and started panicking because I had already paid in full and it sounded like people had terrible experiences. I called the hotel today (3 days after booking on Amoma) and they had all of the correct information and confirmed the reservation. So far, so good. I will update this comment after my trip and let you know if there are any problems once I get to Seattle. Maybe I just got lucky because I will be travelling in the off-season when there are many rooms available.
I honestly don’t believe all of their interactions are the same. I get the sense that they have different ways of handling different travel plans. My issue with this is that, based on my experience and the many negative ones you’ll find littered all over the Internet, this is potentially a game of chance that no one is aware they’re taking part in. So many facets of how they operate concern me — and others. One thing I’d like to know about your experience: Did you book the cheapest “Last Room Available” room or did you take one of the more expensive options? I do see that now (unlike when I used them) they are noting that the cheapest options are non-refundable up front. Progress?
I truly hope it goes great for you. Best of luck.
Hi Rich,
As promised, I’m following up after my trip to Seattle! My room was ready upon arrival and at checkout I was not charged anything beyond what I paid Amoma. I see that others have still had negative experiences, and I wonder if the key is contacting the hotel soon after purchase to confirm your reservation. (Although as a customer you should not have to take that added step if you are dealing with a reputable company.) Paying with PayPal seems to be another best practice – then if you call the hotel and find out you were scammed you can dispute the charges. Since I had a positive experience I may consider using them again in the future, but only for trips scheduled far enough out that I have plenty of time to confirm my reservations directly with the hotel and/or dispute any PayPal charges if things don’t seem to be lining up.
Thanks for continuing to keep an eye out for your fellow consumers!
The key seems tied entirely to something no customer can control — who the partner is that Amoma gets the room from. Thanks for following up!
What ended up happening with your trip?
This company does charge huge cancellation fees, I booked a hotel for a client on Amoma, when no other bookings sites have that hotel available. To be honest, I am a bit concerned. I think I will need to verify with hotel for this booking.
Stay away from this company. Received an incorrect date for my reservation. Their phone number listed as 24/7 is just a recording saying “no one is available, leave a message” (which I’ve done throughout the day); their web page to “manage your booking” doesnt’ work; and, of course, they immediately charged my credit card. Obviously a shady operation…
I have just had a very bad experience with Amoma. I booked and paid (on Amex) for two rooms in Vienna and shortly after booking, I received confirmations from Amoma for both rooms. Over a week later (and with my dates fast approaching) Amoma emailed to say that due to “high occupancy issues”, my booking had been declined. They have not answered my question as to why I should be concerned with high occupancy when I already have a confirmed booking.
I then called the hotel direct. they informed me that they received a request from Sun hotels (an Australian group apparently) for two rooms but as they had no contract with Sun, they rejected it.
All very fishy and unsatisfactory.
Thankyouverymuch!!
I was two clicks away from booking a two night stay in FL. I’ve never heard of this company either. Not worth the headache, and I agree; why would a “reputable” company such as Kayak promote this company?
Thanks again.
I booked two rooms in Croatia through Amoma, one single and one double. ( I was directed there through Kayak) When I got to the hotel, I was charged to have a second person in the double occupancy room!! When I contacted them they said I should have realized there was a problem when they didn’t ask for info on the second person in the double room…since when do you have to enter that info when booking a double occupancy room? They then said the customer service line is only for emergencies and that I would have to call another line…could barely understand the guy, and I had already given the same info to 2 guys before one of them told me the error in booking was my fault and I should call someone else. NEVER AGAIN, sooooo frustrating! They clearly don’t care about making customers happy 🙁
We booked a hotel in central London for 2 nights with Amoma (via trivago). I wish I’d seen this post first!
On making the booking, Amoma took whole amount from our debit card, taking our account overdrawn, when the they were only due to take a deposit. While they refunded this a week later, and took full payment on the due date, this was not before we incurred the account’s overdraft fee. Unfortunately that was just the start of our bad experience.
We arrived at the hotel to find there was no reservation. We called Amoma and they promised to look into it and call us back. After receiving no call we chased, probably 3 times, each time being promised a call back. Two hours later we had not received a single call and nothing had changed. So we inquired again at the hotel’s reception, where we were informed they were over-booked and our booking had been rejected at the time of booking!
Very luckily, and with zero help from Amoma, we found another hotel (with inferior facilities and a more expensive rate). Not having much choice, we paid for this up front, Amoma having said they would refund this amount within 30 days, but only once they themselves had the refund from their (unnamed) supplier – as if this was our problem!
It’s now 30 days later and we have no refund. Amoma has so far failed to accept any responsibility for covering our loss. Throughout this stressful and time-consuming experience, Amoma’s customer service personnel have variously lied, broken promises, blamed the problem on their supplier, been terse, stalled, not returned calls and been thoroughly unprofessional.
Needless to say, we recommend avoiding them!
can anyone tell me how to contact this company they cancelled my booking and said they will rebook at another hotel no response till now inspite of emails and calling there published #?
Is there a way we can complain officially about this company !!?
My search for a specific resort in Asia (December) was on Trivago. It showed me only two websites: Amoma and Hoteling. I was curious about why other traditional websites such as Booking.com say all rooms were sold out.
I am glad to read the reviews here. They are informative and very recent. Needless to say, I am not going to risk my coming holidays with Amoma. I had a similar experience with Otel.com this summer with my trip to Sao Paulo….upfront full payment, phone call to a call center for inquiry, Otel.com chase of local dealer, my call to hotel twice to double-check booking. It was OK at the end, but it was a tiring experience. After reading the complaints here, I think that Otel.com and Amoma are similar in the way they run the business.
One thing though. I wish that Trivago does not even list these websites. I bet they position themselves to be a meta-search service provider and have related disclaimers. Yet, a better service would be filtering scam websites.
Booked with Amoma, and paid thru Pay Pal. Amoma couldn’t provide me with a hotel confirmation number. Filed a dispute with Pay Pal. After 2 weeks, Amoma never replied to Pay Pal; therefore, Pay Pal ruled in my favor and refunded me in full.
This is good to read. I just booked and payed with PayPal. I cancelled half hour after booking after reading reviews. I have already filed a dispute with PayPal. I’m just glad I didn’t give my card information and used PayPal instead. Hopefully PayPal will help me.
Say what you want the people having problems are likely legit. I booked with them through Kayak and found that they had actually booked a hotel in a city with the same name in another state. I like several others found myself suspicious during the process when they were the only site showing up on Kayak with availability at that hotel and like many other said I had to hurry because there was only one room left. Well it was not even for the city I had searched for sather than St George Utah the supposedly made the reservation in St George South Carolina but South Carolina was completely left off the reservation confirmation. I was fortunately only tipped off by the address because I was familiar with the city I was trying to book in.
I will say that upon calling they did issue me a full refund, according the the service rep she could allow it because they did not have any alternate hotels in the city I was trying to book. They also acknowleged that the state was left off my confirmation but only noted it as “strange”.
I would also say Buyer Beware but perhaps some people do have a good experience mine was not so.
Wish I’d seen these posts before I booked through Amoma!
I booked a room in Seattle and then immediately realized it was for the wrong date. (That’s another story – the website page seemed to have dates already in it that it kept reverting back to even after I changed to the dates I wanted.)
I immediately sent a request to change the dates and followed up with a call. They have told me that the no cancellation/no modification policy takes effect immediately and my entire payment is forfeit.
I think that’s ridiculous. I pointed out that even online flight reservations with no cancellation policy allow you to change or cancel the same day you make the reservation.
They were unmoved.
I also put a 1-star review up on Trustpilot. It will be interesting to see if it stays up.
My new policy is going to be to use the aggregator websites to find hotels but book directly. Hotels are generally pretty good at the whole reservation thing, including changes and cancellations with no hassles.
On November 6th booked a 4 night stay at a Toronto hotel for next March using AMOMA via Kayak. Had no trouble at all. Waited 5 days, called the hotel and they have the reservation.
I have noticed a pattern over many years. Whenever a new business of this nature pops up that attempts to offer lower prices than that of established hotel booking brokers, they are deemed shifty.
I have seen this occur on no fewer than 4 sites. 2 of which have gone on to be reputable mainstays in the online booking world.
As with any business, especially new competitors into a market, mistakes are bound to occur from time to time. It’s called ‘teething’.
I have read here that someone apparently couldn’t find Amoma’s contact number. Really? If you go to their site, you’ll see the phone number of your local office literally screaming at you!
Richard old mate, you need to learn to read the fineprint before making bookings. You make out like they charged you 4% (sounds right to use an AMEX) but that you had no idea that you would be charged this fee??
I don’t buy it! If you have an AMEX, you know you pay for the privilege of using that card.
You cannot blame businesses for your unwillingness to read the T’s and C’s.
If of course there are additional charges that Amoma were not entitled too, that is an entirely different scenario.
Glen, I too have noticed a pattern over many years as a consumer advocate — that many new business concepts are floated that are downright shady to begin with and never evolve. As for the 4%, during my use of the site (which has changed quite a bit since I posted this in April) it was not clear that there would be an additional charge for using ANY credit card (not just AMEX). Nor was any mention made of a foreign transaction fee. I also call into question the easy suggestion that we all read T&C’s every time we encounter them. I have yet to find a mere mortal that has ever truly been able to say they do so.
I did, especially when it’s a new site for me. It explains the cancellation fees and what is valid should you choose to enter into contract purchase with the vendor, most of which you complained about. My concern in reading the T&C is the conversion of CAD to euros and exchange fees. It’s a gamble. If you see something you don’t like, step away.
I booked off KAYAK site and was sent to this Amoma company. I chose the Kayak rate because it was the lowest by almost $20 per night but I didn’t notice they sent me to the Amoma site and they switched the price UP $28! I felt rushed because there was a large countdown timer and I had to get ALL my information and credit card information in before the time ran out. I was concentrating on what I was doing and since there were multiple nights involved plus the addition of tax and fees, I didn’t notice the price change. I emailed Kayak to complain and they sent me an INTERNATIONAL phone number for Amoma. Thank you very much KAYAK!!! I called Kayak and they sent my call to Amoma in Romania where I could hardly understand the woman. She offered me $4 back… wow…and give her access to my bank account AGAIN??? NOPE!! They offered to cancel the reservation but after reading the review and seeing the FEES for cancellation, I will just enjoy my stay. It’s not as much the money as the rate switch that bothers me.
I did call the hotel and they did have my booking. They said the room is only able to accommodate 2 adults and 2 children and I clearly stated on the website that we would have 3 adults and a teen. The hotel said we could bring an air mattress since there is plenty of room. Oh well, live and learn. No more KAYAK…
When searching for a hotel in the Orlando, FL. area I decided to give Trivago a try this time.
I see the commercials all the time & thought-OK let me see what it’s all about!
I selected my star rating which pulled up hotels that would be of interest to me.
It showed the various sites for each hotel & the various prices for the same exact hotel.
We had just 2 weeks prior booked “The Rosen Shingle Creek Resort” thru Hot-wire & were very happy with that hotel during that stay.
Having worked at Ritz Carlton properties for almost a decade, this resort is right on par.
So much to my surprise I saw this very same hotel on Trivago for even less & in addition it INCLUDED breakfast/brunch for two in their main dining room.
My initial reaction was really? Seriously? I’ll take it!
So I clicked on Book Now & it redirected me to a site called Amoma (which I had never heard of).
But I went ahead anyway & booked it as Trivago had redirected me to this site & I thought it must be trustworthy as well as reputable .
I no sooner booked my room & received an alert from my bank that I had fraud on my debit card oversees.
I decided to use my debit card because any other form of payment would incur additional fees.
So I decided to google Amoma, found this site & was horrified at what I read.
So I called my bank & explained what had happened & the reviews that I read.
They reassured me that if I paid for a room & there was no room-that it was fraud & they would indeed make a fraud claim & refund my money.
So at this point I called up the hotel to confirm the reservation & they said it was not there-but not to worry as it takes up to 24 hours & even sometimes 48 hours w/third party vendors.
So I waited 24 hours to call back & sure enough they had my confirmation!
However they did not have in their system that breakfast/brunch was included & they suggested that I call Amoma to get that settled.
I did indeed call Amoma & even agreed to be placed on hold almost 30 mins. for them to resolve this issue.
When the gentleman came back on the phone he gave me the name of a person that he confirmed the meal with.
So when we arrived at “The Rosen Shingle Creek Resort” on December 23, 2015, not only was our room ready for us but they also had a voucher for the breakfast/brunch waiting for us.
This was no ordinary breakfast/brunch! Items were cooked to order in addition to station after station of selections. There was everything you could ever desire for breakfast including grilled 1/2 grapefruits & pine nuts for garnishes for the yogurt section.
This breakfast/brunch included the gratuity & added up to 1/2 the cost of the actual room (but was included in the price that Amoma offered-which by the way was less than all the other sites-which breakfast was not included).
I’m not sure how these travel sites negotiate such great rates w/extras-but this was an exceptional deal that normally would have cost double what I paid 2 weeks prior at the same exact property.
I am sorry that so many have had such a bad experience w/Amoma, but based on my experience-I will be willing to give them another try!
My Credit Card was charged $2030.00 USD on December 14th 2015 by Amomo.com! I have never booked any hotels with this company and in particular I have not been out of the country(Canada) since September 2015. As others did I did some research and immediately saw the problems others were having but no one mentioned being charged on their Credit Card for a reservation never made. I immediately contacted my Credit Card Security and they are now investigating and have credited my Credit Card the full amount. Buyer beware and check your accounts.
Gary, this does sound to me like a straight credit card theft and the thief likely booked a trip on that site. I’d even be surprised if Amoma took to randomly charging people for trips.
What Rich Heimlich is saying about Amoma is true, I had the same thing happened to me. I paid thru Pay Pal, and had to file a dispute. During the dispute period, Amoma never replied to Pay Pal, but would e-mail me directly. If Amoma was a legit company, they would have left there message via Pal Pal and not directly with the customer. BTW, Amoma e-mail me an internal confirmation number, when I call the hotel and gave them the number provided, they had no clue what I was talking about. They even took the time to search their entire computer for any reservation for the date I booked, and came back with nothing. There is no misunderstanding, the hotel had no booking what-so-ever with my reservation thru Amoma. I’m one of the lucky ones, I got back all my money back (Pay Pal ruled in my favor). All I can say is avoid Amoma, is saving a few dollars worth the risk of showing up to your hotel with no reservation?!?
I am thankful to be able to share that my daughters and i successfully used Amoma.com to book a trip to Cabo San Lucas last August. I was very nervous too – especially because the hotel did not have a record of my reservation. It all worked fine though – I showed the front desk the voucher that Amoma had provided to me, and they accepted it just fine. I did not have any excess charges and we had a great trip.
Thanks so much for posting. I was tempted to book with Amoma through Kayak but the lack of a phone number seemed like a red flag. Also, there was a $126 hotel charge on top of the taxes. It sounds like it has worked out for some people but I am very wary now that I hear these stories. I saw them on trip advisor as well. I am would think sites like Kayak or Trip advisor would only deal with reputable 3rd parties but I don’t think I can trust either of them at this point.
Well my experience was not good I was directed to this site by trip advisor annoying fact no 1. The hotel in Perth Australia was cheap looked everywhere for the booking information especially the cancellation fee or deposit fee couldn’t find anything. Put my email address in and phone number and then clicked on the credit card details screen and notice pay pal and then decided it wasn’t for me and went back and found the cancellation agreement so went off the site all together. My mobile phone rang was a local Sydney number with no caller id by the time I answered it they had hung up. Googled the number and low and behold what did it come up but Amoma keeping in my I had only put in my email and phone number had not even booked anything. Very annoyed with this breach of privacy contacted their support number after 10 minutes on hold I did get an American? operator ask me did I want to wait another 3 minutes. How dare this company ring me up when I have not thankfully proceeded with the booking certainly a breach of privacy there I will be contactin trip adisor to tell them of my experience.
I booked a room for feb in Sydney through trivago. There was one price that was way less than everyone else and I bought it.
Then I got an email from amoma with a voucher etc.
I called the hotel to confirm and they advised they had the reservation listed and it was paid for and all was ok. I just need to bring the amoma voucher in.
Im not sure about the negativ experiences listed here maybe its a random thing
Steve, if you read the details of the post you’ll see that Amoma gets their bookings from a myriad of providers. Thus, everyone’s experience can’t possibly be the same. In your case, your tickets came from a provider that works closely with the hotel in question. In other situations this doesn’t happen. That’s the gamble.
I normally book via Airbnb, however my parents wanted a hotel, therefore I searched Trivago and found that Amoma were the cheapest option and endorsed by Trust Pilot. Amoma claimed that this was the ‘last room!’ (Which was a lie) therefore I proceeded with the booking only to be informed after payment that the room is non-refundable. After being fobbed off by their helpline and stewing on this for 5 days, I called the hotel to check the booking. They confirmed the room had been booked however no payment had been received (I also found out the room could be cancelled without charge, contrary to what Amoma claim). I then contacted the helpline again and was informed that the hotel had been paid and that they would check with their supplier and get back to me. I called them multiple times after their deadlines had passed without resolution and will be travelling in less than a week.
I suspect this company takes bookings under the current price (only making a reservation) hoping that the price eventually falls to a point they can make a profit, however if the price is higher than what you paid they cancel the booking and refund (3 days before check in when full payment is due to the hotel). On the bright side, my parents are unlikely to ask me to arrange a holiday for them again.
Chris, I’ve had several discussions with Trust Pilot. This is another site that needs some attention. If you look at the actual reviews on that site, most of what gives them high marks are reviews not even about Amoma. Most of the reviews are about the accommodations the customer stayed in. Meanwhile, ANY negative reviews, Amoma immediately challenges as violating Trust Pilot policies. There’s no telling how many survive that process. Mine did as I was extremely careful to keep it all professional and to the point.
Hi Rich, good point, I should have delved deeper into the reviews. I have posted a review on Trust Pilot, so fingers crossed that remains unmolested as a warning to others.
Hi there! I am working in the hospitality industry, and Amoma is my worst nightmare when it comes to parity.
Would you mind sharing the name of the providers behind Amoma bookings?
Thank you
Kind regards
Aurelie, we don’t have that information. What we do know is that resources that work and have worked within Amoma have directly contacted us to fill in the blanks of why these problems happen. It’s caused by using so many different vendors for the rooms. The names of the vendors are irrelevant to readers, thus, it’s not something we cared to look into. They paid Amoma for their travel plans and that’s where the responsibility lies.
Booked a stay on 2/4/16 in Miami for Memorial Day weekend 2016. Complete payment was required at the time of booking and the amount was debited from my account. After I booked, I then decided to look at reviews (probably should’ve done that first). I saw that 98% of the reviews are bad so I got very nervous and was ready to call my bank to cancel. I called the hotel and they had no info on me. I then called Amoma Customer Service to confirm my reservation as I hadn’t received the email or voucher confirmation. I was on hold for nearly 20 minutes. Once I got through, the rep told me not to worry and confirmed my reservation. She then sent me the confirmation email and voucher while on the phone. I asked her why they had so many negative reviews and she replied “Don’t worry about the reviews. People only write the bad and not the good stuff”. I also asked her about why the hotel didn’t have anything on me. She said it could take a few hours or up to a week before my trip. I advised that there was NO WAY I was going to wait for a confirmation a week before my trip. She said that she would ask for everything to be expedited. After speaking with her, I called the hotel directly and again they had nothing on me. On the verge of calling my bank to cancel the reservation all together, I emailed the hotel directly. I received an email back from the hotel CONFIRMING my reservation. I then called and spoke to the person from the hotel that emailed me and she confirmed that she had the reservation. This made me feel a little more comfortable. However, I followed up the hotel on Monday (2/8) and spoke with the customer service area who could NOT find my reservation. I was told that she didn’t have access to see bookings through a 3rd party. I asked for them to have manager email me because I don’t understand why it matters whether its a 3rd party or not. If you have a reservation, in my mind, no matter how its booked, it should be able to be pulled up by customer service. I will keep this post going until my trip! Fingers crossed everything goes well.
Good luck. Welcome to the Amoma Lottery Game. It sounds to me like you may be just fine. I would argue that this site is not worth the stress. As noted, it’s not just the booking. Their process is morally questionable (Last Room!). Their process is non-standard and prone to trouble. Their manipulation of the review site they use as evidence of their product is extremely questionable. For me, it’s a company I just don’t feel comfortable supporting — and it would have ended up costing me more that had I booked directly.
5/27/16
I just checked in with no issues!
Hello can you give me the number to Amoma customer service. I was told today they don’t have my reservation at the hotel. I sent an email to Amoma but statses they will get back to me in 72 hours. Please help.
Daphne, first and foremost, remain calm. There’s a good chance all will be fine in a few days. Historically it takes a while for them to get their wholesalers to actually finish the process. In the meantime you can reach them here: 1 917 624 9013.
5/27/16! The day has arrived! I checked into my hotel with NO PROBLEMS AT ALL! Thank God!!! This time Amoma worked. I doubt I will book through them again…the anxiety of arriving to your destination without having a room is not fun!!
I at least wanted to update my post to advise that my reservation was honored & showed paid in full. This reservation was for a very popular hotel in South Beach. Its also during Memorial Day wknd
5/27/16! The day has arrived! I checked in with no problems! Amoma worked this time! Thank God! I doubt that I will use them again…the uncertainty & anxiety of not having a hotel room is just not worth it to me.
I just wanted to at least update my post & advise that everything turned out ok. And they showed the room already paid in full. The room is what I expected it to be. This reservation is for a very popular hotel in South Beach during Memorial day weekend
I booked a trip for April with them yesterday. Great rate etc etc etc….
As soon as I clicked the confirmation, I had the realization that I had never heard of Amoma before. Anyway, I get the Amoma voucher and confirmation within seconds. I start reading reviews and come across all of these horror stories. So, I contact the Resort and speak to the manager of third party billing. I didnt know there was such a thing. Essentially she told me that their customers have had issues with Amoma on many occasions, and there has been many instances of people showing up and having no record of their reservation and she basically said if we dont have it by next week I should cancel and book through a different provider.
I contact Amoma, and after the CSR told me that it is possible that their “supplier” might not even provide the information to the hotel until the week of my reservation. 2 months from now :/
At this point I mention that I had already discussed this situation with the Resort management and my bank and that neither of them were hesitant to throw the word fraud around. I made it very clear that if the resort was not made aware of my reservation being paid in full and I was not provided a confirmation number and documents that back up my reservation from the Resort I was going to cancel the order and let my bank handle getting the money back for a cancellation fee that was for a reservation that had never been made.
Less than a half an hour later, I got in touch with the reservation department of the Resort’s parent company, and they were able to locate my reservation, that was minus all of my information. We updated it after I confirmed my identity, and now it seems like everything is good to go. I have my confirmation from the resort, I have emails saved and printed from their management backing everything up and showing everything as paid and booked.
With all of that being said, I saved round 10% by not going with a more reputable site, but Ive literally had to stay on top of all parties involved to make this thing work right. Booking anything should not be this complicated. And I imagine many people who book on short notice, or are lets say less technically and socially savvy can be completely screwed by a situation like this.
I will not go through them again and I definitely recommend everyone avoid Amoma at all costs. I will most certainly continue checking on my reservation to make sure there are no issues down the road.
Just got to my hotel I booked with Amoma and was a little concerned based on the reviews, but no problem. I called the hotel about 5 days after the reservation to confirm, and they had me in the reservations. No problem at check in either. Saved $100 a night even with the exchange rate fee.
I wish I had investigated further before booking a room through AMOMA. I had to change the date of the room I booked in Boston, Massachusetts.I did it on their website within the allowable time frame. They said they had received the information and a representative would get back to me. After a couple of days, I did not hear back from them. I phoned them, waited 30 minutes to get through and spoke to two people who were difficult to understand as they had poor English. I was informed that they had emailed me that the change in dates was not available. Because it was now within a few days of my original reservation, I could not change or get any refund. I never received any such email from them notifying me that these requested dates were unavailable. I will never do business with them again. My advice is to book through well-known, reputable companies and AVOID AMOMA.
Here’s a positive review!!
Booked a room for Valentines day about a month prior
So I’ll be honest I was definitely nervous about using Amoma after seeing some questionable reviews about how Amoma would suddenly cancel your booking or something along the lines of that but I absolutely had no problem at all. It was quick and easy. Sure they ask for payment before hand through paypal (very safe) which made me skeptical but if you’re 100% on the room then you should have no problem with the beforehand payment. Paypal will protect you regardless. However if you book the room and suddenly decide to cancel it later they get about a majority of the payment so be sure about it before booking. And if you’re still nervous it doesn’t hurt to call the hotel a few times to see that your name is still in their system. I’d say it took about 5 days til my reservation was in the hotel’s system after paying.
IMPORTANT – Within the 3 days, the booking reached the hotel. I stressed out those 3 days, as reviews were very negative. 100% satisfied with this so far! What would have been $611.16 booked through the 4 star hotel, Fairmont Chicago, for 3 nights. We are booked for $388. No difference but monetary
I booked a month before and the reservation was not there at Fairmont Chicago. The desk clerk nor the manager have never even heard of Amoma, the booking numbers didn’t match, my name wasn’t even on the reservations. F*** you, you Amoma employee worthless piece of sh** c*** that posts bullshit praises about your site. Companies like yours are why I’m sure there are terrorists in the world.
I made a reservation with a Washington hotel last fall, not realizing that the reservation was being handled by AMOMA. When I attempted to cancel my reservation online, they: a) took about a week to acknowledge the cancellation, b) would not pick up the phone despite an hour’s wait, c) charged me $70 (20% of my initial charge) for the privilege of canceling.
In all future hotel reservations, I will be sure to check the fine print to avoid any dealings with AMOMA.
I booked 2 rooms at the SANDOS Resort in Playa del Carmen for 8 nights over New Years. I was given the option of paying in full with a credit card, or only a deposit and paying the balance later. Refundable with no fee or with a fee. We paid in full. As soon as we paid and I checked rates again,and an upgraded room was available for a lower cost. I called them and was able to get the room changed and the difference refunded to our credit cards. Yes it took a few calls but the refund was confirmed by email and therefore I had a backup if needed. It took a few weeks and more phone calls.I also contacted the hotel directly and found out that our reservations were “in house” albeit over a month before our arrival. The reservation was not under/via AMOMA, but a different company that prepays for rooms and resells them to various booking sites. What I also learned was that AMOMA is based in Switzerland and my phone calls were answered in Romania. We had absolutely no problem checking in at the resort.
As a retired travel agent, the reselling of rooms was not new to me. In the old days that was the norm when we booked a hotel package with a tour operator. There were 2 charter package companies out of Boston and that is how they saved big bucks on room costs. The rooming lists were often not given to the hotels until 2 weeks prior to arrival. I was happily surprised when our names were in the reservation system far in advance of our arrival. Perhaps my travel agent knowledge and questions asked clarified the booking conditions. I asked for confirmation emails that included the booking conditions that were discussed. Not the boiler plate confirms. I payed after receiving the confirm that protected me, and only with a credit card. They did charge a small fee for using AMEX which was acceptable. No fee for VISA or Master card.
So, my experience was OK and I will use them again under the right conditions.
Great information about Amoma.com. They advertise great discounts, but there’s no information about what you’re getting. This definitely puts great insight in how the company does business. When one company is selling a room for $99 and everybody else is selling it at $130, you know there’s something to be cautious about. Like you said, it’s a gamble to save a few bucks.
Simply I had good experience with Amoma, just pay with Paypal and stay touble free! They took some fee for credit card but this is usual. You have to read about taxes and fees sometimes it exceeds substantial amount on every booking site that show price separately
This is an example of a comment that concerns me. It shows that the poster didn’t read the details of the post. If they had, they would understand that their solution simply will not work for everyone given the process at Amoma. It’s also NOT usual to be charged a credit card fee.
Rich, why it is not working I mean PayPal? I always double check the website and if it is new on the list I try to get additional security options. If it is listed on most of search engines it should be reliable. Anyway I made reservation recently, best price on the web, everything was accurate. I made recently reservation through Dertour very reliable German site and pay some fee for credit card, it is really happen sometimes but small amount a few Euros on amount of hundreds. Amoma charged my credit card fee in small amount and it was clearly stated on preview of reservation so I could easily quit. To be clear I am not defending Amoma I just expressed my experience and way how I am dealing with web reservations.
Your original message, as written, reads to others as if paying with PayPal will get them the same results you did. The core model of the business is that they get their rooms from lots of different providers. Thus, everyone’s experience is very likely to be different.
I work at hotel, and we’ve had two people book thru them, but Amoma never even made the reservation. One of the nights we were sold out(and had been for months) and they let the people book a room we didn’t have. I tell everyone to NEVER book thru them. They erase any negative reviews on their site so people think it’s rated highly, and I feel from the tone of the reviews that they’re fake. Do yourself a favor and always book directly with the hotel
Good point there, booking directly thru hotel official website will avoid problems like this. But, their price is way higher and that’s one of the reason why we scour the deep black sites to get a sweet deal and get scammed by Amoma.com
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not book through AMOMA unless you are prepared for a whole heap of hassle and stress in getting a refund should your reservation mysteriously be cancelled. In June 2016 I paid £160.00 for a room in Manchester for my parents in August 2016 and when my parents arrived they were told that the booking had been cancelled in July 2016. My parents had to had to pay £210.00 for the booking which obviously they were not best pleased about and I am STILL waiting for a refund now all these these months later after being promised that it had been sorted three times. I have used AMOMA before and have never had any trouble so this incident is a real shame really but I feel that I am being fobbed off by the AMOMA advisors. I am at my wits end about what to do as it is alot of money to have stolen from you. You cannot take them through the small claims court as they are based in Switzerland. It is so immoral and alls I keep being told is that it is not their fault and is the fault of the third party company. That is not my problem and cannot believe that such a large company can take people’s money like they have.
Btw, thank you Rich. I’m a click away from putting payment info to Amoma.com. This review board saves me from tons of headache!
After our numerous telephone conversations today with different customer service representatives from AMOMA, we’re still very upset as no solution was found for our problem. Today my sister and I wanted to book an ALL INCLUSIVE vacation to Cancun, Mexico from Feb. 15th to Feb. 22nd, 2016. The company advertised for different resorts online so since I wasn’t able to book online, we called the company to help us out. The first person we talked to about our all inclusive vacation request was George. He said OK, no problem, did the booking for us over the phone and he said that the best deal he had was at the Royal Islander Hotel in Cancun. He asked for the payment and I gave him my visa. George gave us booking number over the phone. After we hung up, we looked online and we put in the booking number to see more details. At that time we found out that the hotel he booked us at, was not all inclusive, as George said. Immediately after we called the company back to speak with George but another representative asked us why we needed to talk to George because she can help us as well. We explained the situation and she said that she’ll talk to the manager/supervisor. After a while, she came back, and we spoke to the manager/supervisor. The manager/supervisor said that he will talk to George and in 20 min. he or George will call us back with a solution. We were waiting for almost an hour and no one called us back. We called again at the same phone nr. as above and at this time another representative picked up the phone. Her name was Kate. We explained it to her all over again, we asked to talk to George again, she put us on hold, she said she was going to talk to George, and after a while she came back and told us that George was on his break. Kate said that she spoke with George and gave him all the information. George said he’ll call us back in 15 min after his break. We waited 45 min. again and nobody called us back. We called again for the fourth time and this time the person who answered was Caleb. We explained the whole story all over again. He was very polite and put us on hold so he can go talk to George and the supervisor. When he came back, he said that they were both busy and Caleb promised that he’ll pass the information to the representatives who will work tomorrow to see if they can do something about it or not.
We didn’t want to cancel the vacation, we asked to give us an all inclusive vacation for the same amount, at the same or another resort in Cancun, Mexico, for the same dates but all inclusive or if they can’t provide us with what we asked for, then to give us the money back.
We’re convinced that since George refused to come back to talk to us, they just wanted to sell their vacations without respecting the customers’ request which is not acceptable.
At the end of the day they charged us an insane amount of money for a non all inclusive vacation and they don’t record their calls so there was no evidence that George said it was all inclusive. They were not sympathetic and in the end forced us to pay an extra $500 in Mexico for food and drinks!
WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE AND SCAMMING WEBSITE! I would NEVER book from here again!
Rich, I read your review about the Amoma.com Company last night. I booked a room in the Florida Keys, at a hot spot in Islamorada. I saw all the red flags everyone else saw, but didn’t realize it until after I’d booked, and paid in full. I asked the Rep., named “Bob Ryan,” when I would be able to check the Hotel Confirmation of booking, and he said in about two hours. I called the hotel, and they had no record of course, and told me to call back in 24hrs, because it usually takes that long for the system to update, and show a third party booking. I did get an email with a receipt of payment, and an email with a hotel voucher attached. I got home late, and told my wife about the GREAT deal I got on the hotel in the Florida Keys, and when I say GREAT, you have no idea. She was skeptical, yet still excited, and her skepticism is what prompted me to go to Amoma.com, and check out some reviews and that’s where I stumbled across this site. I read every comment on here. The bad, and so many of them, and the few good ones. I couldn’t sleep at all last night knowing that I’d gotten all the same red flags. The one about it being the last room, the Paypal payment option. With it being the last room, I expected that particular room to disappear off the Trivago site, but it didn’t, and I at the time of booking I did see a little later that the “last room” was still there and I called Amoma Customer Service to inquire about that, and I was told that they often purchase rooms from other sites, and they may have just purchased another room, which would then make that room the “last room.” Anyway, I couldn’t sleep a wink last night, and at 9am I got on the phone to hotel to see if they had my reservation. Well, the hotel reservation clerk asked for my last name, which I provided, and when she said what’s your first name, then I was able to breath a bit. But she had me checking into the hotel on the date I was supposed to check out, and it wasn’t for 4day 3nights. It was for 3days and 2nights. I explained that I had a voucher for the room, which she said is useless because the confirmation/booking no. on the voucher isn’t what she has in her system, and the booking company isn’t Amoma anyway. She was able to change my arrival, and departure dates to what was on the receipt for payment, and the voucher. Even though the voucher for all intent purposes was useless, it did provide proof that I’d paid in full for the booking, and I was sent this paperwork. It looks as though the booking company was able to secure two nights for the payment I made, instead of the 3 nights that I was under the impression I was paying for. Lucky for my family, the hotel was able to switch our reservation to the right days at no extra charge, and for the sheer inconvenience, they are putting us in a room with an ocean view at no extra charge also. I don’t know with all this headache if I will ever book with Amoma.com again. Update!!!! Just received a confirmation of reservation email directly from the hotel, so my dealings with Amoma turned out okay. Would I recommend this company? If you want to stress until you get confirmation of your booking with your hotel, then yes go with Amoma. Lastly, I saved over $1200 by using Amoma, rather than booking directly with the hotel, so I’m ecstatic about that. Next time I will probably stick with a well known site. I don’t need this stress in my life. Good luck to the rest of you.
I booked a room through Amoma a month ahead of time because they had the cheapest rates (which should have prompted me to do some research) I was skeptical with giving them my credit card information so I decided to pay through Paypal (which had a Paypal processing fee that is also ridiculous). I received confirmation emails along with “hotel vouchers” and a booking number. Fast forward to when I show up to the hotel and am told that there is no reservation under my name or under any other information I provided them. The desk clerk informed me that the booking numbers did not match and that she would see what she could do to get me in a room as soon as possible. About an hour goes by and she’s still on the phone with them getting transferred back and forth (she really worked her ass off and was so helpful) when I started doing some research on Amoma and came across this site and decided to just pay for another room and dispute the charges later. The desk clerk apologized immensely as I kept telling her that it wasn’t her fault and thanking her for jumping through all of these hoops to ensure I would have a room that night. She ended up giving me a bigger suite for even cheaper than I paid for on Amoma and sent various complementary items to my room. So in the end, I had a better room for even less but I still would never use Amoma again just because it’s so inconvenient and unreliable and just overall sketchy. I’m currently on the phone with Paypal to dispute the charges because Amoma kept transferring me to other people that would avoid my questions and it was a never ending cycle of bullshit.
I thought I’d add something here. While I never booked a trip or even heard of amoma.com before. Yesterday £2200 mysteriously came off my account. After jumping through hoops the transaction was discovered to come from amoma.com.
Amoma.com may have nothing to do with this, whoever has my card details has used it on their site. But I thought it may be worth mentioning it.
Although they show they can offer lower rates, there’s also an added foreign fee that shows up on your bill. What the hell. Never trusting amoma or kayak again
I book and came up as booking failed but Anmona still took money from acc.
I will never book with Amoma again. The reviews are too crazy. I just happened to get lucky with my booking I guess. They did get my dates wrong, and the Resort corrected that issue. I also paid for 4days, 3nights through Amoma, and the Resorts only had me for 3days, 2nights. The Resort also corrected that issue at no additional charge as well. I got lucky this time, but I will Never use this site again. Amoma came up on Trivago, and you would think with all the crappy reviews they’re getting, Trivago would remove them. I will only go through well known third party sites from now on.
I booked a room with 2 double beds with Sleep Inn at Miami Airport for my family of 4. They moved my reservation to Holiday Inn, but when we showed up the room was for a king sized bed. The hotel was over booked and since the room was already paid for there was nothing to be done but put the fourth person on a chair and try to get some sleep. To make matters worse the bed had been peed in so we had to flip over the mattress and sleep on the hard side, I have submitted a complaint but I hold out little hope of getting a refund. This company did not seem to care when I talked to them. I would stay away.
I booked at Amoma. It was very good! No there were no problems
THIS SITE IS AN ABSOLUTE RIP OFF. STAY AWAY!!!!!
Called customer care and tried to change my reservation to a larger room. They said their were no more rooms at the hotel and when I cancelled they charge me $60.00. This change was within 5 minutes of the original booking! Went to Orbitz and they had plenty of rooms at this hotel and they, like most booking sites, don’t charge for cancelled reservation when they are done quickly.
I booked a room yesterday with this site and afterwards saw these reviews. I was really concerned, especially because the hotel didn’t seem to have any more rooms for a specific date. When I called the hotel directly in the morning, they didn’t have the reservation. However, it was only ~14 hours after I originally booked, and the website says to wait at least 24 hours. Fast forward ~10 hours, I called the hotel again, and now they had the reservation, so I was very relieved.
I probably wont book with them again until there are more positive reviews, because I don’t doubt there have been issues with the reservations. Also the whole voucher thing is weird to me. Anyone could photoshop that document so I’m not sure what assurance it’s supposed to provide.
A lot of reviews here are pretty misleading though. Some people complained about it defaulting to Paypal vs. credit card. I see no issue there, in fact, it’s probably even better (as long as you pay with a credit card through paypal) because then if there are issues you can complain to paypal as well as your credit card. Other reviews complained about nonrefundable rooms being well ‘nonrefundable’. Any website would enforce that, so don’t see the issue there. Hopefully I didn’t jinx anything, but I also had no hidden fees or anything (perhaps people has foreign exchange fees if they paid with a different currency?).
Follow-up. The previous review was before my stay. Now that I completed it I can say that everything went fine. No hidden fees. Room was at the hotel I selected and I had no issues whatsoever. Just like booking at any other place I’ve used in the past.
Still, I wouldn’t choose this site as my first option, unless the price is significantly cheaper. I hope they can keep improving their reputation so I feel more comfortable using them. Now that lots of the travel sites consolidated we need more players in the market.
RUN from Amoma. Run screaming. They have attempted to steal (and yes, it is stealing) money from me and several other people I know.
I booked a room through them for a single night at a hotel in Albuquerque. Got to the hotel (with my confirmation email from Amoma in hand) to find Amoma had made the reservation for one week later. I showed the hotel my confirmation email. They were full (it was an event weekend in Albuquerque) but allowed my friends and I to sit around their lobby until they determined one of their reservations wasn’t going to show up. So at 1 a.m., we were able to drag our exhausted selves into a cramped room we didn’t book to at least sleep and get out.
Since the hotel hadn’t yet been paid for our wrongly-dated reservation by Amoma, we were charged by the hotel for the night. And, of course, had already been charged by Amoma. Naturally, we contact Amoma the next day and ask for a refund, explaining that our reservation had been botched. We took a screen shot of our confirmation email from Amoma, showing the date we had booked. After several days, Amoma responded and alleged they had made the reservation for the correct date and it was the hotel’s mistake. They refused to contact the hotel and speak to the manager, so we obtained an email statement from him showing that the Amoma reservation the hotel had received for our booking was not the date in our confirmation email. Once they were confronted with that, Amoma changed their story and started accusing us of falsifying the confirmation email!! Suddenly, even though they had acknowledged the correct date before, they said they were mistaken- the date in their system was the week-later date they had given the hotel. Our screen shot of the confirmation email “could have been altered”. Holy… So I forwarded the confirmation email directly to them. Their response? “This email could also have been altered. We need you to save the confirmation email to your hard drive as a text document and send us that as an attachment.” The email was through Hotmail, and having no idea how to save a Hotmail message as a text file, I told them they’d have to provide instructions. They, of course, did not. So I searched the net till I’d learned how to accomplish this insane task, sent the text file to Amoma, and… NEVER HEARD FROM THEM AGAIN.
During all of this mess, the manager of the hotel was kind enough to issue us a refund for the charge we’d been levied upon check-in, knowing we’d been charged twice for the stay. He did this even though the hotel still hadn’t been paid by Amoma and just assured us that he would get his money from them, one way or another. We immediately began looking into our legal options. But after making sure the hotel had been paid (the manager said it took a few weeks and some threats of legal action on the part of the hotel), we decided to just chalk it up to a horrific experience, since no money had been lost (despite Amoma’s best efforts). We did, however, immediately contact the Better Business Bureau.
If you search the internet (which we unfortunately did not before using Amoma, as we were on the road and using cell phones), you’ll find no end of similar complaints about this place. Not sure how many people have to be ripped off, harassed, and massively inconvenienced before they put this place out of business, but until then, DO YOUR HOMEWORK and DO NOT USE Amoma.com!
Thank you for this thorough rundown.
I was about to book a hotel through them, but got suspicious because the price seemed too good to be true, which we all know is usually the case.
It’s not worth the potential hassle.
AMOMA.COM IS THE ABSOLUTE WORSE ONLINE BOOKING COMPANY EVER!! DON’T WASTE YOUR TIME OR MONEY! THEY SHOULD BE PUT OUT OF BUSINESS! WORST EXPERIENCE EVER!
I agree, but the fault also lies with companies that use them like trivago and kayak !!!
I attempted to book a hotel room in an Accor Hotel a link from the hotel web page took me to Amoma , the web page stated that the booking could be cancelled for a full refund up to 7 days prior , the charge quoted was acceptable so I accepted the offer and payed via Paypal , my suspicions were aroused when immediately after completing the transaction , the agent came back and said booking could not be cancelled and was not refundable .
Fortunately I did not need to cancel however the room was not as I had requested , further on return I found that I had been charged approx $40 more than the price quoted , after much correspondence Amoma claimed that the additional amount had been added by Paypal as a fee , I contacted Paypal who confirmed that they do no add additional charges , Paypal subsequently secured me a full refund and I have ongoing correspondence with Amoma
who have difficulty understanding that I am not prepared to pay more than the quoted total price .
I booked a hotel with acomo for a room with a double bed.2 days later received a request to confirm the booking, which was already settled before.strange.I had to pay an extea amount for my preference! I declined and Amoma continued to contact me about the upgrade.finally informed the hotel and they said two bookibgs were done by Amoma.with the help of tge hotel I finally got the initial price and room!a lot of hazzle.so wont book ever again
I booked a hotel with Amoma for accommodation in Vietnam, and boy oh boy. Firstly I booked a hotel for the wrong dates (my bad), but I e-mailed them straight away requesting to modify the dates. A rep e-mailed me back in the middle of the night advising that I cannot cancel/refund my booking. I e-mailed back requesting that I did not want to cancel, just modify dates. However, I was told very generically that I can’t modify. To do that, I need to cancel reservation and re-book by paying another exact amount of $380 to change dates. This did not sit well with me. I e-mailed them back multiple times as in the email it says to email or call them but ‘DO NOT’ provide a customer support number. Being genuinely upset, I got in touch with the hotel and they were more than happy to accommodate and modify my dates. I let the Amoma incompetence slide and was Happy for a full 30 seconds till boom! bombshell, I’m not getting what I paid for. I booked a triple room deluxe but the hotel has no such room! They are booking me in for a double room with a roll away bed. Now mind you, if it was one night, I’d be fine, but no siree, it’s three nights and that for us was a major no, no as we picked that hotel for luxury, not discomfort.
After much investigating to find a number to talk to an actual person, I finally exchanged a hearty conversation with an actual person. I was told no refund again and upon my strong nonacceptance of their response I was transferred to another representative. To whom I had to relay everything again (funny thing is, they are so aboard their policy that they would not listen to what you have to say). I found the best way to tell them my inconvenience was by talking over them till they actually stopped to listen. I was told, since I’m already liaising with the hotel directly, I should contact them for an upgrade/refund. On hearing this, I told them that the false advertising and the mess they created was nothing the hotel should be fixing and I did not want to burden them with their infidelity. It should be fixed between us.
I was also told, that when booking, I should have read the terms and conditions to which I replied that I did and no where on the terms and conditions it mentioned that it was false advertising and that I wasn’t getting what I paid for. To this, they did not have much to say but to send them an e-mail and they would action with the supplier. Not happy with the service but hoping to get my full refund back. Here’s to waiting.
One advice – not worth the hassle with Amoma for a few bucks. Wish I had looked them up before I dedicated to reserving with them. Also – like mentioned above, main reason I booked without properly looking into it was because it was their ‘last room’. Go figure.
I was suspicious when they showed a twin bed for the property I was interested in and no such room existed on the resorts website-good price but buyer beware !!! If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is – they should be shut down, and I will not do business with companies like trivago and kayak
What a relief to read this site before finalising a booking through Amona.com. It is fantastic that members of the public take the time and effort to report their dealings with this company.
I am very fortunate that my bank halted the transaction – locked my debit card – and prevented the payment to Amoma.
Two phone calls and some security questions later, my card is working again and – hopefully! – Amoma don’t have any of my money.
so, here’s what just happened to us. booked two rooms in Egypt for two weeks via amoma. arrived at resort. is when our eyes began being opened. we had no rooms. the 3rd party vendor who sold us the rooms via amoma (which we had no idea happened) didn’t pay the resort for the rooms. we paid amoma (actually, we paid a 3rd party vendor) and the 3rd party vendor didn’t pay the resort.
we were told the $52USD room is $250USD. we were told to pay or leave. we paid and figured we would sort it out in the morning. was nearly 1am and we had a 36 hr trip.
the next day we were floored and shocked…
I booked the rooms for my family. they were travelling with friends. friends from many countries.
I put the name under a person from Ukraine who was in the group.
because I booked while in America and the person whose name was on the room was Ukrainian.. we lose the reservation and all money and must pay the hotel the difference between the $50 per night and the $250 per night!
i’m not kidding.
without telling anyone.. amoma has different rates for rooms for people from different nations.
that ask for your passport nation. BUT, in no way do they say that the lead person who will check in for the room must have a passport that matches the passport of the person booking the room.
AND, nowhere on the website in any print small or large does it say that the passport will be used to determine room price and that you will be royally screwed if the passport of the person checking in does not match the passport of the person who booked the room.
DO NOT USE AMOMA… unless you are fully aware of every potential issue.
issues that haven’t come up for me in 10+ years of using the standard travel web sites.
one last thing…
an AMOMA agent I spoke with told me that not only does the check in person’s passport need to match the passport of the person reserving the room… BUT, SO DO THE PASSPORTS OF EVERYONE STAYING IN THE ROOM or the rate will be changed at the hotel.
I told her it says that no where on the amoma web site.
she incredulously told me that after I booked the reservations and got my confirmation I should have sent an email to amoma telling them where each person in our group was from. I asked what kind of magic did I need to possess to know how to know to do that…
here is what I know about amoma that is positive…
.
Nope. No Way.
Tried to book online with Amoma.com yesterday, twice, got ‘Transaction refused, please contact your card issuer’. That’s odd, I’d just made a travel booking and paid for tickets successfully…
Contacted the hotel, and they’ve got no rooms for that weekend. Nothing free. No blocks out to aggregators and late-booking services, nothing out to agencies: full hotel, full stop.
Next thing I gt was a call from the Fraud Prevention Desk at my bank. There are certain things that they are not allowed to say about reasons for declining a transaction: so make of that what you will.
Today I got a call from Amoma’s customer services help desk. Okay, follow-up calls are good customer service, reviving failed transactions is good business… I asked if they were recording the call, and advised them to activate recording if they have the capability (they certainly do: it’s pretty much obligatory in the merchant server T&Cs for a phone booking service taking credit card payments), and informed them, as a matter of courtesy, that our own switch board will be recording….
*click*
*dead line*
That’s kind of… Sloppy. I get it that call centre staff work to a script, but I do expect the script to have an ‘escalate to the supervisor’ dialogue when the conversation takes a turn towards “Maybe we’d better transfer this call to Legal”. And a ‘recovery’ call is black-belt customer service, you give it to trained and trusted staff with the confidence to handle serious problems – so this is sloppy enough that I wouldn’t want to do business with them, ever; and, in the context of a yesterday’s events, I have moved Amoma.com into the box file marked ‘DO NOT TOUCH THIS COMPANY WITH A BARGE POLE’.
About seven days before travel, I had occasion to need a hotel in Bristol on 19 July. I went online. The hotels were clearly busy but eventually I found a room at a hotel not previously heard of called the Doubletree [mysteriously suffixed with the words “by Hilton”] offered on a website, whose name I promptly forgot once I had paid £93 and received an official looking hotel voucher which seemed clear on first reading and which I printed out. I did not think more about it until at 10pm on the day in question I arrived at the Doubletree to find a rather supercilious receptionist saying the hotel was full and that he did not recognise the voucher which on further examination I accepted was seriously deficient in details of who issued it. I immediately assumed I had been the victim of fraud and had visions sleeping on a park bench. I rang my wife who, dear lady, is not a whiz kid with computers but to her credit she was able to identify Amoma as the source of the confirmation of the booking. At this stage another and more forthcoming receptionist, who had been summoned by the first announced that indeed the booking had been found in the computer and I was duly sent off to what I accept was a comfortable room with a good breakfast in the morning. The receptionist confirmed she had never heard of Amoma. I cannot judge who was to blame for all this late night drama but as far as I am concerned for the future I will avoid Amoma and Doubletreee and Hilton if indeed Doubletree is something to do with Hilton. Perhaps in future I should avoid all booking agents and deal direct with the hotel. I know not I complained at the upset I had been caused the following morning and was given a tin of cookies for my grandson as I went on my way
Don’t ever ever use this agent of trivago called AMOMAS…they will rob you.,i booked 2 rooms in the hotel in manchester for 1 night last saturday ..before they confirm your booking they will get your credit card details which was ok ,..but when i looked on my credit card statement they deducted payment for 3 rooms..i rang the hotel and spoke to a booking department they confirmed that indeed aromas had reserved only 2 rooms,but they over charge me by taking 3 rooms payment on my credit card,i rang the amomas customer service they keep insisting i booked 3 rooms..but then again they reserved only 2 rooms in the hotel..customer service not so confident to answer my question they don’t know what they’re doing…hotel management was on my side..still they denied this…in the end i lost my money…so please don’t ever give your credit card details to AMOMAS.,i advise trivago to remove AMOMAS as your agent as they destroying your name.
I never even used the site and a bill for a reservation appeared on my credit card….I was just looking at hotels and never even booked one on this site or any other
I used this site to book a two night stay in Liverpool. I booked, was then concerned after reading some negative reviews but happy to say all was well. Jury’s Inn confirmed the booking, I received lots of correspondence from Amoma.com regarding travel arrangements etc. I can only recommend them.
Worst company ever. I booked my hotel & bought my flights. By accident I learnt about the fact that the hotel does not have my booking, because I wanted the hotel to collect me from the airport. FOR THREE WEEKS Amoma.com couldn’t do anything about it. They couldn’t tell me WHY the room is not booked even though I have already paid for it. I called them dozens of times and in the end, I needed to ask for money refund. But I was left with flight tickets, no hotel to go, because most of good hotels were already fully booked for the period I bought flight tickets for. Of course Amoma.com will not provide me with money refund for those flights because “it’s not their fault, that for several WEEKS they couldn’t get in touch with the hotel to confirm my booking.” Of course. I wonder what would have happeedn if I hadn’t contacted the honel & had came to the hotel…. I STRONGLY DO NOT RECOMMEND TO USE THIS COMPANY’S SERVICES.
They are crooks. Presently being investigated.
William, can you tell us where that comes from? Who is investigating them?
Guide on How Amoma.com works and how you can get the most of it.
First off, this is a 3rd party site, it is at the mercy of providers that I will call out in a bit.
Here you will understand how they work and when you call them how to interact and understand how they maneuver.
Like I previously said, they are 3rd party, they work with providers, not with the hotels. The list of providers as t is:
Tourico
Exclusively
Miki
Jumbo
SpecialTours
GuestIncoming
Hotelbeds
Hoteldo
GTA
MTS
Sunhotels
Italcamel
DOTW
Mondialtravel
Bonotels
Serhs
HotelsPro
Sidetours
Travco
Hoojoozat
Abreu
Eurotours
AOT
AIC Swiss
JacTracel
Welcomebeds
These are most of them but not all. What this means is that Amoma gets these offers from these providers and not the hotel and ADDS a percentage as a profit on them. I managed to get this from an agent, they call this added percentage “Markup”.So It is most of the times cheaper to check with these providers on their site than with Amoma.com
The policy they enforce on you on a booking is most of the times not the same as the on the provider site. It might be non refundable or a refund with a tax fee on their end but it can be free of charge on the provider site.
They will lie to you about this, just as they lie that they can’t see the provider, they can, it’s in their system, that’s how they know who to contact. They can also see your card details and they have them stored.
What they will usually do is say that as an act of commercial gesture give you a free of charge cancel or modification when in fact they don’t lose a dime in the process.
Here is how to handle them when booking or trying to cancel/modify your booking:
Ask who is the provider and confirm you know they can see them, start asking them the providers from the list.
Ask them what is the mark up on their end to see how much of a profit amoma is making. With this you can negotiate and get at a cheaper price, the agent will usually put you on hold and see with the supervisor on the shift. They will calculate by hand and sometimes scam you into thinking you are getting 10% but in fact they will give you 5-6%.Calculate as well on your end.
If you need to cancel or modify again, state that you know they can see the providers in their System and list them. State you will contact them directly as some providers like GTA or Hotelbeds have free of charge cancel policy if the booking is made in less than 2 hours. Advise you want to speak to the manager.
If they resist state that you will complain on your social media Amoma.com is a pushover, they are afraid of bad publicity. This is the main reason they changed their name. Amoma was Oleteles but changed so they can have a clean record.
They are understaffed and fire loads of employees, many of them are brand new each month, take this into advantage, ask the agent how long have they been working.
Insist on calls instead of emails.
And whatever you do don’t back down, keep going on to your point, they will do as you say eventually because they are afraid of losing clients and bad publicity.
This Is for a good reason, many offers amoma does are crooked by nature and some don’t even confirm to the hotel. There are many cases where people had to pay at the reception because the booking was non existent.
Amoma is not to be trusted, it’s best used as a site to find a hotel and best if you call the hotel directly.
And best not add your payment deteails, theya re also known to be racist. They send to certain people in certain regions 3 Secured payment links because they think that some regions are filled with thief and frauds.
Thanks for this detailed comment. It does underscore the main concern — that Amoma isn’t really in control of these transactions in a way that many/most customers would feel comfortable with. It also explains clearly why so many people are experiencing vastly different outcomes. It’s also, as you said, essential to only deal with them via phone if you must. Most people won’t want the bother.
Horrible company. I chose a hotel room with 2 beds and they somehow changed my reservation to 1 bed. I said i didn’t do that and wanted to change it. They said we will charge $162 to change. Well I didn’t and I complained at the hotel and when they saw who. The guy rolled his eyes and said yes we have tons of problems with them. And I got my room I wanted no extra charge.
Hi guys
I want to book a room with amoma
I do it or not? is it safe?
Safe? I think most here would caution against that.
I will never deal with this company again. I am still trying to recoup $225 for a booking in Sri Lanka. The very reputable hotel had no record of my booking!!! I have spoken to and emailed AMOMA on many occasions but still no satisfaction. Steer well clear!!!
Would never use again!
I booked a hotel in Marrekech online and received confirmation and money was taken out of my account to only find the hotel in fact had rejected the reservation as they were only going to be open for 2 days of our stay. Amoma failed to tell us and we arrived in Marekech with no where to stay.
Was on the phone to customer services for 3 hours while at the reception lobby and they tried to blame the hotel even though we had all the emails infront of us clearly stating they had let the company know of their annual closure for Ramadan and rejected our booking (Reservation and booking number was on the email)
they tried to offer us a Ryad half the price of the 5* hotel we had booked as compensation. I would never book through Amoma again
I also had a similar experience, and it was awful. They are a thieving company.
2 years ago I also booked through Amoma.com. Thankfully I used my American Express, so I disputed the charge and got my money refunded.
But I had booked two rooms in Sonoma, CA and turned up with my family and out-of-town guests, -and despite a “confirmation number” the hotel had no records. They called amoma directly to sort it out, and they had the hotel on hold. I also called, and said they needed to find me another hotel and they told me their manager wouldn’t be in for hours to come. I had a 6 week old baby in arms, a 3 year old who waited patiently in the lobby while we sorted it out (the hotel kindly gave her crayons and apple juice to pass the time), and no rooms in a fully-booked city. The hotel manager said she felt so terrible, she would have given us a free suite if not for the fact they were fully booked with a wedding that weekend.
Amoma, in our correspondence over the following weeks, tried to say we NEVER CHECKED IN. Thank goodness for American Express, I got my money back anyway, even though they refused to refund me or compensate me in any way.
We ended up driving 2.5 hours at 10pm to go back to our house, since we had nowhere to stay. I had planned this trip three weeks in advance, and was embarrassed in front of my family and guests by the whole situation.
I hope people don’t book through such an evil company.
I recently came back from a trip to New Zealand (few weeks now), and just a few days ago I noticed a charge on my credit card for almost $300… I had no idea who this “Amoma.com” company was and have never even heard of them until the charge.
After calling them up (after a ridiculous amount of time spent on hold), they couldn’t find what my charge was for. The person on the phone was unhelpful and rude. I then called all the booking sites I had used, and nobody had a clue what Amoma was. I then called my bank to inform them about this charge and had to cancel my cards.
There is now a dispute about this, and I’ve heard from several people that they are scammers who steal and debit credit cards falsely after a period of time… check your statements people, this is a very elaborate scam.
I may be quite a naive user of internet bookings as I’ve only now realised, when it is of course too late, that many of the review sites only display positve reviews unless you click through to the negative ones, therefore though I did do some research before booking through Amoma and only found positive reviews so thought they were legit, I was very, very wrong.
I booked what I thought was a wheelchair-accessible room at an accessible hotel, about 3 months in advance. On arrival I was a bit concerned at the two small steps up to the main door, which I would be able to negotiate with some effort, but totally flummoxed by the five steep steps down once inside. Despite much frantic hand waving, I was totally ignored by the hotel staff so accosted a passing guest to try to get directions to the accessible entrance. I’m sure you’ve already guessed that there isn’t one.
So it’s late on a Friday night on a major holiday weekend in a very popular resort. I resorted to bumping down the steps on my backside whilst the guest bumped my chair down.
It gets worse. The chair won’t go through the bedroom door, and even when it does by removing a lot of paint and a bit of wood, there isn’t room to swing a cat in there. The bathroom measures a measly 1m x 3m, the entrance to the shower is up a huge step and then only 55cm wide. The only place to leave the chair is in front of the bathroom door, but the only working power point to charge it is on the opposite side of the room.
Amoma’s response to my so far 5 emails and 11 phone calls. The silence is totally deafening. If you still have any doubts at all, just don’t. Why take a risk when there are so many much better ways of booking a hotel.
While planning to book a hotel room during a very busy weekend of events in Washington DC, I was very excited to see a great rate, in a great/preferred location in the city, offered via Amoma at a 4 star hotel. Even though I wasn’t familiar with the company, I read some online reviews and proceeded with the reservation. After I booked and the reservation was confirmed by Amoma, I called the hotel two days later to confirm my booking was in their house system. It was not. After almost 2 months of going back and forth with Amoma, they apparently had provided the rate without actually having a block with the hotel to provide to their customers. Instead of honoring the rate I booked at a different comparable hotel or paying for a room (at their expense) at the hotel I wanted, which still had availability direct with the hotel but at a much higher price, they refunded my money. By this time the city was overly full and rates had almost doubled since I started looking.
The Customer Services reps were friendly every time I called, but I did get the run around and was in a holding pattern for way too long, 2 months?! As the listing for that price and hotel was an oversight on their part, I wish that I had felt satisfied with the results in the end and that the issue would have been resolved much quicker. We do not plan to use Amoma again for future bookings and are also disappointed that Trip Advisor (who we very much use and have no issues with) would allow a ‘partner’ on their site with these practices.
Here’s another stunt Amoma does.
They use social media to advertise specials, which are only available by clicking a specific link. That link actually loads a specific version of their website that charges you MORE for every single booking, so that any subsequent discount is not really as much as they claim. Here are some of their advertised social media specials: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+AMOMA_hotels. Click through and look at room prices. Then, go directly to http://amoma.com and compare the prices. They are all about 5% cheaper than the prices on the “special” web link.
Then, when you attempt to claim your “discounted” room on the special web link (for example, by entering a coupon code), the payment fails. However, seconds later, an email arrives in your email inbox, asking you to complete the payment. Pay attention, because the link you’re directed to is for the HIGHER ROOM RATE without ANY DISCOUNT APPLIED, and no way to apply the discount code.
When I called the Amoma “Customer Support” line, it provided two options. Press “1” for a new booking, or press “2” for an enquiry about an existing one. Of course, I pressed “2” – and then waited over 30 minutes without being attended to. However, going in and pressing “1” for a “new booking” got me through to someone within minutes.
All in all, it seems like there are some dodgy practices happening at Amoma. It may be cheaper on paper, but you may well pay for it by sacrificing your peace of mind.
Do not ever use amoma.com this travel service is a scam! not to ever use this service! The room I booked and paid for in advance for New Years Eve 2017 was not available when I checked in the hotel had no record of my reservations. Could not reach the company despite trying everything. Finally had to book a different more expensive room last minute while having to wait almost
a month before the company acknowledges they made the mistake meanwhile they will do absolutely nothing for your troubles!!! Still out the money I spent for both rooms!
I booked a hotel in London with them, only to have it cancelled by them the week before my trip for reasons beyond their control! I phoned the hotel and they said they were fully booked already on the dates and knew nothing about my booking. I had to find a different hotel which cost me triple the price as it was a week before the trip! What a waste of time! Very disappointing!
Booking with Amoma was a breeze. Got the Shoreham Hotel in New York for CAD 184 / night instead of the USD 220 quoted by the hotel. The website is very clear, but you need to read carefully, as in every other website. I read the main article above, and that helped me to check certain things, like: you decide to pay through PayPal there is a $40+ charge (shown on the price calculation). You change the payment method to credit card, then there is a small text linked to a page indicating the extra cost for Credit Card charges – around $25. If you pay by Debit Visa or Mastercard, the charge is zero (this is what I did). Regarding the cancellation there is clear description of the conditions on the first page – you cancel by such date you pay $60, you cancel after such date you pay more, but the price is clearly indicated. The one thing that is not true, is that they indicate the AmEx as an accepted credit card, but it is not.
Immediately after I booked I got an e-mail confirming the booking, and the Hotel Voucher. A notice in the e-mail said that I should wait 24 hours for the confirmation to go through, and then I can check the reservation with the hotel, if I want to. Two days after the booking I called the hotel and they confirmed the reservation. I also checked my bank account, and the exact amount indicated on the invoice was withdrawn. No extra charges.
Please note, I do not work for Amoma or have any connection with them. I just want to tell you that I had a very good experience booking with AMOMA, and all is clear when you book – you need to read carefully to get the proper details – as you do with every other booking site. Would I use Amoma again? Definitely, since I got a 40% discount easily. I wish you good luck with your Internet booking, with whichever third party you wish to do it.
Glad it worked for you. I would simply say that the experience is not at all like “every other website”. Not by a long shot.
I used the back in June of 2016 for my yearly birthday vegas gathering. Read the bad reviews but I found a rate too good to not pass up. Decided to definitely use my AMEX to feel a little more protected. They will drop room rates down to rock bottom prices on trivago and kayak just to incourage traffic to the site … You click book now and they take you to a page to sign up … once you’ve signed up and proceed they will send you back with an error on the page “During your booking process someone has booked the available room(s). Please select another room.” The same room is then advertized for nearly double what the teaser discounted rate was prior … VERY SHADY. I tested this by going back to Trivago and after 10 minutes it was back there at the discounted price … once more you go through and try and add it and you get the same error …
I ended up getting the room somehow … When I went to the hotel, I showed them my reservation information and they found me but said my reservation was only for a small 1 bedroom suite and not the 2 bedroom displayed on my order confirmation … more bait and switch. Begged the hostess to let me go to the my original room and somehow was able to get it with no help from Amoma … This website is very very scammy … I’d recommend using a buy protected credit card just in-case.
Last week I have booked a room in Ahtens through Amoma. During the booking process I was a bit confused by the fact that I had to pay up front, so I started looking around whether this was normal procedure, as it is not an approach I’m used when booking a hotel online.
While I was doing my research I receive a call from Amoma (I had to enter my phone number as part of my booking details), which I did experience as a bit pushy. The person on the phone offered me an additional discount available for 1 hour. In the end I decided to go for it, as they had the best price. I was a bit disappointed to see the charge of 14€ for paying by credit card, but well I did get the 20€ discount.
The day after, the whole thing kept going through my head so I did some more research and ended up on this site. I was rather concerned after reading some comments here. So I decided to wait for one week and then call the hotel to check the reservation.
Turns out the room is correctly booked for me, a superior room just as requested. They also confirmed everything has been payed for (I received a voucher from Amoma).
So besides the rather different approach, no problems for me so far.
I was also thinking it cannot be all bad around Amoma. If I look at the score of Amoma on SiteJabber they get 63% (https://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/www.amoma.com), while Booking.com only gets a score of 17% (https://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/www.booking.com). So either they are great at faking reviews, or there are far worse players around.
But nonetheless, I would prefer to book with a company that gets mostly great reviews. I have enough issues on my head as it is, not to have to worry about booking a hotel. 🙂
Lately i made hotel reservation for Milan i placed the correct dates 04/03/2017 for one night and for my surprise the booking was for the 04/02/2017 the system had placed the dates immediate i called the customer support for the amendment for two weeks the kept me waiting just to tell me that they could do nothing for it so i had the feeling that i want to share this unhappy event with future customers
I had also never heard of Amoma so searched the web and found this forum – I have just called the hotel I booked and they confirmed the booking. The booking process was unusual in that I had tried to book and then, on filling in my details was told the deal was no longer available. However a few hours later I received a phone call saying the offer was available but for double rooms not single rooms!
I can’t comment as to how Amoma works (as I don’t know) but can say that on the one occasion I have used them (this time) it appears like the booking is genuine and the price was very reasonable (over $450 cheaper than nearest competitor). Would I use them again? I don’t know – will see after I have stayed!
I found a room on this site, gave my details on Amex, they added 10 pounds. I tried again with visa and it said unsuccessful error 454. When I then got back on the site the ‘deal’ had gone and jumped by $50. I went back and researched on Google again and the lower price was again available. Went through the same process and same result. Clearly this company is a scam that posts artificially low prices to try to draw in consumers. They are total scammers and should be closed down by trading standards authorities.
Horrible customer service. My family member booked a hotel in California, upon arrival found no reservation. Had to rebook another hotel late in the evening. Amoma still has not issued a refund 10 days after the incident.
Like everyone else I had a terrible experience with Amoma. Unfortunately if people try to investigate before using them they are likely to find good reviews on sites that are know to be full of fake reviews (Trustpilot, Sitejabber).
TERRIBLE COMPANY – I should have learn 3 weeks ago – I booked a room near Heathrow Airport UK only to be told that the hotel knew nothing about the booking ? after telephone calls from the hotel and me contacting them I did get it sorted out – it took over an hour
Today 25/04 booked another room this time North London – Ramada M1 – I was told by the receptionist that Amoma had booked an ‘smoking room’ – explained that no way did I want or requested thus room – they could only offer me a twin room – which l had to take – I tried contacting Amoma office first time it rang for 20 minutes and I hung – I am typing this in my room and its been 25 minutes plus and its still ringing ? NO WAY will I ever use again.. Rubbish Company
I wish i read it before booking this was my first the last booking with them. i booked the Radisson Blue in Reykjavik last February upon arrival i did not get the room that I booked.they had no other avialability and would not refund I asked Amona for refund to no avail.Amona claims that I made the mistake but I get the feeling they changed the paperwork and send a copy to AMEX that one cannot read. I am trying to get it through AMEX so far nothing. I had to change an hotel is the middle of the night when Iceland had the biggest snow stom. I am surprise at AMEX that they are letting them use their card. Please do not use them
I just was taken by this company also. Charging me 60.00 to cancel a booking. Hotel has no fee cancellation policy if canceled within a month of stay. Sat on the phone for over a hour before they answered. Very rude customer rep said it states it firmly in their cancellation policy. Spent the hour looking for “their” policy and never could find it. How is this company allowed to stay in business???
I concur, Amoma is pure scam. Our family spent 5 hours with Amoma customer service trying to cancel a reservation. Just a cancellation request. 5 emails, 3 calls and they still charged us. They should be put out of business. Probably the worst experience I have ever had with an online site. In fact, it is the worst experience. I feel helpless.
Where do I begin? One star is too much first of all! First they hook you because they will offer a very cheap price on a hotel. Almost too good. You get your confirmations and vouchers where I booked hotel to stay in New Orleans one night before a cruise and was reserved 4 months in advance. A week before my trip my gut said call hotel to verify reservation for 2 rooms 7 people. They had no record of this reservation. Contacted Amoma and was assured it would be taken care of. The next day called back (waiting over an hour on hold each time) They said they would call hotel. So I called hotel to check and they said Amoma called and was a sketchy call they said. Gave my name and customer service reps name but wouldn’t say what company they worked for. Best Western told me to get out of that and get my money back was best thing because that seemed like a scam. They didn’t have any room bedding size left after 4 months to accommodate my 7 folks. So I had tried to chat with customer service at Amoma once but that went no where. After that apparently they took away my chat option when I logged in and couldn’t reach them. Called customer service (another hour and 10 minutes on hold) and she said she is customer service she needed to transfer me over to the department handling my case so no one ever picked up in that department just a bunch of music playing. They are based in Europe they had told me and obviously not equipped to deal with customers or the hotels in the United States. The Best Western in New Orleans never even heard of this company. They said if it was Expedia or Hotels.com come or Travelocity and such he wouldn’t had such an issue dealing with them at all. On one of my calls I had asked they find me another hotel since they already had my money and that’s when they tried to transfer me to a line where no one picked up. I cancelled my reservation and now their policy says they keep $60 of it and if I had cancelled after tomorrow July 8 for my 7/15/17 reservation I would have lost the whole amount. I sent them an email letting know that because of their mistake I should be able to cancel without any penalty and get the entire amount back but have yet to get a return phone call or email me. My booking number was 30948255. Please book with a more reputable company and don’t make the mistake I did. Avoid this company!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I booked a hotel with them, confirmed with hotel before I got there, got to the hotel and said the card on file melted declining, I looked at the invoice and saw it wasn’t the card I paid with,obey was already token out my account from amoma but I ended up having to pay at the hotel again, closed my bank card and called fraud prevention.
Like many of the contributors before me, I was referred to this site by Kayak. I use Kayak regularly and found them to be very easy to deal with. Amoma provided the best price, although the cancellation penalties were a little more severe than other sites. What really turned me on this Company was the arcane procedure for changing a booking. I had made an error in my booking arrangements and had booked an extra night in Copenhagen. I tried to modify my booking online but was advised that I would need to contact Amoma and explain the modifications I required. I explained and was advised that I was getting a refund and left it at that. The message however, I noticed later, required me to go back on the site and re-book. They had already charged my credit card and I never received a refund. Needless to say when I arrived at the hotel they advised me that I had booked for the extra night and that there was nothing they could do about it. I do not usually take the time to make comments like this but it is a warning for people who know that bookings are pretty much the same until you run into something where you need to make a change or a cancellation and you need to count on customer service. Customer service is certainly not Amoma’s strong suit.
I live In Arizona and booked a hotel in Anaheim California through Amoma.com. I had a feeling I should call the hotel and make sure it went through. The Hotel said they hadn’t received my reservation and that the Hotel was fully booked that day. I then called Amoma and was on hold for an hour and 30 minutes. They insured me that everything was okay and that they pre-book the rooms. They would contact me in the morning if there were any issues… I was an hour away from the hotel so I called the hotel to make sure everything was okay. They informed me that they did receive my reservation but are fully booked and that Amona is supposed to contact me and find me another room. I called them and they said they’ll get back to me once they find out what’s going on. 45 minutes later they called me to tell me they’re trying to find me a room but that I should also look. At this point my friends were already at Disneyland waiting for me. I called around and the area was fully booked except for a room that cost 600. Amona apologized and said they would give me a refund and $100. Also informed me that I was responsible for finding a room at a hotel now. They had six hours to find me one and gave up after 3 hours. My friends were waiting for me and relying on me to get a hotel because I told them I would… Well we ended up sleeping in our cars! Amoma didn’t care! I trusted the company! If I would have had my child with me I would have been really upset! Amona doesn’t care about their customers, just money!
Used Trivago.com and got pointed to Amoma. Clicked on a double beds room all the way through both sites but Amoma put me in a king room with a pullout sofa. Didn’t find out until I arrived at the hotel. Amoma then told me that a double room only means 2 beds in the U.S. They refused to refund my money or find me another hotel. I ended up paying for another hotel miles away. Stay away…stay away and the customer service was rude. Had to get credit card company to charge back.
I live in London, ON, and booked a stay at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas through Amoma. Amoma took my money and after one day of the Hard Rock, I wanted to switch hotels. The Hard Rock would NOT allow this because because my reservation was with Amoma. I could not reach Amoma despite calling several times, and they would not help me get out of this 5 day trip. There were additional fees from the Hard Rock as well, which they called their resort fees which in all fairness do appear on their website, but Amoma will not tell you about the additional fees. I have many comments to add about the Hard Rock but i will leave that until i get to their site. Thanks!
Its not just AMOMA, there are a huge amount of websites out there doing similar things, and not just hotels, flights and cars also. I got burned through KAYAK with a rental car company called HOLIDAY AUTO’s, basically rented a car in Mexico, when i got there they would not give me the car because i would not buy insurance, when i then provided insurance letter from credit card they then told me they had no cars. HOLIDAY AUTOS refused a refund, EUROPCAR claimed it was a franchise and nothing they could do, and citibank investigated and sided with the vendor (should have used my AMEX!).
Learned my lesson though, only use recognized websites to book.
I found a good deal on amoma.com for a room in Thailand (I’m in NYC) for next month. I checked the established booking sites (hotels.com, orbitz.com, travelocity.com, etc.) and they all showed the hotel as sold out. I did a quick search and found many terrible reviews for amoma.com on sites like this one. So, I decided to call the hotel in Thailand and confirm if they had any rooms available. —They do not. —
If I had booked, I would have been stranded. Adding insult to injury, I’m now getting an email every hour from amoma telling me to complete my booking. I’d love for them to ripoff the wrong person and have their website wiped out. 😉
Really bad experience with AMOMA this company appears to be just pure scam. I found a room in Vegas for two nights in February 2018. I filled in all the information gave my credit card and when the confirmation screen pops up I get one room for one night in January. Of course when I try to get customer help they hide behind the non refundable status of their reservations. There are many reputable travel sites out there. Stay away from these con artists.
I am one of the latest victim of this evil company. They charged my credit card with another trick. I booked two nights just one day before, but they changed my booking date to another date 23 days later which is out of my vacation period. So that I had no room for the next day and had to sleep one night in rented car. I can not get my money back even I cancel it just in one day found the AMOMA’s trick. This company is so evil, it cooperate with Google and promoted by Google. I am sure there will be more victims like me.
I never expeerienced so much headake as I had and maybe will have further on [did not see their actual charge of my c.c] as I did with this mischievious agency, because I don’t know yet how they are going to charge me and for what exactly..What a mistake to have worked with them!
Sooooo I was having issues today booking a room on Amoma when I clicked to pay said sold out and changed rate so I never moved forward. They decided to still charge me and now will not refund. I said why would I book a room and pay more on another site If i knew I got booked on their site with a better rate😡😤🤬 So I advise anyone to Never Ever deal with this shady website! It never had a confirmation it just said sold out and listed same room with significantly higher rates! 👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎
(Amoma) cancelled my weeks booking on Sunday night at 9pm before my Monday start on an it contract. They basically allowed the Aparthotel Adagio Birmingham City Centre to cancel on a Sunday because they could get more money having realised that the conservative party conference was on in Birmingham UK.
I’ve had a terrible experience with AMONA today – Trivago hooked me up with a deal, I supplied contact details and bank details and then their booking site timed out. So, they’ve taken the money, but I have no voucher or reservation (as far as I can tell – nothing received by email).
This company has zero customer service because no way of contacting by form, email or UK number.
Trivago should not be including outfits like this in their search results, because I will not be using them again now either after this experience.
Very, very disappointing. Not worth “saving” a few pounds for the lost time and effort (not to mention the emotional impact).
Hi … I’m experiencing the same thing .
Can you please give me their account number 🙏
Hi everyone, I was a current victim of this duped travel website. Just like you all, I booked the cheapest hotel deal I thought. The hotel checked in went smoothly as it was prepaid booking.
But there was a catch, I received an unpleasant news come midnight on the same day. Amoma had cancelled my reservation and informed the hotel to collect fees from me. I’ve tried to reach them but to no avail, even the hotel tried their luck but they hanged up the phone. I was left with no option but to pay the hotel. Now, I’m currently on dispute process with my credit card to get my money back. I just wished I read reviews before I booked. Please avoid this website at all cost.