The hotel booking-platform Amoma has ceased operations and filed bankruptcy. Customers apparently will have lost both their money and reservations if they paid directly at Amoma. Amoma was one of the few booking platforms that did not belong to Expedia or Priceline.
Amoma had often been noticed in the past on hotel search engines, such as Trivago, HotelsCombined, or Google, as they often offered a far lower price than other booking websites.
On amoma.com, you can currently only read a short statement. They mainly blame the “price comparator” websites. They charge a price per click from hotel booking websites, and the more you pay, the better you’ll be placed in the search results. That means that the cheapest price won’t necessarily be shown first.
What affected customers can do
Amoma usually charged the full price directly when booking the room. Paying at the hotel or paying the hotel directly was usually not possible. Because of this, the hotels won’t keep these reservations. If you’re affected by this, contact your hotel and let them send you a confirmation, that your booking has been cancelled.
Afterward, you should contact your bank if you paid with a credit card or direct debit. Just like when Air Berlin and Germania went bankrupt, it should be possible to request a chargeback because you didn’t or won’t receive what you paid for. You will, however, usually need a written confirmation that you’re reservation has been cancelled. If the hotel doesn’t send you this, this could take some weeks, but you’ll at least get your money back. Amoma will probably not, however, compensate the caused damage, i.e. the cost of a new reservation.
If you paid with PayPal, you should contact them regarding their buyer protection.
Frequently Asked Questions
As to our current level of knowledge, all bookings made by Amoma have been canceled. You should contact the hotel as soon as possible to clarify if your reservation might still be valid or not. Otherwise, you’re running the risk of having to pay again upon arrival. Or your room might not be available anymore.
The easiest way will be the so-called chargeback. This should be possible if you’ve used a credit card to pay for your booking. Depending on your country of residence, also other methods of payments offer this option. Get in touch with your bank or card-issuing financial institution. If you used PayPal, the company’s buyer protection program should get you your money back. Most likely, you will have to wait until you get a cancelation confirmation. And maybe even some kind of evidence proving that your money won’t be refunded.
A chargeback can only be performed for a limited time. However, the service date (= the date that you would have stayed at a hotel) and not the payment date is crucial. If the booking was made a few months ago, but the stay is still in the future, you can usually initiate the chargeback procedure. And get your money back.
Cover Picture: ©Amoma
Comments (2)
Crossing my fingers on this one! Family holidays at stake. I will come back to update as soon as the credit card comes back with the result
Hi Juan! Thanks for sharing. I’ll cross my fingers for you, too…