Wotif & its parent company, Expedia, were forced to refund a man’s holiday money after a tribunal in Canberra found the online booking site had misled the traveller.
Hugh Selby told the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal (ACAT) that when planning a recent holiday with his wife, he’d trusted Wotif’s “book with confidence” promise and secured accommodation in Hawaii.
Selby said images on the online booking site showed an apartment with beachside views of Oahu, but what he and his wife found was a “dilapidated” basement with views of an outdoor kitchenette, ABC reported.
He told the tribunal that he felt ripped off.
“[We] looked at each other and said ‘hey, this is supposed to be a holiday, we don’t even want to spend one night here’. The place is dirty, the place is old, there’s no view, it’s not what we left Canberra for.”
Hugh Selby
The couple chose not to stay in the apartment and attempted to get a refund from Wotif, but ended up in court with the online site’s parent company, Expedia.
It was in the tribunal where ACAT sided with Selby by deciding that Wotif had engaged in misleading conduct when it claimed consumers can “book with confidence” and rely on its “great local knowledge”.
Click here to read the full ABC story.
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