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Wednesday morning in the TPG Lounge Facebook group, reader Walid posted a difficult situation he was facing at the Ocean Coral and Turquesa in Cancun, Mexico:

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I spoke over Merssenger with Walid, who said he ended up having to repay the resort $2,077 before heading to the airport. He also found out a separate booking for the airport shuttle he made through Bookit wasn’t paid to the shuttle company and he ended up taking a cab to the airport.

Several TPG readers on Walid’s post said they had seen similar reports of Bookit.com reservations not being paid and guests asked to pay the resort directly upon checkout.

Bookit.com’s recent Instagram post, as well as Twitter mentions, are littered with people asking for help and relaying similar situations where their bookings have not been paid and the hotels are asking them to pay directly. Social media reps for the company have not responded to comments in over 24 hours.

ABC13 in Panama City, Florida — home to Bookit.com’s headquarters — ran a story Tuesday saying that Bookit.com employees were terminated without notice and the company’s phones disconnected. I tried to call all of the numbers listed for Bookit and either got a failed call notice, a busy signal or a sorry message declining the call and directing me to the Bookit.com website. The website is still up and running, returning search results for flights and hotels.

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What should existing customers do?

If you’re a Bookit.com customer with a prepaid booking, I would contact your hotel, airline or travel provider directly and see whether payment has been received. Travel protection from credit cards will likely not protect you as financial insolvency is not covered in most trip interruption/cancellation policies in the benefits guide. We recommend you pay the travel vendor directly (if you still want to travel) and dispute the Bookit.com charge with your credit card company. It may take a little longer to resolve given the volume of business credit card issuers are dealing with but hopefully, the banks will find in your favor and issue you a credit for the amount you paid Bookit.com.

If you find yourself in a situation where a hotel is demanding payment before you leave, I recommend paying the hotel and avoiding any unnecessary pressure, particularly if you’re in an international location.

Bottom line

Bookit.com has not responded to any press or customer inquiries and with the website still up and running, we can’t definitively say the site is out of business. Mass cancellations and demand drop off will affect the travel industry for months to come and Bookit likely succumbed to the disastrous effects of COVID-19.

Booking through third-party travel providers can have its benefits, but there are many instances where booking directly with an airline or hotel is the preferable method. If you are a Bookit.com customer in a difficult situation, you can either join the TPG Lounge on Facebook and ask for crowdsourced help or e-mail us here at TPG and we’ll respond with the best information we have.

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