Dear Christopher, I booked a stay in Ocean City, Md., through Hotels.com. When I arrived, I found it was closed for the season. All numbers I was able to find for the hotel--front desk, reservations, housekeeping, and administrative offices-- either rang forever or had a voice mail saying that the hotel was closed.

I do not know if it was the fault of the hotel or Hotels .com, but in either case we wound up staying at a more expensive hotel at the last minute. We wound up spending approximately $100 more on a hotel than we had planned.

I would not have been overly bothered about this if Hotels.com had immediately apologized and promptly refunded the money I sent them. I was told that since Hotels.com could not contact the hotel, I would have to wait until the hotel re-opened (sometime in the spring) so that they could speak to someone there before they refunded my money. After I said that was unacceptable and asked to speak to a supervisor, I was put on hold and then told that my money would be refunded within the next one to two days.

I called a few days later after my refund still hadn't been processed, and was told it would take three to seven days to process. I just called Hotels.com this morning and was told that my refund had been "escalated" to another department and to check back next month. Help! --Steve Broman, Baltimore

I don't understand how Hotels.com can accept a reservation--let alone send you to a hotel--that's closed. It would be one thing if the hotel closed suddenly, because of a fire or foreclosure. But this was seasonal.

When you were standing in front of the closed property, you should have phoned Hotels.com right away. A representative should have found you a suitable replacement room right away at the same rate you paid. That employee could have also verified that the hotel was closed for the season.

Instead, you waited. I can understand why you'd postpone this--after all, you needed a room right away, and Hotels.com hadn't exactly proven itself as reliable. Still, resolving this problem right then and there would have spared you a lot of grief later on.