A tourist from Europe has lost over Php105,000 in a hotel booking scam allegedly involving Henann Resort Alona Beach, Bohol, one of the biggest and most luxurious beach resorts in Panglao Island.
In a now viral Facebook post, Annabel Blanco Fleischlin, who was traveling with her mother-in-law and her five-year-old child, booked a family room for five nights at the resort in early November 2023, through the email address “reservations.hbl@henann.com”, which she found on the resort’s official website.
She paid the full amount through bank transfer (pesonet) to the account number provided by the email, which she believed belonged to the resort.
However, when she arrived at the resort in last week of December 2023, she was shocked to learn that she had no booking in their system, and that the email address she used was not the resort’s official email address.
The Bohol Tribune checked Hennan Bohol’s website and official FB page (with blue check), and it showed the exact email address mentioned in Fleischlin’s Facebook post.
The resort’s receptionist told her that the email address she used was a fake one, and that there were scammers who copied email addresses to deceive customers.
She said that the resort could not do anything to help her, as the money did not go to their account.
The resort offered her one night stay for Php19,000 instead, which she reluctantly accepted, as she had no other booking.
The next morning, Fleischlin asked to speak to the resort manager, Pinky, who repeated the same explanation and refused to take any responsibility for the scam.
Fleischlin felt that the resort was blaming her for the incident, and that they should have taken measures to protect their prospective customers from such scams, such as not publishing their reservations’ email address on their website.
Fleischlin said she was not a novice traveler, and that she had stayed in many luxury hotels before.
She stressed that she knew her rights, and that she expected a better service and a more compassionate response from the resort.
The victim noted that she was telling her story to warn other travelers not to trust even a five-star hotel, and to be careful with the information they see online.
Fleischlin also said that she confronted the resort manager about the way they handled the situation, and that she suggested some actions that they should have taken to assist her. She said:
As a five star hotel I also told the manager that the way they act does not reflect a five star service. I told her that she should have come to me with solutions in mind on how we should move forward. At this point I enumerated to her how they should act as follows:
a. We should file a report to the local police, which we did after I insisted.
b. We should file a report to the Department of Tourism, which I already did right after we arrived.
c. She should have asked me to forward to her all the email conversation so that they could properly investigate, which I forwarded to her afterwards.
d. She should have instigated procedure on how we could contact the bank for potential refund, which they started doing after I mentioned.
e. She should have looked for accommodation alternatives for us within the hotel and other potential hotels, which they did but not properly done.
f. She should have offered a more friendly terms, not just offering us full hotel rate to appease and make us feel that somehow we are heard.
However, Fleischlin said that none of these actions led to any resolution, and that the resort still tried to charge her a high price for the remaining nights of her stay.
In her FB post, the victim said: “As of writing (Dec. 29, 2023) this there is still no resolution and as I came back from the Police Office the Hotel Manager handed me a quotation for the next four nights of our stay in one room where the four of us will be crammed, amounting to Php 89k. This is in addition to the Php 19k which we already paid the night before.”
Fleischlin said that even the police officers were more sensible than the resort manager, and that they advised the resort to accommodate her and to file a cyber crime report to their cyber crime unit in Tagbilaran.
She said that she did not know if the resort followed their advice.
Fleischlin also expressed her frustration and disappointment with the resort and the banking system in the Philippines.
She lamented, saying: “Pano na lang if we dont have money, knowing that our supposedly accommodation already includes buffet breakfast and buffet dinner? We will then be left without any accommodation.”
“Pano na lang if I do not know what to do and I just accept whatever they say? Will they shove us away with that “not our responsibility” attitude? Ano magmumukha kaming kawawa sa daan?” Fleischlin wrote.
“What if inside job to?” she queried.
She further said: “This is not just about us. We are just one of the unlucky people who dared to trust the email address in their website. This could have happened to anyone. I am so disappointed when the hotel manager said “its not our responsibility”. I also work in big multinational companies and in these companies, their mantra is to first and foremost protect consumers, build trust and maintain a good reputation. This is nowhere where Henann is today.”
She added: “Likewise, it made me doubt the banking system in the Philippines. How come payment to an individual get processed just like that? Isn’t it that when you transfer money you have to make sure that the full account name is right? How did the transaction went thru to “Sheryl Pahn Bandonill Henann Resort” without any alert?”
Fleischlin said that as of writing this, her case was still not resolved, and that she wanted to go back to Switzerland, relax and forget that this nightmare ever occurred.
The Filipina traveler said she felt ashamed for her mother-in-law, who was very kind and did not deserve this experience.
Fleischlin said she was sharing her experience hoping that there would be less people who would fall victim to this kind of scam, to share her learnings and also to give perspective as a customer of the hotel.
In her FB post confession, she pointed out that she did not intend to gain sympathy nor gain back her money, and that there was a right avenue and process for that.
Fleischlin’s post has garnered hundreds of comments and reactions, and nearly a thousand shares, but Hennan Resort has not responded to Fleischlin’s post, which is being made public.
Upon checking of Hennan Bohol’s official FB page, the resort has not also issued an official statement in response to Fleischlin’s viral FB post.
Efforts to contact and solicit reaction from the management of Hennan Panglao Resort failed as of press time. The Bohol Tribune would accommodate the response of Hennan Resort as soon as its official public statement regarding the issue becomes available.
Henann Resort Alona Beach, Bohol, is a four-star hotel that sits on a lush 6.5 hectare property on the pristine shores of Alona Beach. It has 400 world-class accommodations, Bohol’s largest convention center, three swimming pools, and a 120 meter beachfront. It is owned and operated by the Boracay Regency Group of Resorts, also known as Henann Resorts.