A LoyaltyLobby reader sent us a question regarding a company that has started to promote their business aggressively on Facebook lately, called Unsold.com.
Remember to send us your questions and comments by email, and Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. We’ll try to cover them here several times a week.
Here’s the question from the reader:
I have a question on unsold.com as I keep getting their offer to pay for a week holiday without knowing the hotel , cannot judge if this is a good deal , can you post a review or question for fellow trusted travellers can give feedback?
It has been on mu ever increasing to do-list to check out this new OTA that appears to be spending significant amount of cash to push their “deals” on Facebook.
Here are a couple of advertisements from today:
New York
Sydney
Unsold advertises that you could get a 7-night flexible stay for 72% less in New York or 68% off in Sydney.
Unsold claims that they only have 4 to 5-star hotels available as reviewed by TripAdvisor.
Remember that TripAdvisor ratings are more based on the value that the reviewer gets rather than a real 4 or 5 stars hotel.
Unsold.com
The company’s website states that Unsold.com has been in business since 2007:
Unsold.com has been turning the travel industry on its head since 2007.
The Internet Wayback Machine has crawled the site since the early 2000s, and it was first used to park the domain. The current Unsold.com doesn’t appear before 2020.
There is a thread on TripAdvisor about Unsold.com from October this year (access here).
There is no BBB rating for Unsold.com.
Facebook lists the company as Resort Vacations International based in Louisiana. The page was created in March 2020 and renamed in July. Unsold.com has an address in Florida.
When you execute a search for this company, it brings up a BBB page for an Atlanta company that runs another booking service called BookVIP.
That has a website that looks almost exactly like Unsold’s.
They are also hosted at the same location.
There are plenty of BookVIP reviews on Tripadvisor, where most of the criticism appears to be timeshare package related.
Barcelona
The website indicates that the hotel previously sold would have been Pol & Grace
Pol & Grace is available for $308.42. If Unsold’s hotel is Pol & Grace, their price is $4.57 lower than Agoda’s.
Hawaii
Hawaii beachfront for 487 euros for a week?
Conclusion
Based on a cursory look, Unsold.com and BookVip are essentially the same company or run by the same organization, and the websites look almost identical with some modifications.
I would be very hesitant to put down hundreds if not thousands of cash with a promise that you can turn it into a vacation in 24 months, or you will get a full refund if not satisfied.
There is a time limit on chargebacks. It is doubtful that your card issuer will process a refund for services not provided as charged 18 months later if a company ceases to operate.
Remember that none of these companies actually remit the payment to the hotel before the guest checks in.
No company can sell you accommodation at 70% to 80% off unless there is a catch involved. Remember, if something sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
![Airfare of the Day [QSuites] QATAR AIRWAYS Miami to Dubai from $2,151](https://cdn4.loyaltylobby.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/xdubai-gcc4aaa054_1280-120x86.jpg.pagespeed.ic.iTXIT8jU1R.jpg)
Wow , extremely useful information, I have been seeing and honestly considering the offer till I read this review ! Thanks for protecting us from this scam
‘No timeshare presentations required to get this incredible hot deal’
Reminds me when people start their pyramid scheme / MLM videos with ‘this is definitely not a pyramid scheme’
Unsold seems to be legit. I booked a 5-night stay in Honolulu and the reservation is on file with the hotel. When I do my research on many of their offers, the prices offered are in line with what other opaque OTAs offer and in some cases no better than I can book thru Trivago or Tripadvisor.
The Fitz I comment does not appear to be honest. No one can make arrangement thru Unsold. Once you get your coupon details, you must go online to pick the hotel and dates involved. You are not assigned a hotel upon your purchase. Nights are opened up over time for different properties.
The 5-night stay I purchased was from Sunday thru Thursday which seems normal. Those are less expensive nights than the weekend in Honolulu.
Hope you follow up. Though your stay could be in 2022!!!
It’s in early April of 2021. That was my point. You choose the hotel and the dates of your stay from the available days shown online with your log in and coupon details. It is a confirmed reservation.
With hotels desperate to get a little money in the till until they can get back up to speed, they’re happy for a small amount to keep them solvent rather than nothing.
Indeed. Hotels sure need money now.
My meaning was that a stay with unsold.com could be up to two years from now, at least according to their T&Cs when I looked at Bali awhile back, so this thread will be long buried if your booked/rebooked your stay up to 2022.
I think most experienced travelers will be familiar with opaque sites for hotels and cars. When I searched, unsold.com seemed more like a gamble as I have diamond with HH and spire/amb so I like to use these bennies, hence usually avoid opaque sites. I find cars used to be ok on these sites for some decent deals. Don’t know about now.
While unsold.com certainly might be legit, you’ve confirmed that the rates are not near the discounts they advertise to lure travelers to their site. This is useful as we now have confirmation that the deals are not that great, if at all noteworthy.
Good marketing on unsold.com’s part.
Best of travels in April 2021.
I have no clue when I’ll travel leisurely again. Uncertainty is the ‘new norm’.
We feel the same. We’re limiting our travel to somewhere close where we can drive or use a short flight. HNL nonstop is not too far for us and hopefully the situation with coronavirus will be a little better by Spring.
In any case, this deal was so good, I consider it like a stock option on future travel. I’m not going to lose any sleep if the disease prevents our trip. We had to cancel a trip to Japan at that time, so this is more manageable.
I did notice when looking at the 3 examples of hotels offered at some of their destinations that their deal was not too hot, so it pays to do your own research to compare.
Can you update what happened with this? Did you go on your unsold.com trip?
We did so in late April after we were vaccinated. We ended up selecting the Ilikai Resort at the marina in Honolulu for about $52 per night plus resort fees. Our room was near the top floor with amazing views of the mountains and city. I have to tell you my wife hates late afternoon sun pouring into the room, so she was very happy with it. It was a nice suite with a full kitchen. The Ilikai is multi-use. It houses timeshare units as well. It was an absolute bargain.
I would highly recommend Unsold. Those who are not flexible are missing out IMHO.
Glad you got some value in and it sounds nice where you were in HNL. Now, that unsold has closed shop, case closed. Hope you had no more lined up.
Anyone who paid for stays @ Unsold needs to contact their cc provider and file a claim to claw back their money.
Like many Ponzi schemes, I was lucky. I had 3 exceptional vacation stays and saved more than $1500. It’s always the early bird that gets the worm or is it deal?
Glad you got some value in and it sounds nice where you were in HNL. Now, that unsold has closed shop, case closed. Hope you had no more lined up.
The Fitz’s comment is for BookVIP that appears to be an associated company.
I can’t find his comment now. I thought someone else had looked at the code to link the 2 companies. BookVIP and Unsold have entirely different ratings at websites that record consumer complaints from what I can tell.
If the price is not that much different then why waste my trusted loyality programs for it , in my case I was offered 7 nights in 4 stars hotels for about 500 USD in Dubai , which is not that much of a discount , if I booked through one of the loyality programs I will get more benefits and reach higher tiers in 5 stars hotels
It’s been 5 days that I’m trying to reach someone about my purchase but it seems they don’t care about it.
I keep getting “our team will reach you by e-mail within 24h”. But still waiting for it after 5 days….
Stay away!
File a chargeback. They have imploded. Which is a damn shame. My last booking went off without a hitch and I had a fab long weekend in Key West.
Be aware that “Unsold.Com ” does not have, or does not want to revel a street address. After paying for your vacation you may be “taken on the trip” but not where you want to go !
Our holiday package went beyond our expectations. We went to the Snow King Resort Jackson Hole Wyoming in December of 2020. The skiing was unbelievable. Definitely recommend the Million Dollar Cowboy Saloon for drinks and a bison burger! Unsold was recommended to us by a neighbor. To be truthful, we were somewhat cautious due to the cheap rates, but we had a fantastic holiday at the Snow King Resort. It was a fantastic hotel and knew how to show the guests an excellent time. We will use Unsold.com for our future vacations.
We appreciate the positive feedback, George! Thank you for choosing Unsold.com.
We used Unsold for a trip to Phuket and we stayed in Sai Rougn Residence. This place is nice, very much worth the money, nice accommodations, having a really nice pool and restaurant. The staff is amazing. It is up the hill so if you have to walk it is a workout, to say the least. Many thanks to the Unsold team for such a great deal.
What happen to Unsold.com website. It’s has been unavailable from 3rd August to 7th August 2021 and still unavailable now. I have already paid them for hotel’s booking. Is this a scam? Please reply for anyone who knows. Thanks
I have bookings as well. Have used them before and been very happy. Getting a bit concerned.. any suggestions?
Hi Ann Kearney
If they have imploded please advise how to claim the refund. Since they have collected the payment about a year ago so it’s not possible to file a chargeback from my local Singapore bank. Thanks
We have published couple of updates:
https://loyaltylobby.com/2021/08/09/unsold-com-ceases-trading/
They have imploded. File a chargeback ASAP.
Having trouble getting into unsold.com website. I’ve used them before and have been very happy with our getaways any suggestions on what I should do please ?
They have imploded and disappeared. No response to mail or phone. File a chargeback. Total disappointment. My last booking with them was awesome.
Hi Terrie, wow !! had did you find this information please
Ann
Call your credit card company and tell them that Unsold has disappeared.
My first booking/vacation with Unsold was fantastic and went off without a hitch. I went to Key West. But, in the last two weeks, they’ve imploded and disappeared. I’ve filed chargebacks.
This is a scam. We booked a 4-star hotel in Okinawa last June 2021 for a 6-day stay via unsold.com. We called up the hotel a couple of days after reservation to confirm our booking. The hotel confirmed our booking. However, 3 days before the check-in day, we called up the hotel to notify we’d be checking-in late because we will be taking an afternoon flight. But the hotel said our reservation has been cancelled by our travel agency. We were not even notified about the cancellation. And the money was not refunded to us. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7dd4da53d2e5164dd846ddb96d3d3ea23656f4d1da6efe45ab98d609b34ff3f2.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7db9284deec9ae40a449c8b57b8e958602c8d8aa1b71895c8e8bc9297abdd086.png
The company has gone under. You need to file a chargeback with your credit card company and FBI internet crime form.