Scam Type
Other Scam
Business Name Used
Global Hotel Card
Date Reported
Sep 19, 2022
Victim Postal Code
27513
Total Dollars Lost
30
Scam Description
My husband accumulated many loyalty/incentive “points” from his employer, a legitimate U.S. company that he’s worked for for more than a decade. One of the choices in the incentives catalogue he received from his company (a third party that the company contracts with) was for a “Global Hotel Card powered by Expedia.” He chose to “buy” with his loyalty/incentive points a $50 gift card and a $500 gift card to go toward any of “thousands of hotels worldwide.” He was short some points for the $500 gift card, but was able to make up the deficit by paying $30.00, which he did on the site. He received emailed receipts in his work email for these two gift cards and instructions with how to book a hotel. When we clicked on that website https://globalhotelcard.com to book, every single city and date we entered came up with an error message to please enter the destination and date. We got this error on every browser (chrome, safari, firefox) on an Apple laptop and on a PC. We then did an internet search and learned that the CEO Peter Friend had moved on in 2020 to now marketing “experiences” via the website globalexperiencescard.com powered by Viator and on that new about page (https://www.globalexperiencescard.com/about-us) is written that the new company was established by the founders of Global Hotel Card. Don’t buy Global Hotel Card Powered by Expedia. You will lose money. If you are a company rewarding your employees with incentives, make sure to tell your employees not to choose this particular option to spend your points on. Incidentally, we discovered that this Global Hotel Card is for sale on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Global-Hotel-Powered-Expedia-Cards/dp/B093Z28FSR/ref=sr_1_1?crid=EFMTEUCQD9G9&keywords=global+hotel+card&qid=1663569009&sprefix=global+hotel+card%2Caps%2C78&sr=8-1 for $100 and that in the comments it’s evident that a few innocent victims have lost money after buying this card with their money. In comparison, we are lucky we only lost $30 and points. We are seeking to recover the points and the $30 and to protect others from losing their hard-earned points and hard-earned money.
