How I Was Scammed By A Hotel / Booking Agency At Murtala Mohammed Airport
Hello bashoxans, I'd like you all to read this my epistle on my bad experience with a travel / hotel booking agency in Muritala Mohammed international Airport, Lagos , Nigeria.
I and my wife got a 3 months visitor's visa to South Africa , our visas were granted after we had satisfied all their visa requirements ( with our hotel bookings and statement of account verified) .
On the day we were meant to travel, we got to the departure area of Kenya airways (the airline company we were meant to fly with), the airline attendants asked for a copy of our hotel booking and "yellow card", to my surprise I and my wife forgot the print out of our hotel booking, but luckily we had our yellow cards.
The flight attendant told us that we couldn't go through without our hotel reservation, I told him that we got the visa because the south African Embassy had verified all our documents -hotel reservations included- before granting us the visa , the attendant ( a nigerian) was adamant that without the reservation we couldn't go through, he even told us that even if he let's us pass that when we get to South Africa they would send us back because we didn't have evidence that we had a hotel reservation, I thought to myself " which kain wahala be this sef".
A lady who was standing beside called my wife aside and said she could help us book another hotel accommodation, she directed us to her desk just opposite where the airline attendant was harassing us, we had to cancel our former booking and eventually ended up paying 105,000 naira for 4 nights stay in another hotel, the lady printed out the document and handed it to us, we took it to the attendant and he granted us passage.
When we eventually arrived Johannesburg, South Africa to our surprise they didn't even ask us for the hotel booking, they only checked our yellow cards , warmly welcomed us to their beautiful country and stamped us in , we found our way to the hotel they booked for us, after showing the hotel manager ( who coincidentally is a Nigerian) the booking print out he looked at it and told us that the booking was only done for 1 night, I and my wife didn't look at the print out in Nigeria because we were in a hurry not to miss our flight ( it was when the hotel manager pointed out a couple of things on the printout that we realized to our dismay that the lady in Nigeria booked only one night for us after collecting money and claiming she booked 4 nights) , I and my wife were perplexed, we had to pay for another 4 nights . It's obvious that the Nigerian man working with Kenya airways that checked our documents at Muritala Mohammed airport connived with the hotel booking agency to rip us off.
The reason I'm writing this is to bring to the fore the fact that this travel / hotel booking agency with their desk directly opposite Kenya airways departure section is a big scam ( they didn't even put their name on the receipt because they know they are a scam) the reason why we didn't scrutinize the printout like I said was because we were in a hurry not to miss our flight. I really don't know why we ( Nigerians) like to be so cruel to ourselves. This should serve as a warning to all of us that we should always scrutinize receipts and other documents given to us.
I and my wife got a 3 months visitor's visa to South Africa , our visas were granted after we had satisfied all their visa requirements ( with our hotel bookings and statement of account verified) .
On the day we were meant to travel, we got to the departure area of Kenya airways (the airline company we were meant to fly with), the airline attendants asked for a copy of our hotel booking and "yellow card", to my surprise I and my wife forgot the print out of our hotel booking, but luckily we had our yellow cards.
The flight attendant told us that we couldn't go through without our hotel reservation, I told him that we got the visa because the south African Embassy had verified all our documents -hotel reservations included- before granting us the visa , the attendant ( a nigerian) was adamant that without the reservation we couldn't go through, he even told us that even if he let's us pass that when we get to South Africa they would send us back because we didn't have evidence that we had a hotel reservation, I thought to myself " which kain wahala be this sef".
A lady who was standing beside called my wife aside and said she could help us book another hotel accommodation, she directed us to her desk just opposite where the airline attendant was harassing us, we had to cancel our former booking and eventually ended up paying 105,000 naira for 4 nights stay in another hotel, the lady printed out the document and handed it to us, we took it to the attendant and he granted us passage.
When we eventually arrived Johannesburg, South Africa to our surprise they didn't even ask us for the hotel booking, they only checked our yellow cards , warmly welcomed us to their beautiful country and stamped us in , we found our way to the hotel they booked for us, after showing the hotel manager ( who coincidentally is a Nigerian) the booking print out he looked at it and told us that the booking was only done for 1 night, I and my wife didn't look at the print out in Nigeria because we were in a hurry not to miss our flight ( it was when the hotel manager pointed out a couple of things on the printout that we realized to our dismay that the lady in Nigeria booked only one night for us after collecting money and claiming she booked 4 nights) , I and my wife were perplexed, we had to pay for another 4 nights . It's obvious that the Nigerian man working with Kenya airways that checked our documents at Muritala Mohammed airport connived with the hotel booking agency to rip us off.
The reason I'm writing this is to bring to the fore the fact that this travel / hotel booking agency with their desk directly opposite Kenya airways departure section is a big scam ( they didn't even put their name on the receipt because they know they are a scam) the reason why we didn't scrutinize the printout like I said was because we were in a hurry not to miss our flight. I really don't know why we ( Nigerians) like to be so cruel to ourselves. This should serve as a warning to all of us that we should always scrutinize receipts and other documents given to us.
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