I had a quick look at the hotelscombined.com. It's an aggregation site, meaning that it searches multiple other hotel sites (presumably) to find the best deals.

On cancellation they write the following: 

HotelsCombined.com is a hotel price comparison engine and works with multiple partner websites to which you click through to make reservations. If you have already made a booking using our service, you will need to contact the website on which you made the booking to discuss your reservation.

View a complete list of HotelsCombined.com partner websites.In case you clicked on a “book with HotelsCombined” link to make this booking, please contact us and provide the email address you entered to book or your booking ID.

You may want to check your confirmation e-mail to check if you booked via a partner website or 'via HotelsCombined', and also to see what it says about cancellation.

If you still can't manage to contact the website, you can try their press officer, since it's the only direct contact on the website: Kirsten McKenzie, [email protected].

I'm not sure what else you can do. The hotel's cancellation policy is terrible, but maybe you've bought a special offer. If you don't want to pay you could contact your bank to block the payment, but that may get you in legal problems.

The website is even worse; canceling a hotel reservation should be  quick and straightforward. Next time use Expedia or Booking.com.

Did you use a debit or credit card to make the booking?

if you used a Cr card, you can contact the cr card company and ask the to stop any further transactions and investigate the transaction the hotel has already made.

Also, as Edward suggested, use Booking.com next time, its easy to use and clearly sates if the booking you are making can be cancelled or not, if it is, it's very easy to do and they are easy to contact too, 24/7.

Good luck!

This doesn't always work, but it's worth a try.

Either through the booking website or directly with the hotel, ask to amend the booking, moving it at least 30 days into the future. (Most hotels will waive charges for this since you are keeping your business with them.)  After a respectable pause, cancel the booking.

Hope this helps.

Andy

@Edward, thanks so much for taking the time to read my sorry story and offer solid advice. I did (sadly) book via Hotels Combined (not a partner website), and the only cancellation advice in the confirmation email is that stupid link from which I keep trying to click on the ‘Cancel reservation’ tab. I think that, if I tried to block the payment, the hotel would just quote their general terms and conditions (of which I knew nothing when I made the booking!) and have a stronger voice than me in any argument with my bank. I totally agree with you that ‘canceling a hotel reservation should be quick and straightforward’ – I have done so many times with Booking.com (when looking around for a good deal), and have never had any problems whatsoever. I do always use Booking.com (and occasionally Expedia), and feel silly for making this stupid mistake when not finding accommodation in les Carroz for the dates needed on either of those sites. Oh well, I will NEVER use Hotels Combined again and hate the thought of other people suffering from using them as I have!

@ Stuart, thanks to you also for your advice and support. Sadly I used a debit card to make the booking. I do not have a credit card. However, I can see from this situation that it’s a good idea to get one as it makes it so much easier to stop unfair transactions.  I do usually use Booking.com.  I totally agree with you that that site is easy to use and always makes it clear whether a booking can be cancelled or not. – It’s partly my positive experiences with them that made me blithely make this stupid booking, thinking it could ‘easily’ be cancelled (what a joke!).

@Andy, that’s a brilliant idea – thank you!  I’ll see if I can move the booking to late March, then cancel it in late February... 

Quick update... 

I received the following (slightly weak-sounding) email from Hotels Combined overnight: 

‘Hi There, Thank you for your email and for bringing this to our attention. This is a technical error which we are having fixed at the moment. Once it's fixed you will be able to cancel the booking. We will ensure that this is solved within a few days. Kind Regards, Sara’.  

I replied: Many thanks for your reply to my email – it is much appreciated. 

As the technical error on your website meant that I could not cancel my booking within an hour of making it (as I tried to), the Hotel la Croix de Savoie has already deducted a 30% deposit of 302.40 € from my bank account! So, even when you have fixed the technical error and I can cancel the booking, I have no means whatsoever of getting this money back. The Hotel la Croix de Savoie treats any communications from me as invalid as I do not work for Hotels Combined. 

Please could I cancel the booking for 19-23 February, but stay in the hotel the nights of 17 and 18 February (so that I at least get to use the services which I have already paid 302.40 € for!)?  I would be grateful if you could contact the hotel and request this on my behalf. The contact details of the Hotel la Croix de Savoie are: telephone, +33 (0)4 50 90 00 26; email, [email protected] 

Will you let me know when the technical error on your website has been fixed? It would be great if this problem could be solved within a few days (as you hope).

Make sure you keep the e-mails. You may also want to contact the hotel again and show them your correspondence with the website; perhaps that will persuade them to cancel your reservation for free.

Good luck. 

your easiest and best bet is to call your credit card company and explain. they will ask you to sand copies of the web pages and ask you to fill out a form.

after that they will stop the payment and credit your card the amount already deducted if this has been done. or, they will simply block payment.

this type of thing happens quite a bit and credit card companies are aware of rip-off web sites. i doubt that the hotel website www.hotelscombined.com will do anything to cancel. it's a real hassle and very frustrating dealing with heir emails of no consequence.

the credit card company is set up to deal with this professionally.

Hello,

Just a small legal advice in case of :

Whatever communication you have with them, send them a letter by post using a "lettre recommandée avec accusé de réception" - the recipe can prove that you did contact them and cancel, while email may not be recognized (you need a CR letter in France to make anything move - emails are just based on people good will).

In case you don't get your money back and really want to, you can then use this proof to contact a consumer association or go to court - without it it would probably be useless.

But let's hope you don't have to go that far...

@Edward – yes, I am keeping all e-mails (and have saved screenshots of messages seen on the Hotels Combined site). Yes, I think forwarding all my correspondence to the hotel (even though it’s in English) is a good idea... However, the hotel sounded pretty heartless when I spoke to them on the phone yesterday evening. I’m a Francophile but experienced unjust and aggressive behaviour from French hotels when working in Morzine, and in Ferney Voltaire and Avignon (when I had things stolen from my room and, on reporting the thefts to reception, was accused of inventing stories and being racist towards the cleaner!). So, my hope of the hotel reconsidering their position on this is pretty low!

@epicure – thanks to you also for offering much-needed advice and support. I don’t have a credit card. However,  I assume that your advice also applies to money being taken out of my bank account through my debit card. As for your comment ‘it's a real hassle and very frustrating dealing with their [the website’s] emails of no consequence’­­­­­­ – it certainly is!

@Yoann – your advice is also greatly valued and appreciated. Yes, perhaps I could print out the original email that I sent the hotel, plus print-outs of the screenshots from my unsuccessful attempts to cancel the booking through Hotels Combined and the email that I have exchanged with the site in a magic ‘lettre recommandée avec AR’ envelope to the hotel, just begging them to relent and cancel the booking! Ha ha! Yes, let’s hope this won’t end in court – it feels like enough of a big drama already having shared it on Glocals!

the advantage of a credit card in cases like this is that they are the middle man and protect you. a bank account doesn't offer those guarantees.

if it comes to legal action, your're basically out of luck. under what jusridiction could you take them to court? not in switzerland and you have no idea where they are legally established, if at all!

yopu may want to google "Hotels Combined scam" and see what others have found. of course this you should have done before :-) but i have been burned the same way only checking google after the fact , but my credit card comopany backed my up and i was credited the paid amount.

Another update... I received the following email this morning

'Hi,

My name is Emilie and I’m the Head of Supplier Relations here at HotelsCombined.

First of all, I want to offer my sincere apologies for all the difficulties you’ve encountered with this booking. Though the booking occurred on our site, we use one of our supplier partners to process all bookings and they have unfortunately been experiencing major technical difficulties over the past week.

Please note that there is a free cancellation policy for this booking – we’re not sure why money was deducted from your account, but we will provide you with a full refund of this amount ASAP.

In terms of amending the dates, it would probably be best for us to cancel the booking outright and then for you to rebook with your preferred dates. Please let me know if this works for you and I will cancel your booking myself immediately. Should you decide to rebook for the nights of the 17th and 18th of February, we will  offer a price guarantee for the original nightly rate that you booked for –if the rate has gone up, we will refund you the difference.

Once again, I want to apologize for this issue and thank you for your patience. I will be in touch with our supplier partner throughout the day to ensure you receive your refund shortly. In the meantime, don’t hesitate to contact me directly with any additional questions or concerns.

Best regards, Emilie'

Result!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I think the fact that the UK Daily Telegraph contacted the Hotels Combined press office about this probably helped!)

The auto-message from Glocals when someone thanks you for your post (saying 'Thanks a lot for being friendly and helpful') always makes me laugh, but there really are many friendly, helpful people in this online (and offline) community.

excellent news.  let us know if they have actually credited your account

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travel-advice/9847658/Problems-cancelling-a-hotel-booking.html

I guess this might be you if NOT it might be helpful

Yes, that's me... Well spotted - thanks