After allegedly defrauding thousands from victims, a travel booker faces jail time if she doesn’t pay them back.
Last Tuesday, Wendy Tenedora Wong pleaded guilty to two felony counts. According to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office Wong did not refund her customers after failing to book their vacations.
Wong has until her Nov. 4 sentencing to pay $155,002.32 in restitution to 37 victims under a plea deal she agreed to on August 23. If she doesn’t pay the money back, she could face up to one year in county jail and one year in mandatory supervision. Even if she pays the restitution, she still faces two years of felony probation and would have two felony convictions on her record.
Wong is the owner of a travel booking company named House of Aloha Hawaii in Ewa Beach, Oahu.
Victims told ABC7’s I-Team about how Wong allegedly defrauded them.
One victim, Rachel Nisperos and her fiancé, said Wong didn’t book their destination wedding to Hawaii in 2019. They paid her $27,000 which they never got back. Nisperos said to ABC7 in 2019, Wong was supposed to do “A to Z everything” and three months before the wedding they didn’t have any confirmed bookings or itineraries.
“I wish we never crossed paths with her,” Nisperos said to ABC7 in a 2022 interview.
Another victim includes the Vasquez Family, who went to Wong to book a family trip to Mexico.
“I was really pissed off because there were 22 of us,” said Danny Vasquez in March of 2021 to ABC7.
In a saved voicemail by Celia Vasquez, Wong can be heard saying “Crazy, crazy weather right now and it’s making everything adjust and so there’s like a lot of cancellations.”
“I kept asking her about the refund, she kept saying ‘oh it’s coming it’s coming’ and then finally she just broke all communication,” Celia Vasquez said to ABC7 in March of 2021.
Wong also had complaints on Better Business Bureau detailing people arriving at hotels with no reservations under their name and no confirmed bookings.
Reported by Yahoo News a complaint from the site in 2019 outlines how a family wanted to book one night at Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa using Wong’s services.
“When we arrived to Hawaii, we did not have any reservation at Aulani, and (Wong) assured us that we would be getting a refund,” the complaint read.
Wong told the family to contact Venmo, the method of payment, or to ask their bank for a refund.
Tamalca Harris, Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney said there were 48 victims losing over $200,000 in total, but not everyone asked for their money back.
Wong’s attorney told ABC7’s I-Team, “We have no comment at this time.”
AsAmNews is incorporated in the state of California as Asian American Media, Inc, a non-profit with 501c3 status. Check out our Instagram account. Go to our Twitter feed and Facebook page for more content. Please consider interning, joining our staff, or submitting a story, or making a tax-deductible financial contribution. We are committed to the highest ethical standards in journalism. Please report any typos or errors to info at AsAmNews dot com