Charged $4,000 For A Hotel Booking That Lasted 10 Minutes

A third-party booking site was glitching while I was in Thailand, presumably because I was on an eSim. It kept switching between Thai language & currency and English language/ the $ sign.

I booked a room in a sold out Thai city certain I was paying in Thai baht, equivalent to $150 CAD. I quickly got a banking app notification of a $4,000 CAD charge. It absolutely never said "CAD" anywhere on the website, but I don't have screenshots.

I cancelled the booking - the confirmation and cancellation emails came 10 minutes apart. It was listed as non-refundable. I booked it three days in advance, so it would not be late cancellation by most policies, and was only off the market for 10 minutes.

The hotel refused a refund when I contacted them. The third-party booking agent sincerely advocated for them to refund me, and they refused. My credit card company says that they could've helped only if I had asked them to void the charge before cancelling (the agent was grumpy and didn't seem interested in helping). A non-profit consumer relations lawyer declined assistance because they don't work on non-refundable charges.

Do I have any legal recourse that would get me my money back? Should I engage a lawyer, and would it be worth the cost?

The spirit of non-refundable policies is to prevent financial loss due to last minute cancellations, and they would have incurred no loss from a 10-minute booking cancelled three days in advance. The hotel is hiding behind the letter of the law, so to speak, and I've read enough ruling to know a judge often goes with the spirit of the law.

However, I don't know how this would be enforced with a Thai hotel, and I know some people have been jailed in Thailand for "defamation" for writing accurately bad reviews. I want my money back without being blacklisted in the country.

Thanks in advance for any constructive advice or insight.