Booking.com stole my money !!! I had a reservation from booking.com via booking basics for a hotel in marrakech . They charged my credit card. When i got to the hotel , hotel said they dont see any reservation and they did not receive payments from booking.com.
I had to call the booking call center internationally for an hour. They did not send a payment confirmation to the hotel eitherbut charged fully my crrdit card (Usually booking sends a credit number to the hotels to confirm payments) . Therefore i had to pay again. This is stealing money !!!!!
Still waiting on 434.00 refund that was approved and confirmed on July 27, almost one month ago. I have contacted Booking.com customer service on three separate occasions and still received the same 10-15 business days before the refund will come up message .It's been over 21 days and nothing. My next stop will be the Better Business Bureau and Department of Consumer Affairs. It shouldn't take a month to receive a refund.
Earlier this year my wife & I spent six weeks in Europe, enjoying a myriad of wonderful experiences. However, for the past 6 months I have been endeavoring to have money illegally removed from my credit card account returned.
You may be thinking this is some suspect transaction undertaken on our journey, but no, my futile attempts are with Booking.com who have used my customer profile to illegally remove money from my credit card account. In a nutshell I am supposed to have made two flight bookings on the same day to the same destination (but at different times). The fraudulent booking was confirmed with a non-existent e-mail address & mobile phone number and attributed to my member profile and hence charged to my credit card. My first knowledge of the illegal transaction was via my credit card statement. (The use of a non-existent e-mail address meant that I did not receive any confirmation of the booking)
Booking.com have strenuously denied any error or liability for the transaction standing behind their T&C’s of the consumer providing the correct e-mail address. In fact, they have chosen to totally ignore the seriousness of the issue. Like many major digital platform providers, security for the provider & consumer is paramount, yet in this case they have allowed the breach of their own security protocols and the use of their members private information to allow an illegal transaction to take place, whilst at the same time contradicting their own procedures of seeking authorization from their customer before a booking is undertaken.
In my case, fraudulent use of my private information and illegal removal of money from my private account without authorization are the issues that appear to be all too common when dealing with online travel agencies.
We had booked a reservation via booking.com and found 1 day before arrival the hotel price was lower on the booking.com website, as well as the hotel's website and 2 other competitors. I had notified booking.comof the lower price and sent them 4 screenshots as proof. 24 hours later they replied that upon checking the websites the hotel price was not lower, which I disputed because it was now the 4th of july, a national holiday. Should they have looked the day before it would have proven my case. It didn't matter to Booking.com, they will not pay the $30 difference. They are not standing by their own price match guarantee.
I received an email from Booking.com saying my reservation from my stay at The Lodge at Gulf State Park had been canceled almost a month AFTER my stay was complete and said I owed an additional 25$ due to a tax increase. I have receipts from BOTH Booking.com and the Hotel stating that I'm paid in full. After a little research to increase the price after you confirm is not an industry practice. Has anyone else had this happen to them?
I recently booked a Motel 6 room on Booking.com, who was the entity who charged my card, not the Motel 6. When I arrived I could only stand to be in the room for one minute (and didn't enter the second room with my friend who I also paid for but they also took pictures of their room). There were vagrants outside of the hotel which was fine because we thought we would be safe inside but when we entered the rooms it was like a scene from a horror movie. The furniture was ripped up, the room smelled so bad of bug spray we could barely stand it, there were cigarette stains all over the shower, roaches all over the place, and bed bugs every where!
We ran out of the rooms and told them we'd like a refund and they said no. We used the app and haven't heard any resolution from Booking.com in over 7 days. They have no phone support and apparently have closed operations in the United States which means they are just ripping Americans travelers off because now you are fighting interneational pirates who do this to our citizens.
I have charged it back with my bank now but before this happens to you- DO NOT BOOK WITH BOOKING.COM, ESPECIALLY THE: Motel 6 San Antonio, TX - West SeaWorld, located at 2185 SW Loop 410, San Antonio, TX 78227
Booked hotel for March 13 and 14, 2023. Turns out those were the wrong days and that I needed to book for March 14 to 16. Called hotel and Booking.com to reschedule and was told that I would lose $ 816 even though the hotel had availability for the correct dates, which were only a day later. Complete ripoff.
DO NOT USE! TERRIBLE!!! My wife and I purchased our airline tickets from Booking.com and right before the trip I caught COVID. Booking.com told us we could rebook within the year and use our credits. We tried rebooking by calling their customer service as requested and we're never able to rebook. The Indian customer service Booking.com has outsourced to is TERRIBLE. SO INCOMPETENT! We tried multiple times and each time they would tell us that the issue has been forwarded and we should wait for a call back. Guess what? No call back ever. For weeks we tried resolving this issue, rebooking another flight, but each time they have an excuse and are unable to get us what we paid for. We tried going through to our credit card company, but they denied our request for credit card dispute. This is so terrible that Booking.com places ads all over the place and makes it seem like a great place to purchase your plane tickets, but when you need them they just throw you to some stupid call center in India where they don't help at all. It's so crazy and sad that a corporation like this can steal a customer's money and have no recourse. Please save yourself the stress and don't use them. Booking.yeah, more like Booking.yeahright. We love to take your money and not help you at all if there's any issues. Such BS.
I made a booking for a hotel called Lyndon B&B on Jan 12th, 2023. While I was making the booking, the purchase screens showed that the hotel was REFUNDABLE, which is why I decided to book it. Right as I completed the booking, the status changed from REFUNDABLE to PARTIALLY REFUNDABLE. By the time I received the email, the status had changed to NON-REFUNDABLE.
I have repeatedly requested a refund to this reservation but Booking keeps saying there is nothing they can do and I have to reach out to the hotel directly. This sounds quite unethical and incorrect to me since I made the payment to booking.com on their platform, and my contract is with booking.com. In addition, the hotel (Lyndon B&B, phone number: +44 7448 765516) only uses a mobile number which is always switched off when I call and they never returned any of my phone calls.
I am disappointed that booking.com would allow this hotel to operate on their platform and not take responsibility for what appears to be unethical activity on their website by a partner hotel. I would like my $570 to be refunded and I would like the opportunity to leave a review for this hotel on Booking.com to warn other customers who may fall into this trap.
On December 28, 2021, I've booked a place for my trip for the period of Jan 17 - Feb 7/2022 via Booking.com website. At the moment I've made the reservation the total amount was charged to my bank account, as I was informed in the payment policy. On the same day, the property sent me the receipt in regards to that payment transaction. So far, everything was fine.
One week prior to my trip (Jan 10) the property sent me a message informing me that they had to cancel my reservation due to problems with my credit card. I've inquired them about the problems they were having, to understand what exactly happened and what I could do, considering the amount had already been paid. I was constantly ignored about the reason they were having problems and I had to accept I would need to find another place to stay, one week prior to my trip when the prices were double.
Today is Feb 7 and I'm still waiting for the refund of this reservation that was canceled by the property. The property is taking too long to proceed with this and Booking.com is not taking responsibility on that case, which would be to proceed with my refund, as I'm their customer.
I've just moved to the US and I'm having several financial problems due to this situation. It is a significant amount (over $2k USD) and I'm counting on this.
All I did by this time was wait, but it is not acceptable anymore. I need this to be solved immediately.
Please, be careful prior booking any of your trips via the Booking.com website, as they definitely do not care about their customer best interests.
On December 28, 2021, I've booked a place for my trip for the period of Jan 17 - Feb 7/2022 via Booking.com website. At the moment I've made the reservation the total amount was charged to my bank account, as I was informed in the payment policy. On the same day, the property sent me the receipt in regards to that payment transaction. So far, everything was fine.
One week prior to my trip (Jan 10) the property sent me a message informing me that they had to cancel my reservation due to problems with my credit card. I've inquired them about the problems they were having, to understand what exactly happened and what I could do, considering the amount had already been paid. I was constantly ignored about the reason they were having problems and I had to accept I would need to find another place to stay, one week prior to my trip when the prices were double.
Today is Feb 7 and I'm still waiting for the refund of this reservation that was canceled by the property. The property is taking too long to proceed with this and Booking.com is not taking responsibility on that case, which would be to proceed with my refund, as I'm their customer.
I've just moved to the US and I'm having several financial problems due to this situation. It is a significant amount (over $2k USD) and I'm counting on this.
All I did by this time was wait, but it is not acceptable anymore. I need this to be solved immediately.
Please, be careful prior booking any of your trips via the Booking.com website, as they definitely do not care about their customer best interests.
Booking.com is not to be trusted when it comes to extraordinary events, i.e. they have no problem taking your money, but would prefer it if the customer looked elsewhere for support.
I have done an online booking for accommodation. On Tuesday, 23 March the President of announced a lockdown for the country, starting on 26 March. I had to cancel my booking, request a refund as I had paid the full amount of R2600 via my credit card. I have phoned owner of Van Zylvlei, informing me that Booking. Com has not paid them yet. Now booking. com refused tp refund me.
The hotel Swiss Lenana Mount Hotel who booking had as a 4 star hotel who gave me a room with no air conditioning, bug infested, toilet not working, no access to the spa, no access to the pool, no private pool as listed and the room was horrible and expensive. I complained and I received an upgrade 3 days before leaving.
I complained again and booking offered me 70 USD after spending nearly 2000 in Nairobi for the hotel. As I was leaving, I flicked off the receptionist for demanding more money and the hotel had a policeman beat me by shattering a large glass object on my back and hitting my nose and I was told never to return to Kenya after I leave or I would end up like prisoners who accidentally died going to the police station.
I have scheduled the transfer service from booking.com from Cancun airport to the hotel in Playa del Carmen on 08/04/2019. I arrived at the meeting point as directed by the booking confirmation email. I waited on site for about 2 hours, until the end of the time of 20: 00h, which would be the limit informed in the confirmation email sent by Booking.com, but the transfer did not appear and there was nobody from Booking.com staff to give directions.
Since the service was already paid, I requested a refund, but Booking.com didn't accord to this request. Booking.com has simply stopped responding to e-mail inquiries regarding this issue.
Everyone knows booking.com right? It is the most used website to book an accomodation. They claim that it's easy, best price guaranteed, and also they say the reservation is guaranteed. This means that is something happens (of course problems can occur sometimes) they are supposed to take care of it.
In my case, I made a reservation for my holidays quite in advance, I wanted a nice hotel with some amenities. The hotel has free cancellation option. Two days after this free cancellatio in snot possible anymore, too close to the arrival date, the hotel sent me via Booking.com a message asking to cancel as they have some legal issues and won't be able to host me. This was alread unbelievable.
Of course if I was going to cancel I had to pay almost the whole amount of money! I had to fight through that horrible chat they provide now on the website to let the hotel understand that they should have cancelled from their side otherwise I had to pay and of course I did not want to! I then tried to have some help from booking.com, at the end they are the intermediate they should have done something, offer me some form of compnsation.
At this point in time it is impossible to find a similar hotel for a similar price. But the only email I got offered me instead a very cheap accomodation as alternative ( not for fre clearly), but was cheap also in the sense of much worse reviews and definitely not comparable with my first choice. I was deeply disapponted. I tried to reply that it did not seem fair, I would have expect at least a comparable hotels and in case that the first hotel, who cancelled my reservation, paid the difference in price.
But no, after that email I did not hear anything. And if we consider that this happened two days before my departure... well... I think it is pretty unbelivable.
Rented an Apartment in South Beach Miami for Myself and Two Friends. I took a Taxi for an hour and when I arrived the owners Mother who barely spoke English showed me a room and said this is your room. On the website I rented the entire apartment and they decided to rent the other two rooms to other people. They never listed this was a room for rent it was listed as an apartment for rent on the first floor with a swimming pool. When I called to complain the Supervisor was laughing like it was a joke and did nothing to help me. The place was trashed and three grown men are not going to share a queen size bed.
This is a joke and this company is a complete fraud. Do not use them I am filing a complaint with the BBB and suing them for fraud and emotional stress. Not in small claims court Potentially a class action suit. I’m the Architect that took down Wells Fargo costing them Billions of Dollars. This I am taking Personally and I fell sorry for what comes next.
I mistakenly hit the enter key to make a reservation for two hotel rooms for 12/30/18. Within two minutes I told Booking.com to cancel the transaction, and they sent me a confirmation that "your booking has been canceled". They are now saying that the "cost" to cancel the mistake is the full price of the reservation -- $3,087.54. I called them this morning and they refused to credit my account, while also contending that the reservation is "canceled".
I've used Booking.com for years, things have changed lately...When you book, they offer amenities: free cancelation, swimming pool, free breakfast, airport transfer...Once you get there, you are charged for the breakfast, the swimming pool is empty (and has been for quite a while...), there is no aiport transfer and when you try to cancel, they tell you you had such a good deal, there will be no refund...
Examples:
Peacock hotel in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, no airport transfer, but they'll arrange for a taxi ("minimal" fee!! $25 each way...)
The Chief's Guesthouse, Maun, Botswana, no airport transfer, but will arrange for a taxi (no idea how much...)
Lal hotel in Lalbela, Ethiopia: swimming pool very empty, and has been that way for a loooong time, because of water shortages due to local construction.
Sora hotel, Lalibela, Ethiopia: cancellation not valid
Hotel de la Parra, Oaxaca, Mexico: breakfast not included...
And the list goes on and on! I travel a lot.
Booking.com tells you it's between you and the hotel. The hotel says "Booking.com" charges us for this! So do yourself a favor: eliminate the middle man, deal with the hotel directly, make sure you have all you need before you agree to pay, and don't allow this cr**py service mess with your trip!
Used Booking.com to reserve 4 nights at a B&B in Ireland, paid in advance. I ended up having to cancel my reservation. Received prompt email from Booking.com telling me that I would be refunded what I had paid, less a 90 pound cancelation charge, within 7 to 12 days. However, the refund money never appeared on my credit card. Today, about a month after cancelling, I finally got around to calling Booking. After invistigating the problem while I sat on hold for a good 15 mins., the person I spoke with told me she could see that my refund had not been issued, but that she could not figure out why, and that the company has no direct way to be in touch with its payments department by phone (or just by walking down the hall?...). She maintained that the only way they can be in touch with Payments is to send them an email, and then Payments is "usually" back in touch with them in within 48 hours.
Asked me to check back with Bookings in a couple days. I asked to speak with her supervisor, got the same answer. Bookings could not give me a confirmation number so that when I called back the person I spoke with would be able to see a record of the complaint I had just made. Nor could Bookings tell me for sure that I would be contacted by their payments department. I was supposed to just wait and hope.
Today, 48 hours later, I got an email from Bookings, essentially saying the same thing -- they're awfully sorry, have no answer yet, are looking into it. The email did not come from a Payment department, but simply from Customer Service at Booking.com. The stuff about not being able to contact the Payments Department directly is very implausible. It seems like obfuscation, which is Latin for b.s. Are they scammers? Insanely disorganized and dysfunctional? In the midst of going belly up and making nonsensical excuses to buy themselves time? Below are screen shots of my reservation information, of Booking's email acknowledging my cancellation, and of today's email giving me the runaround.
Think that booking a hotel with Booking.com guarantees you a reservation? Even with a credit card? Think again. I made reservations several months in advance to travel in a prime city, during a peak travel period. I received multiple confirmation emails that everything was all set. To avoid any surprises, I even phoned the hotel directly in advance and confirmed everything was in order.
Our check-in day finally arrives, after months of planning, and... surprise! Booking.com experienced a "glitch" and lost our reservation! And, you guessed it - the hotel was sold out. We were out of luck and had nowhere to stay after a full day of travel.
The only thing Booking.com did to rectify the problem was researched other hotels in the area, but would not make the reservation for me. (I could have done that just as easily myself)
We ended up in a hotel that was below standard, very different than what we had originally booked, and in a completely different part of town than what we wanted. I guess that's what I get for not making a reservation, right? (Oh wait, i DID make a reservation)
I explained to the Booking.com agent that this put a huge damper on our travel plans and requested some sort of compensation for the inconvenience. I got absolutely nothing.
Let this experience be a lesson: Booking.com will lead you to believe you have a reservation, cancel it last-minute, blame it on a "glitch", and close their door in your face without further thought. No wonder they have a 1-star rating by Consumer Affairs! (See for yourself if you don't believe me)
This is the third travel website that has cancelled my reservation by email without calling me to notify me first.
WHY do they make it mandatory to input a phone number, when they don't call you???
In this instance, I made a travel reservation for business. I made the reservation a month ago, to secure the lowest rate possible. The reservation was for lodging in Boston, and rates continue to climb daily. The credit card I used to book the reservation was charged to hold the room. Later in the past month, my card was stolen and I cancelled it.
Instead of calling me to put a new card on hold for the room (which I won't be staying at for another 3 months), they simply cancelled the reservation. The operator instructed me to make a new reservation, as the previous reservation was deleted; a new card could not be input to replace the old.
I proceeded to make a new reservation - however today's rates totaled a more than $600 increase from my original reservation!
AND, this is not hte first time i've experienced shady internet politics like this. EXPEDIA emailed me a few years back indicating "woops, the room we reserved for you actually is double booked, so your reservation is cancelled". They indicated I could book a new room somewhere else, however the rates had doubled as it was now prime travel season. I would up reserving a place much further away from my destination, with less amenities, at a higher cost.
It appears to be regular internet-industry practice to routinely cancel reservations for one reason or another, forcing users to pay top dollar, artificially inflated rates. There should be a class action lawsuit. Moreover, there should be a requirement that the company provide best faith practices to notify the person - in writing, AND by phone - BEFORE the cancellation is made, in order to allow the opportunity to retain the original booking. FINALLY, any re-reservation should be granted the original purchase price.
It is outrageous that people are being subjected to this manipulative rate hiking practice. Where is customer service? Where is the price match guarantee?
The description of the motel I reserved was so totally different from the run down reality it was shocking. I was charged even though I did not stay the night. booking.com obviously does not check to see if their offered accommodation meet any particular standards I made an attempt to get an explanation which was unsuccessful.
This "company" on 3 occaisions has not provided the correct accommosdations!
The hotels we stayed in have images which are enhanced and did niot reflect the property in a true light!
Our most recent incident involved the Howard Johnson in St. Augustine, Florida. We contacted booking.com and they treated us with disdain and we feel the need to warn the public of their modus-operandi.
Here's the story:
Absolutely disgusting rip-off hotel and staff!!
We booked a quadruple room with two double beds and they put us in a single small room with one king bed. They told us there was no availability FOR OUR ORIGINAL PAID BOOKING upon checking in. Today, the "Manager" tells us it's our fault because we didn't ask for what we booked for and told us: "you can do what you want, i don't care!." Thus this review.
Beware when checking in. these guys put you into what saves them money, lie to you and then abuse you subsequently!!!
WE BOOKED ON BOOKING.COM TO STAY AT DIAMANTI VILLA IN SKIATHOS GREECE FOR A WEEK AND MY WIFE GAVE HER DEBIT CARD INFORMATION FOR THE RESERVATION. THE NEXT DAY WE WENT TO THIS PLACE AND THE OWNER STARTED MAKING INAPPROPRIATE SEXUAL COMMENTS ABOUT MY WIFE'S APPEARANCE WHICH REALLY IRRITATED BOTH OF US. HE ALSO SHOWED US A ROOM WITH TWO SINGLE BEDROOMS AND WE EXPLAINED THAT WE ARE A COUPLE AND THAT THE PICTURE ON THE RESERVATION SHOWED A DOUBLE BED. HE SAID YOU CAN COMBINE THE TWO BEDS AND MAKE A DOUBLE BED !!!! NATURALLY WE DID NOT WANT TO STAY THERE SO WE CALLED ANOTHER TAXI TO TAKE US BACK TO SKIATHOS TOWN TO LOOK FOR A DIFFERENT ROOM. WE BOTH FELT VERY UNCOMFORTABLE STAYING IN THE DIAMANTI VILLA PROPERTY AFTER THE WAY WE WERE TREATED BY THE OWNER. AFTER A LOT OF HUSSLE, WE FINALLY FOUND A ROOM AND AS SOON AS WE ARRIVED IN OUR ROOM WE CALLED BOOKING.COM TO REPORT THE INCIDENT AND ENSURE THAT THE ABUSIVE OWNER DID NOT CHARGE MY WIFE'S CARD. BOOKING.COM PROMISED US THAT THEY WOULD DO WHAT THEY COULD TO STOP THE OWNER FROM CHARGING MY WIFE'S CARD SINCE WE NEVER STAYED AT THIS PROPERTY. WE ALSO CALLED THE BANK AND FROZE THE ACCOUNT WHICH MY WIFE DID NOT REOPEN UNTIL MANY DAYS LATER WHEN SHE RETURNED TO TUSA.
TO OUR DISMAY, WE FOUND OUT THAT THE OWNER OF DIAMANTI VILLA CHARGED MY WIFE'S DEBIT CARD ABOUT $700 IN NOVEMBER, 2016, NAMELY 4 MONTHS AFTER THIS INCIDENT !!!! MY WIFE'S BANK WHICH IS ALLIANCE UNION EVEN CALLED HER AND ASKED IF THE CHARGE WAS AUTHORIZED AND MY WIFE TOLD THEM THAT IT WAS NOT AND THAT THEY SHOULD NOT LET THAT CHARGE GO THROUGH. STILL, THE CHARGE WENT THROUGH AND NOW THE BANK REFUSES TO REFUND MY WIFE'S ACCOUNT AND CLAIMS THAT WE NEED TO TAKE IT WITH BOOKING.COM
WE CALLED BOOKING.COM TODAY JAN. 3, 2017 AND EXPLAINED THE SITUATION. FOR SOME REASON THEY WOULD NOT LET US SPEAK TO A MANAGER WHEN WE CALLED THE FIRST TIME AND SPOKE TO A CUSTOMER REP BY THE NAME: TATIANA PATU WHO SHE SAID IS LOCATED IN BARCELONA. WE CALLED AGAIN AND SPOKE TO AN ITALIAN LADY AND AFTER A VERY LONG HOLD FINALLY A MANAGER BY THE NAME: GEORGE MARINO PICKED UP THE CALL. HE TOLD US THAT THERE WAS NOTHING THAT BOOKING.COM COULD DO ABOUT THE SITUATION AND THAT WE WERE PRETTY MUCH ON OUR OWN BECAUSE HE SAID WHEN YOU BOOK WITH BOOKING.COM THE CHARGES ARE FINALLY AND CANNOT BE REVERSED UNLESS THE HOTEL OWNER WANTS TO RETURN THE FUNDS !!! WE EXPLAINED THAT WE WERE SEXUALLY HARASSED BY THE DIAMANTI VILLA OWNER AND THAT THE ROOM WE WERE PROVIDED HAD 2 SINGLE BEDS INSTEAD OF A DOUBLE BED. MR. MARINO SAID THERE WAS NOTHING HE COULD DO AND THAT THERE WAS NOBODY ELSE TO COMPLAIN TO IN BOOKING.COM AS HE WAS THE HIGHEST LEVEL WE COULD GO TO TO COMPLAIN ABOUT THIS HORRIBLE SITUATION.
This company use a very competive list price of hotels online, and it buying its way to be the top google search result for the place I was visiting. I did not think too much and book the hotel through their site and they sent a receipt with the low price they claimed online. But when I checkout at the hotel, I got a much higher charge and the clerk knew nothing about it. Calling the booking.com has no use, and they only admit it is a price error. Will never do business with them again.
Booked a room on Booking.com for my family to go to Myrtle Beach this weekend. Booked a room that was supped to sleep 6. We booked a room that was to have a queen, two queens and a sleeper sofa. What we got was a king, two twins and a sleeper sofa with no sheets. I have pics to prove. so on our vacation we had to go buy sheets and use the sofa. The carpet was disgusting, Broken tiles on the kitchen floor (my son cut his foot on this and bleed. The blinds were broken in almost every room and they said there was a shuttle to the beach (the reason we booked this room) and there was no shuttle. Lastly they asked what time we wanted to check in and we requested noon. Our room wasn't ready until 4:30 and the office closes at 5 so we had a 30 min window to get from the beach to get our room. This weekend was a total disaster!!!! spent hours on hold with booking .com and got no answer.
Booking.com is a world wide hotel booking service. They charge a commission for their bookings. I have been with them for over two years. This last year we got an agent in San Jose, Costa Rica who is supposed to be our advocate. His name is Jose Mora. Another financial advocate is Amelia Respeto Cruz. She is locqted in Mexico.
First complaint is about the company itself and how difficult it is to negotiate and learn the rules of how to work with them. Their are many layers to learn and you never get the benefit of the doubt. You make a mistake searching thru these layers and you pay for it. I feel they have done this purposefuly so they can make you pay for it. I have on every billing for the commission been over charged. Amelia has told me on a couple occasions to just pay the commission and then Jose will submit a complaint to the company explaining the error. Then you are to wait until the next month to see if you get that amount taken off the next billing. The is all talk and is never followed thru with. I just loose the money. I call him, write him and he hides like a fox and won't give a straight answer.
This last Christmas season Dec-March booking booked me a fair amount (#37) and half of these cancelled. At first I would contact customer service to let them know that so and so had cancelled. Some times that worked and other times I got billed the commission. If you do not go to their web page and hit the "no show" button and you have only one day to do this you will be charged the commission. When booking sends a commission bill they send the amount only and no breakdown of who it is for. I have complained of this and just get ignored. There is a way to go into their page and download the clients that are included in that commission amount. I did that this month and that page indicated that I had paid for one client in February but was charged again for this same client in March. I contacted both Amelia and Jose and they both passed the buck. I sent proof and got ignored and a curt email saying I would be dropped as a hotel if I did not pay the designated commission. Their excuse is "wecan't go back and send a corrected bill; it is already in the system.
Overall the system is extremely hard to manuver through, follow thru is non-existent, customer service is pretty non-existent, They are always right and there is no consideration of your experience, the time you have to hit "no-show is obviously for their benefit, and they can't change a bill, and sending a commission charge with no breakdown as to it covers.
I reserved a room at the Holel Pennsylvania in NYC via Booking.com for three nights. Upon arrival, I wanted to change the reservation to just 1 night. The Hotel said Booking.com had to do it. I called Booking.com, and they emailed the hotel (supposidly). The next morning I checked out. I still got charged for all three nights!
Second time. reserved a room at the Congress Plaza hotel in Chicago for 1 night. I cancelled the reservation but was still charged for the room. I NEVER, EVER unless I know 100% that I will be someplace do something without the ability to cancel. My schedule is disrupted too often.
That was over $500 i was scammed out of. I will never use this site again.
In general you can get the same or better rates by calling the hotels directly as I have learned, and will do in the future. This is a scammy website. They make you think you can cancel but you can't.
I filed a claim against Booking.com pursuant to their arbitration agreement on www.booking.com.
Their attorney, Hillary August, decided my claims were not arbitratable! Only an arbitrator has that power. Therefore, booking.com's agreement is now unenforcable. What that means is that you may sue booking.com in any court, that their arbitration agreement is completely invalid, and that booking.com has breached the contract with every consumer who has ever booked with them.
Priceline.com is the parent company of this sleazy enterprise. Hillary August, a Yale Alum, is the sleazy attorney who represented them. The bottom line is, if you book through Booking.com, they will make you feel you have no rights to court because of their arbitration agreement. But you are free to use the attached documents proving that the arbitration company, the American Arbitration Association, will refuse any claim.
This also means that consumers may form a class, and sue as a class action. Any attorney or consumer who wishes to proceed as a class should contact me via www.arbyq.com
The attached documents may be used by any individuals to proceed against www.booking.com or against www.jenner.com or against Hillary August, whose email address is on the documents.
The bottom line is that www.booking.com and www.jenner.com and Hillary August at Jenner.com are sleazy and have unsuccessfully attempted to privitize justice. Because they cannot arbitrate, it has actually opened the door for a class action. This was and is our goal and we will bring these companies and individuals to justice.
Booking.com mislead me on a hotel I booked through their website. I notified booking.com of my dissatisfaction, and they did not care.
I filed arbitration with the American Arbitration Association pursuant to booking.com agreement to arbitrate. However, even then, booking.com refused to pay the fees to arbitrate and the AAA now refuses to accept any cases involving booking.com.
Regardless, Booking.com has not removed the arbitration agreement and continues to promote AAA as the arbitration forum for consumers to use with disputes. This has been reported to the FTC and a complaint is also pending against Hillary August, the attorney who represents booking.com at Jenner.com in Chicago, Illinois.
I am renting rooms in my home and sometimes the whole house. My house is located in Brittany France.
booking.com sends me interested customers. I happened that this customer was booking two weeks bu these weeks overlappped with a previous booking. I alerted the customer in Belgium and told hime to change his dates or I could reimburse him the total deposit. he said it is ok send me my deposit back. He had two months or so tp find some ther rentals so I figured it was not a big deal.
Booking.com decided to make me pay an extra fee (245.00 euros) as a way to punish me for having cancelled. I called them on the phone to complain and they agree to review my file and perhaps they could pay me back some of the money. few weeks later on october 31st 2015, they charged me 124.25 euros (taken form my checking account in france). Yesterday they sent me an invoice of 36.75 euros which they said will be taken directly from my checking acount the CMB in Brittany.
On the phone I had ask them to close my account few months ago, they did not.They still take money from me although I ask not to.
I see here on RIPOFF that overcharges for room cancellation is listed as two of the complains against this company so it is obvious they have this habit of doing it. I asked them to pay me back the money taken from me illegally. They did not comply.
Booking.com has completely gone too far with its completely fraudulent Arbitration Agreement, which requires Dutch law be applied even in the USA (where they have numerous offices).
Booking.com denies even small claims actions despite the American Arbitration Association's requirement for that possibility.
Booking.com fraudulently scares customers from Arbitration by stating the consumer may have to pay $1,000 if they file arbitration incorrectly. I have filed my arbitration. You can too by looking up the Terms of Service on booking.com and then filing it with ADR.org to: [email protected].
I will also follow up with a report to the FTC and the Colorado Attorney General. Here is the Arbitration Agreement in all its illegal glory:
3. Governing law and disputes
To the extent permitted by law, these terms and conditions and the provision of our services shall be governed by and construed in accordance with Dutch law and by using this website, you agree that any and all disputes arising out of or relating to your use of this website, or other services provided by Booking.com or the support companies in connection with your use of this website (including the interpretation and scope of this clause and the arbitrability of the dispute) will be resolved via mandatory, binding arbitration initiated through and administered by the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”). Arbitration will be in accordance with the AAA’s Expedited Commercial Arbitration Rules & Procedures and its Consumer-Related Disputes Supplementary Procedures (collectively, the “rules”), except that you do not retain any right to bring a claim in any court, including small claims court, and as otherwise modified by this Disputes provision. If there is a conflict between the rules and this Disputes provision, the terms of this Disputes provision will govern. The rules are available online at www.adr.org or by calling the AAA at 1-800-778-7879.
The arbitration will be conducted by one arbitrator in Chicago, Illinois, who will be appointed by the AAA. Arbitration will be subject to the Federal Arbitration Act and not any state arbitration law. The arbitration will be conducted based solely on written submissions, unless the arbitrator determines that a telephonic or online appearance is required, and will be conducted in the English language. The arbitration will not involve any personal appearance by the parties or witnesses. The arbitration will be confidential, and neither you nor Booking.com may disclose the existence, content or results of any arbitration, except as may be required by law or for purposes of enforcement of the arbitration award.
In order to initiate arbitration with the AAA, you and Booking.com each will be responsible for paying a filing fee to the AAA. Booking.com also agrees to pay any additional fee or deposit required by the American Arbitration Association in excess of your filing fee. In the event that you are able to demonstrate that the costs of arbitration will be prohibitive as compared to costs of litigation, Booking.com will pay as much of your filing fee in connection with the arbitration as the arbitrator deems necessary to prevent the arbitration from being cost-prohibitive as compared to the costs of litigation.
Consistent with the expedited nature of arbitration, pre-hearing information exchange will be limited to the reasonable production of non-privileged documents directly relevant to the dispute. Ordinarily, those documents will be limited to your booking and communications directly about that booking among you, Booking.com, and the accommodation(s) that are the subject of your dispute with Booking.com. Any issues regarding discovery, or the relevance or scope thereof, will be determined by the arbitrator, and the arbitrator’s determination will be conclusive.
The arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person’s claims, and may not otherwise preside over any form of a representative or class proceeding. There will be no right or authority for any Claims to be arbitrated on a class action basis. You understand and agree that, by accepting these terms and conditions, you and Booking.com are each waiving the right to a trial by jury or to participate in a class action with respect to the claims covered by this mandatory arbitration provision.
What a joke! We booked a hotel in Northern CA through Booking.com. According to their site, their rates were "20%" cheaper than regular rates, they have the best, lowest, etc. Lies! All of it lies!
When we got to our hotel, the very kind front desk employee explained that third party sites are the last place you want to book a hotel. You are much better off booking directly. Well lesson learned! We paid $119/night+tax through Booking.com. Had we booked directely through the hotel, with our military discount, we would have paid $83/night+tax.
Recently booking.com putting their online registred customers in danger, this business tart small and now its got bigger and a larger scam worldwide.
This is how its works, this is a internet hotel booking engin and they are seliing hotels and apartments worldwide, most of their hotels and apartments are from GDS ( Global Distribution System) and some of them are registred directly with them.
In a very high season if you book a room with them for some city they will confirm you a hotel in the city what ever you choose, there is option pay now or pay later, when you pay it once you got to the address you will know its overboked , actually this is doing by booking.com , if there are 2000 room nights available in the city and 500 room nights available on the suberbs nearby they will sell this 500 adtional room nights in subburbs to their customers showing that they have confirm booking for the city what customer choose.
So finally when customer knwo its overbooked, booking.com customer service ( this people even not located in the country ) they will try to re-allocate you to another hotel that available or in the subberbs, some how customer have to pay adtional amount at the end of the day
If customer ask to cancel the booking, still booking.com win in this situation by keeping their booking fees , as an example if they sold 500 extra room nights at a 100 euro each, its 50,000euro and their comission and booking fee along over 20,000 euro profit and they will not return this is to the customer.
I faced to this situation twise and they did exactly the same, i did try for the 3rd time asking to re-allocate, then they ask me to pay adtional 120 euro for the new hotel, again they bill also to the property for overbooking and making money, so its double profit.
Do not get involved with this scam, book with genuine booking sites like, t or or any websites except this scamers, the most ugliest thing is when we travel 10,000 miles and then we get to knwo hotel is overbooked in the very high season time
I do had good experience in the past with them, but not anymore, becuase their business getting better and they are trying to pull business forward with lot of trics and putting customers in danger , may be propetties too, without customers and propetirs they are no one
they say cancellation is free, but who will monitor everyday and cancel it ontime? i'm sure out of 100 at least 80 will not cancel it ontime before cancelation time ends.
Booking.com Reviews
Booking.com stole my money !!! I had a reservation from booking.com via booking basics for a hotel in marrakech . They charged my credit card. When i got to the hotel , hotel said they dont see any reservation and they did not receive payments from booking.com.
I had to call the booking call center internationally for an hour. They did not send a payment confirmation to the hotel eitherbut charged fully my crrdit card (Usually booking sends a credit number to the hotels to confirm payments) . Therefore i had to pay again. This is stealing money !!!!!
Still waiting on 434.00 refund that was approved and confirmed on July 27, almost one month ago. I have contacted Booking.com customer service on three separate occasions and still received the same 10-15 business days before the refund will come up message .It's been over 21 days and nothing. My next stop will be the Better Business Bureau and Department of Consumer Affairs. It shouldn't take a month to receive a refund.
Earlier this year my wife & I spent six weeks in Europe, enjoying a myriad of wonderful experiences. However, for the past 6 months I have been endeavoring to have money illegally removed from my credit card account returned.
You may be thinking this is some suspect transaction undertaken on our journey, but no, my futile attempts are with Booking.com who have used my customer profile to illegally remove money from my credit card account. In a nutshell I am supposed to have made two flight bookings on the same day to the same destination (but at different times). The fraudulent booking was confirmed with a non-existent e-mail address & mobile phone number and attributed to my member profile and hence charged to my credit card. My first knowledge of the illegal transaction was via my credit card statement. (The use of a non-existent e-mail address meant that I did not receive any confirmation of the booking)
Booking.com have strenuously denied any error or liability for the transaction standing behind their T&C’s of the consumer providing the correct e-mail address. In fact, they have chosen to totally ignore the seriousness of the issue. Like many major digital platform providers, security for the provider & consumer is paramount, yet in this case they have allowed the breach of their own security protocols and the use of their members private information to allow an illegal transaction to take place, whilst at the same time contradicting their own procedures of seeking authorization from their customer before a booking is undertaken.
In my case, fraudulent use of my private information and illegal removal of money from my private account without authorization are the issues that appear to be all too common when dealing with online travel agencies.
We had booked a reservation via booking.com and found 1 day before arrival the hotel price was lower on the booking.com website, as well as the hotel's website and 2 other competitors. I had notified booking.comof the lower price and sent them 4 screenshots as proof. 24 hours later they replied that upon checking the websites the hotel price was not lower, which I disputed because it was now the 4th of july, a national holiday. Should they have looked the day before it would have proven my case. It didn't matter to Booking.com, they will not pay the $30 difference. They are not standing by their own price match guarantee.
I received an email from Booking.com saying my reservation from my stay at The Lodge at Gulf State Park had been canceled almost a month AFTER my stay was complete and said I owed an additional 25$ due to a tax increase. I have receipts from BOTH Booking.com and the Hotel stating that I'm paid in full. After a little research to increase the price after you confirm is not an industry practice. Has anyone else had this happen to them?
I recently booked a Motel 6 room on Booking.com, who was the entity who charged my card, not the Motel 6. When I arrived I could only stand to be in the room for one minute (and didn't enter the second room with my friend who I also paid for but they also took pictures of their room). There were vagrants outside of the hotel which was fine because we thought we would be safe inside but when we entered the rooms it was like a scene from a horror movie. The furniture was ripped up, the room smelled so bad of bug spray we could barely stand it, there were cigarette stains all over the shower, roaches all over the place, and bed bugs every where!
We ran out of the rooms and told them we'd like a refund and they said no. We used the app and haven't heard any resolution from Booking.com in over 7 days. They have no phone support and apparently have closed operations in the United States which means they are just ripping Americans travelers off because now you are fighting interneational pirates who do this to our citizens.
I have charged it back with my bank now but before this happens to you- DO NOT BOOK WITH BOOKING.COM, ESPECIALLY THE: Motel 6 San Antonio, TX - West SeaWorld, located at 2185 SW Loop 410, San Antonio, TX 78227
Booked hotel for March 13 and 14, 2023. Turns out those were the wrong days and that I needed to book for March 14 to 16. Called hotel and Booking.com to reschedule and was told that I would lose $ 816 even though the hotel had availability for the correct dates, which were only a day later. Complete ripoff.
DO NOT USE! TERRIBLE!!! My wife and I purchased our airline tickets from Booking.com and right before the trip I caught COVID. Booking.com told us we could rebook within the year and use our credits. We tried rebooking by calling their customer service as requested and we're never able to rebook. The Indian customer service Booking.com has outsourced to is TERRIBLE. SO INCOMPETENT! We tried multiple times and each time they would tell us that the issue has been forwarded and we should wait for a call back. Guess what? No call back ever. For weeks we tried resolving this issue, rebooking another flight, but each time they have an excuse and are unable to get us what we paid for. We tried going through to our credit card company, but they denied our request for credit card dispute. This is so terrible that Booking.com places ads all over the place and makes it seem like a great place to purchase your plane tickets, but when you need them they just throw you to some stupid call center in India where they don't help at all. It's so crazy and sad that a corporation like this can steal a customer's money and have no recourse. Please save yourself the stress and don't use them. Booking.yeah, more like Booking.yeahright. We love to take your money and not help you at all if there's any issues. Such BS.
I made a booking for a hotel called Lyndon B&B on Jan 12th, 2023. While I was making the booking, the purchase screens showed that the hotel was REFUNDABLE, which is why I decided to book it. Right as I completed the booking, the status changed from REFUNDABLE to PARTIALLY REFUNDABLE. By the time I received the email, the status had changed to NON-REFUNDABLE.
I have repeatedly requested a refund to this reservation but Booking keeps saying there is nothing they can do and I have to reach out to the hotel directly. This sounds quite unethical and incorrect to me since I made the payment to booking.com on their platform, and my contract is with booking.com. In addition, the hotel (Lyndon B&B, phone number: +44 7448 765516) only uses a mobile number which is always switched off when I call and they never returned any of my phone calls.
I am disappointed that booking.com would allow this hotel to operate on their platform and not take responsibility for what appears to be unethical activity on their website by a partner hotel. I would like my $570 to be refunded and I would like the opportunity to leave a review for this hotel on Booking.com to warn other customers who may fall into this trap.
On December 28, 2021, I've booked a place for my trip for the period of Jan 17 - Feb 7/2022 via Booking.com website. At the moment I've made the reservation the total amount was charged to my bank account, as I was informed in the payment policy. On the same day, the property sent me the receipt in regards to that payment transaction. So far, everything was fine.
One week prior to my trip (Jan 10) the property sent me a message informing me that they had to cancel my reservation due to problems with my credit card. I've inquired them about the problems they were having, to understand what exactly happened and what I could do, considering the amount had already been paid. I was constantly ignored about the reason they were having problems and I had to accept I would need to find another place to stay, one week prior to my trip when the prices were double.
Today is Feb 7 and I'm still waiting for the refund of this reservation that was canceled by the property. The property is taking too long to proceed with this and Booking.com is not taking responsibility on that case, which would be to proceed with my refund, as I'm their customer.
I've just moved to the US and I'm having several financial problems due to this situation. It is a significant amount (over $2k USD) and I'm counting on this.
All I did by this time was wait, but it is not acceptable anymore. I need this to be solved immediately.
Please, be careful prior booking any of your trips via the Booking.com website, as they definitely do not care about their customer best interests.
On December 28, 2021, I've booked a place for my trip for the period of Jan 17 - Feb 7/2022 via Booking.com website. At the moment I've made the reservation the total amount was charged to my bank account, as I was informed in the payment policy. On the same day, the property sent me the receipt in regards to that payment transaction. So far, everything was fine.
One week prior to my trip (Jan 10) the property sent me a message informing me that they had to cancel my reservation due to problems with my credit card. I've inquired them about the problems they were having, to understand what exactly happened and what I could do, considering the amount had already been paid. I was constantly ignored about the reason they were having problems and I had to accept I would need to find another place to stay, one week prior to my trip when the prices were double.
Today is Feb 7 and I'm still waiting for the refund of this reservation that was canceled by the property. The property is taking too long to proceed with this and Booking.com is not taking responsibility on that case, which would be to proceed with my refund, as I'm their customer.
I've just moved to the US and I'm having several financial problems due to this situation. It is a significant amount (over $2k USD) and I'm counting on this.
All I did by this time was wait, but it is not acceptable anymore. I need this to be solved immediately.
Please, be careful prior booking any of your trips via the Booking.com website, as they definitely do not care about their customer best interests.
Booking.com is not to be trusted when it comes to extraordinary events, i.e. they have no problem taking your money, but would prefer it if the customer looked elsewhere for support.
I have done an online booking for accommodation. On Tuesday, 23 March the President of announced a lockdown for the country, starting on 26 March. I had to cancel my booking, request a refund as I had paid the full amount of R2600 via my credit card. I have phoned owner of Van Zylvlei, informing me that Booking. Com has not paid them yet. Now booking. com refused tp refund me.
The hotel Swiss Lenana Mount Hotel who booking had as a 4 star hotel who gave me a room with no air conditioning, bug infested, toilet not working, no access to the spa, no access to the pool, no private pool as listed and the room was horrible and expensive. I complained and I received an upgrade 3 days before leaving.
I complained again and booking offered me 70 USD after spending nearly 2000 in Nairobi for the hotel. As I was leaving, I flicked off the receptionist for demanding more money and the hotel had a policeman beat me by shattering a large glass object on my back and hitting my nose and I was told never to return to Kenya after I leave or I would end up like prisoners who accidentally died going to the police station.
They refused to return my money because I was under the 24 hour prior cancelation.
when I had just booked it 10 minutes before (for that night)
Booking dot com refused because Hotel ran my card
Hotel refused because they put it on booking dot com
CC refused because I was charged No show for the hotel they swapped me for (unable to cancel because booked for that night)
I have scheduled the transfer service from booking.com from Cancun airport to the hotel in Playa del Carmen on 08/04/2019. I arrived at the meeting point as directed by the booking confirmation email. I waited on site for about 2 hours, until the end of the time of 20: 00h, which would be the limit informed in the confirmation email sent by Booking.com, but the transfer did not appear and there was nobody from Booking.com staff to give directions.
Since the service was already paid, I requested a refund, but Booking.com didn't accord to this request. Booking.com has simply stopped responding to e-mail inquiries regarding this issue.
Everyone knows booking.com right? It is the most used website to book an accomodation. They claim that it's easy, best price guaranteed, and also they say the reservation is guaranteed. This means that is something happens (of course problems can occur sometimes) they are supposed to take care of it.
In my case, I made a reservation for my holidays quite in advance, I wanted a nice hotel with some amenities. The hotel has free cancellation option. Two days after this free cancellatio in snot possible anymore, too close to the arrival date, the hotel sent me via Booking.com a message asking to cancel as they have some legal issues and won't be able to host me. This was alread unbelievable.
Of course if I was going to cancel I had to pay almost the whole amount of money! I had to fight through that horrible chat they provide now on the website to let the hotel understand that they should have cancelled from their side otherwise I had to pay and of course I did not want to! I then tried to have some help from booking.com, at the end they are the intermediate they should have done something, offer me some form of compnsation.
At this point in time it is impossible to find a similar hotel for a similar price. But the only email I got offered me instead a very cheap accomodation as alternative ( not for fre clearly), but was cheap also in the sense of much worse reviews and definitely not comparable with my first choice. I was deeply disapponted. I tried to reply that it did not seem fair, I would have expect at least a comparable hotels and in case that the first hotel, who cancelled my reservation, paid the difference in price.
But no, after that email I did not hear anything. And if we consider that this happened two days before my departure... well... I think it is pretty unbelivable.
Rented an Apartment in South Beach Miami for Myself and Two Friends. I took a Taxi for an hour and when I arrived the owners Mother who barely spoke English showed me a room and said this is your room. On the website I rented the entire apartment and they decided to rent the other two rooms to other people. They never listed this was a room for rent it was listed as an apartment for rent on the first floor with a swimming pool. When I called to complain the Supervisor was laughing like it was a joke and did nothing to help me. The place was trashed and three grown men are not going to share a queen size bed.
This is a joke and this company is a complete fraud. Do not use them I am filing a complaint with the BBB and suing them for fraud and emotional stress. Not in small claims court Potentially a class action suit. I’m the Architect that took down Wells Fargo costing them Billions of Dollars. This I am taking Personally and I fell sorry for what comes next.
I mistakenly hit the enter key to make a reservation for two hotel rooms for 12/30/18. Within two minutes I told Booking.com to cancel the transaction, and they sent me a confirmation that "your booking has been canceled". They are now saying that the "cost" to cancel the mistake is the full price of the reservation -- $3,087.54. I called them this morning and they refused to credit my account, while also contending that the reservation is "canceled".
I've used Booking.com for years, things have changed lately...When you book, they offer amenities: free cancelation, swimming pool, free breakfast, airport transfer...Once you get there, you are charged for the breakfast, the swimming pool is empty (and has been for quite a while...), there is no aiport transfer and when you try to cancel, they tell you you had such a good deal, there will be no refund...
Examples:
Peacock hotel in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, no airport transfer, but they'll arrange for a taxi ("minimal" fee!! $25 each way...)
The Chief's Guesthouse, Maun, Botswana, no airport transfer, but will arrange for a taxi (no idea how much...)
Lal hotel in Lalbela, Ethiopia: swimming pool very empty, and has been that way for a loooong time, because of water shortages due to local construction.
Sora hotel, Lalibela, Ethiopia: cancellation not valid
Hotel de la Parra, Oaxaca, Mexico: breakfast not included...
And the list goes on and on! I travel a lot.
Booking.com tells you it's between you and the hotel. The hotel says "Booking.com" charges us for this! So do yourself a favor: eliminate the middle man, deal with the hotel directly, make sure you have all you need before you agree to pay, and don't allow this cr**py service mess with your trip!
Used Booking.com to reserve 4 nights at a B&B in Ireland, paid in advance. I ended up having to cancel my reservation. Received prompt email from Booking.com telling me that I would be refunded what I had paid, less a 90 pound cancelation charge, within 7 to 12 days. However, the refund money never appeared on my credit card. Today, about a month after cancelling, I finally got around to calling Booking. After invistigating the problem while I sat on hold for a good 15 mins., the person I spoke with told me she could see that my refund had not been issued, but that she could not figure out why, and that the company has no direct way to be in touch with its payments department by phone (or just by walking down the hall?...). She maintained that the only way they can be in touch with Payments is to send them an email, and then Payments is "usually" back in touch with them in within 48 hours.
Asked me to check back with Bookings in a couple days. I asked to speak with her supervisor, got the same answer. Bookings could not give me a confirmation number so that when I called back the person I spoke with would be able to see a record of the complaint I had just made. Nor could Bookings tell me for sure that I would be contacted by their payments department. I was supposed to just wait and hope.
Today, 48 hours later, I got an email from Bookings, essentially saying the same thing -- they're awfully sorry, have no answer yet, are looking into it. The email did not come from a Payment department, but simply from Customer Service at Booking.com. The stuff about not being able to contact the Payments Department directly is very implausible. It seems like obfuscation, which is Latin for b.s. Are they scammers? Insanely disorganized and dysfunctional? In the midst of going belly up and making nonsensical excuses to buy themselves time? Below are screen shots of my reservation information, of Booking's email acknowledging my cancellation, and of today's email giving me the runaround.
Think that booking a hotel with Booking.com guarantees you a reservation? Even with a credit card? Think again. I made reservations several months in advance to travel in a prime city, during a peak travel period. I received multiple confirmation emails that everything was all set. To avoid any surprises, I even phoned the hotel directly in advance and confirmed everything was in order.
Our check-in day finally arrives, after months of planning, and... surprise! Booking.com experienced a "glitch" and lost our reservation! And, you guessed it - the hotel was sold out. We were out of luck and had nowhere to stay after a full day of travel.
The only thing Booking.com did to rectify the problem was researched other hotels in the area, but would not make the reservation for me. (I could have done that just as easily myself)
We ended up in a hotel that was below standard, very different than what we had originally booked, and in a completely different part of town than what we wanted. I guess that's what I get for not making a reservation, right? (Oh wait, i DID make a reservation)
I explained to the Booking.com agent that this put a huge damper on our travel plans and requested some sort of compensation for the inconvenience. I got absolutely nothing.
Let this experience be a lesson: Booking.com will lead you to believe you have a reservation, cancel it last-minute, blame it on a "glitch", and close their door in your face without further thought. No wonder they have a 1-star rating by Consumer Affairs! (See for yourself if you don't believe me)
This is the third travel website that has cancelled my reservation by email without calling me to notify me first.
WHY do they make it mandatory to input a phone number, when they don't call you???
In this instance, I made a travel reservation for business. I made the reservation a month ago, to secure the lowest rate possible. The reservation was for lodging in Boston, and rates continue to climb daily. The credit card I used to book the reservation was charged to hold the room. Later in the past month, my card was stolen and I cancelled it.
Instead of calling me to put a new card on hold for the room (which I won't be staying at for another 3 months), they simply cancelled the reservation. The operator instructed me to make a new reservation, as the previous reservation was deleted; a new card could not be input to replace the old.
I proceeded to make a new reservation - however today's rates totaled a more than $600 increase from my original reservation!
AND, this is not hte first time i've experienced shady internet politics like this. EXPEDIA emailed me a few years back indicating "woops, the room we reserved for you actually is double booked, so your reservation is cancelled". They indicated I could book a new room somewhere else, however the rates had doubled as it was now prime travel season. I would up reserving a place much further away from my destination, with less amenities, at a higher cost.
It appears to be regular internet-industry practice to routinely cancel reservations for one reason or another, forcing users to pay top dollar, artificially inflated rates. There should be a class action lawsuit. Moreover, there should be a requirement that the company provide best faith practices to notify the person - in writing, AND by phone - BEFORE the cancellation is made, in order to allow the opportunity to retain the original booking. FINALLY, any re-reservation should be granted the original purchase price.
It is outrageous that people are being subjected to this manipulative rate hiking practice. Where is customer service? Where is the price match guarantee?
The description of the motel I reserved was so totally different from the run down reality it was shocking. I was charged even though I did not stay the night. booking.com obviously does not check to see if their offered accommodation meet any particular standards I made an attempt to get an explanation which was unsuccessful.
This "company" on 3 occaisions has not provided the correct accommosdations!
The hotels we stayed in have images which are enhanced and did niot reflect the property in a true light!
Our most recent incident involved the Howard Johnson in St. Augustine, Florida. We contacted booking.com and they treated us with disdain and we feel the need to warn the public of their modus-operandi.
Here's the story:
Absolutely disgusting rip-off hotel and staff!!
We booked a quadruple room with two double beds and they put us in a single small room with one king bed. They told us there was no availability FOR OUR ORIGINAL PAID BOOKING upon checking in. Today, the "Manager" tells us it's our fault because we didn't ask for what we booked for and told us: "you can do what you want, i don't care!." Thus this review.
Beware when checking in. these guys put you into what saves them money, lie to you and then abuse you subsequently!!!
WE BOOKED ON BOOKING.COM TO STAY AT DIAMANTI VILLA IN SKIATHOS GREECE FOR A WEEK AND MY WIFE GAVE HER DEBIT CARD INFORMATION FOR THE RESERVATION. THE NEXT DAY WE WENT TO THIS PLACE AND THE OWNER STARTED MAKING INAPPROPRIATE SEXUAL COMMENTS ABOUT MY WIFE'S APPEARANCE WHICH REALLY IRRITATED BOTH OF US. HE ALSO SHOWED US A ROOM WITH TWO SINGLE BEDROOMS AND WE EXPLAINED THAT WE ARE A COUPLE AND THAT THE PICTURE ON THE RESERVATION SHOWED A DOUBLE BED. HE SAID YOU CAN COMBINE THE TWO BEDS AND MAKE A DOUBLE BED !!!! NATURALLY WE DID NOT WANT TO STAY THERE SO WE CALLED ANOTHER TAXI TO TAKE US BACK TO SKIATHOS TOWN TO LOOK FOR A DIFFERENT ROOM. WE BOTH FELT VERY UNCOMFORTABLE STAYING IN THE DIAMANTI VILLA PROPERTY AFTER THE WAY WE WERE TREATED BY THE OWNER. AFTER A LOT OF HUSSLE, WE FINALLY FOUND A ROOM AND AS SOON AS WE ARRIVED IN OUR ROOM WE CALLED BOOKING.COM TO REPORT THE INCIDENT AND ENSURE THAT THE ABUSIVE OWNER DID NOT CHARGE MY WIFE'S CARD. BOOKING.COM PROMISED US THAT THEY WOULD DO WHAT THEY COULD TO STOP THE OWNER FROM CHARGING MY WIFE'S CARD SINCE WE NEVER STAYED AT THIS PROPERTY. WE ALSO CALLED THE BANK AND FROZE THE ACCOUNT WHICH MY WIFE DID NOT REOPEN UNTIL MANY DAYS LATER WHEN SHE RETURNED TO TUSA.
TO OUR DISMAY, WE FOUND OUT THAT THE OWNER OF DIAMANTI VILLA CHARGED MY WIFE'S DEBIT CARD ABOUT $700 IN NOVEMBER, 2016, NAMELY 4 MONTHS AFTER THIS INCIDENT !!!! MY WIFE'S BANK WHICH IS ALLIANCE UNION EVEN CALLED HER AND ASKED IF THE CHARGE WAS AUTHORIZED AND MY WIFE TOLD THEM THAT IT WAS NOT AND THAT THEY SHOULD NOT LET THAT CHARGE GO THROUGH. STILL, THE CHARGE WENT THROUGH AND NOW THE BANK REFUSES TO REFUND MY WIFE'S ACCOUNT AND CLAIMS THAT WE NEED TO TAKE IT WITH BOOKING.COM
WE CALLED BOOKING.COM TODAY JAN. 3, 2017 AND EXPLAINED THE SITUATION. FOR SOME REASON THEY WOULD NOT LET US SPEAK TO A MANAGER WHEN WE CALLED THE FIRST TIME AND SPOKE TO A CUSTOMER REP BY THE NAME: TATIANA PATU WHO SHE SAID IS LOCATED IN BARCELONA. WE CALLED AGAIN AND SPOKE TO AN ITALIAN LADY AND AFTER A VERY LONG HOLD FINALLY A MANAGER BY THE NAME: GEORGE MARINO PICKED UP THE CALL. HE TOLD US THAT THERE WAS NOTHING THAT BOOKING.COM COULD DO ABOUT THE SITUATION AND THAT WE WERE PRETTY MUCH ON OUR OWN BECAUSE HE SAID WHEN YOU BOOK WITH BOOKING.COM THE CHARGES ARE FINALLY AND CANNOT BE REVERSED UNLESS THE HOTEL OWNER WANTS TO RETURN THE FUNDS !!! WE EXPLAINED THAT WE WERE SEXUALLY HARASSED BY THE DIAMANTI VILLA OWNER AND THAT THE ROOM WE WERE PROVIDED HAD 2 SINGLE BEDS INSTEAD OF A DOUBLE BED. MR. MARINO SAID THERE WAS NOTHING HE COULD DO AND THAT THERE WAS NOBODY ELSE TO COMPLAIN TO IN BOOKING.COM AS HE WAS THE HIGHEST LEVEL WE COULD GO TO TO COMPLAIN ABOUT THIS HORRIBLE SITUATION.
This company use a very competive list price of hotels online, and it buying its way to be the top google search result for the place I was visiting. I did not think too much and book the hotel through their site and they sent a receipt with the low price they claimed online. But when I checkout at the hotel, I got a much higher charge and the clerk knew nothing about it. Calling the booking.com has no use, and they only admit it is a price error. Will never do business with them again.
Booked a room on Booking.com for my family to go to Myrtle Beach this weekend. Booked a room that was supped to sleep 6. We booked a room that was to have a queen, two queens and a sleeper sofa. What we got was a king, two twins and a sleeper sofa with no sheets. I have pics to prove. so on our vacation we had to go buy sheets and use the sofa. The carpet was disgusting, Broken tiles on the kitchen floor (my son cut his foot on this and bleed. The blinds were broken in almost every room and they said there was a shuttle to the beach (the reason we booked this room) and there was no shuttle. Lastly they asked what time we wanted to check in and we requested noon. Our room wasn't ready until 4:30 and the office closes at 5 so we had a 30 min window to get from the beach to get our room. This weekend was a total disaster!!!! spent hours on hold with booking .com and got no answer.
Booking.com is a world wide hotel booking service. They charge a commission for their bookings. I have been with them for over two years. This last year we got an agent in San Jose, Costa Rica who is supposed to be our advocate. His name is Jose Mora. Another financial advocate is Amelia Respeto Cruz. She is locqted in Mexico.
First complaint is about the company itself and how difficult it is to negotiate and learn the rules of how to work with them. Their are many layers to learn and you never get the benefit of the doubt. You make a mistake searching thru these layers and you pay for it. I feel they have done this purposefuly so they can make you pay for it. I have on every billing for the commission been over charged. Amelia has told me on a couple occasions to just pay the commission and then Jose will submit a complaint to the company explaining the error. Then you are to wait until the next month to see if you get that amount taken off the next billing. The is all talk and is never followed thru with. I just loose the money. I call him, write him and he hides like a fox and won't give a straight answer.
This last Christmas season Dec-March booking booked me a fair amount (#37) and half of these cancelled. At first I would contact customer service to let them know that so and so had cancelled. Some times that worked and other times I got billed the commission. If you do not go to their web page and hit the "no show" button and you have only one day to do this you will be charged the commission. When booking sends a commission bill they send the amount only and no breakdown of who it is for. I have complained of this and just get ignored. There is a way to go into their page and download the clients that are included in that commission amount. I did that this month and that page indicated that I had paid for one client in February but was charged again for this same client in March. I contacted both Amelia and Jose and they both passed the buck. I sent proof and got ignored and a curt email saying I would be dropped as a hotel if I did not pay the designated commission. Their excuse is "wecan't go back and send a corrected bill; it is already in the system.
Overall the system is extremely hard to manuver through, follow thru is non-existent, customer service is pretty non-existent, They are always right and there is no consideration of your experience, the time you have to hit "no-show is obviously for their benefit, and they can't change a bill, and sending a commission charge with no breakdown as to it covers.
I reserved a room at the Holel Pennsylvania in NYC via Booking.com for three nights. Upon arrival, I wanted to change the reservation to just 1 night. The Hotel said Booking.com had to do it. I called Booking.com, and they emailed the hotel (supposidly). The next morning I checked out. I still got charged for all three nights!
Second time. reserved a room at the Congress Plaza hotel in Chicago for 1 night. I cancelled the reservation but was still charged for the room. I NEVER, EVER unless I know 100% that I will be someplace do something without the ability to cancel. My schedule is disrupted too often.
That was over $500 i was scammed out of. I will never use this site again.
In general you can get the same or better rates by calling the hotels directly as I have learned, and will do in the future. This is a scammy website. They make you think you can cancel but you can't.
I filed a claim against Booking.com pursuant to their arbitration agreement on www.booking.com.
Their attorney, Hillary August, decided my claims were not arbitratable! Only an arbitrator has that power. Therefore, booking.com's agreement is now unenforcable. What that means is that you may sue booking.com in any court, that their arbitration agreement is completely invalid, and that booking.com has breached the contract with every consumer who has ever booked with them.
Priceline.com is the parent company of this sleazy enterprise. Hillary August, a Yale Alum, is the sleazy attorney who represented them. The bottom line is, if you book through Booking.com, they will make you feel you have no rights to court because of their arbitration agreement. But you are free to use the attached documents proving that the arbitration company, the American Arbitration Association, will refuse any claim.
This also means that consumers may form a class, and sue as a class action. Any attorney or consumer who wishes to proceed as a class should contact me via www.arbyq.com
The attached documents may be used by any individuals to proceed against www.booking.com or against www.jenner.com or against Hillary August, whose email address is on the documents.
The bottom line is that www.booking.com and www.jenner.com and Hillary August at Jenner.com are sleazy and have unsuccessfully attempted to privitize justice. Because they cannot arbitrate, it has actually opened the door for a class action. This was and is our goal and we will bring these companies and individuals to justice.
Booking.com mislead me on a hotel I booked through their website. I notified booking.com of my dissatisfaction, and they did not care.
I filed arbitration with the American Arbitration Association pursuant to booking.com agreement to arbitrate. However, even then, booking.com refused to pay the fees to arbitrate and the AAA now refuses to accept any cases involving booking.com.
Regardless, Booking.com has not removed the arbitration agreement and continues to promote AAA as the arbitration forum for consumers to use with disputes. This has been reported to the FTC and a complaint is also pending against Hillary August, the attorney who represents booking.com at Jenner.com in Chicago, Illinois.
I am renting rooms in my home and sometimes the whole house. My house is located in Brittany France.
booking.com sends me interested customers. I happened that this customer was booking two weeks bu these weeks overlappped with a previous booking. I alerted the customer in Belgium and told hime to change his dates or I could reimburse him the total deposit. he said it is ok send me my deposit back. He had two months or so tp find some ther rentals so I figured it was not a big deal.
Booking.com decided to make me pay an extra fee (245.00 euros) as a way to punish me for having cancelled. I called them on the phone to complain and they agree to review my file and perhaps they could pay me back some of the money. few weeks later on october 31st 2015, they charged me 124.25 euros (taken form my checking account in france). Yesterday they sent me an invoice of 36.75 euros which they said will be taken directly from my checking acount the CMB in Brittany.
On the phone I had ask them to close my account few months ago, they did not.They still take money from me although I ask not to.
I see here on RIPOFF that overcharges for room cancellation is listed as two of the complains against this company so it is obvious they have this habit of doing it. I asked them to pay me back the money taken from me illegally. They did not comply.
Booking.com has completely gone too far with its completely fraudulent Arbitration Agreement, which requires Dutch law be applied even in the USA (where they have numerous offices).
Booking.com denies even small claims actions despite the American Arbitration Association's requirement for that possibility.
Booking.com fraudulently scares customers from Arbitration by stating the consumer may have to pay $1,000 if they file arbitration incorrectly. I have filed my arbitration. You can too by looking up the Terms of Service on booking.com and then filing it with ADR.org to: [email protected].
I will also follow up with a report to the FTC and the Colorado Attorney General. Here is the Arbitration Agreement in all its illegal glory:
3. Governing law and disputes
To the extent permitted by law, these terms and conditions and the provision of our services shall be governed by and construed in accordance with Dutch law and by using this website, you agree that any and all disputes arising out of or relating to your use of this website, or other services provided by Booking.com or the support companies in connection with your use of this website (including the interpretation and scope of this clause and the arbitrability of the dispute) will be resolved via mandatory, binding arbitration initiated through and administered by the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”). Arbitration will be in accordance with the AAA’s Expedited Commercial Arbitration Rules & Procedures and its Consumer-Related Disputes Supplementary Procedures (collectively, the “rules”), except that you do not retain any right to bring a claim in any court, including small claims court, and as otherwise modified by this Disputes provision. If there is a conflict between the rules and this Disputes provision, the terms of this Disputes provision will govern. The rules are available online at www.adr.org or by calling the AAA at 1-800-778-7879.
The arbitration will be conducted by one arbitrator in Chicago, Illinois, who will be appointed by the AAA. Arbitration will be subject to the Federal Arbitration Act and not any state arbitration law. The arbitration will be conducted based solely on written submissions, unless the arbitrator determines that a telephonic or online appearance is required, and will be conducted in the English language. The arbitration will not involve any personal appearance by the parties or witnesses. The arbitration will be confidential, and neither you nor Booking.com may disclose the existence, content or results of any arbitration, except as may be required by law or for purposes of enforcement of the arbitration award.
In order to initiate arbitration with the AAA, you and Booking.com each will be responsible for paying a filing fee to the AAA. Booking.com also agrees to pay any additional fee or deposit required by the American Arbitration Association in excess of your filing fee. In the event that you are able to demonstrate that the costs of arbitration will be prohibitive as compared to costs of litigation, Booking.com will pay as much of your filing fee in connection with the arbitration as the arbitrator deems necessary to prevent the arbitration from being cost-prohibitive as compared to the costs of litigation.
Consistent with the expedited nature of arbitration, pre-hearing information exchange will be limited to the reasonable production of non-privileged documents directly relevant to the dispute. Ordinarily, those documents will be limited to your booking and communications directly about that booking among you, Booking.com, and the accommodation(s) that are the subject of your dispute with Booking.com. Any issues regarding discovery, or the relevance or scope thereof, will be determined by the arbitrator, and the arbitrator’s determination will be conclusive.
The arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person’s claims, and may not otherwise preside over any form of a representative or class proceeding. There will be no right or authority for any Claims to be arbitrated on a class action basis. You understand and agree that, by accepting these terms and conditions, you and Booking.com are each waiving the right to a trial by jury or to participate in a class action with respect to the claims covered by this mandatory arbitration provision.
What a joke! We booked a hotel in Northern CA through Booking.com. According to their site, their rates were "20%" cheaper than regular rates, they have the best, lowest, etc. Lies! All of it lies!
When we got to our hotel, the very kind front desk employee explained that third party sites are the last place you want to book a hotel. You are much better off booking directly. Well lesson learned! We paid $119/night+tax through Booking.com. Had we booked directely through the hotel, with our military discount, we would have paid $83/night+tax.
Booking.com is a complete and total ripoff!
Recently booking.com putting their online registred customers in danger, this business tart small and now its got bigger and a larger scam worldwide.
This is how its works, this is a internet hotel booking engin and they are seliing hotels and apartments worldwide, most of their hotels and apartments are from GDS ( Global Distribution System) and some of them are registred directly with them.
In a very high season if you book a room with them for some city they will confirm you a hotel in the city what ever you choose, there is option pay now or pay later, when you pay it once you got to the address you will know its overboked , actually this is doing by booking.com , if there are 2000 room nights available in the city and 500 room nights available on the suberbs nearby they will sell this 500 adtional room nights in subburbs to their customers showing that they have confirm booking for the city what customer choose.
So finally when customer knwo its overbooked, booking.com customer service ( this people even not located in the country ) they will try to re-allocate you to another hotel that available or in the subberbs, some how customer have to pay adtional amount at the end of the day
If customer ask to cancel the booking, still booking.com win in this situation by keeping their booking fees , as an example if they sold 500 extra room nights at a 100 euro each, its 50,000euro and their comission and booking fee along over 20,000 euro profit and they will not return this is to the customer.
I faced to this situation twise and they did exactly the same, i did try for the 3rd time asking to re-allocate, then they ask me to pay adtional 120 euro for the new hotel, again they bill also to the property for overbooking and making money, so its double profit.
Do not get involved with this scam, book with genuine booking sites like, t or or any websites except this scamers, the most ugliest thing is when we travel 10,000 miles and then we get to knwo hotel is overbooked in the very high season time
I do had good experience in the past with them, but not anymore, becuase their business getting better and they are trying to pull business forward with lot of trics and putting customers in danger , may be propetties too, without customers and propetirs they are no one
they say cancellation is free, but who will monitor everyday and cancel it ontime? i'm sure out of 100 at least 80 will not cancel it ontime before cancelation time ends.
Becaful with this scam booking.com
The policy of holding you to stay at a hotel that decieves you shows nothing but greed. We were
lured into Hotel Corpus Christi Bayfront that immediately started to charge us fees for things we
didn't ask for. We complained to Booking.Com. They said it wasn't their problem and we paid...
so, tough! We are still fighting a ripoff hotel in Corpus Christi and Booking.Com that says..tough!