Historically, travel plans were booked through an agent who specialized in knowing about all the hotels, flights and amenities in popular tourist destinations. Today, sites like Kayak, Expedia and Booking handle that automatically and empower users to make their own decisions with the help of reviews, photos and price comparisons. Booking.com is one of the post popular online travel sites with international availability. It’s a safe and reliable platform to book your next trip, for sure.
Is Booking.com Reliable? Should you use it for your trip?
In short: yes! You may be hearing about booking.com just now but they’ve been around for over 20 years and are just as reliable as Expedia, VRBO and other, more famous travel brands. With travel booking, there is always the possibility of a mix-up or unpredictable variable throwing a wrench into your plans. No booking agent is immune to those types of events and that’s why many of them, including Booking.com will receive poor reviews online sometimes. They have some money-back guarantees you’ll want to look into and their customer support team is there to help, or refund you if necessary.
Is Booking.com Popular and do they have ALL the Hotels and Flights I’ll need?
The Booking.com website and mobile apps are available in over 40 languages, offer 1,642,073 properties, and cover 126,958 destinations in 229 countries and territories worldwide. Each day, more than 1,550,000 room nights are reserved on our platform.Ā So yeah, they have a very comprehensive database of locations and hotels to choose from. In some cases we’ve noticed that they have a lot more international hotels than even Expedia.com. If you have a destination in mind you can fill out the form below and see for yourself:
In addition, Booking has offices all over the world to help support your trip in your language, on site. Here’s a list of Booking.com offices around the globe.
When I wanted a particular date in Brecon, four months ahead, Booking.com told me that every room in the whole of Brecon was full! I don’t know whether to believe it or not.
Do not. Booking.com is notorious for misleading clients to up sell them to nearby properties. Worst booking app ever.
Do not use Booking.com. If you read their small print in conditions they can legally do what they have done to me. They took my card details and I had several emails confirming my booking then after I had arranged the rest of the holiday, one week later they asked for a further ā¬780 for the hotel. In their email they said if I did not pay in four days they would cancel the whole booking. Their customer relations were totally unhelpful so I would never use them again and am totally disgusted.
Double charges on my Bank Statement. I received 2 conformation emails for the same booking and was charged twice for same booking on my bank statement. I called Booking.com customer service, they contacted the hotel to cancel the unneeded reservation. Customer Service said it can take up to 30 days to refund charges. So the mistake payment rides on their books for 30 days. This will be the Last time I book with a 3rd party.
Our letter to the headquarters in Amsterdam was returned.
This is after failing to contact them by phone or online.
Issue is ongoing.
Yes. same thing happen to me. wow.
I will not use them again. They didn’t reserve a room at the hotel we booked with so we had to find another hotel. Then I see today, that I got charged for the room. Never book with them! Hbi
Shame on booking.com
I booked last month in May 2022 for the month of August at Watermill Hotel in Paisley and yesterday June 10, 2022 I received an email telling me that my reservation has been canceled and that I will be refunded ..Booking.com, sabotaging my trip, canceling my reservation when everything has been paid
This is absolute true. Do not use booking.com especially rental car they pretend that this is total cost only to have to pay the taxes at airport which about to 25% extra.
Just back from Riviera Hotel Weymouth. The pictures on web and actual place is NOT THE SAME. It was derelict and unsafe, uncomfortable and dirty, they refused a refund and were totally uninterested. DISGUSTING.
I agree 100%. I had mistakenly booked a flight for the wrong weekend. When I called back to change it, I was told that the only available return flight was one leaving at 10:30pm and it would cost $1,300 more than the $2,500 we were already paying. I called back later and spoke to a different agent who said flights were available and it would cost $140 to make the change.
Absolutely…they are pretty much crooks charge more then motels and take money then say they can’t find charge rated – stars they shouldn’t even be in business…crooks!!!
Agree! They are the worse ! I tried to cancel a reservation and it was IMPOSSIBLE ! They kept my $835 and would not budge unless I provided them with a PIN number which I didnāt ever receive from them !
Be careful with your credit card. they are in Netherland good luck suing them.
Very true. Booking.com have zero customer service. They have an ability to attack your credit cards. Yet they are able block any kind of communication.
I want people to remember this when the world comes out of this.
Use Booking.com at your own Peril.
https://www.bbb.org/us/mi/grand-rapids/profile/hotel-reservation/bookingcom-usa-inc-part-of-booking-holdings-inc-0372-38133612/customer-reviews
Check out the BBB on this company. They rip people off constantly.
If you want the truth, look at trust pilot reviews of booking. Com customer service, you’ll be shocked.
Booked flight from Europe months ahead of time. Was not notified of flight cancellation by airline or by booking.com (did receive cryptic email from third party that went to spam). Continued to receive emails from booking.com documenting flight, date and time of flight right up til night before recommending āitās time to check ināā¦ only to be notified at airport that flight was nonexistent!
Called booking customer support and got
NoHelp! Very bad!
I tried to book a room on 30 until 31 March 2022. I have double checked the date before proceeding with the payment. However, after the payment has been made, I noticed that the date has been changed to 6-7 April 2022! I called the hotel and they gave confirmation that there is still available room for my chosen date (30-31 March 2022). But booking.com failed to change my reservation date, even though it is a technical glitch from booking.com web itself! Booking.com is a scam web!
ā¹
Getting a refund for a false charge is impossible and booking.com will not help.
I am out almost $600 from a canceled hotel room and they play games with me about ”original currency’.
It’s 100% scammed, I lose 220$ without reason
They are liers who support only accomodations not travelers. The only time they are interested in you is before they take your money. After that you are on your own. If you have a problem – talk to the accomodation they have nothing to do with you. But they were very interested in everything about you before your card is charged
Booking.com is unreliable and seems like takes no responsibility for refunds.
I made a reservation with them on the 20th of August, paid to booking.com and received a confirmation from them about the payment. The hotel declined the reservation, because the prices on booking.com were not correct, the hotel wanted more. I received another email from booking.com that my reservation was canceled and they were sending me a refund. Today, on 25th of October (!) after numerous emails to their customer service and after receiving numerous template answers, I still haven’t received any refund. They are still “investigating”. What do I have to do with their investigations?
Warning for everyone : DO NOT PAY TO BOOKING.COM
I agree that booking.com is useless and irresponsible. Some of their listings are shabby. When I reported to them with pictures, they did nothing.
Booking.com does not support customer complaints. When I had a problem with a hotel that misrepresented their facilities, booking.com immediately took the side of the host guest site.
Booking.com made 2 reservations at a motel for me, but I was traveling on my own. Moreover, when I called its customer service number, the identification data Booking.com sent me was unrecognized!!! I couldnāt get through. That was my first and last time dealing with Booking.com
Is a completely risk.. Booking.com they leave you to sleep on the streets the don’t care about you even if you paid, get confirmation or whatever needed..
Used Booking for years and over 200 rooms booked, but now the have BASIC in their package.
And with BASIC you do not get an invoice for tax reasons. The service is poor and booking is hiding behind the BASIC label. I stopped using them.
A guest of mine made false accusation and low review score of my property. After communication with the guest it was agreed that the accusation was false and booking. Com also discussed with the guest and agreed with me. I then asked booking.com to please remove the the review because it was untrue. They refused and the guest took 2 months to change the review. This damaged my business and destroyed my faith in using Booking. Com as a partner and subsequently I don’t use them anymore. I have found b. Com to be a terrible company to work with do not recommend anyone to use them.
Booking.com took full payment from me and confirmed a booking in Toronto for 31st night and 1st Jan. On the 30th of December the host property sent me an email saying there was a mix up and that my booking had to be cancelled. This led me to call Booking.com and also email them. They were quite positive on the phone and reassured me that they would help find alternate accommodation and price-match rates were higher now. But in their emails there was no such price match guarantee. It seemed they wanted me to book another place, pay upfront and then submit receipts to them for possible refund!! I wasnt born yesterday and dont want to be involved in another disappointment so I decided to STOP USING booking.com
I think the host in Toronto simply had another guest at a higher rate and decided to cancel.mine. this must be happening often. Booking.com should be in the side of their customer, not their merchant!!
Do not use Booking.com I used this site to book a hotel in January 2002 for a booking in June 2002. When the confirmation came through they confirmed that there was no carparking which I required.
I cancelled within 30 minutes of making this reservation. They refused to repay and referred me to the Holiday Inn hotel who also refused. They said as it was not booked through us they would not give me a refund. Booking , com remarked the hotel had to refund. No loss at as the booking was over 12 weeks away and they could easily re book the room with no costs involved to them. That has cost me nearly Ā£100 . Not good customer relations. It has taken me several hours to try and recover this money and now I have referred this to my Credit card company
I have had the same experience with a property in Washington they took my money and it WASNT refunded I have been using booking.com for a while I will NO LONGER BE doing so THEY ARE STEALING YOUR MONEY with no answer as to why after the money is take there is no refund
Definitely not. Depends on location. Especially if the property owner doesn’t speak English. You will get the refund for the canceled booking quickly. And left alone with the search of the new accommodation (in high season), stress and bills for calls in the roaming. None of above mentioned is compensated.
I booked last month in May 2022 for the month of August at Watermill Hotel in Paisley and yesterday June 10, 2022 I received an email telling me that my reservation has been canceled and that I will be refunded ..Booking.com, sabotaging my trip, canceling my reservation when everything has been paid.
Hello! I just had a situation when booking.com is not replying to a serious concern. They are advertising an accommodation on their website as TOTALLY UNSAFE AND DANGEROUS. The accommodation is in a refugee camp. Yes, you heard me right, refugee camp. Moreover, the accommodation reception was not present at the time of my arrival, I had to stop people in the street, asking where can I find the owner of the guesthouse and even then, when they arrived, the guy who came two hours later was not just rude, but was threatening. Imagine how would you feel as a woman who doesn’t speak Arabic, at about 8 pm in a refugee camp and only Muslim men passing by, some of them making comments. Before I cancelled, this being in the guest house, I was assured by the guest house that money won’t be taken out of the account. Instead, they have taken out from my credit card the money. I need you someone’s advice how to proceed. This happened both concerning the booking.com and the guest house.Thank you!!
Booking.com isnāt reliable at all. I booked a room with booking.com and after 2days I cancelled it and booking.com reduced 30Ā£ and surprisingly I saw they reduced 28Ā£ more again.when I called them they just passed me to hotel Wilson and hotel passed me to booking.com. But I know booking.com must be responsible about it because I trusted booking and inserted my bank account details. I donāt recommend using booking.com at all.
I am so confused trying to arange for different dates through booking.com, for i had on my cancelation, because of this pandemic that has arisen. Every were i call it is with no reply. First I was told i have to arange for other dates, then they said I have to call at the hotel propritor. The hotel told me to arrange with booking for they got the money. I am feeling like a ping pong ball. It so horrible. I thought that booking with them was such a garantee, that my money is secured, and we are a great group and it involves a lot of money.
Look for reviews of booking.com – loads of people in the same boat. They are essentially refusing to cancel bookings due to a scam they are working. Try to claim chargeback on your credit or debit card. Let’s bankrupt them!
Booking.com are a cowboy outfit who have behaved abominably to loyal customers during the covid19 crisis. They need to be called to account by legal means. They are perpetuating a vile scam: if you couldn’t travel during lockdown they are sending an email asking if you want to cancel. If you click yes, you have to agree that the cancellation fee will be the full amount of your booking so you’ve actually agreed to lose your money. If you don’t cancel, they record you as a no show and refuse to refund. Then claim that your no show does not come under force majeure regulations. It’s a joke! No one should ever use this company again. They need to go into administration. Use Uber or Airbnb. Don’t use these criminals.
I totally agree with Catherine. We’ve been passed from pillar to post trying to get our money back. The latest is an e voucher that has to be used this year. What use is that when we can’t travel unless its essential and there’s 14 days quarantine when we get back.
I also had a problem when they I said I booked a hotel in which I didnāt. I caught the transaction before the so called time I was suppose check in. I called the hotel to cancel because I didnāt book the room and told I had to cancel through booking.com. Booking told me I had to called the hotel. 3 months my bank says I booked the hotel and they charged me. Not secure at all
This is happening to me as we speak.
I agree. They completely ignored me when the hotel’s administrator refused to check me in because I was about 30 min late. I had booked three night and I couldn’t even check in the next day – it was all cancelled. It was paid way before the trip and the administrator didn’t want to give the money back. It was in ML Apartments at Santa Catarina in Porto and its administrator’s name is Miguel [removed]. Never again.
I made a reservation on April 23, 2020 on Booking.com for a July 17-19, 2020 rental stay for my daughter’s graduation. I thought I was placing that reservation directly with the property, “Indian Lady Lodge” but after pressing the confirm button on Booking.com, I was directed to a 3rd party vacation rental service called “Evolve”. They noted in their fine print that if I cancel up to 30 days before the reservation I would forfeit a 30% deposit, but that was all. I canceled this reservation on June 4th, 2020 (two weeks before the 30 day deadline) because the University canceled the graduation ceremony due to Pennsylvania’s strict Covid-19 re-opening mandates that wouldn’t allow large gatherings. That cancelation was confirmed on my Booking.com app and was a full 13 days prior to the 30 day advance notice window for cancelations. There should NEVER have been an additional charge for the rest of the amount because the reservation was canceled in ample time. I received an email from Evolve on June 14th saying my card will be charged $218.15 on June 17th for my stay on July 17th. I then tried calling Evolve multiple times but they did not answer their phone. This booking was canceled and I followed their instructions of canceling through Booking.com. I even went so far as to call the sales department number who then panicked and transferred me to the other department where no one answered the phone again. I then contacted Booking.com for help telling them that in 2 days my credit card is supposed to be charged for a charge that should not happen. They did not really help me and told me to try to contact Evolve, which in fact, is an impossible task. Then on June 17th, our credit card was in fact charged the $218 that was the remaining balance on the reservation. I contacted Booking again and let them know that this was a false charge and should be removed. They finally contacted Evolve who told them that this was a “soft hold” for the reservation. There should be no hold-no pending charges-and no posted charges for this reservation because it was canceled on June 4th! This charge has gone through and posted on my credit card account and is blatant theft by Evolve who have thwarted all my attempts at trying to contact them. Booking.com has the power to reverse this charge but really hasn’t followed through and I am seriously disappointed.
I am disgusted with Booking.com. My sister and I were due to go to Lanzarote on 2nd April but because of Covid19 we could’nt go and we still cannot get a refund. We are both over 70 and she has bad health having had cancer twice. The hours she has spent on her phone being passed from one person to the next. A deposit for the holiday should have been taken June 2019 but they took the full amount and then just before Christmas they tried taking the full amount again. I have emailed bbcwatchdog and am waiting for a reply.
Very poor service when trying to get a refund. Do not use booking .com, they have poor customer service. I hope they are put out of business as they are unreliable and do not care about the customer as soon as they have your money.
People must avoid them as much as they can they arenāt serious they put people in troubles at the last time.
I booked last month in May 2022 for the month of August at Watermill Hotel in Paisley and yesterday June 10, 2022 I received an email telling me that my reservation has been canceled and that I will be refunded ..Booking.com, sabotaging my trip, canceling my reservation when everything has been paid.
In my experience there’s no actual customer service of booking.com at all,
No one back to you except a robot who just reply to your e-mails and most specially concerning complaints,
No control on the advertised places,
Do not trust the published info at their website,
You can find cheaper and certainly better services at the hotel’s websites directly,
I will NEVER use Booking .com again! They were so mean to my employee. She (Kia Kirkelund) had booked her very first trip to Tofino for the August long weekend. But booking.com cancelled her booking because some other people were going to have a longer stay. It should be noted that Booking.com doubled booked the Medicine Farms. Are you kidding me????? They offered her āa tiny room with no running water and a compost able toiletā …..seriously???? She had Tofino t-shirts made for her friends because she was so excited. Shame on you!
Have noticed a few times that some places with glowing reviews don’t deserve them. Find booking.com to be untrustworthy, the reviews grossly inflated. Getting money back is impossible. Not going to use them again.
just had my first experience with booking.com … don’t even know how they ended up with my request. their so-called “partner” Agoda was used to create my reservation. i had to cancel my reservation last minute because of illness in family. they refused to refund. i then called the hotel, La Quinta, directly who didn’t even know what i was talking about. my plan is to dispute thCe charge of $190 on my credit card so, hopefully, that will work. i will NEVER USE booking.com or any other so called 3rd party booking website. in my experience going directly to hotel is best. if booking.com or any other site gives you a better price deal, it’s not worth the hassle. it would have to be free!!
BEWARE. Although I had a 100% money back guarantee of refund if cancelled before certain time frame, I never received my $467 refund. Booking.com even sent me emails saying my refund had been processed. No credit ever came to my credit card. All of my subsequent emails have been ignored. Complete theft and lack of honoring their guarantee. Will never use again.
I wanted to cancel a non-refundable booking (which from their terms I was entitled because of COVID-19 lockdown air and travel bans) because I couldn’t travel during restrictions from my country. They said I don’t qualify for that and my country has no restrictions (even if I can show proof from official ministry site that you couldn’t).
Also in that period Hotel where I supposed to stay CH-Hotel Luka Vienna (shoutout to them, please don’t go there) was closed and no one answered at phone or email. Long story short, after months of trying to get my money or get a credit for the amount I payed, booking.com wiped out all the messages from their system and gave me a official response that I will not get my money back because was non-refundable.
So if the Hotel was closed even If I could go there I would’ve end up sleeping under a bridge in Vienna, and Booking.com is fine with this and stay strong and proud. Just avoid Booking.com and hotel mentioned they scam you, and I am not the only one in this situation at the same Hotel. Also they keep that hotel listed on their site all the time.
I booked a room in Fayetteville with Booking. Com , I booked it for the wrong night , I tried to contact them but when I received the confirmation email I was not given a PIN number. Well apparently you cannot get ahold of them without this pin #. I tried calling the 800 # I could not get past the automated message without the pin # and I ran I ran into the same problem online. I called the hotel I was to stay at only to be told I had to contact booking.com . So where do you go from there, No live customer support, I sent emails requesting a change of dates only to a confirmation with the same exact night . How stupid can you get ? The worst customer service I have ever experienced, I will NEVER book will this company again an I will warn everyone I can against booking with them also. The day of my trip I received an email saying they had changed my hotel to completely different area an while they where at it booked me a room in NYC for December??? where the hell that trip came from? I have no idea but I strongly advise against giving them your credit card bro , you might be heading to Japan before you know it
I agree. Booking.com has worthless customer service… when you can get them to call you back. Never buy airline tix from them or you’ll be sorry.
DO NOT USE BOOKING.COM OR PRICELINE, THEY WILL NOT HELP. Was just on the phone with booking.com for 40 min talking to a manager about my issues with my airline tickets. They can not and will not help me. I was booked to leave on a plane that did not really leave the airport at the time they said (even 1 hour before my plane was supposed to leave and the airport had no more flights from this airline leaving today) and my return flight had me leaving and arriving at times the small airports did not have flights arriving or leaving. Because I got things fixed where I leave a day later and now end up with a 24 hour lay over, they can not help. I get nothing from them for inconvenience, I get nothing from them in form of an apology. They said “you should have called us to fix this, now it is out of our hands because the airlines changed your tickets.” DO NOT USE BOOKING.COM OR PRICELINE, THEY WILL NOT HELP.
BOOKING.COM WILL NOT HELP YOU. We booked originally through Southwest Airlines and assumed that they would offer reputable properties – wrong. They take you to booking.com, and the biggest problem with booking.com is that their properties are not vetted. Our money for a booking was taken, then we were denied entrance to the property after 10pm when our plane landed because of the fine print. On the second day of our booking, when we are let in, we find out that there was no key to the property in the first place, as a prior tenant had lost it. The door was wide open – and continued to be so as we were out and about. Additionally, we lost $150 on a deposit that the property wanted us to “zelle” to him – he didn’t return it because of damage to the kitchen… there wasn’t even a kitchen in the one room property we rented. Plus, there was no toilet paper, and no bath towels. Still, booking.com will not refund us the money for the first night or for the deposit. STAY AWAY.
(I have no problem with the airline – just the booking.com service)
DON’T GIVE THEM A DIME!!! I had a problem with the hotel I stayed at & they issued me a 20% refund. They gave me a printed receipt for the refund & LUCKILY I looked closely at the details. It got refunded to a DIFFERENT CREDIT CARD than mine! I caught it & asked the hotel clerk. She did some research & found that Booking.com uses THEIR OWN CREDIT CARD to make your reservations!!!!!!! So in this case, my refund went to them. The hotel clerk advised me to call Booking.com directly to advise them that I received a refund & want my money!! I called Booking.com & was actually told by the Booking.com em0loyee, that they DO NOT MONITOR anything for refunds & proactively return them to you!!!! If you don’t make the call, you won’t receive your money. In my case, I made the call & was assured my refund would be sent to me, not surprisingly, it wasn’t!!!! Fortunately, I followed up to see if I received the credit!! I called Booking.com again & was told they were waiting on a call back from the hotel confirming that they issued this refund. I advised that I have a printed receipt from the hotel showing that the money went back to a Booking.com credit card ending in3723 on 2/19, so you’ve had my money for 28 days now, so why do you need their permission to give it to me? It certainly wasn’t meant for you to have! He tried repeatedly blaming the hotel, but they did their part by telling me that I needed to call Booking.com directly to ask for my refund!!! He then checked with their internal credit card department to confirm they received the refund. They had. Then he had to email the Finance department to ask them to issue my refund!! WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP!!!! I told him that I can’t imagine how much money they’ve made off of people who didn’t catch this & they got to keep the money!! I WILL NEVER DO BUSINESS WITH THEM AGAIN, EVEN IF IT’S 1/4 THE PRICE OF ELSEWHERE!!!
I called them to switch my reservation to a different hotel and was told I could if I went and put $100 on a booking.com pay card or a Google play card. When I said I wouldn’t do that the guy proceeded to call me names and cancel my reservation to the hotel I had reserved. I needed the room because i was in town for a funeral. Then he told me I would never see my money again. Simply ridiculous customer service! I will NEVER use them or any other 3rd party site ever again. Still fighting with them to get my money back.
Well, thanks everybody! I was going to book something through them, now I won’t.
I had the same experience with VRBO. Couldn’t go during Covid due to airline restrictions and was offered a full credit voucher.
Only the host (a so-called “Gold Star” host) in Marbella, Spain, would not give me the credit voucher nor a refund. I dealt with VRBO for 6 months, even getting a lawyer. They will not help you as the guest AT ALL. Now we’re out $4,000 for a 2-month stay we never got. I was hoping Booking.com might be more reliable, but I see not. Who is safe these days? No one?
We have used booking.com for several years, but I can no longer recommend them. We were quoted a room with a genius discount. The web site gave us the full price for the room and we accepted it. The price we were billed, however, did not include the discount. We contacted customer service – and after being transferred to 3 or 4 representatives – over the course of several hours – we were told that they were under no obligation to honor the quoted price. They also refused to give us an email to contact any company official. It feels like a bait and switch.
Do not use booking.com! I canceled my prepaid reservations at a Marriott hotel and the cancellation fee was the total fee for the reserved stay – which was 2 days. They wonāt give any of my money back! Thank goodness my reservations werenāt for a week
! BEWARE! IF I COULD GIVE THEM NEGATIVE 5 STARS… I WOULD!
Sure that app is easy to use and has some seemingly good deals… at least you thin so until you get to the hotel. WHAT A NIGHTMARE
First, the hotel says we don’t have a reservation for you then they say oh yeah we do it’s booked for tomorrow though so if you want to stay tonight it’s literally 2X the price of your entire stay just for tonight. Then I spend hours 2 hours at 10 PM on the phone with a CSR who continues to tell me there is nothing they can do and BTW there are NO refunds even though we see the problem was on our end. I spend the entire next week on the phone multiple times for hours waiting on hold for someone to “get this corrected” by a supervisor only to be HUNG UP ON.
Word to the WISE… BEWARE!
P.S. The hotel was a DUMP… long story short I paid about $400 to not stay in a hotel for a night and $700 (<–400 + 300) to have somewhere to sleep. RIDICULOUS
Tip for consumers:
NOT TO USE BOOKING.COM
Products used:
NONE
Cost:
$700.00
in march i looked for a villa on bookings.com i found one and read the details, it said to call the host if i wanted further information and provided me with details of how to speak to her, which i did. I spoke to her about where the beach, shops, ect were, she gave me all the assistance i needed. she explained that as she was new to bookings.com she was happy to give me a discount, and reduce the fee to 8000 euro, for which i agreed, however i said i was worried about how i would make payment as the site was still showing the original amount. she said i should not pay anything until i receive an email from bookings.com stating exactly how i should pay and who to, i checked the email and it was from them, so i made the payment as instructed on the email.
i tried to call bookings.com to check they received it, however it is not possible to contact them without a reference number and pin code of the booking which i had not received.
I contacted the host who said not to worry as she could see the money had gone through and i would recieve confirmation within 3 days from bookings.com.
2 days later i received another message from the host saying i need to pay the damage deposit of 3000 euro, at this point i new something was not right, i kept her talking while i tried to contact bookings.com through various means, if you send and email they wont answer it until you provide the reference number and pin code, same with phone. i checked the booking.com website and the property had been removed with a message on line saying this property had been removed from bookings.com.
i ended up just sending them an email threatening them with legals and they rang me i explained the situation and was told that they would investigate and call me back within 72 hours, they have to this date not called me back and no longer call me back if i send an email to ask them.
i have even sent messages to the CEO Glenn fogal directly he has also not replied.
i recently looked in booking.com for another country and found the same property details, so although they took it from their uk site they have not took it from other country’s.
I am devastated that i have lost 8000 euro, and a company i have used for many years has no morals and will not even speak to me.
STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY it will loose you a lot of money this was supposed to be a treat for my family and is an ongoing nightmare.
i have kept all the contacts ect so i am hoping someone will help me.
Please check what can happen to you. Please read these horror stories on TrustPilot before you use booking.com
https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.booking.com?sort=recency
Is booking.com safe? will it provide help or support? will anyone bother to even listen to you?
The answer is NO!!!!
Do not use this company unless you don’t mind having your money take away and nothing in return.
They are not reliable. I was debited for a booking and no confirmation code was generated. I messaged and was told I would be refunded 7 to 12 days. 2 weeks now, several mails and calls later, still not refunded. They claim my email doesn’t exist! Same email they’re responding with me.
Never use Booking.com. This company is not honest and their booking system is not reliable.
Here is my terrible experiences:
I had a family trip to Toronto in the 1st week of Sep’22 and booked hotel āComfort Inn Mississaugaā, checking in 9/2, check out 9/5, through Booking.com. Booking number: 3018302838, at total cost CAD 452.66.
When my family checked in Comfort Inn Mississauga in 9/2 evening, the hotel could not find my booking record. I contacted Booking.com and their service contact said they would find an alternative place, but did not provide a solution until 10:30pm local time. I worked with Comfort Inn Mississauga to get a two queen size bed room (the same type room that I booked) @ CAD 220 (before tax) for 9/2 night, but for the next two nights (9/3 to 9/5), Comfort Inn Mississauga has no room available.
Later, Jason B. from Booking.com Service team sent an email and asked me to book Sheraton Gateway Hotel in Toronto Pearson International Airport for 9/3 to 9/5 @ total CAD 949.56 with room booking link provided. I double-checked and Booking.com confirmed they would refund me the price difference with invoice provided. However, after I submitted the email to Booking.com to ask for refund with invoices provided, Booking.com mentioned they could only CAD 161, instead of the āprice differenceā that they previously promised. I also reported by case to BBB and BBB tried to contact Booking.com but they just donāt response anymore.
I just had horrible experience with booking.com. instead of helping me they actually treated me like it’s my fault. I’m still shaking from this very bad experience. Let me tell you what happened and you can decide if you can trust booking.com:
After Christmas of 2023 we traveled and booked through booking.com one night in California inn Barstow in South of California. During the night it was very cold and we had very thin blankets in the room. We asked the motel if they can bring us more blankets but to our surprise they told us that they cannot. We tried to sleep with the heater that they have in the room, but it was so loud and noisy that we couldn’t sleep with it. So we called them again and ask if we can switch rooms to have less noisy heater. But again, although they did have rooms available, they told us that they cannot move us to any different room. After not sleeping all night I called booking.com in the morning to tell them what happened and to ask for a full refund because the motel couldn’t provide us what they promised – we just couldn’t sleep all night.
The agent called the property to ask them if what I just told her is true and indeed the front desk approved that everything that I said was true. Then the agent from booking.com called me back and told me that because they approved it we will get the full refund next week. I was naive and thought that this is the end of it, but then after 1 or 2 weeks we’ve got only small amount and not the full refund. I tried to connect booking. Com for four times, and each time they told me that they will contact me and never did. until, in the fourth time finally I reached someone that have the authority to deal with this kind of a problem.
I asked him why didn’t we get the full refund as promised. His answer shocked me. He told me that they request a full refund from the property but the manager of the property denied. He wrote them that I didn’t ask them for help during the night but only the day after and that’s why they declined my request to pay a full refund.
Then I reminded the agent in booking.com that actually they have proof that this email is wrong and that we did ask several times during the night for their help in the property and they just didn’t help us. Booking.com record all the phone calls so they can hear that the front desk approved that we did ask during the night for help and they did not help us. You would think that this kind of proof will be enough in order to convince booking.com that we are telling the truth, but then the agent from booking.com instead of helping us told us that they cannot give us a full refund because the manager d of the property declined it and it doesn’t matter that they have a proof that the property is lying about what happened that night. Also it didn’t matter to him that the booking.com agent agreed that the property didn’t provide us a proper service, approved that the front desk approved that we are telling the truth and approved that we will get a full refund.
He actually said to me that I can do nothing about it and that I will not get a full refund from the booking.com. I was so frustrated, I’m telling the truth here and yet they treat me like I’m the bad guy here. He also told me that they are an invisible third party and that I needed to speak about a full refund with the property. I told him that I spoke with the property immediately in the morning asking them for a full refund and they told me that because I paid through booking.com I should do everything with booking.com and not with them. It’s a classic catch 22 scenario..
A lot of motels treat their customers badly so I was not surprised by the motel reaction, but booking.com? I thought that they want to treat their customers in a respectable and just way. I guess I was wrong. He also told me that they are not a charity organization and that it’s only my word against the word of the property that have a lot of good reviews. I reminded him that it’s not just my word against the property because they do have a proof of the phone call in the morning after, but I guess he didn’t want to be bothered by the small details..
Do you see what is happening here? They don’t want to pay the full refund so they try to tell me that I am the problem here. Is that the way to treat your customer? Especially when it’s so clear that the property wrote a false letter.
Then if this is not enough, when I told him that they leave me no choice but to tell my story in social media he actually told me “let me just remind you that we are a big company and have our rights and tools to respond as well”. Do you believe it! He actually threatened me not to tell the truth!
I’m shocked by his response! Nothing like that ever happened to me. I thought that I can trust booking.Com that they want to protect treat their customer. But instead they treated me in such an unfair way, like I’m the bad guy here.
This is last time that I will use booking.com!
Apparently they care more about earning money then to protect their customers. So if you book from booking.com say a prayer that everything will be okay because if not, they will not help you.
Just learned our hotel reservation was canceled 20 days before my trip. We didnāt realize our reservation could be cancelled by the hotel when we had a reservation and confirmation. Will never use Booking.com again. Not reliable.
Booking.com cannot be trusted. I bought air tix from them and anticipated that I may have to change my travel date. So I paid $137 extra for what they fraudlently call “Flexable Tickets” but it turned out there is nothing flexable about them. It’s only their worthless customer service. Two days after booking I called them to change my return date. I was told they would get back to me in 24 hours. They did not so I called again and was told they would call me back in 48 hours. I had to call again when they didn’t respond. Over a week later they did call to tell me there were no seats available. On their website they still listed flights for the dates I wanted to return so they lied to me. I was Genius leval 3 with Booking.com but I will never use them again. I now have found Priceline has better prices.
Just stayed from feb5 booking.com is not to be trusted, our room was not anywhere near what the picture showed, I bought a nice balcony room on the fourth floor overlooking the pool paid extra to get it, and received a antiquated room off to the side of the pool, rather than a walk-in shower and old tub that had big chunks gone out of the bottom of it. booking.com price for a shuttle from the airport was $300, so I rented a car later I found out I couldāve took a shuttle for $25
South padre island is wonderful but I will never use booking.com again I thought Iād do everything on one site And I did not research others I probably was overcharged dramatically just like their cab service
The difference with Expedia on rental cars was almost $25 per day and they had many more available
Never use Booking.com! My hotel agree to refund part of my advance payment when I had to end my stay earlier than planned. But it was paid through Booking.com, which can’t be reached to request a refund. Their phone number online directs me to a site offering me a medical device!
Have used booking.com for all of my accomodation for the last 8 years, both overseas and within Australia.
NEVER had a problem. What was booked was always provided. And the booking information is always on hand using the phone app.
The best feature is that I have never been bumped off ( told that a booking was no longer available) as has happened with Airbnb.
Also, the guest reviews are spot on, as you can only leave a review AFTER your booking has been completed. No make believe reviews like Tripadviser et al.
Would never use any other website for accomodation booking.