Booking.com

Booking company takes your money and does not provide a guarantee it promised. So better book your travel directly with the hotel or at some other website. Here are some more details from my experience. I travel a lot and I personally used Booking for 5+ years. Yeah, it was just my habit until I realized that there is no benefit to use it. It took me long time to understand it...

Booking promised lower price on the market. This is fake and scam. For example, I made a booking and payment beforehand for the hostel in Lithuania. At the reception, I heard other guests making booking directly. Their price was lower. I asked the receptionist and she confirmed that the price is lower that at the Booking. I sent a claim to Booking and its customer service said me simply saying to back off. Customer service specialist told that they don't see the hostel price at the website, I responded that the hostel has merely no website. Customer service failed to even attempt to call the hostel directly Also I asked customer specialist to connect me to the supervisor and they never responded. Other guests told me that it is normal practice for hostels to make prices lower that at Booking, so better to book directly with the facility.

Just to remind, Booking takes commission up to 25% of the hotel or hostel price. So if you pay say $30 a night, $7.5 of that goes to the Booking and only $22 goes to the hotel. So it is better for you and fo the hotel to book directly with the facility. Booking does not provide any service, any guarantee, any help. You can find the hotel on Google Maps or any other source. You can make a booking directly with the facility by calling it or chatting and it will be more reliable rather than via Booking.

Is it worthy to pay such a commission to Booking? Not at all. Booking does not provide any guarantee of stay. I travel a lot. Rarely, some conflict situation with hotels arise. Once the hotel made an illegal demand to me and I denied, so the hotel staff kicked me out of the facility. That was a booking I made with Booking. Did Bookig help? Not at all. Booking customer service told me to back off and ask local authorities for help. Overall, I have never had any positive experience with the Booking customer service. It seems like Booking pays to its employees for keeping repeating "back off" in other words to its customers.

Booking is a multi billion (no kitting!) scam company. The scam nature is: the company promises to its customers lower prices and guarantee of stay. In fact it is not true. I personally will continue my travel by other means..

I am writing here with a complaint against the inaction of booking.com and China Hotel Marriott in Guangzhou, China.
The point is that I booked two rooms in this hotel on October 18,2013. Those were bookings for my colleagues who went to China for a business trip. I reserved the rooms via booking.com using my credit card but I indicated in the comments box that the guests would pay for their stay on their arrival by the card of one of the guests (it was written that it is possible to give my credit card number just as a booking guarantee).
Nevertheless, when the guests checked-in, I got a message on my mobile phone that China Hotel Marriott charged 1380 RMB from my card. I know that the whole cost of their stay was charged from the guest's credit card at check-out. I immediately contacted booking.com and they assured me that this sum of money was not charged but was only "frozen". They assured me that the money would be returned to my card within 35 days.
35 days passed and nothing happened.
I would like to point out that I am not a sheik's daughter and not an oil tycoon to forget about this money. This is a big sum of money for me.
I contacted booking.com again who promised to settle the problem as soon as possible. We have been corresponding for almost three weeks already, but this correspondence gave no results. I provided booking.com with my credit card bank account statement which they asked for. It is clearly stated there that the money was charged by the hotel but it was never returned to me.
They also asked me to send them a scanned copy of the invoice which the guests received when he checked out of the hotel. However, I do not have this document because it was sent to our auditing company two months ago and there is no possibility to get it back. Anyway, I am absolutely sure that China Hotel has all records of the guests' payments and it is not such a tall order to get it from them. Besides, it is written on booking.com that they have an office in Guangzhou, but for some reason they cannot send anyone to China Hotel Marriott to get the invoice and settle the matter.
They refuse to give my money back without the invoice which I am not able to provide through no fault of mine!
Now 2,5 months passed of wasted nerves and time. I cannot remain patient because any patience has an end.

I booked one room. When I got to the hotel I was told there was no my reservation. Still no refund!

Can you trust Booking.com to have your best interest in heart.
We have just finished a trip using Booking.com and mostly it worked fine but beware, 'not all that glitters is gold'.
We booked ten spots and of the ten, three were excellent (on ground floor), three were very good (1st and 2nd floors) and three were good (second floor). But if you want to ruin a 'once in a lifetime' trip of a lifetime then all you need is one that was no good.
The problem is that the places can put whatever they wish on the Booking.com site and as far as I can tell Booking.com do not check and see if the property listed is fit for purpose.
Example: the very last property that we had booked was a unit, we were able to cancel beforehand for free and if we left it till the last day we would be refunded half of what we had paid in advance, we never got anything back and Booking.com just threw up their hands and said "leave them a bad review", they never post the bad reviews just the good ones so nobody will ever know.
Just to inform my wife and I are 67-year-old pensioners and I have leg, knee and feet problems. The premises involved was an older premises (which is not a problem) the problem was that it was on the second (top) floor, it had a dark narrow staircase that was almost straight up almost a ladder construction with wider rungs so it could be called a staircase. It would be very difficult for a young fit person to scale with luggage let alone 2 older persons. Also I had stipulated that I required parking and was advised there were parking squares on the street.
The premises was on the junction of 2 very narrow roads and there were NO parking spaces anywhere. We saw this and contacted the owner immediately and canceled, we never even entered the premises, we were not able or wanted to get up the stairs.
My contention is that if Booking.com were making money by promoting these places that they would make sure that they live up to what the suppliers says or in this case DO NOT SAY and if not then all or at least a large portion of monies paid should be recouped by Booking.com and refunded.
We were lucky that at least the majority were good but the question remains can you trust Booking.com to have your best interest in heart. I do not believe so.
What use is the ability to cancel in advance it you don't know what the place is like?

Having booked through booking.com.

I paid for my accommodation but then got charged all the taxes and fees upfront. The terms clearly stated fees and taxes to be paid on arrival. I had a huge argument with the hotel for over a week and 30+ emails. They said take it up with bookings... I went straight to booking.com and they said full payment is due on booking... I said READ YOUR TERMS CAREFULLY..."Taxes and Fees to be paid on Arrival" after a long hard battle and threatening of legal action. They said yes you are right we will change our booking terms having deciding to go legal to claim my monies. They have now changed ALL terms on the booking payment policy... A customer services Team Manager who I cannot name to shame said she would give me £35 Goodwill and a refund on the 31st July 2015. Since then... I left it 3 days hoping payment would arrive but nothing, not even an acknowledgement. I have e-mailed Booking.com 12 times as they still to this date have failed to reply back or acknowledge my emails and have failed miserably to pay the £35. The other taxes paid cannot be claimed back as Booking.com said the hotel "won't allow it"... Not my fault... but Booking.com... I have gone overdrawn on 3 payments because the taxes/fees were close to the £140 mark. Absolute disgrace!

I have also called Booking.com and once I have given my name and account details, they put the phone down... ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING BEHAVIOUR... I believe this is a racial issue. Why on earth would they not reply back having given them 2 weeks to return emails/answer my calls correctly.

Avoid this so called legal booking company at all costs. Horrendous Horrendous Horrendous
The matter has gone legal and I have an open case against them which I will win according to my solicitor. Please do not use this company... hopefully this e-mail will make you think twice about booking with booking.com DON'T DO IT!

Booking.com. Please don't even try and reply to this e-mail to make you look like you care... You've had 2 weeks of opportunities... 1 Phone Call and 12 e-mails to reply and help me retrieve my monies. THE MATTER IS NOW LEGAL.
You are ALL A DISGRACE and should consider protecting your customers first instead of feeding your own pockets!
Ranked No: 1 Worst Booking Company on hotel booking ranking website 2015! Well Done! Had I checked this out first I would never have booked with you!

We have used booking.com for 4 weeks. We have had 3 terrible experiences with venues which were rated as great (8-8.5/10). The most reent one we rented was an apartment in central Brussels. It was central but the problems started when we checked in. No linen for one of the beds, no linen for washing up or hand towels, o sheets for ne of the beds, the shower drain blocked up and you had to turn the shower off several times during a shower. There was no toilet paper and the host agent could not speak English. We haven't receive a reply from booking.com 12 hours after a complaint was lodged. Previous apartments had mould in the fridges, n the floor and the bathroom didn't work properly either. None of the apartments have what was advertised as being included: e.g. Dishwasher. Terrible service from booking.com, absolutely terrible.

Hi Kelly. Certainly. However my issue is really with booking.com in terms of poor customer service and very much in the way in which complaints are handled. Even more so is the fact that the venues themselves don't seem to be checked for accuracy. We have used booking.com for almost a month now and have spent several thousand euro's. We have had 3 terrible experiences and have had to resolve each one ourselves due to the slow response by your company. The first problem we had was booking number ******* where dirty linen was left in our 'luxury' apartment, used chewing gum was left on the sink, the apartment had not been cleaned and the fridge was covered in mould. We were then upgraded by the hotel to an even worse room-their best room. We then arranged to check out and go to a different place. It took booking.com almost 24 hours to resolve the issue. The second incident was booking number ******* when we booked accommodation in padova. We received a booking confirmation from booking.com and then travelled to a cologne. When we got to the apartment, the host had apparently double booked or had or updated his calendar and as a result, we were left on the street with our luggage and had to find new accommodation. Then we received an email saying that booking.com had had to "re-accommodate" us and how did we find the service. The most recent booking number is *******. We have paid 495 for 3 nights accommodation. We could have stayed in a number of 5 star hotels in the centre of Brussels for less money and had better service.

Recently my wife and I had a short break near Paris. Due to return to England on the Friday, we decided we didn't want the hassle of driving up to the Midlands so we booked a hotel at Pevensey Bay through Booking.com. We filled in their form and because I'm disabled (COPD lost 75% lung function) we also filled in their information box to let them know of my disabilities and very limited mobility. Friday came and we presented ourselves at the hotel. The hotelier could clearly see my condition and showed me a very steep flight of steps going up to our intended room. She explained that this was the first flight and there were a lot more (nearly 40 in all) to the room a the top of the hotel. Impossible for me, it would have killed me.

I told the hotelier that I had written on Booking.com's form of my disabilities and the hotelier stated that Booking.com neglected to inform her of this. She then stated that this had happened many times before to this and other hotels in the area. In fact another cancellation was made that same day for the same reason. The hotelier was very kind and even though it was no fault of hers she managed to find us another hotel (a bit of a drive away and twice the price). When I returned home I wrote an email to Booking.com complaining about their appalling service and I asked why this information had not been passed on.

I received a reply from Booking.com. Here is a transcript of it: "Thank you for choosing Booking.com. We are writing to you regarding your reservation. We sincerely apologize for this inconvenience. We've checked on our system to find your request. Unfortunately, there were no request from you on our system. We're sure that if we received the request, we would pass on the request to the property. Please feel free to contact us with any additional questions." I replied to this: "Why am I not surprised that this would be your response. It would be expected after your appalling service to call the customer a liar to cover your own backs. I can assure you this request was sent in front of 3 witnesses so please do not adopt this attitude with me or you will be facing litigation." We received no recompense from these people. My advice would be to stay well clear of this company. Their customer care or people skills are zero.

Regarding booking.com, when I was looking for a place to stay in Paris, and found the place called Luxuous 4 rooms apartment in Marais where we actually stayed at the end, i only wanted to first contact the owner and ask a couple of questions, read reviews but i could not. When booking.com offered me to reserve the place for the requested dates, it turned out that i can only book it without canceling it even on the same day of booking, only if i paid a large part of the fee. This is unacceptable and it is against the law of consumer cancellation policies of the EU: http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/consumers/shopping/guarantees-returns/index_en.htm
After I made the reservation, that turned out an actual booking, i could read reviews that clearly stated that the place is not the cleanest and nor the most comfortable for a family of 5. This is why booking.com's policy has to changed. Myself is not willing to use their services again if this policy is not modified.
So we got stuck with this place, since we had no other choice. Now about the apartment:

The place has a wonderful location, close to the metro, to Velib (bike) stations, close to supermarkets. It is on the third floor without elevator, what was still ok for us. However the apartment itself can not be called a "Luxurious" place. It is a place with charm, it has some special Parisian touch, but not luxurious at all. The bathroom needs immediate refurbishing and the place needs a good cleaning. The beds are small and uncomfortable. During the hot season sleeping with windows open is impossible due to the noise from the main road and it has no air conditioning. If someone can put up with these conditions, a stay in this charming place can do the work of having an accommodation in Paris.

RECENTLY BOOKED A HOTEL THROUGH BOOKING.COM FOR HOTEL ROOM AT MAIN STAY BOSSIER CITY, LA. I WAS SO VERY DISAPPOINTED. THE ROOM WAS OLD, OVERPRICED AND A BIG LET DOWN. THE ROOM SMELLED. HAD TO SPEND MONEY BUYING LYSOL AND AIR FRESHNER IN ORDER TO GET THROUGH THE WEEKEND. THE CARPET WAS OLD, BEDSPREAD EVEN OLDER AND WALLS IN NEED OF PAINT. THE GROUNDS WERE NOT WELL KEPT. CIGARETTE BUTTS EVERYWHERE AND THE HEDGES NEEDED TO BE CLIPPED. I WAS AFRAID TO SLEEP IN THE BED AND TRIED DESPERATELY TO GET MY MONEY BACK. NO SUCH LUCK. I WILL NEVER STAY AT THIS FACILITY AGAIN. MAIN STAY IS A PART OF CHOICE HOTELS. MY QUESTION IS WHY BECAUSE IF I HAD MY CHOICE, MY MONEY WOULD HAVE DEFINITELY BEEN REFUNDED. WE HAD A FAMILY GATHERING AND NO ONE WAS PLEASED WITH THEIR ROOMS. THERE WERE HOT WATER ISSUES, AIR CONDITIONING ISSUES, LIGHTING ISSUES ETC. I'M NOT SURE WHY THIS IS LABELED A CHOICE HOTEL. THIS IS BLATANT FALSE ADVERTISEMENT. THOSE ROOMS SHOULD NOT HAVE COST $50.00 PER NIGHT BUT TO HAVE TO PAY OVER $100.00 IS JUST A RIP OFF. THE ROOM MY PARENTS WERE IN HAD NO AIR. THEY DID REFUND THEM THEIR MONEY AND THEY ENDED UP WITH A GREAT ROOM AT HOLIDAY INN. WHEN YOU PAY $100 FOR A ROOM, YOU EXPECT TO BE PLEASED. I HAVE FRIENDS THAT TAKE TRIPS REGULARLY. I WILL MAKE SURE THAT MAIN STAY IS NOT ON THEIR RADAR. THIS MAY MEAN ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO YOU, BUT I WORK HARD FOR MY MONEY AND DON'T LIKE THROWING IT AWAY WHICH IS JUST WHAT I FELT HAPPENED. I HAD CONCERNS FOR MYSELF, MY DAUGHTER, MY 3 YEAR OLD GRANDDAUGHTER AND MY ENTIRE FAMILY. TO SAY I WAS MAD IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT. NEVER AGAIN WILL THIS HAPPEN. FRAUD. THESE REVIEWS AND YOUR ADVERTISEMENT IS LAUGHABLE. PLEASE.

If I could give this company less than one star I would. This was the worst company I have ever dealt with. NEVER, I repeat never book with SCOAST LLC or with Booking.com. The apartment I rented for a few days in Miami was in terrible condition when my friends and I arrived. The floors looked like they weren't cleaned as there was dirt and stains all over them as well as the table. The linens were stained, there was a horrible smell in the apartment. The bathroom was gross and was not a place I would be able to get clean in, I felt dirtier just standing in there. Most importantly I did not feel safe staying at this place. There was no deadbolt lock on the door, the door could be easily jiggled open and that is an extreme hazard to the well being of the people who rent the place. I called SCOAST LLC customer service to tell them the issues I had with the place and request a refund. They basically told me I needed to stay there that night and the next day they would maybe be able to send someone out to take a look at the apartment. I told them I needed someone to come out that day so they would understand why I am requesting the refund. After going back and forth with phone calls and emails I still hadn't gotten anywhere. I went to Booking.com since I had booked the rental through them I figured they would be able to give some assistance. WRONG. They were absolutely no help. I got disconnected from multiple phone calls with them and then went back and forth through email just for them to tell me that SCOAST LLC wouldn't accept my request for a refund and there was nothing that could be done. I am furious of course at this point, who wouldn't be. My friends and I are on vacation. We don't want to be dealing with this nonsense. I called my credit card company and started a dispute that same day and ended up booking a different apartment to stay at for the rest of my time there. My vacation was March 3-7, it is now almost two months later and I am still disputing the charge. This was a terrible experience and I hope I can save a few people from booking with either SCOAST LLC or Booking.com as they are horrible companies who don't care about their customers and only care about money.

https://nypost.com/2022/12/27/buffalo-snow-storm-photos-2022-pictures-of-deadly-ny-blizzard/

NEVER AGAIN

Made a reservation with Falls Hotel and Inn through Booking.com for July 13-14 but wasn't able to make my trip so I called to cancel on the 9th. I was told o call back n the next day at 9am. When I called back I was told that they cannot cancel because I booked through Booking.com. Now booking. Com requires a Confirrmation code and a PIN that they generate for you to even talk to you and if you don't have the pin you are out of luck! By the time I gathered the pin it was just passed the 72 hour cancelation window! So in a nice European accent they'll tell you that t you've missed the deadline but don't worry "we just need a written confirmation my hotel to refund your money" and then when you contact their PARTNER IN CRIME, FALLS HOTEL & INN, as usual the Manager TANYA FAUQUIER, is not available! So JUST BE AWARE OF THESE SCAMS BETWEEN FALLS INN & HOTEL & BOOKING.COM to STEAL YOUR MONEY IF YOU DON'T MEET THE 72 HOUR CANCELATION WINDOW! No wonder why you guys have 1 out of 5 BBB RATING!

If you are new to booking.com to list your house for vacation rental be very careful their policies are ridicules
Anybody from anywhere can book your house without paying anything, you cannot cancel it, your calendar is blocked for those dates, you have to Waite and see if the guest is going to show up or not!, if you cancel they might charge you for guest replacement fee! Soooo you as a home owners are screwed, i called the costumer service, they seem very lost and confused and because of that they are rude, anyways, finally in costumer service told me that I'm new and it will takes time to build relationship, my respond was it's fumy how anybody can just book my property without paying anything and I have to Waite and see if they will show up,! What kind of stupid policy is that? Finally they agreed to send a representative to my property for verification, after more than 10 e mails back and forward with booking REP Alyssia Santiago we made appointment, I had to re arrange few other appointments to visit Alyssa
LOL, she never showed up,
The bottom line is I'm renting my property for 3 years now and i have used more than 10 websites to promote or rent it but booking.com policies are so unfair and ridicules can be very damaging, in the first week of my registration I had 4 bookings only one was for real other 3 fake ones which i brought to their attention even i made the costumer service to call the number provided by the guest to prove it's a fake booking, guess what? Even though after it was obvious for them that it was fake, yet they told me I cannot cancel, if i do i might have to pay fees to booking.com and still my calendar was blocked,
I read lots of complaints that guests they had from booking.com in here I'm not sure what is the purpose of booking.com in insisting to make guest and home owners very unsatisfied
STAY AWAY FROM BOOKING.COM
Regards
MIKE

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Use Booking.com at YOUR OWN RISK
I called to cancel a flight three times on May 8, within 24 hours of booking. Two booking.com agents said the tickets were non-refundable, even for same day booking. Another agent said the tickets cost 45 euros to cancel for same day booking. All calls are recorded.

I called TapPortugal airline directly and they informed me that the same day cancellation is fully refundable with booking.com. I called booking.com back and the agent still told me that the tickets were non-refundable after I repeated what TapPortugal airline told me.

I investigated further and called booking once again on July 14th, after returning from travels. The booking.com agent said that the tickets are fully refundable on same-day booking. The agent apologized for the mistakes on booking.com's end, marked the case urgent and escalated the issue to the management team. The agent said that I need to wait 24-48 hours for it to resolve and I would receive an email from booking.com. I never received an email and nobody called me back.

Today is July 19th, and I have waited more than 100 hours. I just finished my 11th call with booking.com and I am still not refunded, nor given a written apology from booking.com. This morning, I received a foreign call from London (*******390) who said that he is a booking.com agent and he couldn't cancel the flights because they are non-refundable. I told him that I have verified with the airline and multiple booking.com agents that the tickets were fully-refundable on same day cancellation and I keep a recording of evidence. He hung up on me after hearing this and never called back.

This is an awful experience for any booking.com travelers. I've been a loyal user of booking.com and I am disappointed after I have gone through all the process of customer support, I am still not refunded or apologized to. I have invested more than 5 hours trying to cancel flights. This is a mistake from booking.com, I should not be going through all the trouble to correct your mistake.

DONT BOOK WITH THIS BOOKING SITE! THIS IS THE MOST UNPROFESSIONAL SITE I HAVE EVER DEALT WITH. THEY ARE FRAUDS, TAKE YOUR MONEY AND THIEVES! WE WERE COMPLETELY SCAMMED. We booked a place we thought was decent due to the photos are 10/10 hotel. We get to the accomodation, it was in the building next door and was a complete junkie house. Think of a $#*!ty apartment block, that what it was. It smelt like cigarettes, piss on the floor, hair on the bed and in the sink. Beer cans were everywhere in the building block. We went straight to the hotel desk and they offered a refund for the false advertising. It was 10pm at night in Melbourne and we had no where to go. The actual accomodation staff was very nice and very cooperative. However, to get the refund would be through bookings.com. Two weeks now we have called everyday, every-worker telling us a new excuse for not receiving the refund. When we proved them wrong multiple times with even the hotel on the other line confirming a refund, bookings.com would shut the call in our face. We don't have much money and just wanted to book a cute getaway for me and my partner to now be completely scammed of our money with no way to get the refund. I am so disgusted with the workers who don't even want to listen or understand our situation but instead are complete robots who just say word to word the same $#*! every-time. $#*!ing disgusting business and I pray no one else books through them or gets scammed either because its heartbreaking to have your money completely taken from you. To bookings.com you are a $#*!ing disgusting and horrible business who should feel guilty. You guys are a complete scam and will be taking this further.