To warn you about booking.com

I aways avoid "private host" - even for apartments there are aparthotels or managed flats. Recent good reviews are a must. As for taxis, i often use the option as a genius member because there are discounts - last weekend i even got a free transfer. I always receive the taxi company details in advance from Booking.com and the driver details (with phone number) on the day of travel. Somebody up thread was talking about Budapest - I can really recommend the 7Seasons apartments.

I've never booked anything marked "managed by a private host" on booking.com. Always hotels, apart hotels, B&Bs. I've found them to be ok.

I think the key with booking.com is stay off things like taxis and use it for established hotels/apart hotels with good reviews- too many variables on individually owned apartments etc - it's why I don't use Airbnb much either- had some great ones and some really ropey ones too .

I've booked multiple times over the last 15 yrs with booking.com & Airbnb covering holiday rentals as wells as hotels all over the world. The only issue I've ever had was with Airbnb and to be fair, it was a cancellation due to the COVID summer of 2020 and it was hard to get a refund so I took a credit which I couldn't use until 2 yrs later. It was supposed to expire earlier than that and I mentally geared myself to having to write it off but ultimatelty, I was still able to use it for our first holiday abroad post Covid in 2022.

I'm not loyal to any particular platform but I will book direct if possible and if the price differential isn't great. For one property booked this summer, it was on both platforms with Airbnb being slightly pricier and booking.com gave me an extra discount due to my genius (loyalty) level. It also offered a further discount if I paid in full upfront which I deemed was worth the £250 price differential. I received a message from the host straight away and I guess that I take a calculated risk having taken all the above steps. I always book somewhere with lots of reviews and do research on area/location as well as customer service. I've only ever booked accommodation, never the extras though since we always hire a car directly. As to price, if the price seems to be too good to be true, it probably is! Caveat emptor!

Exactly the same @hideawayforever !

They were amazing when we had issues (not caused by them) with an apartment booking and a car hire last year - incredibly helpful and got it all sorted for us.

We've booked loads of apartments with them and have been absolutely fine.

There are loads of apartments with great reviews and lots of reviews.

Booking.com are shit. The End.

This. We have stayed in some great places with bookingcom but only choose those with 8+ rating. The ratings and reviews have always been reliable to date. We dont use airbnb anymore because its overpriced and the fact that guests are reviewed means guests cant be as honest about the accommodation so the reviews are less reliable. Stayed in some really mediocre airbnbs with lots of problems that had "great" reviews. Just not worth the risk.

Would never use them again - like others have said they're fine.....until there is a problem then their customer service is non existent. Have had two occasions where accommodation booked with them and have had to escalate and and in one case had to raise a PayPal dispute. They simply didn't want to know. Personally I would rather pay a bit more and have peace of mind.

yes exactly what happened to us. the taxi was meant to meet us inside the airport terminal but didn't show. booking. com said they did show.
we think they waited outside but didn't come in with the sign like they were meant to then just drove off, they probably picked someone else up looking for a taxi so got paid double. booking.com refused to refund us. won't book with them ever again.

yes I've had problems with booking.com, the taxi i booked at the airport didn't show up and they refused to refund us, I'll never book with them again.

You've got me worried now! I was intending to book in the next few days with booking.com and I've only really been looking at apartments because I can't see how a hotel works for our family. It's me, DH and opposite sex young adults (one of whom is disabled but needs a private space) - we'd prefer a hotel but we'd have to book 3 individual rooms that might end up being in different parts of the hotel, and we'd have no joint socialising/'chilling' space. Noone wants to sleep on a sofa bed. Hotel suites with 3 bedrooms don't seem to exist. What is the alternative? We're used to booking cottages/apartments in the UK but this was to be our first holiday abroad. I've been looking for apartments on booking.com assuming that if it's got a good rating and decent reviews it'll be fine. Now I'm not sure, but don't know what other options there are. Are there any 'safe' booking platforms for apartments?

Just booked at apartment in Bucharest for this autumn. Paid by credit card. Hope there are no problems.

@dancinfeet I think there was all sorts of dodgy behaviour around that time with all kinds of sites and events- I had a menopause type retreat booked with a group events thing for 28th March 2020 and obviously it couldn't go ahead - they did email 5 days before and said they hoped to reschedule when they could or would refund - I asked for a refund- never heard from them again and never answered emails either. Checked with venue and they said events company were holding the money and never answered them either

that should say the booking was made prior to COVID, then covid hit and the booking couldn’t go ahead.

booking.com are thieving swines. Had a Paris hotel booked prior to covid, we had no option but to cancel as the dates it was booked for travel from the UK was not permitted and they would not let us change the booked dates, however they agreed to cancel but said they would have to charge a cancellation fee. The ‘cancellation fee’ was essentially 100% of the cost, so they refunded me £0 and cancelled the booking. Haven’t used them since.

How have you opened the dispute with PayPal? They don't have the option not to respond if you've opened a case. Go into your PayPal and select the payment itself on your transaction history and log a case. They may want to see the correspondence from the owner and B.com so keep these handy.

I only use them for hotels, I must be honest. I wouldn’t feel comfortable booking anything else through them.

@AnotherDayAnotherIdea yep - if you can get it at a good price and we use it a fair bit - for location and price it's a steal - even if rooms aren't flash - they are perfectly fine - just to say I don't have any link with them I just know people can struggle for affordable over nighters in London - it's used 'a lot' by the airlines

Have used booking.vom numerous times /faultless service. But I wouldn’t go to a private rental /too many variables that can go wrong /better to use an actual
hotel.

I’ve heard a few bad thing about Booking.com. Now there are several others such as Hotels,com and Trivago I use them instead if I can.

I booked a place via booking.com and when I arrived (after an 8 hour drive) it was closed and had been closed for over 3 months. There was even a note pinned on the door apologising to anyone who had booked with booking.com.

We had an Airbnb stay booked in Glasgow where the host cancelled three days before the booking date. We booked alternative accommodation with booking.com the same day, and that was cancelled the next day.

Two days notice to find somewhere to stay for four people. We ended up in some hotel that while it wasn't bad it wasn't ideal, and much more expensive.

Since then I've avoided using either and just book a hotel directly.

We only use apartments
DS has allergies so we need to self cater - and it's been brilliant.
We can filter on kitchens and always look to see what kind of oven it has by looking at the pictures.