To warn you about booking.com

This is why I don’t book apartment style accommodation through booking.com / airBNB, because the owner can cancel at any time. It’s far less likely to happen with a hotel booking.

I hope you did notify booking.com. They took the VRBO because I assume they took less commission from them. However they don't want to piss off booking.com because they probably get more bookings via them as more prolific. Call them out

Don’t even think about booking a flight with them…The airline cancelled 2 return flights, gave a letter to say we can get a refund but over 18 months later (and many hours on the phone!) we still don’t have our money back from booking.com.
They are appalling when something goes wrong.

I use both sites and in fact, booked 2 properties for the summer on booking.com because it was cheaper than airbnb (the same 2 properties were on both platforms). I've noticed that many properties are advertised on multiple platforms and it is worth your while checking any price differentials.

I've used them for ages and never had a problem.

Until recently - when I got a link in a message saying that card declined, please click on the link to complete payments.

I thought it was a scam, and the customer service team did contact the "owner" who said that was the way they collected payments. I was still very reluctant to click on a link in a message and the Booking.com CST team did not understand why I was reluctant to click on a link.

That said, we have had refunds straightaway and had many good trips away and I will continue to use them.

I have used them for years and never had a single issue, plus I get avios when booking on them via BA Exec Club shopping 6 per £ spent so I will keep booking through them!

I do check if it's cheaper on other sites and booking direct obv, but as I am Genius L3 I often get a good discount and it rarely is.

BTW If you don't know it's always worth checking on the mobile app, sometimes is it 10% or more cheaper on there than the website

Yep, another one here stung by booking.com. I'll never use them again. Mine was a pre-paid airport taxi that didn't pick me up. I never did get the money back. I'm just grateful that lesson only cost me 90 Euros or so, unlike unlucky OPs with accommodation bookings.

I’ve not had issues with booking.com - just luckily never had a problem with anything I’ve booked through them to therefore find them good. But I did book an air bnb type place through vrbo a few years back (all done through their website) which turned out to be a scam - the place had gone bust and shut down the previous year but still advertising and taking money. I found out when the property didn’t reply to my messages. Vrbo were absolutely awful at sorting the situation. I finally got my refund but they were absolutely no help in finding alternative accommodation (booked elsewhere through booking.com in the end!) and I had to make many many phone calls before they issued my refund.

@LolaPeony yep I agree - and I know this hotel too as have stayed here many times, so can ignore the 7 !! lol

I’ve only ever used booking.com for hotels and never been a problem. However recently was looking at a house rental which was listed both on Airbnb, booking.com and VRBO simultaneously. As it was cheaper to book via booking.com we made the reservation that way.

Fast forward to the day & hour of arrival and we realise while we have the receipts showing we’ve paid, we haven’t been sent the access details. We phone the host details (a property mgmt company) on booking.com and it turns out someone had also booked the place via VRBO and “their systems hadn’t synced” so the other folks had been sent the access details and were already in the house we’d paid for and were expecting to use for a few days!! In fairness the host was genuinely mortified such a cock-up had occurred but was very keen to offer us a full direct refund & some additional compensation for us not to go and complain to booking.com. In the end we managed to find an Airbnb that was available in the local area that same night but for a few hours it caused a lot of unnecessary angst.

Anyway, a salutary warning to be a bit careful with Airbnb style rentals on booking.com even if they are cheaper, and always check you’ve been given the access details or communicate with the host beforehand. We didn’t on that occasion and regret not doing so as it would have alerted all parties to the problem a few days before.

But now booking.com are offering airbnb style properties owned by individuals

They've been doing that for many years. We've never had a problem. We do however, always check reviews and pay by credit card, which would give us another protection route, should something go wrong.

Your issue, while upsetting and inconvenient, is related to the property owner, which could happen however you book, and isn't the fault of the booking platform used.

I personally wouldn’t book a cottage/apartment style property with booking.com as I know of at least two people who’ve had their booking cancelled by the owner at the last minute. It was then difficult to get a refund and to rebook anything when annual leave from work was already organised. I tend to use a property rental company as they seem to have better standards and procedures

Booking.com are atrocious as I've found out this week.

Booked accommodation back in July 2023 for Feb half term in canaries . Recieved an email 3 this week, 3 weeks to go, to say it has been cancelled for no reason

The owner and booking.com have blamed each other. Meanwhile we have flights booked and accommodation is now significantly higher as so close to departure dates

Will never use them again as no guarantee that this couldn't happen with any booking via them

We had an issue with airB&B, drove for hours got there and couldn't find it. Couldn't contact anyone, tried for hours, I was heavily pregnant with a toddler and child and then in the evening we got an email from airB&B simply stating your booking has been cancelled, you will be refunded. This was over 5 hours after check in was suppose to be and we had been trying to get in touch.

There was no where else to stay, everything that had spaces left was fancy 5* hotels and which cost 10x times as much (we booked months in advance) so was miles out of our price range. It was far too late to drive home and we needed to be their the next day. Luckily found a travelodge and explained, they took pity on us and managed to get their head office to change the rules and cram us into a small spare room (because travelodge do actually care about people).

AirB&B had ZERO sympathy, just said you got a refund and thats all thats all we are required to do and then deleted our negative review which just stated the facts that it was cancelled 5 hours into the booking, no one was contactable and the address/postcode given was not the property advertised but a random office building. This made us realize its probably happened before, never seen a negative review but thats because AirB&B just delete them.

I definitely make an exception to the 8.5 for chain hotels like Premier Inn, Ibis etc - they’re basic but cheap, and you know what you’re getting!

@LolaPeony yes those are my criteria too - although at the moment I'm say writing this in the copthorne Tara in London off Kensington high st - which is only a 7 but is extremely clean, smart foyer , smells lovely, has loads of facilities and at £89 a night plus £29 parking seems a bargain to me- rooms are fine too if functional - but overall much nicer than a premier inn- those marking it down are mainly far East Asians , Americans and Arabic nations who seem to expect very fancy places for peanuts plus huge rooms - so I also note'where' reviwers are from.

I've used booking.com for pretty much every trip away for the past 5 years. Not a single problem with them at all.

I stopped using booking.com after they twice cancelled my booking. The first time was a few hours after booking, but the second was a couple of weeks before the stay (and some time after booking) claiming there had been an error in pricing. It wasn't that cheap - a small 3* hotel on the edge of Glasgow. I managed to find somewhere else but it was difficult as there was an event taking place. Still cross some years on!

I use both - booking.com a lot more- what you do need to be careful of is clicking on the information regarding terms. As it may say cancellation till day before but they can take the money 7 days before etc and then refund back if you cancel - I only tend to use booking.com though for hotels so usually all is fine - - we used once on ahouse on a Greek island and it was very dissatisfactory from outside and area - but luckily we hadn't yet checked in and paid -so contacted them and told them why we wouldn't be checking in and quickly booked something else for same day .

I've had similar with Airbnb and they refunded me back the 50% I had already paid within 4 days-

I book with them at least 6-8 times a year, never had any problems and will continue to use them.

I do think though that customer service everywhere isn't what it was pre Covid and you'd never book anything if you listened to anyone who'd ever had a bad experience.

You have to exercise some judgment with booking.com:

• Avoid any new priorities with no/very few reviews
• Look for places with hundreds of reviews including recent reviews from the last few weeks
• Minimum 8.5 review rating
• Universal 5 star reviews are suspicious, especially if they all have similar wording. Most people can find something to complain about. It’s best to see a mix of 4/5 star reviews.

I only use booking.com for hotels, but I’ve never had an issue. You just have to exercise some common sense - look for somewhere with hundreds of good reviews, including recent reviews from the last few weeks, cross reference with Trip Advisor and Google Maps to check that it exists there too etc.

I've always used Booking.com but had a few problems with them recently.

The latest being I booked a hotel for DH birthday in a few months which said Free cancellation - pay at property. It even specifically said that my card was only needed to guarantee the booking and no payment would be taken.

Only to find out they've taken the money from my account yesterday?! I have emailed and they have said it's just to "secure" the booking?! It's the full bloody amount - 3 months before we even stay there?!

I get that some places you have to pay upfront and of course I understand this when it is clear when booking, but our plans often change and so I choose the free cancellation options in case we need to cancel / amend the booking. But it looks like you now have to pay upfront and then they'll just refund it if you cancel?!

I actually wouldn't mind this normally but would have been nice to get a heads up that they were taking £900 out of my account.

I had a similar experience with Booking.com. We booked an entire luxury apartment and when we arrived it was a shared hovel.

We turned round and walked out, and immediately contacted the owner via WhatsApp and booking.com. Neither responded. Eventually we gave up. Their CS is none existent.