Same properly about 150/ 200 cheaper on booking. Com than air bnb?

[Puddywoodycat]

Anyone noticed this before? Or why?

Yes, I've seen something about 20% cheaper on Booking compared with AirBNB -- same place, same nights. I don't know why - maybe Airbnb charges hosts more to use the platform?

This happened to me. I booked the cheaper option on Booking com. It turned out to be a scam and I was stuck late at night searching for alternative accommodation.
I wouldn't use Booking.com again.

Ha! Love how MN turns my mention of B. into a link!!! I didn't want to encourage business for them!

I've never compared but I've stopped using airbandb because everything seems so expensive. So sounds right!

Booking.com can be a bit random on pricing at times but I generally find something suitable at a fair price.

@ThisWOMANWontWheesht ..sCam in what way please ie you paid for something already let?

Oh no. How did that happen..sounds awful

Different websites showing different prices is totally normal which is why it's best to shop around lots of websites to get the best price. If it's a hotel it may be possible to phone them directly and get the best price as there's no middle man fees. I imagine the poster who got scammed above unknowingly clicked a fake listing on Booking. But the same can happen on AirBnB. Best thing is to read reviews carefully. Don't risk booking anywhere that has few or no reviews.

Airbnb add really high service charges and cleaning charges on top of the rate fixed by the owner. I've noticed they are super expensive too... And there's no more guarantee there than on booking, owners can cancel your booking a couple of days before leaving you stranded...

No. Someone listed something that wasn't their property but a copy of a listing from somewhere else. Because they were new users of Booking, they weren't given the money straight away (this is Booking's procedure, and the scammers didn't know this) but contacted me directly asking for money. I contacted Booking and they said the 'owners' would only be paid at the time of the stay because they were new, and they would contact them to remind them. I turned up to the accommodation to find it unavailable. Called Booking who said they must have been scammers, sorry.
I had to find alternative accommodation late evening.

Ohh it's so worrying. You have to be on top.of your game all time. It's so easy to get caught out.

@ThisWOMANWontWheesht

Thank you. What a horrid experience.

Thank goodness you found out.

And thanks for the warning.

It's not a hotel it is self catering and it is newly listed but air b n b has about 40 reviews, booking. Com doesn't.

I've booked with air b n b before and I don't know why I trust it more? I've never booked with booking. Com.

Maybe air had you usually in direct contact with the owner?

I don't like booking.com for self catering as I find they don't provide as much information about the property as other platforms . Mostly I use VRBO- but it can pay to google the property you are looking at to see where else it's being advertised - eg we rented a cottage in wales that was on a couple of different platforms and managed to find an agency where it was a lot cheaper than we had found originally .

We travelled around the UK and Europe for a month in 2019 and mostly stayed in Airbnbs. Went back in 2022 and only did one Airbnb. The rest were through booking.com. I checked both platforms for each location but the price and cancellation conditions were almost always better on the booking website. I think Airbnb has had its day, it’s now just a regular booking platform with too many cleaning rules and extra fees.

Wonder if they are just looking to get some reviews under their belt if it's newly listed.

ThisWOMANWontWheesht, b.c's response to that is odd - no accommodation provider who lists with them gets paid until the second week after the end of the month of stay. So you stay somewhere on 10th January, and pay via b.c the accommodation provider gets paid around 15th February.

It's shite, but so many people book using b.c most accommodation providers have to list with them. The commission is ridiculous too.

I'm surprised about your experience with Booking dot com because so far I have only had good experiences.

A few years ago I booked an apartment near London Bridge for 3 nights. I booked about 9 months in advance. A couple of months before the trip the owner contacted me and said that they were going to renovate so I needed to cancel. I didn't want to cancel; I was concerned about consequences so I phoned Booking. They told me not to cancel and to tell the owner to cancel from their end. If an owner cancels, Booking will find you an equivalent place, and if I costs more than the original booking, then Booking refunds the difference and passes the cost on to the original owner. So they refunded about £150.

I thought of this when people we're having their Airbnb bookings cancelled in Cornwall after Covid.

In terms of prices, check both. Last summer I booked one apartment with Airbnb and one with Booking.

Another advantage of Booking is that the owners don't 'rate' you. It is more like a hotel experience. I'm not prepared to do a list of 'chores' at the end of my holiday. Airbnb seem to expect more on that front.

@Coxspurplepippin I'm probably getting some details wrong... after I booked the "owners" contacted me saying they'd been unable to take my payment so could I do something. I called Booking who said they wouldn't be able to get payment till later, and they were new, so had tighter restrictions. Also NOT to deal with them directly, as regards payment at least.
It seems the scammers didn't realise they'd not get immediate payment.

To be fair, Booking were helpful and looked for somewhere else for us to stay. They said theyd cover some extra cost.
But it shouldn't be possible for that to happen on the platform. We found out whilst in another country and during a partial lockdown, so it was tricky!
I suppose we were unlucky, should have looked for an owner with lots of ratings or something.

I’ve been using booking.com for 20+ years, not had a problem so far 🤷‍♀️

I like it as a platform as it hands a lot of control to the customer like easy cancellation.

Have used airbnb too but usually the properties weren’t as clean, ironic given the huge cleaning fee.

Ok so booking looks OK.

One thing I wonder when one place is. Listed in multiple sights is how they block it out? Eh I book with booking how does air b b
N b know and could the owner cancel me? because they want more money through air vn b

I think that there must be a link to the property's diary. When I booked a property with Airbnb (£100 cheaper in this instance) it was unavailable on Booking immediately.