Just been completely screwed by booking.com

[BookingDotComAreTwats]

I am furious. I used the booking.com website months ago to book 2 twin rooms for 4 adults. £600 for 2 nights (it's in the centre of major European city). Got the confirmation. Just phoned the hotel to double check that the rooms are twin beds as the people concerned can't/won't share beds, but I've been told that the reservation had come through as 2 queens. Hotel won't change the rooms and will only provide put up beds for another 240 euros or I can pay 200 more to upgrade to room types with twin beds.

Booking.com have told me that a twin bed room is just a 'special' request and it's tough shit.
I have been through the booking process again on their website and next to the room type if gives you the option to choose twin beds. Nowhere does it say "ha - this is a joke - you only get twin rooms if you pay to upgrade - 200 more smackers please!"
I will never book with them again.

I agree with peatot.

I was never allowed to tell guests to book directly with the hotel but you don't catch me on OTA's anymore! Those commissions and peak rates aren't worth it for anyone!

The really annoying thing is they do have twin rooms! So it's not like you got something else because they didn't have it.
I will book direct from now on too. (Enjoying pretending I often stay in hotels that aren't travel lodge).

I had a nightmare with booking.com and won't ever use them again. Booked a last minute B&B for me and my son, payment taken on booking. Turned up at the very remote farmhouse at 7pm and no one was answering the door. Tried calling home and mobile numbers from outside but straight to answerphone. There were cars parked which I assumed were from other guests in the rental cottages. Not too stressed, thought we'd head the couple of miles back to the town and get something to eat and then call again from there. Still no answer. Drove back up and knocked on the door of what I assumed to be a cottage and spoke to the ladies in there who said owner had gone out for the evening but gave me a long list of contacts of key holders to call-only managed to get through to one who had no idea about a booking and wasn't anywhere nearby to open up....Left our number with the ladies in the cottage but since it was dark and getting late I told them I would give up and find somewhere else to stay. But since there was a big event on in the town, there was nowhere available. Got turned down in another pub and was getting a bit stressed and told the barmaid what had happened who said-I think one of our waiters lives there....cut a long story short the owner's son was allowed off work early and we drove him back home where he let us in, very apologetic, saying his mother must not have know about the booking as she wouldn't have gone out. Next morning poor B&B owner frantic with worry and apologising because booking.com hadn't told her about the booking and she had contacted them in the early hours of the morning and they said "it happens sometimes!". Complained to booking.com and got a response saying it was my fault as we arrived later than check in time of midnight!!??!!-we didn't, we got there at 7pm and got in by 10.30pm after we happened upon the owner's son!! So I complained about that response as well....but 5 months later still getting nowhere with any kind of apology or acknowledgement of their total fuck up!

I've cancelled and booked through the hotel instead, it was the same price.

They've just offered me 25 euros compensation.

It sounds like their standard compensation to shut the customer up.

I got the same after I complained about being given a poorer replacement for a flat I had booked through them. My point was that the agency they worked with wasn't reliable and it should be taken off their books. I didn't care about the stupid 25 euros.

In your case, you are losing a lot more, so I'd go for the full extra that you are having to pay or nothing. The 25 euros would be nowhere near enough for me.

I booked a Kingsize bedroom suite which had a very clear description of the room I was getting 'city views' along with a suite with a separate bedroom. I was going away with husband, daughter and her friend so a separate bedroom was important.
We arrive and had a double bed with a sofa bed in one room so tiny the sofa bed touched the bed when folded out. I was seriously pissed off. Told the hotel it wasnt what I booked, they said not their problem hotels.com are crap and I should have booked direct...well I made it their problem in the lobby refusing to move until resolved. I had a print out of the hotel.com booking, making it very clear what I paid for and I refused to move until I had it.
They called hotel.com - and after about 2 complimentary drinks in the bar we were put in a room with a connecting room looking onto the carpark for no extra charge. I dont think our drinks were supposed to be complimentary but the 'super helpful/patronising' woman on the bar repeated the same thing reception had said about booking,com are crap and I should have booked direct. So I very cooly, very slowly explained that she was the second person to tell me that since I arrived and if it was really so bad surely they should stop selling through booking.com and stop trying to make it my fault they knew they had a bad reseller and continued to use them. She left me alone after that.

I am fed up of any website miss-selling and the end hotel claiming it isn't their fault. Make sure you get what was missold to you and dont take anything less

If you're on Twitter, tweet them - and the hotel?

Put a link to this thread anywhere you can find them on social media, perhaps...

I will say OP, everything I've requested on booking.com .... it's a request and I do think it's clear, but it could be to do with the fact I don't trust anyone to get it right so I assume that unless told otherwise!

Try tweeting about it

We had something similar. Booked a family room for 2 adults and 1 child and ended up with a double room and no extra bed, as hotel didn't have any spare extra beds. To make it worse the hotel said that if they had had one I would have had to have paid €15 per night more!! That was a very hot night with poor air con and a sweaty husband and restless 5 year old...

I can tell you slarty I have a hotel booking this weekend that doesn't mention that breakfast isn't included on booking.com or the confirmation. The hotel website says it's an extra tenner. As it's £130 a night for a single room I'm less than impressed and I'll be going elsewhere for it.

I work for a hotel, we don't sell blocks to booking.com but have often seen them advertise us as having one 'last room left' when we know full well that we are fully booked. Quite how they get round that when someone books the 'last room left' through them I don't know !

We have twin and double rooms, and like most hotels our super king beds can be split and turned into a twin easily so can sell as either - booking.com often fail to tell us which it is to be and we end up splitting a supper king a guest turns up insisting they booked a twin through booking.com.

It won't have cost them anything to change your room from one to the other. I wouldn't have paid, i'd have just gone along and asked for 2 extra duvets and let the fussy people share a mattress but not a duvet.

Why would you assume breakfast is included in the price of your room SabineUndine? If the booking site doesn't say breakfast is complimentary then it's pretty obvious you have to pay for it isn't it?

I always book through the hotel now as I remember reading that it's just a special request and not something they can guarantee. It makes the service unusable for me - surely most people want to specify a particular type of bed in a hotel.