How are booking.com getting away with this??

[insecure738]

Me and my ex booked a holiday last June. We booked a hotel on booking.com, and we were due to go in September. There was no pre-payment, you pay at the property.

We split up that month and we cancelled - 3 months before the holiday. I got a confirmation email saying that it was within the window, that I won’t be charged.

Come September, I have £500 taken out of my account. It took me weeks to try and get it back, they kept saying they’ll “look into it” and kept asking for evidence even though I sent the screenshots multiple times. They then tried to tell me it was from another booking reference, which was untrue as I only had one booking on my account.

Anyway I finally got my money back from my bank Barclays in November who said they’d investigate it.
This morning, I had it taken out of my account again, as apparently Booking.com rejected the case. Barclays said they can’t do anymore about it.

So I’ve had £500 taken out, I’m now in my overdraft, and I am already struggling with bills and rent.

How do I even go about doing this?! I know I can go through citizens advice but it’ll take weeks and I quite frankly can’t afford to live at the moment :(

If you were recorded as a no show you get charged for at least the first night. Was it the hotel or booking.com who have charged? Miscommunication is not uncommon. So cancelling with one may not have cancelled the other.

@Blossomtoes

"Pay on arrival" and "free cancellation" are separate issues

You can -

Book and pay in advance, free cancellation means you get a refund if you cancel

Or

Book and pay in advance, no free cancellation = no refund

Or

Book in advance, pay on arrival, free cancellation means you dont get charged if you cancel

Or

Book in advance, pat on arrival, no free cancellation = you still get charged on the arrival date even if you cancel and dont turn up

A few respondents here saying they have had difficulty, so perhaps this distinction isn't always understood

how did you pay? credit card or debit card? did you put in a claim to your bank under charge back? i can’t see how booking.com could just dispute it and your bank wash their hands of it. all companies would do this if there were any dispute in that case. small claims s £250 not £25 as someone said but if you are on a low income they can waive the fees. plus you get the fee back if you “win” but it can take an age. (2 years in my case)

Cost depends on size of claim. For OP it looks like it would be fifty quid.

Sorry OP this sounds awful.

Try here? www.channel4.com/programmes/joe-lycetts-got-your-back

Email - [email protected].

When I've done charge back they've made it very clear that they will refund me, but if the company proves that they took the money legitimately, the money will be released back to them. Get on to the bank, it seems they have given the money back to booking. They shouldn't allow them to take it again as this would be a new transaction that you could dispute and they've said you can't. Could you cut and paste the wording of the cancellation confirmation? We might be able to come up with a plan if we can see what went wrong here.

By total coincidence the Guardian consumer page covered Booking‘s poor customer care record just today (a case where the apartment host used totally fake pictures, and the actual place they were taken to was not inhabitable or safe). The upshot was that in this case Booking coughed up the money owed, but the journalist made it clear that without media intervention Booking would probably have done nowt. So it means the Guardian at least is unlikely to take up the same story again soon.
It really convinced me never to book with Booking again - I‘ve not had a bad experience with them so far, but that sounds like pure luck. Some hosts have worked out by now that they can commit fraud and Booking will do eff all about it.

I've used them tons of times and never had a bad experience...

They are terrible.

Last year I booked a hotel through them and had to pay up front, about £700. I got to the hotel and they said it was a 'pay on arrival' booking, not an already paid one. Luckily I had enough money to pay a second £700. Booking.com ignored all my requests for help i.e. confirmation to show hotel I had paid and for them to speak to the hotel. It took weeks and weeks with many calls and emails to get my money back.

I used Booking last summer and paid in advance. When I got to hotel they had trouble finding my booking but eventually seemed to sort it and whilst I was on a call they asked my DH to pay, which he did not knowing I had already done so.

After realising this and checking my own records I went downstairs with payment confirmation from Booking, screenshot from bank account. It took ages for the hotel to sort but I did not leave the desk until I was refunded. They showed me on their system that there was a second booking in my name with a different reference number. The one the hotel considered to be the real booking had not been paid.

All v strange but I got my refund so went on my way. OP, if this was the same as your case, it may be that the second booking reference is what you’re being charged under. This is a Booking blunder and possibly a glitch or issue they are aware of and trying to bury….? Don’t give up!!

Hi!

Just to clear things up, I definitely got an email saying it has definitely been cancelled, you will not be charged, as I cancelled before the 9th September (this was the cut off date for free cancellation - and I cancelled in June).

When I called up, they said that that booking was cancelled, but they charged for another booking reservation under a different reservation number. I had zero emails with the reference number, nor was it on my account.

So I really have no idea what’s happening

When you book, even if you are paying at the property, you are required to give them your bank or credit card details. I guess it’s just insurance if someone wants to do a “runner” at the and of their stay or if damage has been done to the property.

Call them out on Twitter?

I honestly have never had a problem and I've done loads but this thread has freaked me out! We are having a bit of a big trip this summer and I've done a fair few reservations through bookings.com. Should I be concerned? 🙄

Have you asked them to send all details ofthis second mystery reservation?

Booking.com is great for finding places but it is usually best to book direct (after checking reviews etc) as it makes cancelling and changing details much easier. If you have a discount that makes it cheaper to book through Booking.com than directly with the hotel itself, let the hotel know and they will often match your Booking.com price.

Additionally, if you find a place that you like but it is not available for the nights you want, try going direct as many places restrict the number of nights that they allow to be on Booking.com, particularly if you are booking well in advance.

Have you contacted the actual hotel? They may be able to help to get hold of booking.com and confirm to them that you didn't stay & cancelled within the cancellation policy

I would dispute as a fraudulent transaction and go down that route. You have confirmation your booking was cancelled and another one made. You didn’t make that one so sounds like it could be someone else using your card.

Didn’t your bank ask for details from you - copies of emails for example?So you would have been able to show them the original booking ref for the GBP500.00 and associated emails and then show that the GBP500.00 was debited under a completely different booking reference? If they didn’t that’s poor from the bank tbh. Have you gone back to them and asked what more can be done?

Have they given you the details of the other reservation they are charging you for? Perhaps your ex booked something through your account and went? I have never had an issue with them and used them hundreds of times over the years.

That sounds very dodgy OP - does seem as if your ex may have rebooked using your credit card.

I've used booking.com loads, and cancelled loads and never had any issues with them.

Same here. Ive been using booking.com for years. I've got a trip to Japan coming up and I've cancelled and rebooked some of the hotels as plans have changed.

Some of our hotels will take the payment out two days before check in and some are pay on the day.

We use a credit card for this site and I am really hoping that we don't have issues.

This has got me a bit worried.

@Flossyhair

No, I wouldn't worry

I've used Booking.com for years without difficulty, including cancelling / refunds per booking conditions

You could start a thread about pretty much any company and some people would have a bad experience. That's life

And, it does seem that some people on here don't fully understand the booking terms, which isn't Booking.com's fault

OP, hope you get this sorted

I’ve used BOoking com for years never had a problem. I have booked a hotel in Seville for Feb. The other day I received an email from the hotel via booking com to say I needed to pay the balance. The email had my dates of my holiday and the correct hotel. It all looked ok so I clicked on the link. The link looked ok and it asked for my card details. At that exact time I was interrupted by a phone call so left it thinking I’ll do it later. A couple of hours later my friend messaged me to say that the email was fraudulent as they had received the same and had paid.

I logged into the app, no messsges from the hotel. I messaged the hotel via the app and they confirmed that they have not requested me to pay for the room yet. I was so lucky.

How the hell did these scammers get my exact holiday details. Irritating thing is that I know we shouldn’t click on links in emails but this looked legitimate and had my booking details and I nearly got scammed.

so lesson there - no not click on links in emails - always use/check the app/don’t trust any emails or texts. Yet it looked so real.

@choconut, I had the same thing for a summer 2020 booking near disneyland paris via booking.com. We couldn’t travel that summer because of covid restrictions, they said hotel would let me cancel but there would be a ‘cancellation fee’. Which turned out to be equivalent to the total cost of the stay. £400 for cancelling a 3 night stay! They have lost my custom, I won’t be going through that company again.