To warn you about booking.com

[AnotherDayAnotherIdea]

I have used airbnb quite a bit in the past, and once went into a property (in london) that was so bad that I had to call airbnb. They issued an immediate refund and helped me find an alternative.

I have also stayed in hotels plenty of times, often via booking.com. And if I had a problem, it was sorted out directly by the hotel.

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

We booked one about a week ago, and were sent the address and details of a key box promptly.

However once inside, it was clear that the cleaner hadn't been. A simple oversight. The bed hadn't been changed, the kitchenette and shower were dirty, and the towels very dirty indeed. It was 7pm, and we briefly considered just making do, but the towels were covered in something ... marital, so we decided we didn't want to have our children (or us!) stay there.

This is where it all started to unravel, because despite appealing to the owner directly, who promised she had approved a refund, and contacting booking.com, and PayPal, we are still in dispute over this. Booking.com is saying they can do nothing because the owner is unreachable. How is that my problem though?! She says she has approved the request. PayPal has not responded at all.

Basically, if you want an airbnb appartment, use airbnb. Your money is not protected in case of dispute if you book via booking.com.

I cocked up a booking.com booking recently. It was non refundable but I realized within minutes that I’d booked for the wrong month. Spoke to the Italian owner and they agreed to refund as long as I booked something else through them, which I was happy to do so. I’ve been refunded for my original cock up.

Not sure how you go about things in the OPs situation. That does sound entirely inadequate. Hope you get a resolution.

Sounds grim - sorry that happened.

I had a similar experience with airbnb. They took days to respond to me and I had to issue a letter before action to get my money back. The place was a building site and there was nowhere to buy food!

So I think it's all these places, really. It's a bit of a risk.

I used to book with them all the time. Have stopped as they heavily used an appalling influencer (pilotmadeleine) who films her young child without consent, denies repression of women in Saudi Arabia to shill tourism content, sells fast fashion, advertised surgery in Turkey, etc, etc. Just yuk and makes you wonder about company responsibility.

Booking.com used to be great and sort out any disputes easily. Sorry you had that issue. There should still be some protection. Check the terms and conditions very carefully.

Whenever I have used Booking.com, you pay on arrival, so if the place is filthy, you would sort that out at the time. But it must be different for Airbnb style rentals. For hotels Booking.com is reliable. Maybe self-catering is better suited to the airbnb set up.

Surely Booking just have to send an ultimatum to the owner and say "If we don't hear back from you by X date then we're taking the money"

You'd think so!

Yes I've had bad experiences with them as have a lot. I think they recommend to find your property ont here then book directly with that property if you can find it online (which you often can).

Booking.com are awful, last year they held two months taking for hosts. They said because of a change in software. Some hosts were owed in the tens of thousands.

I've used them many times for years and never had a problem. I read the reviews and only book places with many positive ones.

I've been fine with them too, we'll book again this year.

I book with them all the time. Just hotels though. Made the mistake of booking a ‘flexible’ flight with them last year. Never again (I usually book flights direct within the airline.

Then again I don’t use Air bnb either for ethical reasons.

Same. Airbnb are notorious for not helping people too, I had some awful flats from them. The fact that guests are also reviewed puts me off.

Never any problems with Booking but I do really go through the reviews, only book places with lots of reviews and minimum 8.5 rating.

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.

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 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.

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 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.

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

It did have a lot of good reviews it's just that the cleaner hadn't been. I presume they have released her payout so are reluctant to take the hit themselves.

@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 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!

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.

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