How can I get my money back from Booking.com

[PlanetClaire76]

Hi all, posting here for traffic. I used accommodation in Nottingham that I booked through Booking.com. I paid for it using my paypal credit account.
The water supply in the bathroom was pitiful. It was very slow in the sink and stone cold. The shower was stone cold. As a result we could not have an adequate wash, shower, or wash our hair. The weekend was ruined.
The accommodation owners have not responded to my messages, nor Booking.com's messages. I tried to get a charge back through Paypal but they have refused. When you book accommodation with a bathroom there is an expectation that you will receive an adequate hot and cold water supply. We did not get this. I have argued this point with Paypal and they still refuse.
Does anybody have any advice on how else I could get my money back?
Thanks

God there are some real dumps advertised on Booking.com. That's terrible.

How low is the bar that people think having a sink wash is any way to replace a working shower when you’re paying for access to the shower as part of your booking?

Just out of interest, are there any booking platforms with better customer service than booking.com? Sorry to hijack your thread OP but I’m reading numerous complaints about them lately and they used to be good in the past! I’ve got a multi centre trip to book accommodation for and I’m very wary of using them these days (only last week someone I know arrived in a European city to find the apartment they’d booked months ago wasn’t available as someone had double booked!)

Of course it's not Ok as part of the booking but it is a way to avoid the weekend being "ruined'

I don't think boiling a kettle and washing at the sink takes any longer than a shower, it's probably quicker. Of course the flat wasn't OK and you should complain, but there is an element of "letting" it ruin the weekend when there were solutions.

I'm surprised you got no satisfaction through Paypal, they're usually pretty good (although I wouldn't have expected a full refund but certainly a partial one)

They're notoriously bad with any type of communication.

Obviously this won't help you now but I tend to browse booking.com for hotels and then when I find one I like i go directly to the properties own website to book it.

You are unlikely to get your money back. The owner can claim that they only became aware of the issue when you raised it. If you look on facebook there are many many stories of people looking for refunds for major issues and getting nowhere. It has made me very wary of booking with them now.

I've just stopped using booking.com at all after several bad experiences. But if you do use them pay by credit card not paypal and you have a much higher chance of getting money back in the event of a problem

I booked flights with booking com. The flights got cancelled but they refused to refund the seat allocation.
some excuse about that was non refundable. I claimed through my credit card company and it was eventually refunded. But they were terrible to deal with. I mean my seat allocation is no good if the flight isn’t going anywhere.
not unreasonable to expect hot water.

Paypal won't encourage you to chargeback because it comes back on them.

I presume you paid with your credit card through Paypal? If so, you need to talk to your bank to request the chargeback. This claims the money from Paypal - they then have to try to get the money back from booking.com, but your refund shouldn't be reliant on this.

You think filling the kettle using numerous mugs of cold water, waiting for it to boil, two or three times so that we can both have a good wash and wash our hair is quicker than taking a shower? 🤣 or waiting for nearly five minutes for the actual stone cold shower to actually come on and send some stone cold water through is quicker? I can have a shower and wash my hair in a nice warm shower in the time it takes to soft boil an egg.

I remember back in the infancy of booking.com booking a room in a hotel in Manchester.

got there and the room hadn’t been booked in an error, there was an event on & the hotel really tried to find me a room. In the end they let me stay in the staff accom room & refunded me the whole amount.

It didn’t put me off booking with them, it was a mistake, I definitely stay away from anythin sketchy looking or too cheap or just accept its not gonna be 5 star.

to add on a trip in the US a while back the hot water stopped working, they fixed it & they refunded that nights resort fee as compo. I didn’t expect a full refund. Not booked via booking.com but you get the point

how much did you pay? I’m guessing not a lot from the description of the accommodation & would just write it off as an experience. I wouldn’t be expecting a full refund though. Cold shower after the recent heat sounds bliss too

I think looking for unsolvable problems is spoiling your weekend, when you could have just got on with it and moved on. Unless you normally wash your hair in boiling water, it's not going to take many mugs.

It's one of those situations where you can't change how things are but you can control your response, and there was no need to let this spoil your whole weekend.

You won’t get a full refund. You might get a discount if anything. It’s not pleasant not having hot water but you stayed in the accommodation.

A cold shower sounds like it would be perfect in those circumstances

Goodness, some people's expectations are low! It's not unreasonable to assume that if you book an apartment with a bathroom that you will have running hot and cold water! I'm sure if the OP wanted to go camping and make do with a flannel wash, she would have booked that type of accommodation.

Have you completely exhausted both Paypal and Booking.com's complaint's procedure (i.e. you've appealed their initial denial of your claim), stating that, under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, services supplied to consumer must be carried out with reasonable skill/care and accommodation that lacks basic amenities breaches this standard? If the property was advertised as having a functional bathroom, you could also argue it was not as described. It doesn't matter that it was only 1 night, as you had no practical alternative but to stay there.

Another options is travel insurance. If you're insured, check the terms - most require a 2 night stay if claiming for travel within the UK, but a few require only 1 overnight stay in order to claim.

As a last resort, you could make a claim through the small claims court for a partial refund.

@WeekendFreedom it wasn't during the mad heat wave. It had been quite warm during the day and rushing around at work id going to make you feel grubby and in need of a shower.
It had gone quite cool and breezy at night, so a freezing cold and shower was not welcome.

Exactly, thank you! You've summed up my feelings exactly. I shall have to push again x

Small claims perhaps, also local trading standards if they are any good in Nottingham.

We used Booking.com once and never again.

We rented a small apartment which was part of a sort of castle in Belgium. The owner was a deranged German man who literally insulted his guests and the entire place was completely rundown - the photos on Booking.com must have been from 20 years ago.

Booking.com provide extremely poor customer support. We will never use them again.

Booking.com will never get a penny of my money again after an appalling experience…. their customer service is a joke. The site is useful for initial research though.

Agree with Beamsss . What a drama over nothing.

Personally I like to actually have the ability to wash myself in the shower during a heatwave, but you do you.

It wasn’t during a heatwave