Booking .com

[viking11]

Looking to rent an apartment via booking.com, when a friend said you can't trust this sight or Airbnb. Anyone had trouble with these sight?

I used booking.com for years but was scammed twice by 'cuckoos'

Property had changed hands and the new owners had taken over the old listing, using the old photos, but significantly downgrading the state of the accomodation, relying on previous reviews to gull people into booking

York and Oxford were my nightmares

I now only go to the websites of hotel chains

That's interesting, that's exactly what happened to me. Someone claiming to be the host of a holiday apartment repeatedly and aggressively demanding my CVC number, and threatening to immediately cancel my booking if I didn't supply it. This I obviously refused to do, but it's alarming that when I called booking.com to tell them what was going on they didn't immediately say "Hang on, alarm bells are going off here, they shouldn't be doing that!" Instead there was a lot of vagueness and "Hmmm....let's find a way for you to pay...." In the end, I just told the host- if they were indeed a host- to sodding cancel the booking if they wanted, and they did just that.

I use them regularly throughout the world and have had no problems - I like that I can book a hotel in advance and usually only pay when I am there, can cancel with no fees (this is usually clearly stated what the terms are, and you are emailed before they take payment - unless you book a hotel for a lower amount with no cancelling, but again this is made very clear). I have also booked rooms for other people using my booking.com info and no problem whatsoever

We stayed in a horrible hotel via booking.com, a very long list of faults including lying about the accommodation.

Booking.com were hard to contact, & didn't want to know - even though the lies were obvious.

I mean, to be honest you can get a duff hotel or accommodation cancelled last minute by booking direct, too. However, if booking.com are taking fees from accommodation providers and guests, I do think they have an obligation to provide some customer service.

I do the same - use Booking (and also Tripadvisor) for research and then contact the accommodation directly because it's often cheaper as many hotels and B&Bs incorporate the commission they have to pay into their prices - and making payment by credit card gives some protection if things go wrong.

I've used them a few times if I'm booking a long time in advance and I don't want to pay straightaway.
I always do my research on places before booking and then I make a point of emailing the hotel/b&b directly a few weeks before I go just to confirm they have my booking. I've never had any problems

I did this in York and very nearly lost everything

The place was such a shit hole, I couldn't stay there and ended up in a Premier Inn

I did have a thread going, but it was 30 Days Only

The shysters want payment up front, use their own websites gulling foreign tourists with pictures of beach resorts and stolen content from Premier Inn and Oyo, tell people that they don't give refunds and run a series of old rundown B&Bs remotely, with no food service at all

On booking.com, they are cuckooing a series of previous owners' sites, using their old pictures and reviews to attract more victims

I only just got my money back because although I used a debit card, Nationwide use Visa who have their own rules

I was less than 24 hours within the claim back window and spent the first day of my holiday in York trying to get my claim in before the window closed

I got my money back months later

Booking.com were absolutely useless and the hotel is still advertised there, advising clients that a luxury breakfast experience is available

Some of the reviews seem to have been given under duress and TripAdvisor shows the same thing - good reviews in exchange for refunds

www.booking.com/hotel/gb/crossways-guest-house.en-gb.html

Debit cards do not offer as much protection as credit cards.

moneyfactscompare.co.uk/credit-cards/guides/is-it-worth-paying-for-a-holiday-on-a-credit-card/

I've used it for many UK stays without issues. I'm not an habitual AirBnB user, but I have booked through them for 6 nights in London this summer.

Our main holiday this year is in Mauritius and we've booked the apartment through Booking.com. Communication with the landlord or agent is the best way to get reassurance, as well as reviews.

I use booking.com a lot because I like the flexibility of free cancellation if plans change (eg if I'm going away for work and dates change, as they often do).

You just have to have a proper look at the listings and know the signs of a dodgy establishment. Eg the place in York that @Gingernaut posted a link to is clearly dodgy as hell.
There aren't any pictures of the outside of the hotel and the pics that are there of the interior are weirdly generic; the good reviews are written as if in AI; and there are a substantial number of really terrible reviews. Clearly not a place to be touched with someone else's bargepole.

Oh - and always cross reference reviews elsewhere too. That York place has dire reviews and a 2* rating on tripadvisor! The signs were all there..

Used both quite a bit.
Not had a problem with either.

I was of the opinion that if you go to booking.com, there was no need for TripAdvisor

Now, I'll only go to TripAdvisor and not bother with booking.com

This was a well reviewed hotel in Oxford

The ground floor is now a restaurant and a 'varsity'/'Harry Potter' style shop

It's now room only and badly in need of decoration

https://www.booking.com/hotel/gb/the-buttery-oxford.en-gb.html

I’ve used booking . com loads of times. Always been good. They do seem to have strayed into the “Airbnb” style market with more apartments than hotels recently though so it is always wise to read reviews before booking.

There was a Which article earlier this year which warned of fake listings by scammers on Booking.com. I do use Booking.com, but would only book an apartment with plenty of recent good reviews. NB You need to click on a button in order for the reviews to be listed with the most recent first. The default Booking.com setting prioritises the reviews that Booking.com considers most relevant. Make sure you actually read the reviews. Don't rely on the average score, as that could be the product of high scores a while ago and lower scores more recently.

Used Airbnb to book a villa at Christmas and paid a deposit earlier this year for Easter holidays. I was away when the second payment was due and my credit card had expired and second payment was declined. All emails went into spam. A few weeks before, I checked AirBnB and saw that the booking had been cancelled. Contacted airbnb and told them my holiday that I had paid a deposit of £1000 was cancelled, but I would pay the remainder and reinstate the holiday. They washed their hands and said contact the owner. The owner said they had relet the place and would not refund my deposit. I had to then find another place after losing £1000. Took it up with my credit card and still fighting over it with all sides. Never again

Also used AirBnb to book a cheapest place in Barcelona. It was a sh1thole and a real dive. Had to find a last minute place with my kids and paid a lot more. Also went to Edinburgh and the place was really really dirty and did not look like the pictures. My daughter’s eyes started running and she had a severe allergic reaction as there was mould which was not in the description. We also had to leave.

we also had several cancel at the last minute. It is OK for flexible couples willing to take the risk but for families I would never recommend Airbnb. I have had good times with them and decent places in Mallorca/France/Sri Lanka/Thailand/Cambodia but about 25% bad. I do not think this is good odds.

@CovenOfCheeses I used AirBnB twice and it was awful each time

A 'small' bedsit in Earls Court was a filthy, converted concierge room in a house converted to flats

There was a broken coffee machine and a kettle for the kitchen, a tiny cupboard for the shower room and a broken IKEA day bed to sleep on

The idiot owner had linked the heating and hot water to the flat above and switched off the boiler when she travelled abroad for a wedding

The 'studio' was also a fire escape from the flat above, with a loft ladder-style staircase ready to fold down onto the toilet in case of emergencies

Second one was also in need of a clean in a broken down council block - I bought a personal alarm just to get in the lift

I have booked through both and it’s been fine, I’ve had more issues with booking direct.
I also let a holiday lodge through both platforms. I don’t charge extra for cleaning so the price you see is what I charge. Though for Airbnb you (the guest) get charged a fee on top, with booking.com they take their commission from the owner (so I get less money if my guest books through booking.com). I’ve had much more success with booking.com, however and most guests leave reviews which really helps. I pride myself in a first class lodge with any issues resolved immediately.

I have used booking dot com for 10 years, 6-8 a year mostly in Spain, genius member. We have always stayed in the most fab places, except one time last year.

We drove nearly 2 hours to a little village to stay in a really different quirky small family run hotel (if you can call it that)
When we got there we went up and down the road it was supposed to be and couldn't find it (only about 3 roads in this village, we were there to go and look at some ruins)
Rang the owner, he said we couldn't stay because the boiler had broken down. He offered to meet us in the nearest town over an hour away where we didn't want to stay as we'd been there before, but he said he had a wonderful apartment we could stay in.

It was boiling hot and as we reached the town I think sod this, I'm not doing this. We spent hours on the phone to Bookingdot com and eventually they gave us some money in our booking wallet and we didn't pay the non existent probably quirky hotel.

I didn't research enough. I should've read more of the 1star feedback. I normally do, this time I was lax.

Top tip... do what I always do... compare feedback to Trip Advisor too. Always read all of the 1star reviews.

Do NOT pay in advance

Ring bookingcom and insist on refunds and/or money for inconvenience.

I’ve used Booking for many years and am a Genius level 3 so can actually phone (or get them to phone me).

The service was great when 1. an apartment in London kept asking me to cancel. I contacted Booking and they said that if the owner cancelled they would claim the difference between my original booking and a new booking back from the owner and 2. In Mexico an apartment had 2 beds, not 3 as stated and they organised a 30% refund. However these were 2 and 5 years ago. Things may have changed.

I always filter on ratings of 8+ and cross-check reviews with AirBnb and Google maps. I tend to trust Booking reviews because you can’t submit the review until you have actually stayed and checked out. Trip Advisor and Google Maps can be from anyone.