Screwed by Booking.com, please help?

[RicherThanYew]

Hello and apologies in advance for the length but I don't want to leave anything out. Last year on July 10th I booked and paid for a holiday (UK caravan park, South Wales) to take place during half term this year. I checked my account on Booking.com yesterday to double check the dates to book my annual leave and my booking has not been cancelled but deleted altogether. There is no proof of its existence and I was never sent a confirmation email, I have spent 11hrs checking all email accounts, my bank account, my search history and even screenshots of the booking to no avail. My bank has verified that I did pay the money to Booking.com but as the transaction is older than 120 days they can't help, they gave me details for Citizens Advice Burea who told me to raise a complaint with Booking.com but I have a string of 12 emails from them saying they can't help without a booking number or they send me their automated phone number for customer services which only helps people with confirmation numbers. I sent a complaint to them and tried raising a dispute but every email is the same: confirmation number. The financial ombudsman can't help, my bank can't help and Booking.com won't speak to me. Please please someone help as I've lost a £542 holiday and I'm about to lose my job so it was the one thing we had left to look forward to. Thank you.

Which bank are you with OP?

Nope. I have a booking for September that's a placeholder until I can confirm dates and I still check it weekly, lol

Have you tried going directly to the CEO with this?
He will refer it on to his complaints team but it will bypass the chatbot loop who want the booking reference number.
This worked when I got stuck on a chatbot loop on Amazon.

www.ceoemail.com/s.php?id=ceo-77732

Did you speak to the holiday park?

have you got the full reference from the bank statement?

so when you booked you received no emails at all?

have you checked your bank statements after the payment to make sure it wasn’t refunded?

If your bank has confirmed that the payment was made on the 10th July, then you are able to print off the transaction details. This will show the amount, time and date, and booking reference.
Check your bank account again to see if the transaction has been reversed since then.

A little while ago there were media stories about problems with booking.com and as I was thinking about a booking I looked online and found several Facebook groups about issues with them

It was quite shocking to read, one countrys government had even got involved it was so bad and nothing happened, an email to the CEO will have no effect at all

Edited as I googled , it was Hungary, lots of articles online

Can you contact a newspaper travel doctor problem page? The Times has one, they usually seem to be able to help with this sort of thing. I don’t mean do a ‘Daily Mail sadface’n

@VisionsOfSplendour sorry to hear that, sounds like they are quite a rubbish company then.
Still I always recommend getting hold of a direct CEO contact and trying that because it's often a way of getting in touch with real people rather than the AI wall.

Your bank is not correct - longer limits apply for chargeback if you are paying for something with a future date, such as a holiday. The 120 days runs from when you were due to receive the goods or service, as long as this is not more than 540 days from when the payment was made. Go back to your bank.

The other thing you could try is an actual letter posted to them with all the information in and signed for?

No, me too 😂 and I make sure they’ve sent the confirmation email too.

I think if they don’t or if you’ve deleted it by mistake there’s a link you can click to “resend confirmation email”.

I don't I derstamd why the OP doesn't seem to have done the obvious thing which is speak to the holiday place, there might not been be a problem or the holiday place might be it

I can't imagine spending. 11 hours on checking email accounts (how many 1000s must she have) but not 2 minutes to make a call

I don't I derstamd why the OP doesn't seem to have done the obvious thing which is speak to the holiday place, there might not been be a problem or the holiday place might be it

I must admit I'm also confused as to why the OP doesn't seem to have been in touch with the caravan park.

I assume you checked junk mail folders etc.

As PP have said, there will be a transaction reference so that can be traced with booking.com. get the transaction details from your bank

Could you contact the holiday park themselves and see if you are on their system? Booking.com is just a platform and after their fees, they should just pass the booking on to the holiday park directly.

They might let you check in without the paperwork. I've used booking a lot and I don't think I've ever been asked for paperwork when I got to the accommodation, just my name.

Who have you paid on your bank account?

I always find the deals on Booking.com
and then book direct with the venue. It’s usually a little bit cheaper too. Sounds rubbish hope you get it sorted.

Can you book a cheap cancellable hotel to get a confirmation number to get through to a human on then change the subject once you're connected?

OP go into the app.
Click on the Bookings tab at the bottom.
Click on contact customer service
Click the blue box saying get help with a booking
Click Stays
Half way down the page it will say find your booking details/resend confirmation email
Click on that and add your email address. You don't need any other information
It might take two hours to arrive but keep clicking until it does.

Your best option is to contact the caravan park directly and ask for booking information, and even on Booking.com it says you can contact the property directly.

I read your OP again where you said the property listing said you didn't need to pay but you were charged immediately so I wonder if you unwittingly booked a Partner Offer which are sometimes not marked very clearly but are always payable immediately. If this is the case then you could phone Booking.com and say you need help with a partner offer booking, as that's a different team.

What does your screenshot show? Surely it's the order confirmation with number?

Try writing to them (old school style). They absolutely will be able to trace your order by email address and / or bank transaction reference. The bank can give you this. They will still have the records.

Apologies in advance but replying to everyone is an arseache so I'll try this:

• The holiday was not booked. Booking.com have admitted this (finally). I did try to resend the booking confirmation but it didn't work as they never booked it in the first place.
• The caravan park has no knowledge of any booking in my name, especially not in the lodges where we would have stayed.
• The reference on the payment on my statement only says Booking.com, this is the same as all my other bookings with them.
• I didn't check my emails when I booked the holiday because I'd never had a problem with Booking.com before and stupidly thought everything was OK.
• I sent an email using the details I found for the ceo at at the ceo email website, thats a handy thing to remember for the future. I have been contacted by customer services in Amsterdam who tell me that I must have spelled my email address wrong which is why I don't have a confirmation email, they also said they have nothing on their system in my name so I don't know how that can be.
• Their customer services want me to send them my banking statement, my account details and further proof of payment which is turning into a nightmare as the file corrupts on my phone when I download and they won't accept screenshot so I'll sort that with my bank today. The gent that I spoke to says he is hopeful of a resolution within 24hrs of these details being sent. Naturally I won't hand over any information that he doesn't need, I'll probably end up hacked or scammed with my luck.
• I contacted the holiday park quite quickly after I was advised to do so by kind posters on this thread. Apologies for not updating on that sooner, I have had extra small visitors and I'm also ill and working overtime so I've not had much time spare.

Hopefully the statement stuff can be sorted today and that will be an end to it, thanks to everybody for their wisdom and advice because I was in a major panic.

At least it sounds like you are getting a resolution now @RicherThanYew .

What an absolute nightmare! I hope you get the same holiday or an upgrade at the original price, and you deserve compensation too.

@Avacardo2023 you're very kind. I am especially furious as the holiday lodge that I booked ordinarily costs £1300 and was only so cheap because I booked it way in advance, we won't get a skip in Barry Island now even with a refund.