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On June 2, 2010 I have made a hotel reservation from booking.com on behalf of a friend of mine who was planning to visit Prague and stay in My Hotel Apollon from June 25 to July 6, 2010.
This reservation was necessary for her visa application before coming to Prague, and the reason that I chose Booking.com was its flexibility in the cancellation process in advance in case the visa in question can not be obtained on time, which can happen quite often in the Czech Embassy in Istanbul.
As you can see from the link: http://www.booking.com/hotel/cz/apollon-prague.html?aid=304142 and the screenshots that I attached, the Hotel Conditions section for My Hotel Apollon clearly states that no fee will be charged on the credit card until the 24 hours prior to the booking start date. Based on this information, I logically assumed that Booking.com would prove a trustworthy site which could be relied upon not to abuse the sensitive credit card information provided. Unfortunately, this proved to be far from the case.
On review, the "small print" of the booking on the second page was understandably missed given the clear assurances to the contrary on the first page of booking. Without noting the small text in the
Conditions column below, I therefore continued with giving my friend's personal data and credit card information, assuming that the transaction would be kept on hold until one day prior to the booking date.
Unlike stated on the website, I was informed by my friend that the equivalent of 423 Euros in Turkish Lira currency was in fact credited from her account by this hotel. On review of the reservation details on Booking.com, I noticed in a separate page that, in blatant contradiction to the flexibility so generously offered on the first page, that cancellation was in this case not a possible option after all and the reservation would be charged anyway.
I am very frustrated by the inconsistency between the information given on this site and the hotel's policy. Now my friend is having problems with getting the visa, and probably she will not be able to come to Prague on the stated dates. This is not only the abusive use of my friend's personal details, but also a big amount of lost money which has been illegitimately drawn from her credit card just because that booking.com didn't show My Hotel Apollon's cancellation policy in a clear and consistent way on their site. I am attaching some proof images, just have a look to avoid falling into this scam. I have contacted both the company and the hotel, asking for a refund to compensate their negligence, but booking.com refused to pay my friend back what they have already taken claiming that this is the policy of the hotel and not that of Booking.com. I am going to share this unfortunate experience with everyone I know until they correct their mistake on their site and refund what they have taken from my friend's credit card.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer's satisfaction.
I am very very dissapointed after my last booking on booking.com.
Are they really out to con people ? I don’t think/hope so.
I have used booking.com a LOT (also with other logins for my sons and daughters travels), this is the first time I am hit in my face.
2 days ago I came to Rikkeshoeve and he showed me his booking paper where
1 person was stated instead of the 2 I had booked.
He said : check your email and indeed ONLY in the email I saw you had send me a
1 person booking ? While I NEVER asked for 1 since I was planning all along,
clicked all along that my daughter was coming along !
At 15:30 he promised me to ”open the booking again on booking.com, so that if he got a new booking, he’d refund me” (I’ll be honest in that, were his exact words)
Only to tell me the next morning when I asked wheter he had succeeded ”no, sorry, I close all bookings at 14:00, since I have to know what to expect”
Numerous messages and phonecalls to booking.com didn't bring a solution (I just need 70€uro back) for i actually CAN read and DID book for 2
Just try to make the same booking :
search for 2 adults
choose the 2 man icon room
choose 1 room
etc etc
you'll see everything will be showing 2.
Than you have your booking nummer (so you do NOT read the email) and than...you're cheated BIGTIME
I had a similar situation where I booked through booking.com and I knew it was a non-refundable room. I had a family emergency 3 days before check in. I called booking.com and notified them to see what were my options and they were very nice as well and they said that the reservation was cancelled. They sent me an email verifying it was cancelled. Then the Sheraton charged me 100 dollars more than original charge of 423. ($525) I called Sheraton and they told me to call Booking.com. Booking.com said that my cancellation was that of the reservation only. It is a non cancelable reservation. They said because I was a loyal client (their typical line) that they would call the Sheraton and see if they can reverse the charges. (I'm pretty sure they didn't even call) They called me back saying it was a nonrefundable booking. I said great now give me the name of the person you talked with at the Sheraton and or give me a reference number (crickets) they gave me nothing. The issue with this is that the email stated that the reservation was cancelled for 423 dollars meaning that the reservation was terminated with a fee of 423 which is the full price of the room. The issue is in the wording. You cannot cancel a non cancelable room. However you spin this, IF YOU ARE PAYING FULL PRICE YOU CAN'T CANCEL THE ROOM. You should not be getting an email saying that your reservation has been cancelled when, in fact, you are still paying the full amount for the room. So, in the end, they said that my cancellation cost was the full price of the 2 nights that I booked with the Sheraton which was 423 dollars and the Sheraton charged me 525 dollars. Booking.com never got back to me to resolve the matter. I will never deal with booking.com again and or the Sheraton. STAY AWAY FROM BOOKING.COM. Because of Booking.com's unwillingness to resolve this matter, and their, "we don't give a crap" attitude towards their clients I'm actively lobbying to have my voice heard through the BBB, Consumer Protection Agency and the Hotel Association of Canada.
In August 2016 I've booked a room with Booking.com for one night in Barcelona. I gave the hotel my credit card no without my CVM. Arrived there, this is not a hotel, is a room in an apartment in a block of flats. The room is small, two persons hardly fit inside, the bathroom is glued to the bed, the walls are thin and the noise from the other 5 (I think there were 5 or 7) rooms of the apartment can be heard easily. The room is far far away from what they showed on their Booking page. I said to the housekeeper I cannot sleep in such condition and that I cancel my booking due to the non adequate accommodation conditions. I cancel the booking online. Booking.com sends me a message on my Android app saying the cancellation was done free of charge. I check my account and notice the hotel took 155 E from my account for this improper room where I did not sleep. I contact Booking and they blame the hotel. But the hotel did not have my card details. Only booking had them and my data are not registered and not available automatically. So, aside the fact Booking gave my card details to this ''apartment company'' without my agreement, they promote this hotel which is totally lying about what they offer and Booking is telling me they take no responsibility for the hotels advertising on their site.
Booking sustains the fraudulent policy of this ''hotel''.
Booking.com is aware of all this and does nothing. They told me they are only an interface of the hotel and they do not respond for what the hotel is advertising on their site. BUT THEY CHARGE THE COMMISSIONS SO THAT THEY ARE SERVICES PROVIDERS AND THEY SHOULD ANSWER FOR THEIR DEEDS. Booking.com is an accomplice to this fraud.
Has anyone been scammed by proprietors in Chiavenna, Italy through Booking.com? Thanks.
Booked a 3 day stay with Booking.com for a rate of $439 free cancellation up to the day of arrival, rate guarantee. Three days prior to the trip I found the same dates and room for $366 on Hotels.com. I emailed Booking.com 3 times with a screenshot of the Hotels.com rate. No response. Finally, 2 days prior to the trip I called Booking.com. The rep stated that they could refund me $5 and for my trouble they would give me a $15 courtesy voucher. Uh, the difference in rates is $75 and I can cancel at any time. Why would I stay with Booking.com? As it was the rate had increased on Hotels.com and I was now only saving $50. My loyalty to Booking.com cost me $25, and a long wait on the phone. Booking.com doesn't honor their guarantee and when they get caught they make no apologies or reparations. Book with someone else, Booking.com is just another bait and switch.
Online booking sites for hotels are becoming a scam. Late December & early January I checked all the big name hotel booking sites( ie:trivago.com, hotels.com, expedia.com, booking.com. etc.) for a hotel room for 4 golfers. Our 4-ball stayed at the Hampton Inn in Beaumont, CA last year for $89.00/night for a double room & this year every online website quoted me a price of $119.00/night for a double room. Not believing that the same double room went up by $30/night from last year, I called the Hampton Inn direct and sure enough the prices quoted to me were the same as we paid last year...$89.00 a night for a double. I saved our golf group $600.00 for our 10 night golf trip by just making one simple phone call. I would strongly urge anyone shopping online for hotels etc. to do a little leg work, make a few phone calls, guaranteed you'll save.
You are a booking site, in which you are supposed to make people’s vacation go smoothly and make the experience pleasant, I assume. At the end of the day it is not about the money, $100.00 + $18.95x 2 people for 2 nights with taxes is only $185.65. It is the principle of things and the feeling of being lied to and being misled and then being implied that I am liar, I find this very offensive. From the beginning to the end Booking.com has not been transparent and they are misleading customers.
I have never complained on a review site before which proves how very upset with Booking.com I am over their poor handling of a simple payment error. We stayed at Hotel Goldoni in Florence booked via booking.com in Oct this year. The hotel requested on their booking form that we pay for the reservation in cash on leaving which was fine. However 2weeks later the hotel took 150euros out of our account without any warning which caused us to go overdrawn and incur bank charges. We contacted Booking.com who managed to get the owners to refund the money but this took almost 3wks and there was no mention of compensation for the bank charges. This we were very patient with and decided to let go. However when the money was finally paid back we were £8 short - I realise this is not a large amount but we didn't see any reason why we should incur even more costs for an issue which was wholly the fault of the hotel. When we asked booking.com to retrieve the extra money they reported back blatent lies told to them by the hotel regarding the whole fiasco and refused to help us any further. I feel part of the problem was that we were contacted by a completely different booking.com employee on every correspondence and the newly assigned individuals obviously did not bother to familiarise themselves with the complaint - if they had it would have been very obvious the hotel were not telling the truth. The fact that Booking.com chose not to be supportive of it's customers in what appears to be fairly disturbing financial behaviour by one of their hotels was upsetting and baffling and I would encourage others to be very wary when considering using this site!
Receptionist: Usually there are 2 rates to book a room: flexible and advanced purchase rate.
Flexible means you can cancel your booking usually 24h without charge before but the hotels actually tell booking.com their hours.This must be done thru booking.com and not the hotel.(Hotels are charged commisions by agent so if you cancel with the hotel the agent doesn't know that, that is why most hotels send you away to call booking.com). Flex rates are a bit more expensive just because you can cancel.
Advp (advanced purchase) means you money is taken by the HOTEL and is non-transferable and non-refundable. Usually you can not cancel unless the hotel agrees to that, wich if they are nice and your phone them quite a few days in advanced they might, if they are not so nice, they will not cancel. Anyway the hotel must contact booking.com to say that is allright to cancel. Advp rates are cheaper because you can not cancel AT ALL.
Sometimes double bookings happen, maybe it's booking.com, maybe the hotel or just the computers go 'boom'. Happens. In any case if it's advp the hotel MUST refund you the money. They must prove that a second booking has been made BY YOU or give the money back.
I have received a confirmation for a hotel booking that I have not made!
I have never used booking.com and I can only assume the messages is sesame asking oaf scam. The confirmation gives only the dates and a booking number . No mention of the hotel name or country!
Doss
Bookings.com used to be Active Hotels.com, I was with them for 20 years without a problem, but now they have a review button on the site which is now the domain of cranks, cyber bullies, thieves and vandals, Bookings.com will seriously damage our business, if you get guests that steal fixtures or fittings, bring more people than they booked, create mayhem in your hotel or trash your rooms and bring in prostitutes and if you pull them up on it or charge them for the damages this bunch of ###s will write the worst possible review on the site and take your grading down to zero so no one books with you again, they have destroyed my business as i have absolutley no right to reply to any derogatory reviews, no matter what they write about you it is published, if you are a hotel business and are thinking of going with them stay away, Bookings.com will destroy your hotel and business, you have been warned.I dont understand their logic, once a hotel is not doing any business how do they think they are going to get any commission, its completely mad.I thought Trip Adviser was bad but at least they give you the right to reply.
I AM TRYING MY BEST TO INFORM OTHERS ABOUT BOOKING.COM
Sorry did not mean to yell. The company is based in Amsterdam.
'nuff said. They will not go to batt for you or help you in any way with problems. You will have to fight your credit card co., hotel, cab driver, waiter, consierge...get the picture?
This "service" (hah!) is a disservice to all. To pay their commision is to toss money in the toilet. Seriously! Don't do it.
I booked a room advertised as 39 euros per night for three nights. And the results was that they charged me 69 for the second and 89 for the third night without any warning! BOOKING.COM is a shameless scam site.
Sorry, regardless of if you have to cancel or not the booking.com cancellation policy states that you cannot cancel within 7 days of the arrival. Well, we are cancelling 7 months in advance and are still being charged. However, when you book, the cancellation policy changes when you receive the confirmation email which changes to you will be charged regardless of what they said on their website prior to booking. That is nothing more than FALSE and MISLEADING! My complaint is very similar to the original poster's comments on the misleading cancellation policy. I am now being told to contact the hotel when it is NOT the hotels policy, but Booking.com's BS policies at work. I will never go through booking.com nor will I ever recommend anyone else do the same.
To the sweet Nicci from Austria, I'm glad to hear your trip to Iceland went without any hiccups that's how it should be. :)
To the charming Steve from Blackpool. I was replying to Angela's complaint from the United States - she started the initial complaint and people are replying to her issue!
You call me elusive - I was in Iceland for 2 weeks where I used Booking.com every day to book ahead for the following night - guess what - NO DOUBLE BOOKINGS.
PS a little note for elusive nicci from Austria, put your brain in gear before you engage your mouth,
My point is simply the fact that two rooms were booked, this was confirmed on my confirmation from Booking.com. I am struggling to understand how the consumer is held responsible and given the label as a "no show". If two rooms are booked, and you arrive at the hotel and are told 4 rooms were booked which was possibly an error of Booking.com or the hotel as my confirmation clearly stated 2 rooms which the gentleman at the time confirmed. Neither party would advise or at least try to establish what had gone on. Therefore myself the paying customer is held responsible for either companies ineffective way of practice. It is ludicrous to think two companies, one being an agent and one being the service provider are hell-bent on maintaining there words of a "no-show" the simple fact is, I did show for the two rooms which I had booked.
Oh stop bleating - you tried to abuse they system by making a booking you had absolutely no intention of using. This makes it difficult for those who actually are looking to book that hotel as the room type they want may be unavailable or the hotel may be full. My husband and I travel about 4 months every year and I only use Booking.com. The ease of booking, the precise room information and especially the immediate confirmation is a total blessing. Gone are they days of waiting for several days to hear if a room is available. I book sometimes only 1 day ahead while on the road and am delighted with this website. That is not to say that it is perfect. I have had money taken off a week in advance, or the full amount taken when it should have been a deposit, but we have always managed to sort out the problem. I once stayed at a hotel in Santorini, Greece (Iliovasilema suites) which totally misrepresented themselves and I wrote to Booking.com about it. They came back to me and so did the hotel. There have been changes to their site but they are still in the business of selling 5 star and offering 1 star. It is not a perfect science, but I have never had a problem with my credit card using this site and it is by far the most user friendly and convenient. I can happily recommend this site to any first time users. I have absolutely no commection to this company, just a very contented customer. Nicci, Austria
PEOPLE SHOULD ABSOLUTELY NEVER BOOK HOLTEL OR GUEST HOUSE ROOMS UNLESS THEY INTEND TO HONOUR THEIR COMITMENT. SMALL GUEST HOUSES RELY ON THE INCOME FROM BOOKINGS. WHILST THE ROOM IS RESERVED FOR YOU IT PREVENTS SOMEONE ELSE BOOKING THAT ROOM THUS COSTING THE HOTEL/GUEST HOUSES MONEY. SORRY ABOUT CAPS BUT I FEEL VERY STRONGLY ABOUT THIS I HAVE 4 CHILDREN AND IT IS OUR ONLY SOURCE OF INCOME. WHEN WE GET NO SHOWS WE NOW CHARGE THE CARD ITS EITHER THAT OF THE KIDS HAVE NO SUPPER. COME ON GUYS PUT THE SHOE ON THE OTHER FOOT.
I have to tell you, I never had a bad experience with booking.com/ I actually canceled rooms many times, no problem. Even when I was not supposed to, still no problem. Just 2 days ago I booked the Melia Bali hotel. I then found the same price on Agida but including breakfast. I complained and claimed that under theirprice guarantee they had to give me the breakfast included. In about 24 hours they had talked to the hotel and changed my booking. I call that service. I give the details because I am not associated with them.They are responsive, which is something you do not find out there. I wish they included more hotels, because their stock is not too satisfactory, but their integrity is there. I had issues with a hotel about exchange rates and they contacted the hotel. Nevertheless bear in mind one thing. All these purchases are made with credit cards. If you believe you have been wronged, most credit cards will deny the payment, provided you furnish them with the information supporting your claim, so I have a hard time believing all these complaints...
i also booked a hotel with booking .com .i booked for 7 nights in malta hotel maritim antonine hotel mellieha malta.booking .com sent me 2 conformation notes for 4 rooms when i asked and paid for 2 rooms .on arriving to the hotel they explained booking .com booked 4 rooms when i only booked for 2 rooms the hotel said they will cancel the over booked 2 rooms .they were glad at this because as they said we will get a better price for them .when i arrived home from malta they had charged me for 4 rooms on my debit card .when i phoned booking .com they passed the blame on the hotel and the hotel blamed booking .com.that was 8 months ago and i still have not been reenburst of my moneys
I used Booking.com last year for a three night stay in Amsterdam. Absolutely no problem. The hotel exceeded our expectations and was in a great location. When we arrived, the hotel staff was very friendly and found our reservation immediately. No surprise charges. Everything was as advertised. Plan to use them for a trip to San Francisco this fall.
Same happened to me too. My credit card was also charged even when booking conditions clearly stated that no prepayment was needed.
Their customer relation department is pathetic.
wow. I'm planning a 14 day europe trip right now and was told to use booking.com, not so sure anymore. Might book directly woith hotels or use expedia. thanks for sharing.
I have booked/cancelled a couple of times with hotel in Istanbul this pass April 2011, I was only charged on the hotel I finally stay in, it seems to me booking.com is a reliable company through my experiance but would like to see how they sattle this complaint!
I TOTALLY DISAGREE with these comments. I have booked with Booking.com 3 or 4 times a year for the last 2 years and NEVER HAD A PROBLEM.
The Customer Service is friendly and helpful. It clearly states on the website the cancellation deadlines - of course it is necessary for the hotels to require such deadlines - otherwise they would have people booking rooms, just not showing up and then they would be left with empty unpaid for rooms.
Same things happened to me, deliberately misleading regarding fees. They also try to pretend to be part of the same group as other sites (that don't charge). I was caught out because I mistook booking.co.uk with bookings.co.uk - the later takes you to the scamming booking.com