Booking.com
Reviews and Complaints

From: Lisa Marguerite Munns

Sent: 20 November 2022 14:37

To: SUN 7 BEACH VIEW PALAVAS - Acces direct plage via Booking.com

Subject: RE: You have a new message from SUN 7 BEACH VIEW PALAVAS - Acces direct plage via Booking.com

Your message arrived at 14h47 on the 18th – much too late as we were already at the property ready to check in at 14h00 as arranged. Then the problems began!

It took 45 minutes on the phone to José (I presume he is from Booking.com) to explain to me how to find the keys. With his instructions, I found the white gate in front of the grass verge and entered only to find that I had to climb up TWO 2ft high stairs to get to the gray box where the keys were stored. I am 80 years old and partly disabled so this was very difficult for me to get up to the gray box. Then, having got the keys, I had to try and get down again without any help. My husband was in the car and he is 83 years old and very frail. He has had 10 operations in the last 18 months and is due to have another one on the 30th November so he was not able to help me.

Having got the keys I managed to get into the building and the first thing I noticed was the filthy dirty entrance hall. Not a good start! Then I could not get either of the keys to fit the door. So I had to phone José again for help. He got the owner to call me and explain how the key worked. Voila! I got the door open and then found there were no lights. She was still on the phone and she told me to switch the electricity on which was on the board behind the door. I am 1m73cm tall but there was no way that I could reach the switch by hand so I had to used my cane to push the switch up. My husband is 1m93cm tall and, when we left, he had to stand on tiptoe in order to switch the electricity off again!

I then went to get my husband from the car as he was in desperate need of a toilet. When he pushed the light switch for the toilet, the cover came off in his hand.

Once Inside and having a chance to look around I noticed that the floors and windows were not very clean and also that there was a broken door on the right-hand side of the cabinet on which the TV is standing. In the bedroom, there was no room on the shelves to put our clothing as the space was taken up by extra linen and a duvet. Also the shelf on the top was packed with additional bed linen and a plastic cover of sorts which kept coming down whenever the cupboard door was opened.

Then I took the special protective blanket which I had brought with us to put under the flat sheet on the bed in case of any accident on the part of my husband’s incontinence. On pulling the duvet cover back the top flat sheet spilled out across the floor. It was obviously meant for a Super King size bed and NOT for a normal double. So I had to undo the bedding on that side and fold the very large sheet over in order to make it fit.

On the website we were told that there was a café 20m away and a restaurant 200m away. This is true BUT being out of season which it is in November, both were closed, so we were unable to go out for a meal or to buy provisions. Fortunately, a friend had baked a birthday cake for my husband and a tub of oat biscuits. We had no other choice than to have oat biscuits for supper and again for breakfast in the morning. We had been looking forward to croissants but no go!

There was no heating in the lounge but only a small « klim » in the corner of the bedroom. It is Winter so the lounge was very cold and we had to keep our coats on to stay warm.

On the TV the only available channel was Netflix but we had to pay to watch any move of our choice. But as there is no WiFi we were unable to do this. Also, we could not change the channels without a code which was not supplied. So the nightmare continued! We did manage to get France 24 on Netflix so could at least catch up on the news.

There were no bedside lamps to read by so that was also out of the question.

We had to leave the « klim » in the bedroom on overnight in order to keep a little bit warm which we do not like doing but had no other choice.

I sent a text to José telling him that we could not stay in that apartment and would be leaving first thing in the morning, and to let me know how to return the keys, which he did.

The final problem arosein the morning when my husband filled the basin the bathroom with warm water to wash in and then was unable to move the tap control to let the water out. I also tried to do this but it would not move at all!

As I did not receive your email of instructions until 14h45 on the day of our arrival when we were already in Palavas, I did not get the instruction regarding the bedding, so unfortunately did not strip the bedding but pulled the cover over in a tidy manner. I washed the only two cups and two glasses we had used and placed them back in the cupboard and I got a broom out of the cupboard in the bathroom and swept the lounge and kitchen floors. I also put all our rubbish in the black bag supplied and tied this up for easy removal not knowing where the outside bins were kept.

After packing everything up and checking that we were not leaving anything behind, we took it all to the car. As I said earlier, my husband had to stand on tiptoe in order to turn the electricity off! I then locked up and had to go and mount the two 2ft high stairs in order to replace the keys. This time my husband had to come and help me get down again.

This was meant to be a birthday present for my husband – a peaceful and relaxing four days away from home. As it was I had to work twice as hard as I would have if we had stayed at home!

When we went onto the website of Sunset Beach 7 we read so many favourable comments about the cleanliness and helpfulness of the owner (whom we never saw!) and the handiness of the restaurants and café etc etc etc which decided us to book the apartment. I don’t know which apartment/s those comments were about but I can guarantee that there were DEFINITELY NOT about the apartment at 341 St Maurice Avene in Palavas-les-flots!

I have taken photos of everything I have complained about in this email which I will send separately.

We paid in full via PayPal in advance on 29 September 2022. In the circumstances, I look forward to receiving a full reimbursement of 252,45€ without delay.

Sadly yours

Lisa M Munns

I have found an unauthorized debit from my account that is not linked to any of my bookings and cannot seem to get any assistance because I do not have a booking number to contact Booking.com via the app or telephonically.

This is absolutely frustrating because the amount deducted was significant .

I have already contacted my bank and they were unable to get any more information other than a transaction code on the payment i.e. [protected].

This is a frustrating experience and the trust is lost.

back in august 2022, i rented a car in cancun from mex alliance thru booking.com and while booking the rental they offered car insurance with one of their partners called

Rentalcover.com.

when i went to pick up the car on august 16, 2022 they told me the insurance i bought was not the insurance i needed to rent a car from them and they couldnt rent me the car if i didnt buy the insurance from them.so i cancelled the insurance from rentalcover.com and bought the one the mex alliance rental car employee told me i needed. the rentalcover.com set me and email with the cancellation and told me the refund could take up to 25 days. to date its been more than 60 days and i have not gotten a refund.

please help

you can contact me at: [protected]@msn.com

I booked Hotel thru Booking, com on Oct 17, 2022 Name of Hotel : PARUL - Elegant Heritage Home at the Heart of Shantiniketan Address: Gurupally Road, Bolpur, 731204, India Phone: +[protected]

Booking Confirmation:

CONFIRMATION NUMBER: 2434.503.820 PIN CODE: 2109)

Now confirmation clearly said:

The final price shown is the amount you'll pay to the property. Booking.com doesn't charge guests any reservation, administration, or other fees. Your card issuer may charge you a foreign transaction fee

Now the good part, I cancelled the booking on Oct 17, 2022, the same day. I got automatic confirmation email from Booking.com.

But Oct 18 they charged my credit card of amount $44.90 in the name of BOOKING.com (Ind

I sent email & chat with them and asked why they charged me when I am not suppose to pay any amount before I chek in. They asked me proof of Payment which I sent by email to them. Response to my email they sent me email on Oct 22 with refund promise within 5 days. After 5 days on Oct 29 they sent me similar email. Until then they did not do any response of my email.

I feel that Booking.com of India acts in favor of fraud in India specially in Shantiniketan West Bengal. I had same experience 3 years before when I booked with them. I lost 13000 Indian Rupees equivalent to $700.00. I did not get hotel to stay and when I complained they said they charged me for no show

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Gary Williams

Gary Williams

Trustpilot

Thanks! Your review counts.

You reviewed Booking.com

Price match process is a joke

took multiple tries to submit the necessary screen shots from a competitor, with multiple unanswered questions on their apps customer for service chat.

They approved a price match for 810 from Hotels.com on June 17

A few days later, the Hotels.com price dropped to 635

After multiple attempts of submitting screen shots from their competitor (They gave me non working emails, and you are unable to send screen shots on their app), my second "price match" request for 635.00 was approved by email on June 22 by "Sandrine L".

(Notably, none of their "approvals" mention the price they are approving)

1 week before my trip, my credit card was billed by Booking.com for 984.00., not the price matched 635.00

Several attempts at using their customer service chat on their app were not answered, 2 of them were somehow routed to the Hilton property, who have no record of booking.com price match agreements.

On Nov 7, an agent (Dante B) then responded that he reviewed my 5 months of messages, and I should not be concerned apologized and confirmed my price match was approved ( but didn't explain why I was billed for 984)

His words: "I checked all the past log notes of my colleague last 5 months ago, and I assure you your claim is valid on your price match"

They stated if "the property billed me the incorrect amount", they would refund the difference.

That did not answer my question, as booking.com billed me the wrong amount, not the property, and as he confirmed, they knew the correct price was approved on June 22 at 635.00

I received no further response from their customer service , only a message from the Hilton property that the only price they had was for 984.00, and that I should contact booking.com (This was a response to a chat for customer service on booking.com)

After 2 extended phone calls today (Nov 13), not only did they not resolve the problem, the customer service manager kept me on hold for almost an hour, to then inform me the price match should not have been approved in June and they would not honor it because the competing site booking "was for 1 guest" for the King suite, and my reservation for them said 2 guests (The price was identical on both sites whether booking for one or 2 guests, which I also documented in a screen shot and with the agent. It just happened to default to one when I took the screen shot the second time)

So 5 months after their agents already approved the 635 price match, and a week after their agent Dante assured me he confirmed the price match for 635.00, and 5 months after I cancelled the reservation on the competitors site, they reneged on the price match their agents confirmed in the chat app and by email.

The manager for customer service (In Singapore) on 11/13, "Miguel", and the agent I first spoke with, "Ana Margareth M" didn't seem to care that they had all the documentation of their prior price match approvals in the emails and chat app, by their representative agents, which they reviewed.

Several wasted hours of my time, nothing but frustration

They offered me a " good will" refund of $100

Booking.com emails offering rewards for bookings before a certain date are misleading and deceitful. You always offer rewards to encourage us to book and you say the offering ends on xx date - but it always expires on the day before. If you say it is expiring, then it actually is expiring at midnight on the day before you say in your advertising. It might be an issue with your understanding of English.

I learnt this with my recent booking in Lisbon and your deceit cost me about $150 in credits.

I no longer trust Booking.com. I now look to book directly with the hotels instead of trusting you.

On the 20th of October I booked a hotel room in Malaga Spain, and a taxi to take my wife and I from Malaga Airport to the hotel in Malaga city. Both through Booking .com. Our flight arrived on time. We followed the instructions given. But no taxi appeared. We waited for over half an hour, and got a message on our phone saying to look out for a Toyota Prius. But still no taxi appeared. Finally, in distress, after about 45 minutes, we had to hire a different, random taxi to take us to our hotel. As a result | lost the fee Booking.com charged me for the Taxi fare. It was approximately 30 euros. I demand to be reimbursed.

Details:

Flight number: EZY6863

Flight Arrival Time: Thursday, 20 October 2022 21:40

Origin Airport: GLA

Pick-up location: Malaga Airport (AGP), Av. del Comandante García Morato, s/n, 29004, Málaga, Spain

Drop-off location: Hotel Goartín, ES, C. Gerona, 32, 29006 Málaga, Spain

Hi, I am writing as a host, regarding the reviews of guests and the unfair system towards hosts. Basically, the guests can have the worst attitude and use and misuse everything, yet have the right to write any nonsense and in addition effect the score of the location which reduces the future guests. We as hosts have no rights to even score the guests on their behavior, being on time, cleanliness, etc. The only thing we can do it to reply and prevent them of reserving our place again! big deal! I am not sure why booking.com does not even bother to change the system, because I know many hosts are being challenged with this issue, you can find it on the community chat. Out of 50 reviews, only 5 very angry, rude with very strange and aggressive behaviour managed to reduce my score from 9.2 to 8.0 and each time when I talked to the customer service, they said "sorry but we cannot do anything and we cannot even delete the review because it is against our policy"! in one case they said may be eventually they realized they made a mistake! I therefore, would like to ask you to please review this issue and just for once see how many hosts are suffering from this situation. You might be surprised.

Hi'

I just cancelled my reservation at cozy apartment in Navigili with the free cancellation option, I don't understand why you charged me before ending the period of free cancellation, I cancelled because We decided to stay out of Milan the second and third night and wanted to reserve again at Cozy apartment for the first night only( Nov. 11th)

Thank you

Best regards,

Gury Meir

[protected]@leadsun.co.il

we booked flights in april 2022 5 pax return bne to ppp ion the 4/8/22 i received an email from booking .com sayiing our flights had been cancelled the customer care agent said that if we paid the tax there was another flight on the same day we paid $55.00 for the extra tax the next day we received an email saying that we could not get on that flight we then ask for a refund and have been waiting since the 4/8/22 this is a very frustrating time every time i call booking .com they say virgin have our money when i call virgin they say booking.com have our money so i called my bank who confirmed booking. com have our money

booking ref 40-[protected] pin # 3147

We have booked a room at Colors Urban Hotel in Thessaloniki. We chose the hotel based on the photos, 4 star rating, and breakfast included advertisement on Booking.com. When we got to the property, we were informed that we did not have breakfast included and that our rooms were booked for one guest each, when we had booked it for 2 guests each. The property charged us 20 euros per night per person additionaly, and informed us that we would not have breakfast. We went to the bedrooms and noticed that they were on a separate building next to the hotel, which is far away from a 4 star hotel. Our rooms are at best only 2 stars, the property is poorly lit, dirty, doesn't have a concierge, and it looks completely different to what was advertised on Booking.com. We have asked booking.com to cancel our remaining nights, but we have to wait 24 hours to get a response, which means we will be charged for a second night. I'm sure this property must have had problems various times before, but Booking.com continues doing business with them. Booking.com just cares about the comission they receive rather than their customers' wellbeing.

We booked an apartment in Marbella, Spain, for 7 nights from Monday 5th to Monday 12th September 2022. through Booking.com. Having looked at the Booking.com website, showing photographs and customer reviews etc. we decided that the Eden Roc Beachfront Apartments would be ideal for us, a couple in their late sixties. We paid a total of Euro1250.80.

The apartment was on the first floor, looking out to sea. It was listed as two bedrooms, in reality, it had one bedroom, then a bed in the living area either side of the dining table? The shower room was unclean and the shower fan inoperable. There was a full width window facing the sea, which was supposed to open in sections by sliding each section across to the left to give a clear view, in reality the window mechanism was broken and the first window pane jammed and fell off the track! So, we didn't dare try it again. Outside this window was a wide ledge, which ran the full width of the apartment block, so we could not leave any window open as other apartments occupants could access ours! Night time came and there were other residents further along the floor level, who were sat on the previously mentioned ledge, drinking, swearing and shouting ALL night, Delivery vans delivering to bars and restaurants and shops All night, so shouting, doors banging etc All night.

There was a motorised roller-shutter on the main (faulty) window to secure it at night which we used, but it did'nt quell the noise. Then there was what sounded like a sewing machine running All night. The next morning, having had no sleep, we raised the said shutter, to find a large ferocious dog trying to get in through our window! My wife freaked out at this, the dog was walking along this ledge from another apartment on our level. Later a cat did the same thing, so windows had to remain shut. it was about 38 degrees C and no Air-con! By this time we had had enough and informed the owner of our issues, he said he would speak to all other residents about the noise but we did not feel that the problem was resolvable that we were unsatisfied with apartment and checked out. We requested a refund less the amount for the night we had been in the apartment. He refused but stated that he would refund us if he could re-let for the remaining days. We went back 2 days later, the windows were open and it appeared to be re-let, the booking.com website stated that it was fully booked? but the owner still refused and then ignored any further requests. We had a further look at the photos on Booking.com, the first 16 were of another apartment, not ours, which was a lot better! Since this complaint from us, the Eden Roc apartments are still advertised but our apartment is no longer posted on Booking.com and the photos have disappeared! We feel that the apartment was mis-represented and not as it seemed from looking at the website. Very disappointed as a "Genius" level customer! There should be some protection for us customers when we are purchasing these properties On-line and unseen?

Booking.com did not acknowledge our (June 17) cancellation of a (February 28, 2022) reservation. Consequently, Playpark Lodge charged us for a cancelled reservation.

On October 16, 2022 we received a notice that a safety deposit would be required for the stay at Playpark Lodge. Needless to say, we tried to fix the problem, but Playpark Lodge alleged that only Booking.com could cancel this reservation. We also tried to fix the issue through your Customer Service to no avail due to a lack of reservation info.

Enclosed we are sending a copy of the information that the lodge was able to provide to us, which follows for clarity's sake:

Playpark Lodge

Guest: Paulina Pommerenke

ppomme.[protected]@guest.booking.com

Check-in: Oct 16, 2022

Check-out: Oct 18, 2022

2 rooms for 2 nights

Chanel: Booking.com

Booking number: [protected]

Received: Feb 28, 2022

Cancelled this reservation on June 17, 2022 with Booking.com

On a final note, ppomme.[protected]@guest.booking.com does not match Paulina's [protected]@gmail.com account email.

Never had problems with Booking.com in the past. I hope this complaint helps to clear this nasty issue.

Appreciatively,

Joseph Rotger

[protected]@gmail.com

(on behalf of Paulina Pommerenke)

I was shocked to find that my account was debited to the tune of $184.67 this morning with the following description:098WNV1223064*Ag/POS/WEB PMT HOTEL ON BOOKING.COM.

To the best of my knowledge, I was duly charged on all the places I booked for this last couple of days, except for the accommodation in Italy which unfortunately we couldn't gain access because the office where we were to collect the keys from was closed and we couldn't reach them. I duly sent a message that we were there but couldn't gain access to the place.

Kindly reverse that debit because we didn't gain access and not because we didn't show up. My card number is 4696...061285

Thank you.

Bruno Brume E.

I received 2 emails saying my reservation for may 2023 in new york is canceled. I did not cancel it. We are going to new york their app also says the reservation is cancelled. Wtf. It is impossible to reach anybody for help. 11/1/22. They did not have permission to cancel it, we did not cancel it. Hotel says it’s still valid. I will never use them again

On the 4th October I called the booking.com customer service and make a simple change to the return flight date for my son's booking. THey charged me the fare difference over the phone and took the payment via credit card.

4 weeks later I have still not received any confirmation of the change.

I have been calling the customer service since the 5 October and they transfer me from one department to the next with no resolution. It is now 1 November and I have been on the phone for 2 hours being transferred from one person to the next. They now tell me the change I made on the 4 October was not issued and now there are no return seats for the date I changed and paid for.

This is an absolute nightmare! They have been saying for 4 weeks that someone from the 'Concern Department' will contact me - and not one single person has contacted me.

I just don't know what to do anymore.

I don't understand why it is so hard to confirm such a simple change. Now I can't find his flights at all.

Hello,

. The only info on my credit card statement is the purchase date (9/28/2022), merchant name which is BKGBOOKING.COM HOTEL [protected] NY. and the charge $648.36 (US Dollars). I called the number, and the recording demanded a confirmation number which I could not provide. My wife and I were home all of September.

Consequently, there is:

1. NO Booking number or PIN for this charge, consequently I think it is fraudulent.

2. My email address is [protected]@msn.com.

3. There is NO ACCOMODATION NAME OR ADDRESS

4. There is no check-in or check-out dates

I already sent a copy of my statement with the charge in question highlighted in yellow.

I am hesitant to send the first six digits of my credit card number, but the last four digits are 3611.

I do not intend to pay this charge and will work through my credit card company if you cannot verify this charge.

Thanks. Walter Alessi

In September we booked a hotel on what we thought was the island of São Jorge in the Azores. When I put in my search for that particular island, it broadened the search to another in the Azores, São Miguel, which was 241 kilometers away! I had no idea that it would do that and was totally unaware of the hotel being on a different island. When we arrived on São Jorge, we discovered that the hotel wasn't on that island! We were fortunate to find a vacancy in another hotel. When I contacted booking.com customer service to ask for a refund on the hotel, they assured me that they would look into the situation. We have waited weeks after our first contact with customer service and still haven't received a definitive response. We been in contact several times since then with basically the same response: "someone there will get back to you within 24 hours." I feel that they are trained to give you the runaround.

I attempted to get a reservation Quality Inn and Suites in Wytheville, Va for 10/28/22. This is a hotel I have stayed at many times and recognize the picture. The confirmation came back on the website showing that it was for Comfort Suites in Wytheville on Nov 25 2022. I immediately cancelled it and the computer returned a confirmation of the cancelled reservation. However the charge to my account went through as a cancellation cost for 104.97. I attempted on several occasions to call the Comfort Suites to confirm the cancellation but each time I was met with no answer and the mail box is full.

I did finally call Quality Inn and Suites to make a reservation there. I would like the 104.97 credited to my account. There were no warnings about cancellation of reservations in this session on Booking.

as part of my booking, booking .com offered a free taxi to the property.

i have screen shots off this and thankfully kept copies.

once booked they would not stand over the offer...instead said that i did not spend enough to avail of this offer.

this is factually incorrect ...and i tried to book again and was offered the same deal.

i told them to try to book to see for themselves...24 hrs later the offer of free taxi is withdrawn...but customer service still saying im in the wrong!

i booked 26/10 Confirmation: [protected]