Booking.com

Booking.com is committing fraud in billing customers for cancellation of rooms that they never use; they are trying to hide this fraud by stating that their site clearly explains their policies-which it does not.

Do not book through Booking.com

Here is my experience:

I booked a room online thinking it was in the town (Jasper, AB) that I was visiting, when in fact the hotel was much farther away but still came up on the web page (Hinton, AB). Quickly realizing my mistake I called within five minutes and cancelled the room directly through the hotel and through Booking.com. I was told by the front desk agent that my credit card would not be charged. A month later my card was charged. I contacted the hotel and the agent stated that I was identified as a "no show" and charged for the hotel room. I explained my mistake and the Manager stated I would need to contact Booking.com again to reverse the charge. He did not have a 1-800 number and there was no 1-800 number on the Booking.com site. I contacted the hotel again and was given a 1-866 number to call Booking.com. It took a while for the agent to pull up my cancellation, call the hotel, and then get back to me regarding how the charge would be reversed in 8-10 days.

On the cancellation receipt through Booking.com it stated $95.00 for cancellation. So they are billing people fraudulently to cancel their reservations. When there is no service provided there should never be a charge. This is a scam site and nobody should ever book with Booking.com.

The Booking.com site does not state anything about paying for cancellations/no shows. This is the worst kind of scam possible as the Hotels are then stating "oh we can't do anything you booked through Booking.com".

This is not ok and a lawyer should file a Mass Tourte lawsuit against this company.

I booked 'Mystic Valley Resort' located in Igatpuri for 3 rooms through booking.com website on April 12, 2017 for April 29 to May 1. I get a confirmation mail with booking confirmation mail with id:[protected] and PIN code: 1131.

On Apr 29, 2017 I land at the property travelling from Mumbai with my family and at the reception I am informed that they have never received any booking on my behalf from booking.com. Here I would want to mention that my family member includes a 4 year old kid, a senior citizen and a 7 month pregnant lady among others.

I contact booking.com and they very coolly give me an option of a Hotel Narmada.
I would want to highlight certain points here:
As per Booking.com website FAQ excerpt:

How do I know my reservation is confirmed?
As soon as you have completed the booking process the confirmation page appears. We also email a copy of this confirmation to you. Your confirmation includes all of your reservation details, as well as a booking number and your PIN code. Your booking number and PIN code will only be needed if you contact Customer Service. You can also access your confirmation online, see details of your reservation, or make changes to your booking at anytime by visiting your account and going to the ‘My Bookings’ page.

Then if my booking is confirmed, as per above excerpt how can the hotel cancel it. Secondly, if after booking it on booking.com I still need hotel confirmation why do I need booking.com, I can do it on hotel website itself.

To check this again in evening I booked a property 'Beautiful Bungalow' in Lonavala which showed available on booking.com. I get confirmation also for it. But I called to property to cross check and was informed there is no availabilty. If they are booked how come it shows available on booking.com and if booked through website how can a hotel cancel it or just deny it.

After Booking.com offered us a lousy replacement of 'Hotel Narmada', I get my booking cancellation mail from 'Mystic Valley Resort'. If they never got my confirmation how did they cancel it.

It was a pathetic experience and would request all readers to book on hotel website directly or if still they want to book through booking.com then please get a confirmation mail from property

If you are new to booking.com to list your house for vacation rental be very careful their policies are ridicules
anybody from anywhere can book your house without paying anything, you cannot cancel it, your calendar is blocked for those dates, you have to Waite and see if the guest is going to show up or not!, if you cancel they might charge you for guest replacement fee! soooo you as a home owners are screwed, i called the costumer service, they seem very lost and confused and because of that they are rude, anyways, finally in costumer service told me that I'm new and it will takes time to build relationship, my respond was it's fumy how anybody can just book my property without paying anything and I have to Waite and see if they will show up, ! what kind of stupid policy is that? finally they agreed to send a representative to my property for verification, after more than 10 e mails back and forward with booking REP Alyssia Santiago we made appointment, I had to re arrange few other appointments to visit Alyssa
LOL, she never showed up,
the bottom line is I'm renting my property for 3 years now and i have used more than 10 websites to promote or rent it but booking.com policies are so unfair and ridicules can be very damaging, in the first week of my registration I had 4 bookings only one was for real other 3 fake ones which i brought to their attention even i made the costumer service to call the number provided by the guest to prove it's a fake booking, guess what ? even though after it was obvious for them that it was fake, yet they told me I cannot cancel, if i do i might have to pay fees to booking.com and still my calendar was blocked,
I read lots of complaints that guests they had from booking.com in here I'm not sure what is the purpose of booking.com in insisting to make guest and home owners very unsatisfied
STAY AWAY FROM BOOKING.COM
I can backup everything been said here
regards

MIKE .P

Dear booking.com
I have received cancellation from booking.com, but not from the hotel. I am a very current member of aarp and I don't like where this type of booking is going. I have every intention of getting my money back!. The web site is miss-leading and I photo shot all of the instructions. I plan to make booking.com appear on the local and national news about this practice of taking money that in not theirs. Please don't think for a moment that you have won. I will expose this company and its network of hotels to the local and nationally how I was deceived and told I will not get my refund back from this hotel, after making a reservation 120 days in advance and cancelling it the same day. I don't care how long it takes my plan is to expose this practice of saying my card will be charged until check in day.

Urgent urgent urgent
I was booking in hotel leonardo royal berlin alexsandrplaz a triple delux room including bteakfast for 5 nights 25.4.17 - 30.4.17. The guests in this room are : me, my wife and my 12 years grandauther. I was surpised to realize that the shawer and the bathroom of the room are opened without door. It impossible for me and my grandauter to share this kind of room. It was not written in your room description. I did not pay more then 1000 euro fot such a room. I insist to get another room fitting my needs.
In your room description was clearly stated that it includes sauna without mentioning that it cost money (and it costs). I am asking you to intervent and garantee that I will get the room I have paid for it according booking.com description! The booking no. Is : 1110.933.579 pin codr 1817

Thomas sarosy #1637.775.221 pin code:6822
Complaint: doubletree suites by hilton philadelphia west
My booking for april 22 one night at double tree hilton west philadelphia was mishandled. on line I signed/clicked for a 2 room suite w/ 2 beds and a sofa bed for max capacity 5 people non refundable. the initial sale rate was $112 for the suite but I clicked down 2 boxes for the above criteria for $126, final charge $139.44.
I spoke on the telephone with a representative to make sure that I was doing this properly. I knew more than she did regards to the size of the 2 beds. proceeded to call double tree direct with little help because of the booking going through a “.com”, but confirmed the bed size was a king. two stikes so far with assistance.
I also sent notes (messages) with both the on-line booking method and to the hotel to make sure that the two (2) beds in the bedroom are at least double size if not king. if that message option is going to be presented and offered it should have been read acted upon before arrival indicating a mix-up with the booking.
In detail; the on-line booking page had visuals next to the box to be eventually checked had 2 beds and 1 sofa bed, those associated icons displayed below. how can I go wrong?

.. and I clicked the 3rd row down of non-refundable * (see right)
To declare for at least 5 adults (reality of 4 only) which increased
The price from$112 to $126.
The red us$138 figures in the example box (to the right) was not
the displayed amounts for the booking in question. us$126 was.

Upon arrival the suite had a bedroom with only one bed with a sofa bed in the other room. the front desk refused to address the situation saying that, my problem was with the “.com”.
This bad experience of not getting the booking that I signed up for was accentuated with an uncomfortable stay, tight quarters, nighttime harassment and incomplete bedding accessories.
Fyi, their front desk was rude and dismissive to me, which will also be dealt with, and they certainly despise the booking company’s role in this transaction. so, I had nowhere to go to that afternoon for assistance or correction.
Ibrahim asked what I wanted? well, what I wanted was for this not to happen and get the booking that was offered and was accepted but in reality …, so now in my state of dissatisfaction with the booking agent and the hotel, how about a rate adjustment for my troubles and an apology?

I booked the room 3 weeks ago at André Gill Hotel, Paris via website Booking.com which ad was saying that I could cancel that reservation 48 hours in advance for free and that I could pay at the hotel directly when I arrive. I had to cancel that reservation 72 hours in advance and I noticed at that moment that they took the money from my account from the very first day of my booking (£144). Plus the cancellation email explains that this money was not refundable. I was surprised because I had been using this website for years without any problem. They now just pass your card details to the hotel and take no responsibility for it. I called the hotel and they said that this money is not refundable even though the room is already booked for someone else after I cancelled.
So never trust booking.com by giving your bank details, find a trustworthy hotel yourself.

Dear whom it may concern,

I wish to make a formal complaint about the "hotel" called MJB Norwich The Lodge Hotel. This place was FAR from being a hotel! As we arrived at the building, the front door was open as the lock was broken. The lock on our room was also broken and wouldn't even shut. The Photos on booking.com do NOT match with how the room actually looked AT ALL. I have attached photos of how the room and hotel ACTUALLY looked when we arrived.

The Room was absolutely disgusting, it was not clean at all, the windows were boarded up, the light in the bathroom didn't work, the bed was a tiny thin metal bed (nothing like the picture!) and there was ONLY a tiny heater which would of definetly been needed because it was freezing in the room! We could not stay there as we felt unsafe because the door wouldn't shut. We then had to check ourselves into a different hotel and therefore had to pay double the amount.

I am requesting a full reimbursment from Booking.com as we didn't stay in the room as it was unfit for purpose.
Your company put 2 young women in a vunerable position and as you can imagine, it made our stay in Norwich very stressful.
I also had to pay £15 for parking even though we didn't stay there. I am trying to get that refunded too.

My Booking Reference is:
[protected]
We were booked to stay from Thursday 20th April until Saturday the 22nd April.
The Booking was under my Name: Claire-Marie Kenny.

Please get in contact with me at: [protected]@icloud.com or call me on [protected].
I would be very grateful if this could be sorted out ASAP.

Many Thanks,
Claire-Marie Kenny

I booked a hotel via www.booking.com website and it said that it was possible to cancel reservation for free. I was planning a vacation but wasn't sure. I am a very busy person and have a lot of work and that was not the first time when I had to cancel my entire vacation because of my job.
So I contacted Booking and tried to cancel my reservation and they asked me to pay a cancellation fee!
I was shocked because I was told that cancellation was free. Their rep refused to cancel until I pay, so I had to, because they didn't leave me no other choice. I will never use them again! Terrible service!

As when I started using your service, it is because you mentioned it is free cancellation . At the beginning of my booking on this hotel, I clicked the free cancellation and we now need to charge 30% for cancellation now !This is mean that we cannot cancel for the booking.

We choose to use your web site as you promised free cancellation, and the hotel web site need to charge . This is your promise, not because of the hotel . If you mentioned from the very beginning that you need to charge for cancellation, we will not book with you!

This is a very bad experience with you and the hotel . We are not canceling at the last minute, it is 2.5 months before we go!

I booked the Castle Rock Hotel in Branson. Was told that the room had a kitchen and would sleep 8. However when I got there I was given a regular room and it cost me over $50 more than the other guest in the same room. I am very upset and want a full refund. They didn't even have employees for the restaurant. Terrible experience with booking.com and the hotel.

Dear boking,

As when I started using your service, it is because you mentioned it is free cancellation . At the beginning of my booking on this hotel, I clicked the free cancellation and we now need to charge 30% for cancellation now !This is mean that we cannot cancel for the booking.

We choose to use your web site as you promised free cancellation, and the hotel web site need to charge . This is your promise, not because of the hotel . If you mentioned from the very beginning that you need to charge for cancellation, we will not book with you!

This is a very bad experience with you and the hotel . We are not canceling at the last minute, it is 2.5 months before we go!

Very disappointed

Mandy

I booked a hotel room in Venice with yourselves back In February only to be told 4 weeks before travelling that the booking was not going to honored, and offering an alternative miles from where I wanted to stay.

I went and looked for myself as you obviously weren't trying very hard and came up with one that although not as nice as the one I had booked initially at least was in the same area.

Upon booking the other hotel I received a mail within a couple of hours from the original hotel saying our booking was fine and would be honored. Now I can't cancel the other hotel without being charged the entire amount for the 4 days I booked.

I booked through you, you should have double checked your facts before telling me I had lost my booking, and at least take some responsibility for the error instead of blaming it all on the hotel.

Stayed in Stay City apartments in Manchester Laystall Street. Fri 14th to 17th. When I checked my bank account that morning I saw €292 had been debited from my account with no contact made or no authorisation from me. My booking g clearly stated that no money would be taken from. My card and full payment would be taken on checking in. I paid that morning in cash over €800! And a week later the funds of €292 have not been refunded to my account. Beyond angry now!

We booked the block apartments off your site forcesster break seeing the photos it looked lovely.
It was disgusting absolutely Terrible. We Got here I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Dirty. smelly. Rooms. The rooms I seen and booked was definitely not these.
There was stains on sofa and beds walls dirty. Was so run down.
I couldn't let my kids stay I wouldn't even put my dogs here!
it was a disgrace £197.50 for over night stay not fit for dogs.
I left and booked straight into a nearby hotel.

who give the right that company to ask for our credit cards data, and use it without our permission / pay order? they are a phantom, without at least a valid mail adresse where you can send a legal notification. do not trust them, ask direct to hotel for reservation, and only pay there by checkin, or you can have a big surprise! no one care about that?

On Wednesday 12th April over 300 pound was withdrawn from my account for a "no show" at The Brayton Hotel in Blackpool. I had correspondence with the hotel direct asking them about their policy on leaving my dog unattended in their hotel while my family and I went out to do local attractions. The hotel emailed me to inform me that my bank card had been declined and as a result they had to report me to yourselves as this was the policy. They then asked me when they could take the money. I never confirmed a date with them when they could take money as the hotel did not reply to me about their policy on leaving my dog unattended, despite asking them twice. Their lack of response lead me to believe the hotel was not confirmed. I also received email confirmation from yourself asking for different bank details and once again I did not respond. I received emails from you on 18th and 21st of February, which I didn't respond to. On 22nd of February you then went into my account and took £97 deposit without my authorisation and failed to send me a receipt confirming that amount had been withdrawn. Had I been sent a receipt I would have been made aware and subsequently cancelled the supposed reservation. Then on 12th April a further £323 was withdrawn from my account due to apparent "no show" once again you failed to inform me this would be happening and I have received no email confirming this or receipt and only realised money was missing when I went to bank and had no money left, which I'm sure you can appreciate caused a great deal of stress and anxiety. I phoned both you and the hotel on Wednesday 12th and was assured someone would respond to me by phone or email on Thursday 13th, yet I have had no response despite sending further 2 emails.
I am deeply disappointed by the poor communication from you. Not only with regards to taking money from my account without informing me or sending receipts as confirmation but also your lack of correspondence in trying to resolve this and deal with my complaint.
I expect a response by today and to be fully reimbursed all monies taken from my account without my permission

Joanne

I have booked a room on the 14th of April in the morning for 15th of April night in Doubletree hilton hotel in holborn. After i booked my room i have received an email with my booking number. Once i arrived to hotel - one of the staff (Young Polish girl) said that they have no space for me since they had no enough rooms. I would like to mantion that i havent received any emal or phone call saying that i won't be able to stay in the hotel. The Lady said that she has booked a room for me in Doubletree hotel in victoria and everything is already arranged - without informing me. How unprofessional service. On top of that once i was booking the room i ticked a parking box which meant to cost £30. I've paid 46 pounds in victoria. The food that has been served seemed to be not fresh kinda of row and had a bad smell in effect i was very sick in the morning.I have taken a sample of food and i will provide a statment to the council with a record of what i saw because there is risk to public health and safety.

I cancelled a reservation 3 weeks ahead of scheduled reservation and the motel still charged my cc. Motel will not give a refund because they Said they did not receive a notice of cancellation. Booking will not seem to help all hey did was send me an email for the help page that told me to contact yhr hotel, which I did for the second time and was sure I spoke to the same person but was told he was not available. So stuck paying for the reservation, I sent an email you booking.com but no response from them either.

I have booked MANY hotels with Booking.com, but NEVER again.
The firdt hotel was in Port Angeles, Washington state. The advertised price on the website for the hotel was not guaranteed by the company. The price they charged me was over twice as much.
The second hotel was in Reykjavik, Iceland, the 27 Soley Apartments. The Booking.com website lists this hotel as 'free cancellation'. I was charged the full three nights by the hotel even though I cancelled two months in advance due to serious illness. The message I sent to the hotel through Booking.com was completely ignored by the hotel for 6 weeks, and they refused to refund.
I emailed Booking.com SEVEN times without any reply! They finally emailed me that there was nothing rhey could do about it even though their site advertised free cancellation.
Terrible customer service and they do not stand by their policies. It's not worth it to save $5 with this site, use ANY other hotel booking site. I have cancelled allmfuture bookings with Booking.com