Review:
Booking.com has excellent search functionality, but their customer service is absolutely catastrophic when problems arise. They consistently blame customers and fail to honor their own promises.
What happened: I had a confirmed Hilton Geneva reservation. Upon arrival at 1:30 PM, the hotel informed me my booking was cancelled days earlier without notification. The hotel was fully booked with no alternatives.
Booking.com's broken promises: The first representative offered two options: relocation assistance OR 50% compensation (equivalent to my Hilton cost) credited to my account. I chose the compensation since I needed to stay nearby for a seminar. After 15 minutes on hold while she "verified" with the hotel, she simply hung up on me.
The runaround: Hours later, I received unwanted hotel suggestions via email (despite already rebooking at the only nearby option - the Ibis - visible in my account). The next day, my app still showed the Hilton as "confirmed" with no compensation credited.
Final insult: When I called back, they refused the promised compensation, claiming they "helped with relocation" - something I never requested and they never actually provided.
Bottom line: Booking.com takes your money happily but abandons you when their system fails. Two different agents, same story: blame the customer, break promises, provide zero solutions.
With nearly 100,000 negative reviews and zero company responses, they clearly don't care about customer service. Use at your own risk - when something goes wrong, you're completely on your own.