Booking.com
Reviews and Complaints

Hi,
Very disappointed with booking.com.
At first I was happy with the cancellation flexibility and was willing to accept the risk of guests not paying in advance.
The reality is an impossible to manage guest service.
Firstly, I found that the only way to communicate with guests is through the booking.com platform and that generally guests will not respond to me. So I am not sure the guest is even a real person.
Secondly I find that guests that have not committed to a booking with a payment are not likely to show up. So not only do they not bother to communicate they simply don't show. So I really do not have any idea of whether a webbot made a booking or anything at all. This is in the context of supposed bookings running at about $8000 a month. To date I haven't received a cent of money from any booking. I have received the occasional call from a booking that did appear to be a real person who did not respond at all until the actual day of the booking.
Thirdly I find booking.com has taken the liberty of publishing my personal details so that many search engines have picked up my phone number and address and I am now getting many unsolicited phone calls.
Fourthly I'm finding about 1 in 10 of my bookings appear to be real people who have been caught in this mess and I really feel for them.
Fifthly I try to cease all business with booking.com and find that this can't really be done through their platform. I have had to complete this task through emails advising them that I can not and will not honour any of the existing bookings I have on my property because I have no idea if any of them are real people. I also advise that I absolutely don't want any further bookings coming from booking.com. Because I can't deactivate of delist I resort to listing my rooms at $3000 per night in the hope that will keep real people away
Sixthly booking.com persist in wanting to charge me commission for guests who I doubt exist and certainly never showed up. They also want to charge me for finding new accommodation for the same guests.

At best I see terrible management. At worst I see a scam. I see terrible management with the companies policy of not identifying guests or expecting any monetary commitment from them. At worst I see a scam of deliberately allowing non existent entities to manipulate accommodation providers into fees that have no basis in real world people or stays.

Regards
Leah

Hello,
I am Prashant from India. Recently I have booked one hotel in Amsterdam(Date: 17Sept, 2018) through booking.com (From: 18th October, 2018 To: 21st October, 2018 )but it got cancelled and reason was "This reservation was cancelled because of an invalid credit card."
I have contacted my Bank regarding this cancellation but I came to know that there is no any declined transaction on my Card. I have booked Flights in Europe using the same card and also used this card for transaction when I was in Europe in April 2018. It means this card is activated for International transactions. There was no any reason for this card being invalid.
How could Booking.com allow such hotels to cancel the booking without trying on the credit card. These fraudulent Hotels should be removed from the Booking.com site.
Now I don't have trust on Booking.com and won't book any hotels from this site.
I have shown these hotel bookings for my VISA process and was definitely going to stay in this hotel. I am very much worried about my VISA just because of Booking.com.

Booking confirmation number: [protected]

I want this hotel to be confirmed with the same booking id. because My Credit is not invalid.

Thanks,
Prashant Jadhav
+[protected]
prash.[protected]@gmail.com

we had booked a room for 15th and 16th sep 2018 with booking.com; but since the hotelier charged us extra; to which we denied; booking.com confirmed the hotelier to cancel the booking...

Now the hotelier did not charge us that day, so we were relaxed...but the charge came all of a sudden on the next succeeding day afternoon; which was completely unexpected..

Booking.com did not support us at all; instead believed on the story cooked up by the hotelier..

We lost our money which was wrongly charged on our cc as well as had to pay 1.5 times more for booking another hotel.

Extremely sad behaviour from booking.com

Right upon receipt of Booking.COM afore referenced confirmation #[protected], I discovered a typo referring to the number of guests entitled for free breakfast on the room booked under Mrs. Zipora Sadeh …

When booking the two separate rooms; one on behalf of Mrs. Zipora Sadeh and the second on behalf of Mrs. Ronit Kfeer, I clearly indicated there would be a total of four (4) guests, two guests at each room …

Moreover, I paid the rate for breakfast inclusive in each room, evidently for the 4 guests, while your confirmation mysteriously confirms two breakfasts for the two guests of Mrs. Ronit Kfeer room, and only one breakfast for the room of Mrs. Zipora Sadeh …

Up until now, Booking.Com has been giving me unaccepted alternatives;

1. Canceling reservation; in which case, I'd be charged with the full amount with no stay in your hotel ... Tell me which person with a little bit of common sense in his head would have accepted this alternative?

2. To pay the extra fee for the forth breakfast which I have refused! If I'd agree to that, Mrs. Ronit Kfeer's room would remain as charged €361.30, but Mrs. Zipora Sadeh's room would now cost ... €361.30 + €78.35 = €439.65!

Why? Where's the justification for that? let alone I clearly indicated at the pre-booking that I'm reserving the two rooms, insisting on two separate beds at each room, for four (4) guests! Why would I insist on the second room for Mrs. Zipora Sadeh to include two separate beds if I would as if know that she would be alone in that room?

Thus far, all my explanations to Booking.COM Customers Service have fallen on deaf ears! It is as if I've been conversing with a robot, not a human being ... My feeling has been that Booking.Com refuses to accept its mistake, or perhaps the Hotel's mistake and it tries putting the lame on me … I just cannot think of any other possibility ...

In summary, all my attempts to get in touch with a human voice as opposed to "dry" mails have been to no avail ...
Can some Booking.Com person call me to end this saga once and for all?

Mr. Reuven Sadeh,
Mobile: +[protected]

On Aug 7-2018 Me & my GF stayed at Verovino Suites hotel in Cebu Philippines. I booked it thru Booking.com. When we got to this hotel it was aweful. On Aug 17 Booking emailed me & said they Will refund me 15 EUR. Ive now called Booking 3 Times. Everytime they give me a different excuse. I still have not received it. Booking also took my review of the hotel down. I called them asking why. Just another excuse. Can you please get my refund & can you please get them to keep my review? My conf # [protected] My name is Brent Mullen My email is Ben.[protected]@gmail.com

Place had a decent rating and pictures were ok. It was a dump! No windows filthy carpet stained towels air cond. didn't cool the room. And the topper-my first (and hopefully) last encounter with bedbugs!
I was exhausted or I would have gotten my money back and I didn't realize about the bedbugs untul later.
I will try to attach photos but this isn't the first time booking.com has misled me. In fact I went many months avoiding it. CREDIBILITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY! It HAS to be present or your business is a sham.
Joy Hanek

My sister booked the Homestead Motel & Cottages in Ellsworth, ME via Booking.com. We were travelling to Nova Scotia and Arcadia National Park 8/26 - 9/3. We were unable to book an Airbnb in Ellsworth for a group of 10 for two nights during the Labor Day Weekend (9/1 - 9/3). So a group of 4 stayed at the White Birch Motel while the 6 of us stayed at the Homestead Motel & Cottages (we had a two double beds cottage for 4 and a single double bed cottage for 2). The photos on Booking.com is a false representation of the Motel & Cottages. It was the Motel owner's house where they operates the office at the back of the house. We booked this motel based on the picture which looks descent and the acceptable rating (The actual view does not look as good as in the picture). The booking site mentioned that Homestead has free WiFi and internet which is not totally true.
Here are the facts on Homestead Motel & Cottages on Bucksport Road, Ellsworth:
1. Booking.com shows the site has a rating of 5.8. From our experience staying at Homestead saying otherwise. We have never stayed in a motel so bad, it is like staying in a slum. This motel should be excluded from the Booking.com website as well as all other hotel booking websites. We paid $362 for our 2-night stay without amenities.
2. No shampoo or conditioner provided in the rooms except a few very thin and small soap bars. We had to ask for shampoo and conditioner, the owner's wife could not find them in the office and had to ask her husband. Finally, they found some packets of shampoo-conditioner, the shampoo-conditioner did not work well to de-tangle hair. We were told that they only provide shampoo-conditioner when guest asks for it.
3. The office was cluttered and messy, did not look professional at all. It's at the back of the house where the owners live.
4. Customer service was bad, the male owner got angry very easily when guest made a request. Breakfast was supposed to be served in the messy office at 8 AM (bagel & coffee). We asked if it was possible to get the bagels the night before since we leave for Arcadia National Park early before 8, he got angry and raised his voice "No, we can't do that. If not, we will be serving breakfast all the time." What kind of customer service was this? Later on, when the bathroom door got stuck in the 2-person cottage and we reached out to the office, the owner came, he was not happy. He got the door opened but yelled at my relative that he should not close the bathroom door when using the bathroom. This was so ridiculous!
5. We were told that WiFi/Internet was only available outside in the vicinity of the owner's house and not in the room where guests are staying.
6. The front of the motel looks OK, however, the back where the cottages are looks bad... lack of maintenance and repair. The yard behind the owner's house looks like a junk yard and grass was high, hence, a breeding ground for mosquitoes and bugs.
7. The units that we stayed in were bad.
• Paint on the doors were peeling and chipping.
• Deadbolt on the doors did not work because it was not installed properly and was not leveled with the other side of the door frame.
• Ceiling in the units have water stains.
• Carpet on the floor was ripping apart.
• We were concerned of the condition of the rooms that we had to check if there were bedbugs on the beds. Fortunately we did not find any bedbugs.
• Appliances in the 4-person unit were outdated. TV was a small 19" obsolete box typed TV on a small cart. Refrigerator and microwave were outdated. Air conditioner was old and not efficient. Air conditioner was not on upon check-in and the unit smelled musty.
• The 2-person unit did not have air conditioning, only a stand-up fan, room smelled musty upon check-in. No appliances nor even a hair dryer in the unit.
• Bathroom was tattered and old, linoleum floor was ripping against the baseboard. Caulking around the bath tub turned black in most areas. Rotted wood in the bathroom. No exhausted fan in the bathroom to vent out the steam when taking a shower.
• Toilet in the 2-person unit did not work, the handle was connected inside with a thin rod and not a chain, hence, the toilet handle could not be turned to flush the toilet. The bucket in the bathroom used to flush the toilet was cracked. This posted a serious health concern.
Homestead Motel and Cottage should not be allowed to operate in Maine, it was substandard and did not meet environmental health standard. I hope by filing this complaint, other people would not fall into this false advertising. This motel should receive a minus rating. How could someone run a motel business and not upkeeping the property?

I have tried every avenue with booking.com to resolve over the past few weeks via email and phone calls and all they have only offered is 25 Euro good will gesture.

Below is the email that my daughter sent to them, this will give you an insight into the complaint.

To Whom it may concern

Complaint Cross Patrick House
I am sending this email on behalf of my Mother and Father (Ann and Ultan Mannion) who are completely distraught at this moment in time.

We went on a family holiday to Portugal and upon return to Ireland my Mum and Dad booked into a B&B via Booking.com for an extra two nights (25th and 26th August 2018). They were so looking forward to these two nights at Crosspatrick House, Tinahely, Arklow, Ireland, to complete their holiday.

At approx. 1030pm on the 25th August 2018, my parents reached the B&B. They had been up since 5am that day, flying from Portugal to Dublin and then Driving from Dublin to Crosspatrick House. They were shown to their bedroom and to their complete horror they could not believe what they saw!

Fitly bedroom walls
No Side Lockers/Lamps
Two beds pushed together with faded bedclothes and no curtains, no headboard, rusty radiator, dirty cord hanging from ceiling,
Toilet was filthy!
Toilet brush was stomach churning! to mentioned but a few.

My parents as tired as they were had no choice but to leave, However, when they tried to explain this to the owner she completely turned on them! They could not believe how rude and aggressive she was, she started to pace up and down shouting "I knew from the time you came in you had an attitude" and then rang her husband and pushed the phone to my mum to speak to him, he then carried on to verbally abuse my mum!

My Dad got the cases in the car and left as quick as they could, both my parents were completely distraught, they then had to dive a further 35km to a nearest hotel whish was Seven Oaks Hotel, Carlow and for the two nights cost them a further 280 euro. Upon reflection both my parents are very shook over the entire situation and actually called it the "house of horrors". This is complete unexpectable accommodation and behaviour from the owner of the B&B.

At this point I request a full reimbursement of the cost for this shambles of a B&B which was 170 euro and 50 % of the cost towards the nearest hotel they had to book into (Seven Oaks) 140 euro.

An full Investigation into this B&B with immediate effect.

I am the daughter of Ann and Ultan Mannion (Siobhan Rogers) My contact number is [protected] (UK Mobile), I will be dealing with this matter going forward as I do not want either of my parents put thought any further stress on this matter.

Look forward to hearing from you.

Regards

Siobhan Rogers

Since the letter above was sent to Booking.com, my daughter has contact them on numerous occasions, to be told that they have 'reached out' to Cross Patrick House, who have advised they will not be reimbursing any costs.

I am shocked that booking.com have not investigated this matter further and I think it is a disgrace that they would only offer 25 Euro good will gesture, even if I cannot get any money back for the hotel we then had to stay in, I really believe that I should get a full refund and apology for the distressed caused.

Cross Patrick House know from Booking.com that I was going to take this complaint further, so this B&B now have the opportunity to make changes to their property, as so much time has passed without booking.com actually doing anything.

I am prepared to take this to the small claims, due to the destress this is actually causing.

Am afraid the villa was full of cockroaches and above the main door was 2 honey combs with thousands of bees
As I have children they were so scared to stay indoors and were crying.
The gas boiler was so hasardeuse as the pipes were so old and at the reach of children
The toilet flash button is broken and in a bad state
The hugyne in the kitchen is so unhealthy and very dirty .
The garden so bushy.
Dead cockroaches everywhere in out of the villa .
I have only spent less than an house in the villa as the man said we can not enter until we pay the full the amount which I did but when I complained to him he refused to refund or even to solve out the problems.
I had no choice but to find another place as my family was very distressed
And despite so many emails and messages to booking.com we received no assistance and was left stranded in a foreign country.

I selected a night at an agriturismo in Italy and the price was clearly €89. No other fee was visibly displayed at the time of reservation. Four days after staying there, we got a phone call from the agriturismo and they said they had forgotten to charge an EIGHTY EURO "cleaning fee, " essentially doubling the price we paid for the night. This is an illegal charge, but Booking.com is in cahoots.
Article 5(1)(c) of Directive 2011/83/EU on Consumer Rights requires all taxes to be included in the total price quoted to the consumer. The cleaning fee was completely hidden at the time of reservation, AND THIS IS INTENTIONAL, ON THE PART OF BOOKING.COM. this is fraudulent and constitutes a bad-faith business practice. The internet is loaded full of complaints about Booking.com for doing this, and I will never use their service in the future.

Respected Sir/Madame
U had booked an hostel room at Shop House Arab Street, Singapore with your Confirmation number: [protected]

PIN code: 5131
for 4th-8th Sept, 2018.Even due to flight re-schedule i reached today on 6th sept.2018 and paid whole amount 69 SGD.
But extreme sorry to inform you the owner refused to serve breakfast while it was included in amount booked.
Therefore I request you to get my excess amount charged for breakfast from the owner
Thanks
Sincerely
Singh Pritpal

Hi, we have arrived to this place which is absolutely substandard. The boothroom was overflooding, the room looked like it is from 1950s, cracked tiles and bath and absolutely no appliences. The bathroom is also very dirty, tiles have not been scrubbed or cleaned.
The picture of the room attached to our booking does not match where we are staying. We have asked to be transferred and no attempt was made to give us the room we have been promised.

Booking.com is a scam. They pass along your credit card info to the hotel and let the hotel charge you however much they want . Booking.com does not screening hotels either, some of them are scams, as I later discovered .
Read the complaints before you make your next reservation with Booking.com. You will find countless complaints, and all with a similar narrative . They are not to be trusted .

Booked one double room at Wildberry Country Lodge B&B in Newfoundland, Canada. There is no room when we arrived. the owner is drunk at that time, and gave us a spare room which is not clean at all. The owner want to charge us another time as his sister took all the money; we refused. We can hear footsteps outside the room around 2AM, the footsteps is not from the hallway, but outside the room. Contacted booking.com; however, there is no feedback at all. Booking.com is not doing anything to help. I took photo about the room. I would like to request a refund or partial refund as this is not the room I booked.

Date - 24th August 2018- 27th August 2018
Venue - Royal Court hotel and Spa

I made a reservation at the Royal Court Hotel and Spa in Coventry (england)
The rooms were definately nothing like th eones sent to us on our reservation confirmation. The quality of the hotel overall was very very low. We travelled there for a leisure break with our 2 children who were very very upset, one of our children has diabetes and the stress caused her blood sugars to increase! This added extra stress onto our entire agenda. The bathrooms were dirty, there were cracks in the floor of the bathroom, there were dead ants on the sugar sachets in the room. The corridor leading to our room smelled of cigarette smoke which we did report to reception. Unfortunately we had to stay for one night as it was near to midnight and we had nowhere to go. We made another booking at the Holiday Inn for the other 2 nights and vacated The Royal Court Hotel the following morning. They did refund us for the 2 nights but we paid £60.00 per room for the one night stay which i honestly do not think we should have paid as it was not worth that amount of money. I do not understand why the hotel is portrayed in such a positive light on the booking.com website because for a hotel in England it is well below the standard. i would appreciate if you can look into this for me and would like to be compensated either for the £120.00 that i paid for the one night stay or a gesture of goodwill for us to book another weekend for four people at no cost. I believe that this is not a lot to ask in return for the stress and anxiety we went through and also the extra cost we had to pay to book into the Holiday Inn for the remaining two nights. I am a genius member on booking.com and have used it many times to book hotels, this is the first time i have been gravely dissapointed. I have photograph evidence should you wish to see it.

Appalling customer services, maybe the worst I've ever experienced.

Had a dispute with the company that customer services (Ksenia) could not or would not solve.

I asked to be put through to a manager but told it's not company policy...probably because managers have to make a decision.

Asked customer service clerk if customers are important to the company, yes but only on our terms was the reply. After trying to reason with her she told be that she was and did discontinue the call and cut me off.

I'm just annoyed at all the previous business we have given this company...but no more.

I've booked hotel Elysées Ceramic twice via booking.com (No. [protected] & No. [protected]). Then I've canceled both. But still be charged 107 euros. I've called hotel once and the receptionist told me both are released.
Now I've waited for a month and it's still in my credit card bill. How can I get refund? Could you please check?

The last for numbers of my paying card is 1774

Thank you very much.

Best,
Cao Manwen

My 2 elderly parents arrives in springbok south africa a while ago to find out hananja lodge did not receive their reservation and they were also fully booked. This after receicing emails from booking.com. That the reservation has beem made, with all details etc. Do you really want to tarnish the trivago name by dealing with booking.com? Or are you also part of their pathetic service? Scarily enough they also have my credit card details now, which was required to confirm my booking.

Confirmation Number: [protected]
PIN code: 6006
Hotel name: Summer Place Hotel, Regoboth Beach Delaware
Hello. I a, communicating to submit a complaint regarding the hotel in which we stayed the night of July 28. We paid $324 for a disgusting tiny room with no space to pass between the bedroom and bathroom.
The following are issues we had:
1. Cleanliness: the floors, walls, carpets are very old, dusty, stained, and wet in some areas. Additionally when pulling back the sheets of the bed, the sheets clearly looked unwashed. There was debris and hair on them. When we complained to the owner, he seemed annoyed that we were being so demanding of a clean bed. He gave me a new set and asked me to change the sheets myself.
2. Electrical: the bedside lamp was actually wet and sitting in a piddle of black water. This clearly posed a safety issue. We had to unplug the light to exchange for another
3. Noise: we were obviously placed in a room behind reception, that was connected by a door to what I imagine is the bedrooom of the owner/manager since we heard every tiny noise he made
4. Rash: my husband and I both left the hotel on Sunday morning, wanting to leave as early as possible to get away from the disgusting room.
Later that afternoon he and I both developed a red, bumpy, itchy rash. He on his arm and waist, inner and upper thighs. My rash developed on both thighs. The rash expanded and worsened over the course of 3 weeks. I still have the rash. Both he and I visited the doctor and we told it is probably an allergic reaction or bed bugs. I have been dealing with this incessant itching and expanding rash for almost 1 month since leaving the hotel
5. Value for the cost: the only value this dirty, moldy, tiny, smelly room had to offer is its proximity to the beach, which is a 5 min walk. However paying 324 is completely outrageous and an obvious unethical money gouge. Additionally I have photos of my rash, and the bedroom as evidence of its condition. The photos of the room may not be very clear however the white is photo of the bedsheets.

I am asking if it is possible for a partial refund considering the condition of the room and the rash, with costs incurred for treatment.

The only complaint I have is that I was not informed that I had to have a credit card which I do not have. I was going to pay by debit card or cash. Most of other motels want debit card or cash. So what do I do now. I want to stay at Tyrol motel I do not want to cancel, but I should not have to pay more money because I do not have a credit card. Maybe they should have it on the Web. Site before you confirm your reservation. Could you please speak to these people, so I won"t loose my money or reservation because we will be there on September 4-9th. My husband and I are retired, we saved our money to be able to do this.

Please help me.

Gloria Roberge