Booking.com review: Service

To whom it may concern,

We booked a holiday through Booking.com to Nice, from 14th August until 21st August. The holiday cost £1630. This is our one annual trip abroad, where we fully switch off from work and everyday life. We book (and have booked in the past) numerous apartments through Booking.com. We do this primarily because we felt that booking through an intermediary would give us more security and protection, should something go wrong.

Our experience this summer has thoroughly dented our confidence in Booking.com. On the third day of our stay, we noticed a leak from the boiler. We spoke to the rental company (MyCasa) who sent an engineer. Unbeknownst to us, the engineer disconnected the boiler, thus leaving us with no hot water and a potentially hazardous boiler as it had been “condemned” by the engineer. Returning to an apartment with the patio door wide open and wondering why we had no hot water, we rang MyCasa for an explanation. After being rudely, arrogantly and unhelpfully dismissed by “staff” at MyCasa, including the Assistant Manager (who told us an initial lie that we had ran out of hot water, then that the boiler had been condemned and it would be a “few days” before they could install a new one) we could, “Leave the keys on the table. Check out. I don’t care. Leave us a bad review.” and Branch Manager (who did not apologise, offer support or speak, until prompted, then handed the phone back to his colleague without offering any kind of solution because we were clearly an interruption to his day), we felt we were left with no option but to speak to Booking.com, so you could act as mediator to resolve this issue. A helpful agent named Danver advised us. He explained that the best solution would be for Booking.Com to contact MyCasa, recommending a refund for the remaining nights and compensation for the distress and inconvenience. He then advised that with the refund we could book in elsewhere and Booking.Com would support us with recommending somewhere to book through your site. Danver tried to contact MyCasa but was unsuccessful and advised there was little more he could do that evening but would email them and give them 24hrs to respond. After lengthy discussions we felt it would be prudent to book another apartment that evening as we had no assurance that the boiler was safe and no hot water with no date as to when this would be resolved, we only had 5 remaining days of our holiday left (booked under Matthew Herd, booking reference: [protected], another £1646.94 cost to us).

As our holiday progressed, we rang Booking.com every day for an update on a refund for the initial apartment booking and compensation for the hassle and stress of moving midway through our holiday. We feel that we should not have had to spend three hours of our holiday chasing you for an update. We were then dismayed to hear that Booking.com only chase a company when the customer contacts Booking.com: this feels regressive as you should be chasing the complaint from the first call. As it happens, MyCasa just ignore emails and if called, place you on hold for upwards of 25 minutes, then hang up. As happened to us and your agents: this leaves us and you in vulnerable positions.

We feel frustrated that Booking.com is a platform for potentially unscrupulous persons and companies to advertise properties, leaving customers in need of a holiday, in no man’s land. These persons could be disrespectful staff, leaving customers on hold, hanging up, or ignoring emails. When customers have paid months salaries to enjoy seven days abroad, this feels like customer service from people with no professional skills, yet still advertised on TV.

We acknowledge that you gave us 20% (£347) of your commission as compensation but feel the emotional and mental toil we went through during our holiday, far outweighs £347. We spent almost £3500 through your platform this summer and feel like we need another holiday to recover from the disaster of this one. You have even made profit from our second booking.

We are frustrated with the ability of Booking.com to resolve any issues, other than be a point of call to vent our frustrations. Had we known Booking.com has such little power, other than to be a platform to book hotels and apartments on, we would not have used you.

Overall, we faced challenges this August that no one wishes to face whilst on holiday in a foreign country, leaving us in fear of potentially being poisoned by carbon monoxide, having no hot water, dealing with disgraceful staff, and having no choice but to book an alternative hotel. We are requesting a full refund of our initial booking plus compensation, which we will accept as £347 already paid.

Finally, if this is the kind of company you have lowered yourselves to advertising on your platform, we will happily and expediently look to book with Expedia or AirBnB in future.

Yours faithfully,

Matthew and Sarah Herd