Booking.com
reviews and complaints

I booked my lodging through booking. com. My room was disgusting and full of mold. I requested a full refund to find another hotel. I was refused a refund by the manager. The pictures posted on booking are misleading. My room was disgusting. I paid $629.00 for that flea bag room, and I want my money back. My family had to stay in that mole infested room. Mold kills.

Dear Sir or Madam,

I'm writing to complain about the misleading information which is situated on Booking.com.

Ive booked a room in Venice (# of booking [protected])and was sure I'm going to a hotel because the page of the hotel said it was a Guest House.

I was surprised in a bad way when I arrived to the Calle Burchielle 421 Santa Croce (address given) and didn't find any signs said the hotel was there. Nobody send us the information that we need to arrange the time of arrival with owner. Nobody waited for us there.

We hardly could find a phone and called the owner. He said that he send us a message with a question about time of arrival but we couldn't get it as we were on the trip. I believe that this information must be provided beforehand as most of people don't have internet being on trip.

Even the worst thing happens when we found what the room is...
Cockroaches on the walls, bad smell from a bunch of sheets from previous guests left by owner in the wardrobe on entering the room (I have pictures of a wardrobe full of dirty sheets). The shower was out of order. The apartment in a very poor condition. Elias came to change the sheets at 11(!) pm not telling us thay he was going to come. Terrible experience in such a beautiful city.

I read about the same experience of others on booking. And don't think that the rating given to this place on booking is real.

Your fainthfully,
Anna

booking number: [protected]

I made a reservation and it was stated clearly free cancellation until the day of arrival at 18:00 and no prepayment required.

I entered my credit card details and a few days later after the Confirmation date i was charged 169 Euros. although it was stated clearly that the fees will be payed upon arrival.

I sent an emails to the Hotel and Booking.com and i received no reply.

I need the money to know the reason the credit card has been charged and i need a refund for this money.

Please get back to me as soon as possible

I booked a room at a hotel through Booking.com and received a confirmation email with a booking number and PIN code. When we got to the hotel at 11:30pm they had no reservation in our name and no information was ever sent from Booking.com. By the time they determined they had no available rooms it was after midnight and we needed to be up at 5pm to get a flight home. We ended up sleeping in our car in 40 degree weather because we could not get a hotel room in the vicinity for an affordable rate. I will never book through booking.com again. To have the rug pulled out from under you after midnight is not something I chose to experience again and I can never trust that Booking.com will actually complete any reservations for me.

I had never seen such bad service. So I make a reservation in a hotel that you claim to have 3 rooms available.
And I have to inform you that the hotel is full for 2 weeks ago.

Your solution is to arrange a new hotel within the area and the price I was looking for. I accept, with in 5 minutes your service send an email to inform that you have been deceived once again and the hotel  arranged as a solution was equally occupied.

I spent a whole day in suspense with your service that in fact only brought me harm because of the international calls I made for your 'support to the client' and lost the opportunities to book on other platforms that t in fact work.

I do not intend to use your service again. So your solution to give me 50 USD future discount is useless.

Please, i´ll await on your response regarding the best way to send my written dissatisfaction about your service.

On May 9th I booked a room at the Comfort Inn in Kent, Washington.
Check in May 16th, check out May 17th.
When I looked at the confirmation I noticed that I had accidentally booked the room in the city of Kent - OHIO and not in Kent - Washington State.
An honest mistake. When I asked to cancel and return the money so I could rebook in the state of Washington I was turned down.
You collect money for services NOT rendered, that is unethical.
Booking number: 1128.647.140 PIN 4903

Booking No. [protected]
Pin Code: 0037
I booked the hotel Club Paradisio for 3 persons from 29th April - 3rd May inclusive. When my daughter arrived at 11pm on 29th April she was greeted with no room available! Please bear in mind this should have been available from 2pm on that said day. My daughter had to wait 45 minutes for a room to be made available. This was room 1045. My daughter thinks this may have been staff quarters! The room had a small patio area out the back but surrounded by a high wall. The room next door (1046) was unable to lock as there was a couple of unhappy customers there also!
However she was told that a room that was booked would be available the next day when myself and my other daughter arrived (10.30 am). When we went to reception we were greeted with fully booked! We explained the saga of the night before but nobody seemed bothered and said to come back later! We came back later 2 other times only to be greeted with no room available. I stressed that I booked this sometime previously and if the hotel was fully booked they should not have taken my booking, or indeed other bookings after I had booked.
I booked a deluxe triple room for 3 persons.
At about 5pm on Sunday 30th April a room was made available to us that was designed for 2 persons (Room 3132). A put you up bed was placed along side the other 2 beds. We explained that this was not acceptable but we had to take it as obviously "there was no room at the inn". There was only a table for 2 on the balcony outside.
I am utterly dumbfounded with Booking.Com. Since I have been home I have e-mailed and also telephoned. I was told to send an e-mail outlining the problems together with room numbers and receipts etc. I have done this and although e-mailing to ask that they respond, have received no response. I attached receipts.
I also explained that I was charged 250 dirhams each for dinner for 2 persons (500 dirhams) on the night of 2 May and explained to the hotel that this was incorrect and it should have been 14 euros each as on my booking form that I received from booking.com but again no response. I had to pay on my credit card because I did not have enough dirhams and stated that I would seek legal advice when I get home.

I therefore will report this incident to Watchdog, also Consumer Rights and also the Ombudsman if Booking.Com do not take action and rightly give me the recognised compensation.

I booked and paid for a deluxe triple room for 3 and this was not received and you are therefore in Breach of Contract. Also I spent my first day on holiday trying to sort out a room that I booked through yourselves sometime previously. You or the hotel should not be taking bookings that you have no room for!
I therefore will take this matter further if I do not hear back from you in 48 hours. I have already been waiting a week for booking.com to respond to no avail.

My wife and I booked accomodation in queenstown through booking.com. Two weeks later and two weeks before flying out we get an email saying that the pool is closed for maintenance.
We rang the hotel and they were more than happy to cancel our booking but booking.com will not. I called them (offshore toll call) and they said they would get back...now a week later and a dozen emails and calls...nothing!

Book all accomodation directly with the hotel

Do not use BOOKING.COM

I booked an apartment in Los Cristianos in Tenerife. The website clearly stated that it would cost £687.00. I was charged £708.72. While this is only £21.72 over, if they do this to all their clients they are making plenty of money by overcharging. I complained to booking.com by e-mail twice, leaving a week between each e-mail. I received no reply. I telephoned, and the person who answered claimed that the price was in Euros. In fact it clearly stated the price in pounds on the website when I booked, with the euro price (€809.80) in small numbers next to it. In any case, if the price in pounds was converted from euros there is no reason why that conversion should be any different when charged to my card immediately afterwards. Beware! There are plenty of other holiday booking sites.

On arrival to pick up the keys my partner was told firstly, that I had to be there even though he was the lead passenger and I booked it on his behalf.

The agent they changed their story and said they are refusing them entry as 7 of them showed up for the keys although I informed them we had rooms in the Oro Blanco which we booked through Travel Republic and confirmation could be shown. I advised the agency of this and was told "their not getting the keys and take it up with booking.com".

Not only did 4 of the party then have to find a hotel last minute they are also had to pay way over the odds for the hotel. I am gobsmacked that this is allowed to happen to people in a foreign country and it would certainly put me off using booking.com again for a hotel room instead of am actual travel agent.

Booking.com are telling me to contact the abroad agent, they are referring me back to Booking.com and so I am not getting anywhere. Booking.com are now ignoring all correspondence being sent. I have been offered half my refunds which, in my view, proves negligence. I would like a full refund I paid for a service I did not receive. I am also waiting on see where in the terms and conditions it says that friends cannot walk to your hotel with other friends to pick up their keys. Vouching for the room in the other hotel was offered and refused.

Karen

I have booked 2 nights at GB House, Turin, through Booking.com and paid in advance. I had been using booking.com for years and during this time I felt comfortable about giving my credit card details to them.
I contacted Booking.com believing this was a mistake and they simply told me to solve the situation with the "hotel". The hotel claims I have damaged a blanket and charged the absurd amount of 1628, 96 euros without my authorization. This came as an even bigger and very unpleasant surprise because we have no knowledge at all about damages of that magnitude or indeed any magnitude to anything in the room. We therefore deny these charges made by GB House.
The hotel never contacted me regarding any damage, nor before, nor after performing the bank transaction. I was highly surprised when I saw the operation in my bank statement. I tried to contact booking.com again and received the same instructions. The "hotel" didn;t answer my emails until I asked an italian friend to call them and ask. Their justification was absurd.
Especially when we checked out on May 1st, national holiday, and to my surprise, the unauthorized bank transaction happened on the morning of May 2. And since none of us have been contacted regarding any damage BEFORE the money was taken, nor received any photos, receipts or any other proof to confirm the damage, it clearly makes it a commercial litigation.
Charging customers without their consent is a fraud. It is an unauthorised bank operation and it is a crime, as defined by EU as defined by the Directive 2007/64/EC.

On Terms and Conditions of Booking.com they say:

This indemnification only applies to credit card reservations made using Booking.com's secure server and the unauthorised use of your credit card resulted through our default or negligence and through no fault of your own while using the secure server.

The reality is that Booking.com just pass your credit card details to the hotel and feel no responsibility about it, they dont care if the hotel overcharges you or even charges you for under a false accusation, as in my case.

I keep Booking.com in copy of all the emails exchanged with the hotel and haven't receive any response for a week.
I have had problems with Booking.com before regarding customer privacy protection but this is way beyond the acceptable.

I have contacted booking.com on numerous occasion with just one reply which was insufficient to sort the issue. In a nutshell one night was booked but I was charged for two. There was some communication between myself and the hotel which the hotel I believe took as a further booking even though I was told by the hotel I had to book direct through booking.com which I did not proceed to do but on arrival at the hotel there was a booking for 2 nights which I had not authorised and which booking.com and the hotel are dismissing. I have asked booking.com about complaint procedure with no reply to that either. I will leave it any that in prices but am most willing to put a fuller picture forward. Dave Hughes & Sara mulligan- Ref below i dont know whose post code you need or city where compnay is located !

My family of 4 people -- me, my husband and two children ages 13 and 14 years old are booked at Wang Osaka Guest House thru booking.com on May 7-10, 2017. We arrived in Osaka last night and went straight to the address of Wang Osaka Guest House but the owner, Sean Wang didn't show up. He said he is going to send his friend to us to give us the key and get our cash payment of 33, 000 Yen. BUT no one is coming up to now. We are waiting. More so, when I check my credit card online, I was already charged of 33, 000 Yen without us being accommodated yet at Wang Osaka Guest House. Please help. We are still waiting to be accommodated since we already paid for our stay. It was already charged to my credit card. Please help! Help!

Hi I booked a hotel and it was not mentioned that it Is non refundable. When I requested refund I got email that it can't be refunded. Booking.com itself is very difficult to understand as once payment is deducted it will mention it can't be refunded. I got reply as
Dear Ms Aisha Hanif,
Thank you for choosing Booking.com.
We approached Queens Hotel on your behalf and requested them to cancel your reservation [protected] without any penalties.
We have been advised that you too have contacted the hotel and the outcome will not change as below.
The Queens Hotel is unable to fulfill your request because the reservation is non-refundable. Reservations that are booked with this policy can’t be cancelled or modified, and the accommodation strictly adheres to this policy. However, Queens Hotel has offered you the possibility to change your reservation dates using the already charged non-refundable deposit as a credit towards a new booking.

I lost my money they did not refunded any amount

I am very concerned and disheartened with the Booking I had to go through with you guys for this hotel Wahet Al Deafeh (Booking number: [protected]). I have complained many times and called your office many times but no one resolved my issue.
Problem
As I did the booking, I went to the hotel and asked about my confirmation with my confirmation email so that i can start my 3 night stay. But instead they declined when i arrived at the hotel and said they don't have my booking that i had done with booking.com even though i showed them my booking in print. Nothing showed up on their computer as my name was not coming up in the confirmation and hence they did not let me in and I had to book another hotel via booking.com . But you can see below My booking was genuine with this Hotel.

I then booked Swissotel (Booking num - [protected])which went through and I did the same to this hotel with the confirmation and they did honor it which you can see as I have attached to this email.
Please do the needful and refund my funds of SR810 as It was not my fault but the hotel who did not let me stay and had do double book another hotel for the same.

Thanks and regards
Riyaz
[protected]

I have made two reservations with Hotel Zeil via booking.com. I had intended to travel from Frankfurt to other European countries and fly back from Frankfurt. Since i don't yet have my visa and tickets in place i had opted for free cancellations and no pre payment categories on Booking.com.
To land in Frankfurt i booked this hotel and it was free cancellation and no pre payment as required, hence i decided to book it while travelling out of Frankfurt as well, keeping in mind its free cancellation since thats what i had opted for. However no where did it show up it was chargeable as i had clicked on FREE cancellation. I immediately got a message on my credit card as i made the booking and an email saying its a non refundable stay. I have urged the website respresentatives several times explaining the issue at hand and to please reverse the charge. I also immediately cancelled the booking in 10 mins of booking it, since i was completely duped! Having booked the same hotel with free cancellation from 24-26th May, it never came up on the website it was going to charge me for the same hotel for different dates. Everywhere on google and on booking.com it has been advertising - 'NO BOOKING FEES' and 'FREE CANCELLATION’. To all this hotel has not responded to any emails.
I have urged and requested however all my pleas have gone unheard. I have been cheated and duped.

Booking number: [protected] for 4/22/17 thru 4/24/17. What a joke, Booking.com claims to let you change or modify your reservation, quick and easy as well as any time on their website, with no hassle. This is not true and did not happen for me. I made our reservation then found out we needed to actually travel a week earlier so went online to change my reservation and was told I could not change or modify anything and further more would be charged even if we did not stay during that time and we were. So disgusted as I have complained several times and have been contacted by NO ONE! Will never use them again to book travel and if I can use word of mouth to stop others from using them I will.
This quote is actually directly off there home page:
Make changes to your booking, anytime
You can make changes, send a request or cancel in just a few clicks.
I would have even taken a credit for a further booking if any customer service person would have contacted me but it is now 5/6/17 and my change request was for 5/15 and still nothing. So much for customer service. Booking.com has my money now so they care not.

28/04/17- 01/05/17
Elephant Lodge- 71 Marcia Road, Southwark, London

When we first arrived at elephant lodge me and my friend were a bit on edge, after the reviews on trip adviser, but decided to still give it ago. We arrived on the Friday at around 10 .p.M. The guy seemed nice showed us to the room and took my name for payment and that was all that was said. First impressions of the room were not great the rooms looked nothing like they are shown on trip adviser which for one is false advertising, as it is not what we booked, the place was filthy, the bed was stained all over, dirt all on skirting boards, and window sill. We also saw that it was £10 if we wanted the room cleaned, but it should be clean before we even get there! We then went out for a couple of drinks, when returning back to elephant Lodge we found that we could not get in with the key given and was as if someone had locked it on the inside, at this point we were not happy we were 2 young girls locked outside at around 1a.M. And was not told of any curfews, we rang multiple times but no answer. Luckily had friends staying in the same area so had to get an umber to threes and stop with them. The next morning when we tried to ring him again he finally answered with no explanation as to why the door was locked and asked why we didn't ring him when we did multiple times. We then asked if there was a curfew so we didn't get locked out again, he told us he would ask a colleague and get back to us and he did not do that, and then continued to ignore our calls. We did get in that Saturday night when we first walked in there was a couple sat on the stairs asleep with there stuff all over, just seeing them like that made me feel unsafe we quickly ran to the room, in the morning around 6am we were unfortunately woken up by others who seemed to live there slamming doors and running up and down the stairs, also someone tried to get in our room, which made me feel really uncomfortable. We decided we had, enough we decided to check out that day and stay with our friends who luckily had a spare bed! We did not see the manager once throughout our stay to ask how it was! Severely disappointed!

I would like a refund as for 1. We only stayed there one night as we got locked out the first night 2. It is filthy and I have pictures to prove 3. It is not what we booked it looks nothing like the photos on booking.com

Hope this can get resolved.

Thank you
Kara

I had booked two nights through booking.com in Austin, Tx. When I arrived the first night the hotel had no record of me in their computer system. I showed her my confirmation email from booking.com and they were able to get me a room anyway. She told me that booking.com had called them and told the hotel they relocated me to a different hotel for the second night because they were overbooked and had no rooms for my second night. I called booking.com and they said they had no record of this. To me this is highly unprofessional from both the hotel (best wester plus Austin central) and booking.com. No one ever tried contacting me and I had to show up to the hotel to find out I didn't have a room at the hotel I booked weeks in advance for for either night. They were just putting the blame on each other. While I was on the phone with booking.com they booked me a super 8 hotel in Austin, Tx for the second night which I was already upset with but the best western plus had no rooms. When I went to checkout the next day the best western plus said they did have me in a room for that night so I stayed there and booking.com cancelled my reservation at the super 8. A week later I see a $143 charge on my credit card for a Rodeway Inn in Austin for the night that I stayed at the Best Western Plus. When I called booking.com to dispute this they flat out told me there was nothing they could do about it because they never made that reservation and they do not have my credit card information to give to the hotel that it must have been Best Western Plus when they relocated me. This seems ridiculous to me because I have to give my credit card information when booking the hotel on the booking.com website. I then spoke to the Best Western Plus and they have no record of giving my credit card information to Rodeway Inn and making a reservation for me. Well someone did and someone is lying to me about it and it cost me a $143 charge to my credit card. When speaking to both places they both told there is nothing they can do for me because neither one made the reservation. Well I certainly did not make the reservation and never gave them my credit card information. Needless to say I will never use booking.com again or a Best Western Plus and it is extremely unprofessional to just blow off someone like me who has this charge from somewhere and say you didn't do it and just blame each other. Both will be reported.

Dear Sir,
Although Booking.com guarantees the lowest room rate, I was overcharged over $700-HK for the my reservation of a garden view deluxe room in Le Meridien Chiang Rai Resort for 5 nights from July 3 to 8, 2017. If booked the room of the same type for the same period through Ctrip, the charge would only be $3142 (tax and breakfast included) while Booking.com charged me $3903-HK for the same service. I made a request to their Customer Service Centre for reducing the charge or cancelling my reservation, but is was rejected. It is unfair for me to pay so much more for the same service as I could only learn the terms for the guaranty of lowest room rate after I have made the booking. In future, I would think twice before using service of Booking.com and advise my friends to be careful in making a reservation with Booking.com. My booking No. is [protected] and my email is [protected]@yahoo.com
Regards,
Hau Wang HO