“A company who clears off when trouble arises
Booking.com promotes itself as one who makes it easier for everyone to experience the world. However, when issues emerge Booking.com is just gone.
12 March was a dark day in history as there was an official statement which confirmed the pandemic status. As a result, Booking took first measures by publishing some information on their website that in case of official travel restrictions it would be possible to get a restitution even when the booking is non-refundable. It looked too good, to be true…
27 March was the day that Ireland went into lockdown (the airport was not operating anymore and everyone who wandered more than 2 km off their residence address could face legal prosecution). Due to this, I looked on Booking.com if I could apply for a restitution. The advise on the website was to get in touch first with the third party. This what I have done with a copy to Booking.com as wrong contact information has been provided. The number that was given by Boooking.com is only reachable if you have an Irish sim card. Until today I got no response from Booking.com and the communication with third party has been unprofessional and unpleasant.
The third party has done everything in their power to deny at every cost the refund. That is to say: they refused to give information on Covid-19, no clarity if we could proceed with the 27th April booking, invoices were drafted in such a way that we could not get a restitution from our insurance. In short, every time they were just hiding behind the non-refundable policy.
To solve this affair, we have tried to contact Booking.com. On the website and their Facebook Messenger there was no human reaction at all. When you try to call them and provide them with the correct information you get disconnected by a robot. The only option was a public on their Facebook page. After almost 3 weeks we got a reply. The essence of this message was that there are no travel restrictions to Ireland and the booking can proceed as usual. There was no way to reply on this email. I again explained that I can confirm from my personal experience that Ireland is totally lock. Until now (5 days no response whatsoever).
If you are in the same situation or you agree with me that Booking.com should be held accountable, please share this message.”
“I rate them a ZERO!
On 02/22/2020 we waited at the pick up point listed in the instructions for well over 30 minutes. NO ONE SHOWED TO PICK US UP. So I called Park Me Fly at 7:13pm and I got someone who could not speak english. I called back at 7:15pm and spoke with someone who could speak english and I was told that I was not picked up because COLUSA did NOT have any cars! At 7:18 my wife called COLUSA and she got someone who could not speak english. She called back at 7:23 and 7:24 pm each time getting a voice mail in spanish. In the mean time I call COLUSA at 7:23 and 7:24 and get a voice mail in spanish. I get a text at 7:23 from COLUSA (it shows 6:23 because that is my home time, central, so one hour difference) say I can't talk now. At 7:25pm my wife gets a call from COLUSA in english stating that there are no cars available. I called booking.com at 7:26 pm and am put on hold while they called COLUSA. Booking gets the same voice mail after several attempts. I am then given a number in NY to call. At 7:43 I call COLUSA and I get the spanish voice mail. At 7:50 I call Booking.com in NY and they try to find me a car. All cars are sold out everywhere. Booking eventually finds me a car at $163 per day. In the mean time my wife finds one for $141.71 per day but we have to pay all those additional fees or we don't get the car. Booking.com tells me to take that one because it is cheaper. I am then told to submit the papers to bookin.com for reimbursement.
They will not reimburse me.”
“I had my 4days reservation and my flight was cancelled due to Covid19 so i request for cancellation of my reservation because there is no possible flight. I received email for successful cancellation but sad to say the reservation is not refundable. They dont even consider to rebook the reservation! nobody wants the situation to be like this.”
“Had a two night stay booked for an out of town baseball tournament - tournament was cancelled a week before due to CoronaVirus restrictions so all of us cancelled our reservations immediately. I was still charged for the full price of the reservation ! When I contacted the hotel I was told they just process based on info sent by booking.com. So I attempted to contact them but it's impossible to speak to a person- sent a request thru their chat option ..heard back that I need to contact the property. *Sigh* so I sent both property and booking.com copies of government info staying that due to the "time of crisis" travel was not possible and the property is Wyndham..their own site said that cancellations due to this would be honored with no fees. They are both frauds. All my years of travel and occasionally having to cancel I have never been asked to pay the full reservation fee with a week's notice of cancellation..that is absurb and in this case violated a government order. I filed a complaint against booking.com and the property with the BBB. Should be called Booking.CON”
“Beware*** Fraud platform*****I found a Villa on Booking.com, contacted the owner who asked for a bank wire. The reservation email came from Booking.com with all the logos and legal informations. So wired the money and now Villa is no longer available and it turns out to be a fraud. I’ve been defrauded of 5200€ and now Booking says they have nothing to do with it. Went back on their website today and in 10 minutes, I was able to spot 3 different fraudulent Villas in Nice, France.
Beware, Booking.com is a platform for fraudster and Booking.Com claims they are not responsible.”
“Almina hotel is situated in the best location ..it is nearby to all touristic attractions . It is walking distance to all type of transportation should u want to go to aminino shopping area .Or take a cruise across the street from there . If u want to go to the Taksim just take a taxi which is also nearby the hotel . If you enjoy cruises as I do , take one of the many they have which is reachable by taking a bus across from a minion . Go ahead explore Turky by taking a an evening cruise Which is also close to many touristic attractions .”
“I booked a rental in Jamaica through Booking.com. The initial credit card payment did not go through, so I called my credit card to approve. The card was run again and payment went through. I still didn't see my reservation on booking.com, so I sent a message through the app to find out why. The owner of the rental replied back that my rental was no longer through booking.com, but now directly through the apartment manager in Jamaica. I never consented to this, nor would I ever, since this is a foreign country and I would always want the protection of the booking company. Next, my credit card was used to buy Jamaican cell phone minutes! The owner of the rental would reply to any question I asked with cursing and anger. I told booking.com I was very afraid to travel to this destination "on my own," since the owner had decided to make the booking directly through them. I wanted a full refund, since I never agreed to book directly through an owner in Jamaica. Booking.com said Sorry, since you "chose" to book directly through the owner, we cannot help you. Each time I explained I only gave my credit card info to booking.com, and never consented to this transaction or reservation being done outside of booking.com, they replied, sorry, we cannot help you since the booking is no longer through booking.com....WHAT?!? How could it not be since the transaction was done through their app? So, beware, because once you give your credit card info to booking.com, the owners, around the world, can take your credit card, decide to make the booking directly through them, charge you whatever they want, refuse to refund you, and you will have zero protection, zero trust that you will actually have a reservation, and you will definitely have zero support from booking.com, the company you actually trusted for your reservation. This is completely absurd, unfair, and criminal.”
“Giving you 1 star is being generous, I booked a hotel with you guys. Chose the pay when you're at the hotel option since I have a busy work schedule and pay at the hotel secures me, and I do need to pay an extra fee to pay by the hotel. But you guys charged me immediately and when I tried to cancel they said according to the "hotel's policy" you can't cancel the booking. So basically you guys are doing false advertisement, I paid for something which I didn't sign up for and now I didn't even end up going to that hotel and I have to pay for the hotel? This is a SCAM!”
“NEVER AGAIN!!!!! We had to pay at $250 bond for one night ??!!! We had about 12 e-mails with a heap of info and had to show a passport photo??!! Way too complicated and wasted our morning in Melbourne! It’s a bloody joke and a time waster🤬🤬🤬”
“After being a customer of booking.com for a while now I'm sorry to say i will never use.them again. Their was a cliche in their app. And my information was switched causing them.to send my information to an old email address making a total confusion in a booking i did.”
“Charged twice. Booking.com failed to respond to my email. The hotel contacted them, a partial refund was made - some money was retained in a ‘wallet’ for future use - NEVER! The company has no complaints policy, and it refused to give me details of the Regulatory body, except the name in the Netherlands. Avoid them, and their sister company TRIVAGO!”
“Had a glitch and double charge by hotel and booking.com each blamed the other to me and booking.com told me good luck we will not do anything to help nothing at all we wont even call the hotel to discuss then told me im on my own and its no problem for them if i never user them again.”
“We used Booking.com when going to a family wedding in Lichfield. It was so straightforward to check how far hotels we're from where the wedding was. This was important because we had 3 children under 4 years old at the time, so convenience and price we're our top priorities. The hotel we booked through booking.com had the best breakfast sausages I have ever tasted, which was an added bonus!! 😁”
“The level of customer service offered by Booking.com and the company that they promote on their app Taxlico is by far the worst I have experienced. They will never see another dime of my money!”
“My wife and I had a vacation trip to Italy planned for 6 months, scheduled to leave on September 10th. My grandmother passed away on September 8th, God rest her soul.
We decided on September 9th to cancel our trip so we could grieve with family and attend my grandmother’s services. Every company from American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Airbnb, Trip Advisor, to Marriott were very sincere and easy to work with, offered condolences, and gave us a full refund. Then there’s Booking.com. My wife contacted them on September 9th, a full week before our reservation date near Florence, Italy to inform them of the cancellation due to a death in the family. The customer service representative was unhelpful and rude, they also didn’t offer a refund. They said it was up to the property if a refund could be issued. That is terrible customer service! My wife decided to do some research and found TWO middle man companies! She then emailed the property in Florence directly, on Sep 11th. We received emails on Sep 12th from two reservations office employees who were gracious enough to offer condolences, and BOTH said refunds were at the discretion of the booking agency! We took a break from wasting time with this nonsense to spend time grieving for my grandmother with family.
I contacted Booking.com yesterday to try this hash this out. Surely, their customer service wasn’t this bad. The guy I talked to was nice, but gave me the run around about our reservation being with Booking Basic, and was through a subsidiary company. He told me that if the property was willing to refund the reservation, that he would talk to his manager about a refund, which completely contradicts what the property told us. He asked me to forward the email with the property and he would see what he could do. We decided to email the property again yesterday and ask if they would state that they would be willing to offer and refund. We received a reply this morning and were informed that Booking.com never cancelled our reservation and we were classified a no-show!!!!! This lack of accountability is appalling!”
