Booking.com
Reviews and Complaints

Our family has been using booking.com for our international and domestic travel for decades and in 2018, we decided to become a Partner by renting some of our homes. What we experienced this weekend truly has opened our eyes and changed our opinion of Booking.com for the worse.

As a Partner for Booking.com, we have generated $1000s and $1000s of dollars for Booking.com throughout the years. We have had a positive relationship all of this time until now. This weekend, we had a guest book one of our vacation home in the Hollywood Hills. The reservation was for a man but somehow his alleged wife, Alexis, was the only one in communication with me. This was a red flag. Soon after her arrival Friday, September 23, it was apparent that she was preparing to have a party as the ring doorbell started capturing a parade of people. I immediately contacted her (the person on the reservation was never around) and informed her that the house rules clearly indicated that there were no events of any kind allowed. Further, we reminded her that upon the confirmation of a reservation, guests are informed that ANY house rule violation is subject to an immediate cancellation WITHOUT A REFUND. This was sent to them in writing TWICE. I asked her to vacate the premises immediately and reported this guest misconduct to Booking. A few minutes after reporting this, Booking.com representative acknowledged my guest misconduct report and suggested I contact law enforcement. They said they would contact the guest and ask them to leave.

Soon afterwards, I got THREE emails from various booking.com representatives asking me to reconsider removing these guests! I was asked to make “an exception” and allow them to stay. One of the representatives actually threatened me and told me that if I were to remove these guests, that I would have to pay relocation costs! I wish I was kidding but I couldn’t believe my eyes.

Party continued, of course I started getting calls from not only neighbors about the noise and general commotion outside blocking the street with cars etc, but other booking.com guests of a nearby vacation home were also pretty upset about the noise and chaos created. Booking.com did nothing else except tell me to call the police again – refusing to cancel this reservation and have this guest removed. I had no choice, in the middle of the night, leaving my children sleeping, I drove to the site at 2am. I walked into the property and politely and diplomatically asked a group of 25 people to leave the premises. Of course, I was verbally barraged by multiple people who laughed at me and basically told me to take a hike. I had called the police by this time but they had not arrived. I told them that I had called the police and was giving them one chance to leave before the police arrived. It took about an hour for all of these people to leave. The police had not arrived yet and so I cancelled the call for help. About 90 minutes later a group of 6 people broke into the home again. The ring doorbell motion detector woke me up at 6am and I called the police again. The police showed up 70 minutes later and I met them at the site. I provided them with video of the party, mentioned the disturbance caused and I told them I need them to help me remove them since their reservation was revoked due to the party.

The police officer then asked me if they still had a reservation. I confirmed that technically they did but because of the house rule violation, it was revoked. Booking.com STILL refusing the CANCEL WITHOUT A REFUND. So, the police officer spoke with the guest and the guest said that there was no cancellation and that a reservation was still in place. The guest told officers they would leave within hour. They did not of course, they told booking.com that unless they got every cent refunded to them, they would not leave. Booking.com told me that they could cancel the reservation but that 100% of the money would be refunded to the guest. I could not believe that Booking.com is basically saying, IF YOU THROW A PARTY AND YOU ARE ASKED TO LEAVE, YOU WILL GET YOUR MONEY BACK AND THE PARTNER, THE HOMEOWNER, GETS NOTHING BUT $0, PSYCHOLOGICAL AND PROPERTY DAMAGES.

This is booking.com's stance and policy. They will not cancel without a refund to those that throw parties or violate other house rules, even if that is exactly what the guest agreed to when they made the reservation. I spent close to 4 to 5 hours on the phone with various booking.com representatives, none of which allowed to us speak with a supervisor about such a policy. A policy that clearly encourages AND REWARDS bad behavior – disruption of neighborhoods, disruption of other guests, damage to the property, and loss of peace of mind to the Partners! This woman is probably a serial party thrower who knows how to work the system because she knows that booking.com protects the party thrower, not the homeowner.

We had no choice – the longer these people stayed, the more damaged they could cause, and with our backs against the wall we said if having the people immediately removed means a cancellation with a refund, we had to accept it – as unjust as it was this was the only option that booking.com gave us.

We are still trying to get in touch with a booking.com supervisor about this case and the booking.com policy because if that is the stance that booking.com is going to take – we refuse to continue to support a corporation that rewards troublemaking guests and punishes the hard-working Partners.

Sadly, we know that the security deposit will not be close to covering the property damaged caused but we would have hoped that Booking.com had our back AT LEAST when it comes to cancelling a reservation and getting to us the money that is owed.

We are now in the process of transitioning out of short term rentals business. It is simply not worth the headache, financial risk and lack of peace of mind. Anyone can come to our place and destroy it with no ramifications as far as booking.com is concerned. If you are a Partner or considering being a Partner – please don’t.

Car rental from 7 to 18 September 2022.

Dishonest, terrible service built on lies.

Believe me, I have something to compare with, since every year we travel a lot around the world, about five, six times a year, always using such a service as car rental.

So, on the Internet, the company is called "Letsdrive", located ten minutes from the airport (Athens Airport 167-173 Koropiou Markopoulou Str, 19400 Attica, Greece

T. +[protected]

M. +30 [protected])

In fact, her name is "Carwiz".

Please note that the company's service says a transfer every 15 minutes, but no one will meet you until you call.

Even after the call, we waited for the car for about an hour, as it turned out later that the company had only one driver serving the transfer.

It's ridiculous to say that when the driver finally arrived, he took mostly drivers into the car so that they, after renting the car, would return to the airport for the rest.

The company has only a couple of dozen cars in the parking lot.

Considering that we were supposed to have a long journey through the north of Greece, and then around the islands, we pre-ordered a Suzuki Vitara SUV car, automatic.

As it turned out, they didn’t have and don’t have such machines at all, and there is only one on the machine, but even that one is in the compact class.

In such a car, as you understand, it is impossible to sit in the back row, there is no room, especially for a long journey.

Considering that we arrived late, then waited more than an hour for the transfer, in the end, out of desperation, we were forced to take an old fiat medium with a mileage of almost one hundred thousand kilometers.

Given the blatant violation of the contract, we asked for at least some kind of discount, since we paid almost one thousand dollars, and a similar car, which we booked on booking.com, cost about $300 that day.

Do not even hope, you will not get a discount.

Moreover, the company's employees convinced us to buy some kind of insurance, without which you cannot travel if you are moving by ferry from island to island.

It was another lie, no ferry company needs this insurance.

It is very strange that such a reputable company as booking.com does not check the availability of a real service of such companies and is actually an accomplice in a dishonest business, violating consumer rights, advertising them on its website.

I guess it's fair if the company apologizes and refunds me the $600 difference for the poor quality business and overpaying for a cheap car.

Thank you.

I have been talking for weeks to customer service to change my flight due to the covid restrictions that they still have in Japan, nobody has been able to solve the problem for me, I am less than 24 hours away from the flight and they still do not help me, they always tell me that someone is going to communicate with me and they don't

I need this solved urgently and I don't know who I have to contact

It whom may concern:

By the end of August, I listed my property located in Fort Lauderdale area, Booking.com since this is a very well-known platform used by travelers all over the world. Booking.com offers according to Google, 85,000 destinations across the world through its various stay partners and other travel amenities. According to market share, it has over 28 million reported lodging listings, including over 6.2 million hotels, homes, apartments, etc. Even though there are always implied risks for this type of business, I, as a host, am very selective when it comes to choosing my partners because their listing web sites allows me to run the business efficiently, providing the best service to my guests but also to secure the properties with policies and regulations.

My first reservation was made by Mr. Lynott XXXX, he booked for two adults from the 6th of September to the 12th. The final cost of this reservation was $1559.49.

On September 11th, I contacted Booking.com concerned since I had not received any deposits for this booking. It was right there when I was informed that I (as an individual) had to personally collect that payment. I am submitting some documentation attached to prove that by the contrary Booking.com should had taken care of this charge and transfer it to my account. That is how it was set on the payment method’s section that I had to complete by filling out my bank account information.

I called the guest and asked him for the CVC code of the credit card that was on file. At that point, he stopped answering my phone calls and text messages. I also asked him if he was at the house when I was on my way, and he simply left before I arrived. As soon as I walked in, I found severe damages to the property, including a broken door, and irreparable damage of some furniture, rugs, plumbing system clogged and a strong weed odor. Mr. Lynott also took the main key of the house that would give him access to the inside through any on the doors. I called again Booking.com for assistance to solve the issue but simply said “We are no responsible for damages to the property”, and regarding the payment “We can try to contact the guest for you to get in contact with him. I also filed a police report since that place was not safe any longer due to a broken door and the fact that Mr. Lynott was in possession of the main key.

After all I went through, I consider insane that a Firm of worldwide dimension, charges their hosts a considerable percentage per bookings and hosts are not protected or represented at all. Apparently when we list our properties on that website and choose from the options, they give us the rules and policies for guests to follow, we are just creating a very weak illusion, making of us easy targets for the delinquency and vandalism. The last time I called I was holding their policy on my hands, and I was highlighting

the incongruences between the facts and what they have stated on policies.

As a last resource I asked to be transfer to a legal department or at least tell me how to reach out to them but one more time the representatives had nothing to do because it doesn’t exist. Booking.com moves thousands, millions of travelers. Mr. Lynott for example had 10 bookings through Booking.com before he booked my place. He is probably repeating the crime repeatedly because of this company’s lack of responsibility toward hots.

I deeply believe and assume this complaint as a duty, but for all those hosts who put so much effort, people work so hard to maintain alive our business specially in these difficult times. It won’t be not fair to anybody to be in my position. This is heartbreaking, but the crime falls in a grey area where the police won’t move a finger because is consider Civil and Booking.com gets evaporated. The only resource we have left is lawsuit on a civil court, but these delinquents know the high cost of the process and take advantage.

My name is Marina Lubinsky

Below is the listing in Inglewood CA that has my address 3522 West 78th Place, Inglewood, CA, USA, but I never listed my property on Booking.com.

The pictures are not of my property.

I do not know the host Mauricio Monroe, location of my address is not a walking distance from Memorial Coliseum as stated in the description located under host's name.

I made many calls to Booking.com, sent e-mails to customer service in attempt to resolve this issue unsuccessfully.

The listing is under

Cal King in-n LA

3522 West 78th Place, South Los Angeles, Inglewood, CA 90305, United States of America –

I have Made my payment thrice still hotel didn't get any balanced payment but from account it has been debited rs 5210 twice and 5209 once.

first payment 12th september rs 5210 which is part payment---hotel received

second payment 17th september 5210 which is balanced ---hotel not received but debited from account , time : 2:55 pm

third payment 17th september 5210 again asked by G P residency hotel due to payment stucked time : 3:35pm

fourth payment 17th september 5209 again asked by G P residency hotel due to mismatch amount unable to verify time 03:42pm

When i reached at hotel they told i didnot received any payment from you except first payment which you made on 12th september

G P residency told if we received previous amount we will refund to you within 30 minuts hotel will be responsible

attached is witnesses

Trough Booking.com on Sept. 5th I reserved accomodation for 2 persons + 1 dog at Glasson LakeHouse - Irland. A few hours later the messaged me "Unfortunately we have no availabilty for a doggy room in those dates".

I understood that in this case the booking was void as they couldn't attend my request and organized the stay in another hotel. They didn't inform me that they booked a room anyway, despite of being unable to fullfill the demanded conditions.

Glasson LakeHouse charged my credit card arguing that I didn't cancel my reserve.

I didn't cancel as I couldn't know they have booked something different from my request and they also didn't ask me if I would agree with the booking of a non "doggy" room.

On September 15, 2022, I made a 2-day reservation on Booking.com. for September 23, 2022 check-in and September 25, 2022 check-out. In the interim, I found another hotel with a cheaper room rate. On September 16, 2022, I Contacted Booking.com to cancel the reservation. I did not notice the Cancellation Policy as I was making the reservation; which is my fault for not paying more attention to detail, however, I don't feel that I should have been charged the entire price of the booking, especially when my arrival time is a whole week out. This Cancellation Policy is really unfair and harsh.

Why does the Cancellation Policy of Booking.com supercede that of the hotel's Cancellation Policy? I feel like Booking.com is disengenuous and are concerned only about their bottom line.

I had booked and prepaid a rental car at San Francisco Airport which the company (Fox) refused to provide to me because it turns out they couldn't block a deposit on my visa card. Fox agreed to refund me with no hesitation but told me I had to initiate the process through Booking.com, where I had made the reservation. Booking is now refusing the refund although it's not their money to refuse. If they want to keep their commission that's fine, but who are they to decide what becomes of the rest of my 300 dollars? The situation seems not only preposterous but actually illegal. They have now closed the case 3 times, always giving me the same ridiculous and preformatted answer. A quick Google search revealed that this is common practice on the part of Booking.com

On 27th August 2022 my wife and I arrived in Costa Rica, despite having a long standing booking through Booking.com we found when landing and switching our phones on that it had been cancelled by the host. We asked priority customer care for assistance but received none.

We took it upon ourselves to quickly find another hotel, did so, got the confirmation emails from Booking.con and travelled to the new hotel. On arrival this hotel was closed for the season, maybe forever.

Again contacted priority customer service ( we are genius level 3 with them so very regular customers) and received no help at all. We asked them to please speak to a hotel and check they were open before we booked or travelled elsewhere, no help was given.

It is now 3pm in Central America, our first few hours ever in Costa Rica, it’s getting dark because a storm is coming and we have no accommodation, 10% battery and no wifi. At this point we found an Airbnb host who responded in 2mins and 15mins later we are in an Airbnb. This apartment costs us over double what we would had budgeted.

Then my real trouble with booking.com begins. They said they would compensate me for the extra I had to pay, I felt as a long standing regular user of the site that this was the very least they should do. They wanted invoices, I provided them. They wanted different invoices, I provided them. They then wanted the invoices only after the booking was complete, I provided them again later. I then waited 3 working days, asked whether this is in motion, I got a response in French! Google translate says it will be dealt with 15 days after my original booking was suppose to have ended. This sounded ridiculous to me, I challenged it but was then assured, in English this time, that I would be compensated on the 14th September.

Today is the 15th September, absolutely no contact from Booking.com. I have of course submitted another message to them, but as their chat feature sends you to a different agent every time, you never speak to the same person twice, I am currently up to my16th advisor.

Oh, one more thing, the night before we left for Costa Rica, we stayed at an airport hotel in Dallas, again booked through Booking.com. On arrival at this one they told me that my room was cancelled because I didn’t pre-pay. I was well aware I hadn’t paid, that was the option on the site I selected. They said I could have my room if I paid the walk in fee ($30 more) I refused, contacted priority care again on the app (no help at all) so argued with the receptionist until she honoured my booking. This is perhaps more that the Motel 6 at Dallas FW are thieves but some guidance from Priority Customer care would have been appreciated.

I believe that they are intentionally making it hard so that I give up and go away. They have no real intention of making things right with their loyal customers. At this point I don’t see how I can ever use Booking.com again, and my wife and I, who are currently travelling the world for the next few years will use a competitor.

Booking ID [protected]: I booked a taxi to the airport in July and it never showed. At the last minute I took my car. The fee for the Taxi was charged even though I was never picked up and I incurred a parking fee at the Airport (As I had to take my own car at the last minute) for over $400.00. When I followed up after my trip, i was told I was outside the 14 days to submit a claim. The trip shows "Complete" on my profile and I was never sent a request for a review! I wonder why. Will NEVER use this company again. Shameful

I have today booked The Ro Hotel in Bowness, Cumbria for a stated price of £382.87 but £407.32 has been taken off my credit card. Can you explain why?

I had previously booked Beechwood under reference no. [protected] but after speaking with the owners, they advised that the only room available was on the third floor with no lift. This is totally unsuitable for my wife who has Multiple Sclerosis and the owner had agreed to cancel because of the circumstances.

Booking.com has sent me a cancellation email with the full amount being charged. Can you advise my why?

I cannot get in touch with Booking.com by email or phone.

Trough booking.com I asked for a room at Glasson LakeHouse in Irland.

I reserved accomodation for 2 persons + 1 dog, ca.3 hours late I got a message from the porperty that they have no availability for the dog. I understood that in such a case the booking was void and organized another hotel.

They didn't inform that, despite of being unable to attend my request they booked the room anyway and later they charged my credit card arguing I didn't cancel my booking.

My point is: they booked something different from what I reserved, i.e. a room unsuitable for a dog, they didn't inform me and didn'tasked for my agreement to this booking. I had no way to know it and can not be responsible to cancel something I didn't ask for and didn't know what they have done.

After reading the advertisement on your site to book a room at the Days Inn Hotel, 9565 Tuckerton Street, Jamaica, NY 11433 on August 31, 2022 I booked a room. The booking dates were September 7th – September 10, 2022. The amenities included clean rooms and free parking. I read the cancelation policy and had no problem understanding your policy. I understood that if I did not cancel as stated this was a non-refundable booking. Confirmation: [protected] Pin: 9992

On September 7th, 2022 – I drove my car to Jamaica, Queens to enjoy a 3 day stay with my family. As I was driving to the hotel, I found myself in the middle of the slums. The area looked like War-Torn Ukraine, there were abandoned torched cars, burnt building, junk yards and garbage all over the streets. I was in shock as I did not believe areas like this still existed in New York.

When I arrived at the hotel there was parking spaces for 4 cars in their parking lot. The sidewalk was filled with cars parked haphazardly. I went into the hotel and inquired about canceling my reservation only to be told that as of this date there were no refunds. I could not afford to pay for another hotel so I had no choice but to stay. I was also given a order in menu because there were no restaurants in the area, I was warned not to walk around the area after dark as this was a high crime area.

I was very upset, stressed out and anxious that I was in the middle of the slums and I did not have the money to leave and stay in another place. Looking out my window was a junk yard, across the street from the entrance of the hotel was a junk yard, on the streets there were abandoned torched cars…. I was in the middle of a slum.

Your site never mentioned that this hotel was in the middle of the slums and in a high crime area… Your site never mentioned that this was a high crime area and a stay at this hotel was risking your life. Your site never mentioned that your car was at risk to be stolen or vandalized in this high crime area.

You should be ashamed of yourself for such deceitful business practices and putting unsuspecting guests in grave danger.

I am sending a copy of this complaint to the Attorney General of NY

On AUG 9 /22 I was charged $123.76 for a hotel on booking .com Amsterdam. What is this ? On Aug 9/22 I was charged for a room we rented in Mindemoya, the manitoulin Inn $209.85 , this was mine, but what is that amsterdam, please help if you can, if not direct me who can, also charged for canceling a cottage another $80.00 thanks so very much. Helen,my email stated this was cleared up, flustered in Udora,

Hello,

I had a booking with Booking.com for the 9-11th September, I was emailed at 12.15 on the 9th September to advise me the house I had booked had a leak and we had been moved to another house, no one had called me it was lucky I checked my emails.

I called and spoke to the person who manages the property, I advised I would not accept it until I had seen the property he agreed to meet me there at 4pm.

Upon arrival, no one was there except a cleaner, she let me into the house, as soon as I walked in you could smell damp, I went into the kitchen, it was dirty the side boards had food/stains all over it, I went onto the bedrooms, 2 of the bedrooms had a puddle of water on the floor and the beds were soaking wet.

I called the management company back, he finally arrived at 4.45pm and saw the state the house was in, he apologised and said he had not checked it before offering the house to me, this was the 2nd house and it was not adequate at all to sleep in.

I at this point had 11 guests on their way to meet me with no where to stay.

I was told by the management company as Booking.com held my money they could not help me and I needed to speak to Booking.com, I got through to booking.com eventually and they cancelled my booking, telling me I would be refunded £1500.00 that I had paid it could take 10-12 days.

They would not help me find alternative accommodation and told me a manager would call me back.

I never received a phone call.

I was left stranded in Brighton with 11 guests coming to meet me with no accommodation, I had to walk with my luggage to various hotels to check availability.

I found a hotel that had availability to sleep us all, it was in an ideal location, we had rooms split across every floor, I had to book 6 rooms and only 2 were on the same floor but at opposite ends.

This was my 40th Birthday celebration and was an absolute nightmare, I had to borrow the money to pay £1224.00 for the new accommodation.

The hotel had drug addicts in and out of the hotel, out the front almost each time we left the hotel we were approached by a drug addict or someone asking if we wanted business, there was prostitution taking place.

As a group of ladies we felt unsafe and it ruined the weekend, I had an event cancelled that I paid £450.00 for that I had to rebook for a later slot as we missed our 1730 slot we had booked because I was sourcing new accommodation.

I have contacted Booking.com yesterday when I arrived home, i was told to email the receipts, and again this morning, I have submitted the receipts but have been told I have to wait until they get round to my complaint, I was not allowed to speak to a manager and the agent dis-connected my call.

I am appalled at the lack of customer service I have received through the whole process, it has been very stressful and has ruined my weekend planned.

Hi have been in contact with you before several times about this property being unfit for purpose as the kitchen was disgusting there were health and safety issues that where passed on to the owner at the time who told us that you would be the ones to give us the refund we asked for. This place is still being advertised on your site and any negative comments are appearing to be taken down and there are comments showing the place to be good at a time when a bad comment should be there. We have several photos of the disgusting state of the kitchen the unsafe outdoor furniture lack of lighting to the top floor and various others. The property is call Calvary lodge house in Ipswich UK. we stayed there on the following date 29th June 1st July

Sunday, the 28th August 2022 I booked a guesthouse in Midrand. I entered my bank details. I received a message saying the room I want is not available( thank God I made a screenshot of the message). Their phone numbers not working

I therefore booked another guesthouse, made payment, received confirmation, drove to the place, only to be told by security guards at the gate that my booking is cancelled. No reason given.

Had to book the third guesthouse and request refund from the two I did not use.

Booking.com asked me to provide an invoice of the third place I slept at to show that I did not sleep at the first two. After I sent them the invoice, they only refunded for the second accommodation

They promised to send the other refund after a few days but never did. I made another enquiry and now told I need to send some proof of some "error" message when I was doing the booking, they cannot even explain what exactly I need to send. They also looking for the same invoice of where I slept that night but its the same night they used the same invoice to refund one cancelled accomodation.

Their aim is just to frustrate me until I abandon my money. They subject us to scammer partners and protect these scammers. It doesn't matter that im their loyal customer at Genius level 3.

I am really frustrated

I have just been billed $900+ for a booking I supposedly made on Priceline, but had to call Bookings.com to try and get a refund. They would try, but they said they could not help me, it was the policy of the company that they listed not to refund, if I wanted to cancel a booking, I would lose my money.

GAEL HOLIDAY HOMES in the UK, https://www.gaelholidayhomes.co.uk/ .

I do not recall making this booking neither do I recall getting a confirmation email. they claim was sent. I asked for a copy which I have not received.

This is disgusting to think companies can just rip people off like this and get away with it. It is not like I am canceling the booking and was supposed to arrive tomorrow. The booking is for Oct 8th to 16th they still have time to sell it.

Bookings.com are all very apologetic ,we are so sorry. They don't mean a word

they say. Why do they do business with people who list unreasonable things. Why is there no standard? This damages the relationship with their customers do they not get it.

Via Booking.com I booked two return business class flights for myself and a friend due to fly from London Heathrow via Zurich to Buenos Aires for Jan/Feb 2023. Specifically the details are as follows:

Outward Tue 24 Jan 2023 - Swiss Reference L4NX22 Booking.com Ref 40-[protected]

Depart LHR T2 LX325 17.10 to Zurich

2hr 50min layover in Zurich

Depart ZRH LX92 22.45 to Buenos Aires EZE arriving Terminal A 25 Jan 2023 11.50

Return Wed 15 Feb 2023 - Swiss Reference L4NX22 - Booking.com Ref 40-[protected]

Depart Buenos Aires EZE LX93 to Zurich

5hr layover in Zurich

Depart ZRH LX324 15.30 to LHR arriving T2 16 Feb 2023

The total cost of the two business class flights was £7,492.88. I booked these flight for the specific purpose of getting to Buenos Aires for a once in a lifetime Antarctica cruise. I paid for both tickets.

I booked the flight via Booking.com - I have also filed a complaint with Swiss Air on this matter via this site

Whilst making the booking on Booking.com the user is required to fill the passenger details via a web page, this web page does not contain any automated checks for missing data. I checked all the details before booking and checked again after - it was only then I spotted the error whereby my middle name was showing up as my surname. The other passenger details were all correct. I immediately contacted Booking.com to get my name corrected. I sent a copy of my passport to show my details. The timeline is as follows

1) Booked & paid flights 14 Aug 2022

2) Contacted Booking.com customer service and sent copy of passport 14 Aug 2023

3) Acknowledgement from Booking.com of request sent to Swiss Air 14 Aug 2023

4) After I sent several chasers to Booking .com a reply finally arrived 7 Sep 2023. Swiss Air had therefore taken 24 CALENDAR DAYS to send a reply to Booking.com who passed it to me

5) The message from Swiss Air was that the name change on the booking above could be process but ONLY FOR AN ADDITIONAL PAYMENT OF £11,269 on top of what I had already paid essentially saying that their "company policy" dictated that a new booking would have to be made in the correct name and that the "fee" was based on the current fare. Astonishingly Booking.com refused to even confirm to me that the name correction would be made and the flights themselves unchanged before payment - "company policy" dictated they would only do this after payment! The rep seemed surprised when I posed the question of "Ok if I paid this and something went wrong again who would resolve it?". Staggeringly the rep just seemed to think that him saying "trust me" was adequate reassurance!? All he was interested in was sending me an email with a payment link it it!

I have been booking flights online and over the phone for over 30 years and have never made a single error - 1 small slip and I'm being disproportionately and unfairly penalised in the name of "corporate policy".

There is no way I was going to pay this ludicrous "fee" - all I was asking for is for the surname to be added to the booking - a small administrative correction for which I would have paid a small admin fee. Given a background of rapidly rising airline prices I was forced to lock in alternative flights direct with another airline. I cannot risk an issue with flights potentially derailing the entire Antarctica cruise itinerary. I have locked in those new flights so at least with that my stress levels have come down.

There is no way on this earth that I will ever go near Swiss Air or Booking.com ever again in future as a result of the "corporate" policy of charging outrageously ruinous "fees" to effect a small change - adding one word being my surname to the booking. There is no way whatsoever that I'll pay just over £11k to make a tiny change that would take them minutes to make.

I now wish to cancel the Swiss Air Flights I booked but face losing the £7,492.88 originally paid as again Swiss Air's "Corporate Policy" says the flight is non-refundable.

Booking.com Customer "Service" are a complete nightmare to deal with. I have spent in total some 7 hours spread over 4 lengthy phone calls - two of them stretching into the early hours of 8 August 2022 trying to get sense out of their Customer "Service".

If you phone them you find yourself dealing with an Indian Call Centre operated seeming by another company called "Gotogate" where its very obvious that English is not their first language of the reps and they are heavily "script led". This is not a critcism of the indivdual reps but it is an undeniable fact that their non fluency in English as a result of it not being their native language does inevitably cause problems in understanding. UK based call centres may be more expensive compared to India but they pay dividends in terms of Customer Relations. I had to explain my issue numerous times very clearly in order to try to get the reps to fully understand the issue, each time I thought they understood the issue I asked them to repeat it back to me to check their understanding. The reply I got told me they clearly didn't understand. Incredibly frustrating and such a waste of time for both parties. Each time also the rep would attempt to talk over me, to get back their script and spout "company policy" by way of an answer, or more accurately an excuse to every question I raised. In the calls on 8 August 2022 I lost count of the number of times I had to ask them to "please let me speak". The first lady I spoke to rudely cut me off when I was asking a very reasonable question about complaints procedure as seemingly she was not happy with "offscript" questions and kept repeating "go via the website" - the very Booking.com website which obfuscates the user at every turn and makes it extremely difficult to actually contact them. There is no email address to send a complaint or a physical address - for many queries it actually helps understanding to be able to express it in writing, plus it establishes a clear audit trail. The "chat" facility is limited I spoke to another gentleman after I phoned again after being rudely cut off who was more helpful but even after giving me assurances that an action I requested would be carried out I found out after the call on checking my email that this request had been utterly ignored. I get the impression that Booking.com deliberately doesn't want audit trails of customer queries. I despair!

On the issue of the name change request I had I needed to phone Booking.com, or more accurately Gotogate 4 time. Each time a different rep, a different story but always seemingly robotically following scripts. Customers are seemingly an inconvenience to Booking.com. Bade on my experience I have zero confidence that they actually know what they're doing as the answers on the same issue are not consistent between reps. If its not a standard question which has been scripted then they struggle.

I have used Booking.com in the past numerous times to book flights, packages and hotels and never experienced a problem. They seem to do OK when things go smoothly but cannot cope and resort to spouting "corporate policy" and "terms and conditions" whenever an issue arises. Their actions show they do not care one iota about Customers. If its a flight they buckpass to the airline who then buck pass it back to Booking.com who then send a few stock emails saying theyre "doing their best to help" but ends up in a "sorry theres nothing we can do". The customer is an inconvenience and the loser.

Like the airlines, Booking.com appears to have short memories from the COVID situation of the last few years when the travel industry was on its knees facing ruin and desperate for customers to come back. Their approach is "rules are rules" whilst they seeming sit back laughing at the customer who was stupid enough to use their "services".

Is there no such thing as dealing with a HUMAN BEING any more rather than the unethical and utterly unscrupulous approach of companies feathering their nests by hiding behind corporate "rules and regulations"? Like Swiss Air the other party in this debacle, Booking.com is seemingly a company that cares nothing about the very people without whom they would not have a business - the customer!