Booking.com
Reviews and Complaints

On Oct.12th The Mile High Penthouse, 1499 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Washington DC 2005 was confirmed code:HMQ4JQRARS and receipt #[protected] to Ruth Baronda and 5 others for $2532.87 . My occupant registration form was completed and sent signed and forwarded to host, Brynn Rovito. All information concerning this home/apt as far as the rules and restrictions of no parties or events could be given there and at 10pm daily no loud noises of any kind were acceptable. Twenty -one emails of questions and answers had been exchanged with Brynn . One of the guest is a diabetic so my question to her could food, party trays, be delivered when I arrive at 4pm so I could eat and the others arriving could eat. No party or event was planned or going to happen. She emailed me that she didn't feel comfortable, and canceled the reservation with a full refund. I will never stay at airbnb booking. Brynn's assumption was wrong. I only ask her about food delivery. This location is misrepresented as your host, Brynn, refused to answer questions, but instead cancels reservations due to her comfort level. Either her host training needs upgradeing, or the lost of $2532.87 and my reviews to the Business Consumer Alliance does not affect future bookings.

Have used Booking.com for over 20 yrs. just booked a hotel in Salzburg as part of a trip through them for 16th October for one night only. As per usual, the policy was to pay at the hotel, which we did in cash & were given a receipt by the man on teception. Two days later, a similar amount was taken using our credit card. We tried to contact the hitel several times by phone & email to no avail. We then phoned booking.com & explained the situation. They told us to reply to an email they sent with all the relevant info & a photo of the receipt. We did all this & two days later reveived a confirmation email that they had accepted our submission & forwarded it to the hotel. We were told they give the hotel 5 days to refund the money & if they don't booking.com would refund us on the 6th day. Over two weeks later we have heard nothing & not received the double payment back. When I phoned again I was suddenly told that my receipt was not a receipt but "just for info" which is total rubbish. We have exactly the same type of receipts from other accommodation. When I questioned this, I was told by the customer service rep that I shouldn't have accepted the piece of paper. Obviously, i am really angry. I did not give the hotel my card details, bookinh.com did & appear to not want to take any responsibility for this fraud on our card. I can't believe that they would treat a customer who has used their service for such a long time, in such an appalling manner. Also, on googling the hotel, I found many reviews/complaints on various forums about this hotel behaving in a fraudulent manner & people having to fight to get their money repaid. All if them said they made their reservations through booking.com. If they know this hotel is so bad, why are they still in partnership with it?

On 10/20/17, I booked a room at Alonei Neve Zohar (Dead Sea) confirmation #[protected]. I spoke with David. He told me the total cost will be $297 for 3 days 10/22-25 and breakfast is an option for an additional fee.
Upon arrival, I found there was no place to buy food and no breakfast option.
The pictures show a public beach adjacent, but it was fenced off with bulldozers and no access to the water. Not only that, but when I got home, I found an additional charge of 181.76 IS - while the $297 was supposed to be "all included".

Good evening. I booked an executive double or twin room with a price of 74.52 euro few minutes ago. However, after I completed all my details and made the reservation, the price shown up was 98 euro. I think this is unreasonable for me to pay the full amount of the room.

Besides, I have a photo of the price as I want to ask my friend about the accommodation. Can you help me check if there have any problem about the room price. Hope to see your reply soon.

Thank you so much.

Regards
Ruey

I have done 5 bookings via booking.com and hope the price is competitive after the refund but customer service agent told me this refund only valid for 1 time use. I received all confirmation emails saying that I will receive the refund to my credit card after each stay. This is a marketing fraud, all public please beware. The price is lower if you try other hotel booking site. They are more expensive if they don't honour the 10% refund. They have refused to refund almost €200 for my case.

Dear Management

Being an avid traveller and an advocate for South African tourism and especially in countryside, I regret to have to write this letter. I have only now completed my travels, hence the delayed delivery of my feedback.

I had recently booked and paid for accommodation at the Rustenburg Safari Lodge Hotel and Convention Centre.

I booked the Executive Suite for the night of 13 October 2017 for R1719.20 through Bookings.com, rated a three-star establishment. Confirmation number [protected].

Unfortunately, even my adventurous spirit, no-fuss attitude and love for nature couldn't salvage this situation. It had been the most horrendous experience I have ever had with an establishment, not even considering the price and three-star rating.

The conditions were so unacceptable that I had to, at 8:30pm on Friday night, search frantically for other accommodation for our romantic breakaway. I had eventually found refuge at the Protea Hotel by Marriott, Rustenburg, at R1820.

Unfortunately, by that time, I couldn't get hold of the Protea Hotel in person to confirm the booking and had to pack up all the luggage and travel there to ensure we had a place to stay. I therefore was unable to check out of the Safari Lodge and lay a formal complaint, forcing me to return in the morning, and more importantly, wasting very valuable and limited time my partner and I had together.

I am gravely disappointed in the quality of the facilities and am astounded that the Orion group would allow such degradation and risk their reputation like this.

See below the list of unacceptable elements:
- I chose this establishment for its professed mountain views from the rooms and had happily paid the premium for the Executive Suite to get the view from a private balcony. I had called ahead twice and asked questions through the Booking.com app to ensure that the view was indeed as picturesque as claimed and that my booking was secured as I got conflicting emails. When I arrived at reception the staff member had no knowledge of this and said I am lucky they did not give my room away seeing as I hadn't paid a deposit - the very thing I called to ask whether they need a deposit or not.
- Then my key card didn't work and after several other attempts I eventually received the master key so I could enter my room. By this time an hour had passed.
- The lights were out in the passage leading to my door, and I slipped in the mud, luckily not sustaining an injury.
- Upon opening the curtains to reveal the balcony, I saw the curtains were tattered and torn.
- When I stepped onto the balcony by far the biggest disappointment was the scene in front of me: I was greeted by stretches of corrugated iron roof, a line of some trees after that and if you really squinted the mountain was partly visible in the distance through the trees. This was my reason for choosing this property over the others.
- Entering inside, I decided to give it another chance, take a shower, and perhaps if we close off the view it would still have a semblance of a romantic evening. The shower was partly clogged, the water rising up to cover my feet. The water only heated after 15 minutes of running. Not ideal for water preservation. The border of the towels had big writing in blue ink on it - a number of some sort, marking it. When I wanted to use the basin, I noticed the tip of the faucet was covered in toothpaste.
- Thinking maybe tea would improve the situation, I found a cockroach next to the cup.
- By this time it was too late to have dinner at the lodge as I had paid for.
- The absolute last straw that made me pack my bags was the relentless sound of a grinder at 8:30 at night, possibly from building as I discovered in the morning when I came back to return the master key.
- When I returned in the morning, in an effort to save money after my now almost R4000 in accommodation, and an additional dinner cost for two people, I wanted to at least eat the breakfast I had paid for at Safari Lodge. I took the path around the buildings, past the rubble, to the breakfast area. But when I approached the area, I was struck by the most pungent odour, smelling like cat feces. Nauseated I left the property.

I have to note that the two staff members who helped me find a key that worked for my door was truly friendly and helpful. And the scenery leading up to reception, and even the reception area, was beautiful. Unfortunately this is a misrepresentation of the rest of the facilities.

I insist the above be addressed to keep the Orion group's name from further degradation and to preserve the tourism of Rustenburg. Furthermore, as I did not make use of the facilities, a refund is in order.

Banking details:
A Botes
Standard bank
Acc [protected]
Cheque account
Branch 004805

Regretfully,
Anel

Anel Botes
[protected]

Before Check-in:

I was sent details. The online link to make deposit payment was not working. And after trying to call the number provided for about 4 hours I didn't receive a response despite leaving several voicemails.

Check-In:

I eventually got through after standing outside for 20mins in the cold. And the customer service terrible. The guy was rude on the phone. Mumbled rude comments under his breathe. Hung up after taking my £1000 deposit with NO further instructions - I had to them call back twice before he picked up and told me the code to get in. In total I was left outside for 1 hour on the street as even though I had already paid for the apartment I needed to send them ID - Which I then had to open my suitcase on the floor outside before they would give me the code.

This was ridiculous as the only reason they hadn't received this information was due to their system not working and nobody picking up the phone. In general conversation with them was in impolite manners.

On Arrival in Apartment:

The apartment was so dirty, the floor, walls, were ALL stained or scratched.
The room smelt, the toilet smelt and had skid marks in it, there was also a hole in the bathroom wall! Downstairs there were scuffs all down the walls, a handle was missing from the bedroom wardrobe. Dust all over the floor, especially in the toilet.

The quality of the place was horrible… and all of this after they demanded £1000 deposit! What a joke. As soon as I found out how horrible this place was, they did not answer the phone once I was in. The pictures posted on booking.com were far so different than in real. Awful conditions and the worse stay I have ever experienced.

I would not recommend it to anyone who would like to have a nice stay.

Overall Experience:

Getting the keys was a nightmare, nobody answered for 4 hours before we got there, we waited for an hour outside the property for them to sort out check-in which messed with our plans for the day! The property doesn't look like it did in the images - in fact the condition of the apartment is terrible and I shouldn't have even had to pay a deposit considering the condition of it! Rude customer service and to think that their website emphasises all of this is a complete lie.

I have seen other reviews saying the same thing… WHY IS THIS PLACE STILL AVAILABLE ON YOUR SITE?

My credit card was charged for a non show reservation at Booking which I never made. When Booking look at the my account they can not find any reservation made but my credit card was use for the reservation [protected] at The St. Regis Saadiyat Island Resort, Abu Dhabi. Booking is unable to provide an explanation and since the resort does not want to refund they don't offer any solution. I have been a booking customer for many years and am very disappointed by their customer service and the fact that they can not find any solution with the St Regis. I am also very disappointed with the ST Regis which does not offer any solution and only mention booking. This is absolutely not customer service.

I booked four nights at the Comfort Inn Fallsview at a rate of $64 per night. When I arrived there I was charged 64 for one night and $78 each for the other 3 nights. Why? At the same time the same room was going for $51 a night and the rate on booking.com has still been $64 a night. If I had booked directly with the hotel it was 51 or 64 a night. What about the lowest rate guarantee? I was overcharged and very dissatisfied with booking.com. The room goes for 51 to 64 a night and they charged me 78.

We can't believe what happend. We booked an apartment on booking.com in Valencia the company is called Calle San Vicente Martir 28, 46001 Valencia when we arrived we noticed the apartment was different they offered a beautiful photo with roof terrace but the apartment did not have a terace the lady for checking told us to pay much more as what we booked she told cleaning is extra but was not clear during our booking anyway was not the main problem we told you show some complete different. Final we told we like to contact booking.com she told leave the apartment we say can we please ask and check with booking.com she say you need leave I say but we are late and have no other place it was not her problem she called other told if we not leave they call the police i say please call because you cheat us. I refused final booking.com called us and confirmed the apartment must have a terrace they told we call back and fix it for you after hours no call back final two big guys arrived told us we need to leave hours later no call still from booking.com as we have no other option we left and tried to find a place we end up that we needed to book an accommodation twice as expensive and till now no call nothing. I am years a customer with what they call a genius customer with booking.com a Dutch company I feel shamed being a dutch but this is all accept genius service i will advice nobody to ever book with this company and/or booking.com because to images what we booked was fake really sad i like to cancel my account with booking.com but found information "you cannot cancel your account" sorry what an experience twice expensive we forced to find a place and no assistance at all for ys never ever again booking.com. In late evening we walk with our bags in the streets of Valencia thank you very much booking.com for your excellent bad service!

Hi I booked the burough market apartments in London from 1st dec to 3rd dec for a party of 6. Nowhere in the site was it mentioned we would have to travel in a taxi at the cost of £40 to get out keys. We had booked central as one of my friend is pregnant so we don't want to be traveling or spending that amount of money when we just want to get settled when we arrive. Also there is a £40 cleaning charge which was never mentioned, we would never have booked this appartment had we realised this. This is not a good impression of booking.com. There was also a large amount of money mentioned as a safeguard in case anything for broken, this will also have to come off my card before we even get there. We have been informed this is a no refund appartment so we can't win. I have already e mailed them and recieved no responce so have e mailed them again, we are 6 unhappy ladies who go on a xmas trip every year and booked with you last year but unless we get this resolved we will not book again in the future.

I have booked a hotel in Goa at "Calangute beach house", I have booked a single room for 5 adults noticing that there are providing futon beds, but upon calling the owner he was like we charge separate for beds I.E. Rs 300 per person per night. If this is the case why don't they site update it during final bill? this is not good for the company I need an explanation as soon as possible.

I made a reservation from Oct 25 to Oct 28 at Huge One Bedroom in Brookline, MA and received a booking confirmation.
Today, when I arrived in Boston I called the host to ask for directions (the street number was missing on the website) and I have been told the apartment was no longer available. They said they had informed booking.com and asked them to prevent me, but I have never received such an e-mail.
Anyway, since I insisted the lady told me she could gave us a room just for the first night. I asked for directions but she didn't answer and said she would have sent a taxi to pick us up. We waited for the taxi for half an hour before deciding to move away (it was getting dark and it was raining as well).
It took us more than 2 hours to find another place to stay in Brookline and, of course, the only room we could find was very expensive.
I have been using booking.com for years and in many different countries and this is the first time I face such an unpleasant situation.
I would ask you to verify the reliability of this company and, in case they charge me anything, a complete refund.

The following is the content of a letter sent to booking.com at their legal address in the Netherlands on 23.09.2017 and it is self explanatory. To date, I received no answer to this letter in any form. In the interest of sparing others such an issue I am making the facts of our experience public.

Dear Sirs,
On a recent trip to France we were confronted at the hotel with the fact that they had a second booking for us. We were forced to pay an additional €140 for this second booking. This second booking does not appear in your system. (See attached screen shot.)
On September 17 (14:59 - 22 min.) we called your customer service and reported this problem. Initially, your agent agreed to send us a link where we could submit our documents for action. She never sent this link, but called us back several minutes later with the information that she had talked with your technical department. (Call 15:37 - 9 min.)
According to your technician this is a common known issue caused either by incorrect user input or a system error, especially when the email address contains valid, but non-standard characters. Since we have had the same email address for over 25 years, it is very unlikely that we incorrectly input our email address. (It is also our booking.com sign-in email address.)
A promised follow-up from booking.com never happened. Our subsequent "email" to booking.com was also not answered.
On September 21 (19:37 - 28 min.) we again called your customer service and were again told that these system errors (or input errors) sometimes happen, but that booking.com takes no responsibility.
My subsequent Internet research indicates that what happened to us, is a known common issue, but that booking.com does not accept responsibility, although technically it would not be difficult to handle the rejection of invalid email addresses.
One can only wonder why booking.com does not fix this problem in the interest of their customers and partners. Surely, duplicate bookings and "no-shows" at hotels is not desirable. Customer complaints are surely also not desirable. Cui bono?
We request you to investigate our second booking and refund the €140 to us. (Needed documentation is attached.)
We set a month from this letter as a reasonable time for your positive response. If there is no satisfactory resolution to this issue by October 23rd, 2017 we will turn this issue over to our lawyer for his action. (We have world-wide legal process insurance.)
Please respond in written form, because we reserve the right to factually document and publish our issue on appropriate social media.

Dear booking .com

I have received a message to day that I did not show up for a booking last night however i made the booking for the weekend. I have just seen how this error has happened despite my requests to speak to a manager they were turned down.

When I put in my details and dates to stay (correct dates) when I navigate to the next page it changes the dates to the current day despite still offering 24 hour cancellation policy (which was not available on the 22nd of October when I tried to book and is indeed very misleading). Why does your web site change my dates when navigating from screen to screen when I have clearly told you the dates I need that? That's right because you need to sell hotel bookings mid week!

Also the confirmation email went to my spam folder which I have just found but would not have been able to correct it or change it as it was your error on your web site.

I have also found one other booking web site that does the same thing so I have reported you both to the regulator (CMA) as you are changing information that I am clearly putting in to your web site and not only is it misleading with your terms and conditions (24 hour cancellation which is not possible on the day of booking and you can clearly change that as it wasn't an option the day before) it also helps you sell hotel bookings mid week when I clearly stated I wanted them for the weekend.

Yours sincerely

Daniel Chapple

Last sat we got a sms from the bank that a huge amount was being charged, we called the bank, and they refer us the merchant Sheraton Laguna Guam Resort. We called the resort at once and would like to cancel the booking (but actually we’ve ever booked), Kan (manager) said that they cannot cancel as it’s booked by booking.com. We then called booking.com, they cannot find the booking, same to us, we’ve ever found the booking confirmation from booking.com before! Booking.com called Sheraton n finally they understood that booking.com has really booked, however, no confirmation has sent to us! They said nothing can help as it’s the charge from Sheraton. What sort of service have they provided! They asked us they only way to get the refund is that we called Sheraton directly!

Hi, This is Helen Fernandes, I had booked through booking.com for hotel Hyatt place in Herndon & received booking confirmation. This was my 1st visit to USA. However when I reached hotel I was informed that they don't have any reservation in my name. Upon contacting booking.com, after 20 mins they provided me with alternate arrangements with a higher cost & ask me to book it through their portal so that they can confirm the booking. This was done basis they agreed to pay the difference in cost n transportation. However I have still not reimbursed for the difference nor have they reimbursed me for the additional transportation cost incurred to relocate to another hotel which was Hamptons inn & suites. Additionally Hamptons inn & suites debited me $50 without any reason & failed to give me receipt when requested citing the same will be furnished by booking.com. I have been following with all concern however the matter is still not resolved. If I don't hear on this I have no choice but to go legal.

On 17 October 2017 I made a reservation at Downtown Toronto Luxury Condo for the night of 21 October 2017. Although the advertised rate was 243 cad, I saw that my credit car was charged 374 cad. I enquired and was told that this included a cleaning fee of 100 cad. This was hidden somewhere and wasn't declared next to the fee for reservation. I felt cheated and asked to cancel my booking. I was told that I could be offered an agreement and I should admit 243 cad cancellation fee and if the room is resold, I would be reimbursed.

The last time I saw it they were selling the room for 2 adults and 2 children for 315 dollars and this clearly tells that they sold my room of 243 dollars worth. Then I saw, as per enclosed photo, that they sold all their rooms. I am not reimbursed at all.

First i booked my hotel through booking.com to Verlain hotel in paris and i already paid for accommodation upfront. On the day of arrival we check in and around 11 pm our family friends came and took us for 2 days i told the reception on front that i am leaving the keys can you clean the room and i am going abd will cone back but if i dont cone back i will call you. After. 2 days i called them and they told me your reservation is cancelled i got angry i told them i have paid you i am going back they told me i am bad customer nd i have to contact booking.com and after contacting booking.com they did not help me instead they told me i will send u a link to book other hotels nd pay. Abd they told me they dont have proof that I haven't checked out. After being on phone for more than one and half hour i told me to call me as i am running out of credit but they didnt call me and i had no place to sleep until my day of flight which i spend the whole night in airport i slept there. Very disappointed nd disgusted by the amount of lack of knowledge that because i have made booking through them they couldn't help me as an agent.they didnt call me instead wanted me to pay them for another hotel

This is a review of our holiday at Hotel Joli in Florence. Please help me decide if the following is an honest mistake by Hotel Joli and/or Booking.com or, in the birthplace of Niccolo Macchiavelli and the hometown of the Medicis, a carefully constructed, well-orchestrated con-trick based on collusion, misrepresentation and deliberate, disingenuous ambiguity and prevarication to double hotel revenue and/or Booking.com commissions.
If you have had or heard of similar experiences and are of the view that it is please do publicise this as widely as possible to save other victims falling prey to these cynical travel industry practices.
The key elements are:
• Booking.com ‘non-refundable room’ Booking Conditions: ‘If you cancel, modify or for a no show the full price of the reservation becomes payable.’
• Is it reasonable to assume this means you do not get any of your money back if you cancel your booking, if you do not show up at all, or if you want to change some detail?
• No definition of ‘no show’ or ‘modify’ on Booking.com website.
• The hotel claims they did not receive your email to say your flight was cancelled but you have paid for an alternative flight and will arrive the second day of your booking. They did acknowledge your previous email saying your flight was delayed; both emails were from same sender to same recipient email addresses.
• Booking.con send email & ask you to reply by pressing one of two buttons:
“I stayed at the hotel” or “I did not stay at the hotel”: Is this deliberately ambiguous – neither is appropriate – you did not stay at the hotel the first night, but you do not want to cancel; you want the remaining nights of your reservation. If you reply “I did not stay at the hotel”, find out what happenes next.
• While awaiting your replacement flight on what should have been the second day of your holiday, Booking.com send an email to say: “Your reservation has been cancelled as a no-show by the property”. Is this an honest mistake, or the key to doubling revenues and commissions? The Booking Conditions clearly state “the full price of the reservation becomes payable”. No problem. Take full payment and we are on our way to stay in the rooms we booked.
•
• Hotel Joli has cancelled our rooms despite our keeping them fully informed. It could all be an error though and they seem apologetic and are offering “to host you for free the last night from the 20th until the 21st July.
• You telephone Hotel Joli. The owner, Chiara confirms she has let out your room to someone else but assures you she will let you stay at Hotel Joli the last night of your reservation at no charge. She even offers free breakfasts the following two mornings because the hotel she has found you a replacement room in does not provide breakfast.
• You go to Hotel Joli where Chiara is so friendly and effusive in her apologies. She must charge you for the night when it was a ‘no show’ but she will not charge for the two nights she cancelled and relet your room and you can stay the last night “free”..and there’s two free breakfasts! You believe her, like a fool, and your anger is assuaged by her sincerity and friendly generosity; she even hugs you both!
• Imagine our shock when we are able to check our bank statement on arrival back in the UK to find Hotel Joli has taken payment for all four nights.
• Prolonged email correspondence to establish this must be a mistake and to seek a refund ends with Chiara at Hotel Joli curtly dismissing our protestations with: “Yes it’s correct. Because is a NO SHOW”. She passes the blame to Booking.com and suggests we take it up with them.
• Further prolonged email exchanges end with Booking.com turning to referring to us having made a “change request”. Either our pleas for a refund have been lost in translation or this is an alternative ploy to counter our argument that a ‘no-show’ on the first night cannot justify both taking full payment and cancelling our room and reletting it. Booking.com alleges the Hotel Joli did not receive our ‘change request’ (Hotel Joli alleged they did not receive our email saying we could not arrive the first night but would arrive the next day). They ‘explain’: “as the change was not made, the reservation stood to arrive on the 17th. When this passed the property charges the no show fee of 420 EUR as the reservation was a non refundable policy.” But why did Hotel Joli take our money AND CANCEL OUR ROOM?
• The most offensive part of this email is where Booking.com explain how Hotel Joli’s repeated assurances that we could stay there the last night FOR FREE can be consistent with money having been taken from our bank account FOR THE FREE NIGHT. Booking.con explain that Hotel Joli “was within their right to charge...the additional night that you stayed with them on the 20th” (the night we had booked to stay, but our room cancelled and payment taken), “They chose to waive the latter as a gesture of goodwill to you”.
In other words Booking.com and Hotel Joli have interpreted the offer of a FREE NIGHT’S STAY as NOT HAVING TO PAY FOR THE SAME ROOM TWICE!

My wife booked a four night stay in Florence via Booking.con. We received confirmation of the booking and we had flights booked from Gatwick on Easyjet.
Due to fly to Pisa afternoon of 17th July.
Problems began when, due to an Air Canada flight suffering a burst tyre and the runway at Gatwick being put out of commission, some 20 flights, including ours were at first delayed then cancelled.
• Kavita emailed Hotel Joli to advise our arrival is delayed.
• Francesca at Hotel Joli acknowledges email saying “It’s ok”.
• Easyjet flight to Pisa then cancelled
• 17 July – Kavita emails Hotel Joli to say our flight is cancelled and we will not be able to arrive on 17th.
• 18th July – Kavita emails hotel to say we have an alternative flight and will arrive after 6pm.
• Booking.con send email asking Kavita to reply by pressing one of two buttons:
“I stayed at the hotel” or “I did not stay at the hotel”
• 18th July – Booking.con emails Kavita to say Hotel Joli has cancelled our entire booking.
• 18th July – James telephones Hotel Joli – speaks to Chiara (owner/manager) who claims the Kavita’s email re flight cancellation had gone into their ‘spam’ email folder (despite same sender and recipient addresses being used that had already been acknowledged by Francesa at Hotel Joli).
• Chiara is very apologetic – pretends it has been a mix-up – arranges two nights’ accommodation at another hotel – assures us we will only be charged for the night we did not arrive and can stay last night at Hotel Joli “free”. So – we only have to pay Hotel Joli for one night – the one we missed.
• We stay at Hotel Fiorita for two nights and pay them.
• We stay one night at Hotel Joli – which Chiara reassured us is “FREE”.
• After arrival back in UK, Kavita discovers the full 420Euros has been taken by Hotel Joli – i.e. for all four nights.
• Emails back and forth between Kavita & Chiara at Hotel Joli; Chiara claims she is within her rights to take 4 nights’ payment because Booking.con confirmed it is a ‘no-show’. (This is the why the Booking.con email only allows two options that are not applicable to many situations).
• We reply to point out payment was taken for 4 nights whereas Chiara told us only one’s night’s payment would be taken and the last night would be free.
• Chiara replies that we have to discuss this with Booking.com since they cancelled the booking.
• Extended email exchanges with Booking.com end with them saying this was a ‘No show’ which means the hotel can take full payment. They explain that the offer of the last night of our booking being “free” is that we would not have to pay TWICE for it. In other words, this counted as a separate booking but Hotel Joli is so generous they would only take payment once.

We fully understood that as a ‘non-refundable’ booking, if WE cancelled or wanted to change to another hotel, we would have to pay in full for this booking. Nowhere on the Booking .CON website is the phrase “no-show” clearly defined. We accept that if we do not show up, we have to pay for the night we missed. No reasonable traveller would agree that a hotel can take full payment and cancel your entire reservation because a flight cancellation delayed arrival 24 hours.
Non-refundable and ‘no-show’ do NOT mean that Booking.com and/or Hotel Joli can cancel the whole of our booking, re-let the rooms to double their money and commission and then claim they are doing us a favour giving us one night ‘free’ – which actually means not charging us TWICE.
The key to the con is to trick customers into replying with one of only two options, neither of which are applicable to a delayed arrive and allowing the ambiguity to be interpreted as an admission by the customer that they did not show up at the property at all. It is essential that the hotel tries to claim the customer did communicate with them – except that here we have Francesca’s email acknowledging our first email with later email using the same sender/recipient – which fatally undermines Hotel Joli’s feeble attempt to use the ‘spam folder’ get out.
The hotel pretends not to have received our communication informing them our flight is cancelled. They tell Booking.com they have a ‘no-show’. Booking.con tricks the customer into replying they did not show up. This enables Booking.con to authorise the hotel to cancel the whole reservation and take full payment, re-let the room so they double their commission and when a customer complains they pretend to mitigate the offence by conning the customer into believing they will not be charged for the nights that the hotel has given their room to someone else and they can stay free of charge for one night. Only later, and only through persistent emailing, does it eventually become clear that “free” means nothing of the sort. It only means you will not be charged a second time for what you have already paid for.
Booking.con have again now replied to blame Hotel Joli and to say that Hotel is refusing to refund any money in accordance with their terms and conditions. There are NO terms and conditions on their website. There is NO reference at all to permission to cancel your reservation after taking full payment on the Hotel Joli page of Booking.con. We receive no warning in our booking confirmation. Either Hotel Joli or Booking.CON or both are committing fraud. Hotel Joli places all the blame on Booking.CON and Booking.CON places all...well, you can guess. We are referring this to the SFO.