Booking.com
Reviews and Complaints

On Sept 11th around 5:00 PM I made a desperate reservation on booking.com in order to escape the miserable conditions in Miami after hurricane Irma. We had no power, therefore no A/C. We have a 2 years old Samoyed which cannot be without A/C for long periods of time. I also needed an internet connection so I can keep an eye on some remote servers I currently own and managed.

With great difficulties due to weak signal from my carrier I was able to make the reservation using my 4G connection on my phone, therefore I couldn’t see too much details about the property.

My only requirement was to make sure the property was PET FRIENDLY, had A/C and Internet. Which the booking.com page said they were.
After a quick packing the 3 of us left Miami and begin our trip to Hollywood, Broward County. The trip was not a panacea, most sections of the road were pitch black with debris and when we finally made it to Hollywood, and we realized that it was the same as in Miami we stared to lose hope but we pressed on and we kept on driving. Trees were down everywhere, it was nerve wreaking.

First Issue: I started calling the property before we left Miami to make sure they didn’t have weight limitation on Pets (Our Samoyed is 57 lbs.) and NO answer! I kept calling every 15 min or so but still no answer!

Second issue: Property was not easy to find. I kept calling and finally a woman with a very heavy English accent answered the phone, it was already pass 10:00 PM. She said to look for a big house, but I could not find it. After driving almost for another half hour I kept calling because they weren’t too responsive. When finally in the dark we saw a flash light, we drove towards and we arrived to “the big house”

Third issue: This was not what we were expecting, the woman and an old man were outside and as we drove through the drive way I rolled down my window to say hi. They were clearly in distress. She said that they just got the power back and when I asked if they had internet she say that nothing was working.

Fourth issue: Because they never answered the phone, I have had not the time to explain about our dog. So I quickly showed her our dog sitting in the backseat and she reluctantly said that it will be extra, however, as soon as the old man saw the dog he started talking in Hebrew and he seemed upset to the point that he turned around and just walked away. She said that he didn’t like dogs and that it was okay if we didn’t want to stay.
After that poor welcoming my wife and I decided to leave even thought we had no idea where to go and if we could find a place to stay. So we drove for hours going from hotel to hotel but they were all sold out. Exhausted and defeated we got back to Miami with a couple gallons of gas to spare.
Power came back in the morning so our dog was fine. The rest is history.
After the horrible experience it will be ridiculous if on top of all that we also have to pay for a service that was never offered nor rendered to us.

My CC asked me to send a letter so I can dispute the changes. I’m not paying a cent to those people who have no clue how to conduct a hospitality business.

I received an email from Sun International, advising me that my reservation has been cancelled

My reservation is through Booking.com. You have confirmed my reservation! They have no right to cancel

I need this resolved!
Confirmation #[protected]

PS: I referred this matter to Debra at your Michigan office more than 24 hours ago. What is an acceptable turnaround time for you to get back to me?!?! Not ok!

My wife and I booked a night without Royal hotel in the center of Brussels from and paid 60 euros by card, however when we arrived they asked for the value of 65 euros and they said that this value payment for reservation would return my account in 24 hours and so far nothing, what to do in this case? I need this refund, but the hotel don t say me anything

dear Sir/ madam,

we stayed in the subject hotel from 10/09-13/09/2017 and was the worse hotel ever nothing was nice in this hotel and i did sent me review regarding the hotel (bed not convert able like you sleeping on the rocket not feeling safe because very fa from hotel & they charge €10 to iron one shirt only) and later i was surprised to see my view and review has been changed from negative and awful experience to a positive review as below. That is mean booking.com is misleading people and give them the wrong information about hotels. i will never use your service.
176 guests loved their stay

9.2“Bed very comfortable. Staff exceptionally nice and helpful. Room very clean and nice area to sit outside. Very quiet yet 5 mins stroll to centre of Porto cervo harbour. Would highly recommend.”

Eva Shamoun

I have been using booking.com for all my hotel reservations. There was a reservation
made ref nos.[protected] which was not cancelled due to unable to access my email after several attempts for a cancellation. time was dragging where I could not cancel
the booking. Now I checked in the hotel 81 Tristar Onan Road Singapore where the booking failed to cancel due to unaccessable to my email. As a result I will be charged for a penalty. I feel this is unfair
because not my intention to do that and this is my first mistake and I am asking you to consider this case.

Thanks.
[protected]@yahoo.com

I booked a room with booking.com and straight away realised that the booking was on the wrong date. Booking.com were no help at all passing the blame over to the hotel. I contacted the hotel who immediately changed the date for no extra cost. The hotel was in fact cheaper for the chosen night, but I accepted this as it was my fault as I submitted this booking. Everything seemed resolved until I had an email from booking.com to say the hotel wanted an extra payment for this night of £117 and the date was changed to a different date and not the 1 I booked with the hotel. I then had to ring the hotel again to confirm we had got the date I wanted and not the 1 booking.com had told me. The hotel is unaware of any additional costs so where has this come from? This was all a complete waste of time and an easy request ended up in me chasing this booking, so I should have just made a direct booking with the hotel as it would have meant only 1 email/telephone call. Booking.com have still not resolved this and I would like to look forward to this stay as it is for a birthday and we were going to have a special weekend away but instead I am uncertain if all is resolved by then.
Reference number [protected]
Dean Simkins
[protected]@gmail.com

I have been trying to find accommodation in Petach Tikva, Israel.
Booking.com recommended the Spa House Boutique Hotel at David Marcus Street, Petach Tikva. Rating 6.6, and was referred to as: 'great value today' by Booking.com.

When I called I was told by the person answering the call that one can book on an HOURLY BASIS, and was informed that this hotel was NOT for families.

This is shocking misrepresentation and I think that representatives from Booking.com owe it to their clients to check out, from time to time, the hotels that they recommend. It is obvious to me that, at this time, they do not.

I have been using Booking.com for many years and am sorry to see how badly they let themselves down when recommending such a place.
Doreen Peretz

Hi there, I have many pictures to provide feedback on HomeTowne Suites in Montgomery, AL. We arrived and they were overbooked, they found us a room, 318. We had booked a two bedroom with a pull out couch. It was full of dead cockaroaches over 20. Then their were live bugs as well. I went back to the office they switched the room to room 218 wasn't any better. We walked into blood stains on carpet. We went back and they changed the room again, to 228. This was a one bedroom with a pull out except there was no pull out. Beyond disgusted with this hotel. The only good thing was the front desk person named Diamond.

I booked this apartment whilst I was traveling in Holland. When I arrived in Lanzarote it was early evening, my taxi dropped me off at the address I looked for a reception but found it closed until Monday following my arrival .I had no possible way to contact the owners, my phone did not cover that country. On the Monday I returned to the apartment reception to explain that because I could not gain access I had booked a hotel so I would not be taking up my booked accommodation. The reception person told me they had sent me emails to inform me how to gain access . I explained I had no way to access emails or make phone calls .There was no offer of a compromise or apology. I said I would complain to Booking .com .

I have booked a room with Vienna Kreuz Apartment with free cancellation on August 22. Unfortunately I had to cancel the apartment on same day due to change of my travel plan. They have deduction 50 Euros from my account on August 22nd and still nor refunded yet. When I emailed the property 12 days ago, they said they will do the needful. Now I'm not getting any response from the property for the past 3 days. I'm not able to contact Booking.com customer care. Polish no. not responding, International number always responding with an automated message saying they cannot attend my call due to high volume. I have decided to cancel all my upcoming bookings with booking.com as now they have started to test my patience.

Confirmation no. [protected]

We booked self catering flat at 'Flottwell Berlin hotel & resident am park' Berlin on 29th July for 5 nights from 24th to 29th August for 2 people.

In the search criteria, we had selected as above & when the results came up we have requested booking for what we thought was reasonable & nice accommodation. We received confirmation at the time as in the picture attached.

we have not received any confirmation email to my email nor any other communication between then & the date of our trip. On arrival, the receptionist told us that this flat was booked for 1 person & so we had pay €20 / day for 5 nights. This was completely a surprise for us as we had gone by the search results for 2 people & at no point were we told that the booking was for 1 person. If we had to pay this extra we would have selected some other hotel or gone with another search engine.

I have had another bad experience with booking.com 2 years ago, where we were given rooms infested with bedbugs & in a very shabby condition in Birmingham. Despite sending pictures of my allsergic reaction to the bites, we did not even get a reply of apology.

When I sent email to your team this time from Berlin about this extra payment, I didn't get response for 1 day & then a reply saying you'll add it to my booking.

Our Berlin trip was spoilt even at the start of the trip & we had to shed out €100 from our trip expenditure which has hugely inconvenienced us.

Dear all,

my name is Otakar Novak. I have booked a hotel in Hurley's of Queenstown 4 stars - confirmation number: [protected] PIN code: 3998. But because of change of my plans I did canceled my reservation and made a new one in Methven Motel & Apartments - confirmation number: [protected] PIN code: 3357 where I have been to.
The cancelation was made on Monday 4.9.17, Iam sure you could see that from the back screen of yours, because I have made a New booking in Methven Motel & Apartments - confirmation number: [protected] PIN code: 3357 and canceled the one in Hurley's of Queenstown 4 stars - confirmation number: [protected] PIN code: 3998.

However I was charged for both.

For some reason, I did not received the cancelation conformation, I thought I did, but I was not able to check my emails that time.

I also contact a Hurley's of Queenstown 4 stars, but They would not make a refund for me of 333 au$ because of no show.

I hope you will make the action and sort this issue out for me, so I could use your company for my future trips. So far I did not have any issues like this with booking.com.

I belive I did everthing right according your cancelation policy.

Thank you and Looking forward to hear from you on my email ota.[protected]@gmail.com

Otakar Novak

We found this hotel highly overpriced for the service they provide.
We stayed eleven nights, when we checked in they took our complete payment!
During this time our bed sheets were not changed at all, and the floors were not vacuumed or washed. The room service was very poor, basically it was a change of towels.
The carpets were filthy, we needed to have footwear on at all times so our feet didn't get dirty.
The fittings in the room were in need of maintenance, eg. taps dripped, the kitchen and bathroom tapwear were loose. The air conditioning units were so loud it was impossible to sleep with them on, which was unfortunate, as the daily temperature was mid 30's.
The kitchen was very poor, we had booked for 4 people, there were only 2 or 3 plates and bowls, all of which were chipped or cracked. There wasn't enough cutlery either, and no teaspoons at all.
The outdoor area of the hotel and poolside were a mess. Dirt, dust, building mess, garbage laying around everywhere.
The communal bbq's were not cleaned, and there was nothing to clean them with.
As you can see, we were extremely unhappy with this property, and would like a credit off one of our future bookings.
Sincerely,
David Herbig.

I have a non-refundable 2 night booking at Kents Hill Park, Milton Keynes, UK. However, nowhere on Booking.com's website does it state that the accommodation is a Training and Conference Centre, when I believed I was booking into an hotel. I am extremely unhappy with what, I believe to be false advertising. There is one person at "reception", who cannot deal with the volume of calls and people, and I have just been advised that, when reception is not manned, security takes over. So, clearly not an hotel. My booking confirmation is:

https://secure.booking.com/confirmation.en-gb.html?aid=340296;label=metatrivago-hotel-281475_xqdz-5fa3d39efa0e58c34a417659c60a48b7_los-2_nrm-1_gstadt-1_gstkid-0_curr-gbp_lang-en-gb;sid=0a8cff63ef1caf0eef6f3f5c8a5bc899;auth_key=nND88AZA0SVrwpgH;bp_travel_purpose=leisure;hostname=www.booking.com;source=book;ua_created=0&

I would like a refund for this accommodation as, had I known that it is not an hotel, I would not have booked here. I must stress that the staff at the Centre have attempted to make the best of my disappointment; the literature of Kents Hill Park that they showed me clearly states that it is a Training and Conference Centre - something Booking.com has omitted to include on venue information. In fact, in the above URL, reference is made to "hotel policies"

Yours sincerely
Lesley Coubrough

JH Hospitalty group in Mystic ct, charged us for a reservation that we were told by booking.com computer website couldn't be confirmed ( we were advised to give our credit card number to book reservation) but then were told it was booked.
Today 9/7/2017 we were billed by holiday inn ( aka JH hospitality group) for a room that was booked and we never received any e mail update with a change to our original request
Ron Mullen & Stella Savino
Note: this issue seems similar to all the other complaints

Don't know where to start. Nothing good to say.
They mispresent the hotels and provide false information, so when you arrive you'll be more than just surprised. "Worst experience, bad s, do not book with this company!
I travelled with my wife and when we were looking for an apartment we wanted to book something bigger than just for two. The apartment we booked was for 4 people, that's what we wanted and what we paid for. But when we arrived the room was poorly furnished and had a really small bed.
Plus, the room was dirty and it smelled like a cigarette smoke inside. Disgusting.
We will never use it again for sure.

Booking number: 1176.919.095 Hotel de Normandie, Jersey 28th Aug - 4 Sept

Just returned from a week at the above hotel. My booking confirmation states 'Please note that the hotel does not accept guests under 21 years old'.
This was the main purpose for choosing the hotel as we need d a quiet week after illness. The hotel was alive with children of all ages and the week far from quiet! Not good enough and amounts to misrepresentation - please look into this and advise.

I used to be a regular customer for many years, but after they've let me down I was done with them. Extremely disappointed. I left a complaint on their website under the hotel description, but they didn't publish it. It's clear why but not really fair.
So how about customers' protection that has to exist? I booked a room in Prague and got a different one when I arrived. They didn't want to provide me the room I initially booked and I decided to leave, but they didn't let me go! is it actually legal? So I had to pay, I didn't want any trouble. But it makes booking look bad. And I know I will never be booking with them again.

My partner and I booked a double room with a sofa bed in the Clayton hotel Belfast with you with the rate of €400 when we got to the hotel we were charged €422.57 and got a smaller room! The staff told me it was booking.com's fault and that I must contact you in relation to this problem! I would like to be refunded the money and told the appropriate charge for the room we stayed in! This is an absolute disgrace that we were over charged when we reserved the price!

the description of the hotels they represent is fake. as well as taken pictures. when I got to the hotel I selected on their website it looked like it was abandoned many years ago. Grey, dark and simply terrible. I didn't want to stay there and asked for my money for almost a week. They refused and didn't want to continue the conversation, so they just hang up on me. What kind of service is that? Please try to visit the places you represent and fix your customer care because it's horrible.