Booking.com
Reviews and Complaints

Hello,
Me and my friend reserved 3 rooms for 5 people in Center Hotel - Tallinn / Estonia from 7 August 2013 to 11 August 2013 through Booking.com on 28 May 2013. We are all engineers with different branches of electromagnetics and pursuing for our PhD's, therefore we need to travel a lot for conferences and meetings. Until now we have been using booking.com and the following unfortunate events happened.
My friend used her booking.com account, but I gave my credit card information for the booking. It was a 'Non-Refundable' reservation and we knew my card would be charged. I checked my bank account for the first week and we assumed the hotel would charge it some time later. But on 2 August 2013, my friend received an e-mail about cancellation of our reservation in this Hotel. We tried to renew the reservation but the hotel was full. So we had to book different hotels each of us, as there were hardly any hotel available in the price and comfort range we desired. As the owner of the card I suspected there was a problem about my card and I called Booking.com help line from +[protected] (in Turkish, As nearly all of us are from Turkey) and I talked to a Miss named Özkan on 2 August 2013 around 14:55, first. She told me that she understood my problem (as I was more worried about the extra money my friends would have to pay because of me, that time) and she took 'note' and they would inform the hotel about this matter, talk to her supervisor and call me back to solve the issue, She took my cell-phone number and we hanged up. About 6 hours later I recalled the number and this time I talked to one Mister Serdar and he told me that there was no 'red' error (which means my card was denied) or 'insufficient funds' (I had enough limit, clearly). He only told me that the hotel gave a response of 'invalid card' and that time no authority in this hotel could be reached. Serdar told me i would have a phone call to my number. I was relieved it was not due to my card or its bank, but still we had to reserve places and they were more expensive. I waited, meanwhile my friend sent me a message from booking.com C.S team member Arif Altun
"We asked the Center Hotel about the reservation which has been cancelled due to Invalid Credit Card. Eli from
reception told me that they cannot activate the reservation and you have to make a new booking."
I wasn't called or informed in any way including e-mail or phone and yesterday evening (3 August 2013) I couldn't help it and I called them for the third time. This time I reached Miss Başak from the CS number of booking.com and she told me that they looked it up and on 29 May 2013, the hotel supposedly tried my card and it was rejected. After this the hotel informed the mail address(My friend's e-mail, not mine) through booking.com. I asked this to my friend and she said she never seen such message not in her inbox nor in her spam. I called my bank and learned that there was no declined transactions (as they can see declined transactions and trials to withdraw money from my accounts).
Now I feel disappointed as booking.com was a travel provider who seemed solid and clear about its business. I have been using booking.com for 3 years, but they clearly do not care about their clients due to the floating responses of their CS squad. I am thinking of making a complaint about them to Consumers Consultative Committee of both Turkey and UK as I was aggrieved by this situation and my friends and I had to look for other hotels, our time was wasted and we booked more expensive hotel rooms now.
Sorry for the long complaint form, But this all happened.
Can Suer B.Sc., R.A.
ITU Electromagnetic Research Group
[protected]@gmail.com

I made a reservation for a hotel for a weekend break in october! 2 months in advance. By reading terms & conditions I thought if I cancelled before 3 days I wont be charged. Turned out this is wrong! After cancelling reservation after only 3 hours. I was told I would br charged!
Called booking. com and their poor customer service excells again. I was told they would ask the hotel & call me back. Still waiting for that phone call.

My bank has been told!

But annoyed how they advertise free cancellation & yet its not.

My friend even read it the same as myself!

I will never use booking. com nor will anyone I know.

Dont use them!

This is what I was going to submit as my complaint but it won't let me submit it on booking.com!

Where to start... We arrived at the hotel to find it was shut! I rang the number on the door to be told it was the Marina Rey Hotel, we went it to be told that the hotel we booked was closed and that the confirmation we had was just that, a confirmation of booking and we needed to pay. We asked where the secure parking was to be told that it was closed due to the floods last September- why this is still advertised as something we could use when its not available, i don’t know! Also, we requested a Hot Tub when making the booking to be told at reception that we had the wrong room and the penthouse would have actually been cheaper and we would have to pay an extra €30 per night to use the hot tub anyway. Once checked in, the room looked quite nice, apart from the odd issue, ie. Broken steps. The following morning, we had no hot water- therefore after a freezing shower to start the day off- it was sorted out quite quickly. 2 of the 4 pools were out of use (not including the 4 which were actually part of the hotel we booked and wanted to stay in!) The restaurant was closed until 6 days into our holiday (when the hotel we signed up for re opened) and the 'cafe' consisted of a few trays of food that looked like they had been there since the floods last year! The hotel stunk everywhere everyday! It seemed like the sewers were in the corridor's and something really wrong with their pipes! We went to play pool in the 'games room' which we couldn’t use as the lights weren’t working- we gave up at this point and went out! The wifi kept going off, which we were quite patient with the first couple of days but then when we really needed it, after 1 and a half hours, 3 phone calls and no return call, I was about to go down to reception to see if i could use that wifi, when the door handle came off in my hand! I eventually opened the door, which was a challenge as the spindle had broke off into the handle! I went down to reception and was told to wait there for the maintance man to fix it and come back, after about 40 minutes i said to reception that i would go back up and see how he was getting on, to find that my boyfriend said he had fixed it and left about 20 minutes before i came in! We had a slight issue with being bitten, which we thought was just midgies/mosquitoes but as we found several bed bug type insects, we think this was probably the culprit! This would not surprise me as the cleaners came once in the week we were there! The building work- that the receptionist admitted was taking way longer than it should have started at 7am most mornings- something that you don’t really want on a relaxing holiday! I went on holiday for a relaxing time and after all of the above, I came home to feel I needed a further holiday. When I came home, I checked trip adviser to which the hotel we should have been in- ie booked! Had quite a good review, the hotel that we were put in on the other hand has more bad reviews than bed bugs! I expect a response before the 28th June 2013.

Booking also sent my credit card details straight to the motel. We altered our booking during our stay which the manager was perfectly happy with. We had to leave early for my honeymoon. When we left she charged us for the original booking without my authorisation because she had my card details. Now she is refusing to refund the difference. We also had a flood in.out room on our wedding night and all she did for two nights was put towels on the floor. She hadn't even called a plumber. I advised the manager I wasn't happy to pay for those two nights with no joy. Never stay at the Moruya motel. She ruined a time for me that should have been the happiest. I cannot get any help even from the bank as I have no written proof. But this wouldn't have happened if booking hadn't sent them my bank details.

I booked a hotel with my wife for a long weekend in Amsterdam on May 16th via Booking.com. The hotel was terrible, dirty, noisy, and overpriced (we paid £ 140 a night), with no curtains in the room, a TV that did not work and for breakfast, awful instant coffee and only concentrated fruit juice. We were also charged an additional fee by the hotel to pay by credit card. There were not managers we could find, and on departure, when I asked to speak to the manager and/or owner, I was told the manager almost never came and the owner, never.
I complained also to Booking.com. before we even left.
The hotel denied we ever complained, and are refusing even to refund the additional card charge, while Booking.com are just denying any responsibility and saying we need to deal with the hotel directly.
Unfortunately, I can find no responsible body in the Netherlands to complain to either about Booking.com's service or the hotel (I live in the UK).
This is a service I will never use again, and advise others to avoid.

Do not use this company. Their cancellation policy is wordsmithed to make sure that you pay a cancellation fee even if you change of modify the policy. I made a reservation for 3 nights with a hotel in SF. Booking.com's cancellation policy was that I would be charged a fee up to 100% of the 1st night's charge if I cancelled or modified within 24 hours of arrival. I had to cancel the last night, but since I was paying for the 1st 2 nights, I assumed based on their wording, that since I was paying for the 1st night, there would be no charge for the cancelled night (I travel for a living, so I've had to do this before, never an issue). They told me that I would be charged the fee anyway, just because I modified the reservation, even though I would be paying for 2 nights. All hotels are sold out in the area, so the room could easily be re-booked (and would be definitely), so they are getting double paid for a night based on language targeted to screw the consumer.

I also called Kimpton to try to make the change directly and they told me to talk to Booking.com and that I would have to pay the fee. The mgr I spoke with was rude (general booking, not the hotel itself) so I suggest that you do not use Kimpton Hotels either. Simple, poor customer service. Could have been easily resolved. I book about 250 nights a year for myself and employees that work for me worldwide. I will never use Booking.com again or Kimpton and I will not allow my company to use them either. I recommend that everyone reading this does the same.

I had booked room in clarion hotel in Nairobi, Kenya from booking.com so my Card details went to their department only. Somebody used my card details on Paisapal in Nairobi, Kenya for 168$ as informed by my bank . This is not fair to the people who book online for clarion hotel. How can I eport it to the local authorities ? . As it is a  FRAUD and it is not good for hotel reputation and standards. I need help and advice ?

I went through booking.com to make reservations at a local well known hotel. the room I requested for my son and his new bride on there wedding night, was a room with a fireplace, view of the water and a KING size bed. I paid $269.00 for this room.
After a day had passed I called my son to see how the room was. He said it was very nice but that the room came with 2 double beds. (They could have stayed home and had a queen size bed.) I called the hotel and they said that was what booking.com ordered. I then called booking.com and they told me that I ordered 2 doubles. When I looked at the price list, the double beds should have on only cost. $189.00 per night.. I specifically asked for a king size bed knowing it would cost more. It's over and done now but at least booking.com could do is refund the difference it the price of the room. They told me they would look into it and over a month later I still haven't heard from booking.com.

When selecting a hotel (or pub, B&B etc.) from Google maps, the pop up includes an advert from Booking.com which is often for another place with the same name. I was caught out by this and booked accommodation in the Rising Sun Cheltenham instead of Rising Sun in Lynmouth (screenshot attached) and paid a non-returnable booking fee of £65 for 1 night! Only by calling hotel several times did they kindly agree to cancel and just invoice me for the Booking.Com commission fee (£10). I have contacted Booking.Com by phone and email but they have so far not admitted any fault. I consider this to be very misleading.

I used this Booking.com website last summer for booking a hotel in Netherlands for a week stay. Although I have used a lot of internet travel agencies for booking flights and hotels before with no problem, this was my first time using Booking.com, since it offered a much better rate compared to others at that time of purchase. I had a suspicious feeling about it, but I went ahead with my booking using my preloaded Travelex cash passport (similar to debit card in Euro). 1 week later, I was contacted by the card company for several suspicious activities that occurred over the week. At least twenty different purchases from all sorts of websites, mostly from USA but a couple from UK. Yahoo, Lacoste, you name it. Total of 800EURO. ALL GONE. I only used that Travelex card once, and that was with Booking.com. What's worse was that we were told that since it was a preloaded cash card, the company could only trace back some money, and most of it was lost. We only managed to get 150EURO back. I just heard today from my friend who also had a similar experience earlier this year with Booking.com. THIS WEBSITE IS NOT SECURE. I WILL NEVER EVER USE BOOKING.COM AGAIN.

I booked 4 single night stays at various places in France and England on a tour I was planning to take. I was then offered accommodation with friends and family along the route instead, so I cancelled all my bookings and got an email confirming it all, 4 months before the date of the trip. A week after I got back, a large payment was taken from my bank; it was one of the hotels I'd cancelled. I went immediately onto the website and found that all but one were showing as cancelled, although I knew for a fact that I had cancelled them all as I double and triple checked at the time. I called bookings.com customer service and was just told they were sorry, they wished there was something they could do about it, but the booking didn't show as cancelled on their system. I said I had the confirmation email in front of me, and they said that I should take it up with the hotel, and send them the cancellation email and sometime in the next few weeks they "might" refund me. I said that wasn't good enough, as their having taken this payment would mean I couldn't pay my rent or eat this week. Their response: "Oh well sir, I'm sure your friends will help you out"! Unbelievable! I'll never use these guys again!

I have been using Booking.com for last six months and find that it is a simple booking process. However when it comes to resolving issues they are very quick at referring to the Terms and Conditions on their website. Out goes any desire to understand and empathize with the customer. No interest in understanding the customer issue or how to assist the customer. They seem only interested in their commission from the booking.

I recently had a case where I flew 24 hours from Sydney to Manchester with my son only to find the property that I had booked was not what it was made out to be on the website. There was no one there to receive me and security guard at the property told me there was no such hotel at the address. I had a confirmed booking at the premises and had informed them of my arrival time. When I called the contact number for the property there was no answer.
The Booking.com agent was very helpful but when I was put to her supervisor he threw the book at me. I incurred approx USD200 in roaming costs trying to convince the Supervisor that they had responsibility to find me another accommodation and for the additional costs that I was incurring as a result of the property not being there. He kept on referring to the fact that they were not liable. I am very disappointed in their attitude and I could carry on about my experience. They agreed to find me alternative accommodation 30 miles away from Manchester. However they told me that the travel costs to and from the hotel to Manchester will be my costs. It was the night of the United Vs Real match and according to them there were no properties available in Manchester. I had taken my son to watch the match and had booked the so called hotel three weeks in advance knowing how difficult it would be to find a hotel. I requested the supervisor to find me a non listed hotel but no luck. He kept on referring to the property 30 miles away. Not sure if Liverpool is 30 Miles away or further as the hotel was in Liverpool. I walked around Manchester with my son from 9am to 1:30pm calling into all the hotels until we found one.
My expectation was that they would find me alternative accommodation, pick up any additional costs to travel from that property and also my mobile roaming costs while on the phone to Booking.com trying to resolve the issue.
They only seem to care about the property and hotels that lit with them and not us the paying consumer

I cancelled a hotel with booking.com, got a cancellation confirmation webpage displayed and thought nothing more of it. However I did not recieve a cancellation confirmation email.
To my dismay I was subsequently charged for a no-show at the hotel.
After many complaints to booking.com about the fact that I did cancel and it is not my fault their system did not process my cancellation...
I have still had not luck with getting a refund.

Has this happened to anyone else and if so booking.com really need to be made aware of the fact.

I booked a hotel in Istanbul with you only to find £41 taken by the hotel without any agreement. On calling booking.com I'm tolds its a card authorisation check and it will be returned within 10 days. After 14 days no signs of a refund. You then tell me the hotel actually put the money back into my account on the day it was taken. A contradiction but I check my account again anyway- still no money. Now you want a copy of my bank statement, presumably to send to this potentially fraudulent hotel. That’s not going to happen. Instead you send me two receipts, one for a payment taken from my account and one a cancelled transaction on my account. That does not prove a payment has been made, please wake up Booking.com- you are meant to be experts. You agree they took the money where is the proof they paid it back. I'm counting to ten slowly at the moment, I get to ten on Monday. Then I really start complaining so please sort it out now while we are both smiling. Booking number 647.968.784 Name Stephen Hockey

Dear sir,

Hope you are fine.

But we are not fine. We booked hotel thru you and when we reached hotel around 12.30 at night we were told by hotel people mr. Kumar that your room is not confirmed from our side. We showed all the confirmation from your side but they refused and told us that their is no room in their hotel.

If you go thru below msg you will find that you have confirmed us. Why you contact these type of hotel which do not care of your customer. Finally what is your reputation in our eyes.

I am writing this email in the night of feb 07, 2013 or say earlier morning of feb 08, 2013 to telll that we are so much in tension.

We are seaching hotel in the night
We gave all the credit card information and you confirmed the hotel.

.
We have no other option to tell all our friends not to use booking.com in future.

Who will pay for taxis for searching hotel in night.

With no regards

Aman sehgal

Thank you, aman! Your booking is now confirmed.
Booking.com online hotel reservations best price guaranteed print

Booking number [protected]
Pin code 6071
E-mail [protected]@gmail.com
Booked by aman sehgal
Your reservation: 2 nights, 1 room, 2 people
Check-in: thursday, 7 february 2013
(After 12:00)
Check-out: saturday, 9 february 2013
(Before 12:00)
1 superior double room
Total price inr 3600

Tax (10%) not included

Service charge (7.42%) not included

Please note: additional supplements (E. G. Extra bed) are not added to this total

Change of plans? Hey, it happens.

Visit my booking.com to edit your dates. You can also reserve parking, request a bigger bed or even add breakfast to your stay.

Don’t have an account? No problem. Sign-in not required!

Pearl residency
Address: 14, usha kunj apartment, opp takshila apt, mahakali caves road, andheri east, western suburbs
Mumbai, 400093
India
Phone: +91 [protected]
E-mail: [protected]@gmail.com
Travel information: show directions

Room details

Featuring more space, this air-conditioned room comes with a tv and personal safe. En suite bathroom has a shower.
Guest name: aman sehgal
For max. 2 people.

Meal plan:

Breakfast is included in the room rate.

Prepayment :

No deposit will be charged.

Cancellation policy:

If cancelled or modified up to 1 day before the date of arrival, no fee will be charged. If cancelled or modified later or in case of no-show, 100 percent of the first night will be charged.

Cancellation cost in local hotel time:

From 7 february 2013 13:56 [cet] : inr 1800

This reservation can not be cancelled free of charge.

Special requests

We are check in late night around 12.30
Hotel policies
Guest parking:

Free public parking is possible on site (Reservation is needed).
Internet:

Wifi is available in all areas and costs inr 75 per hour.
Customer service info

Local number: [protected]
When abroad : +[protected]

Payment

You have now confirmed and guaranteed your booking by credit card.
All payments are to be made at the hotel during your stay, unless otherwise stated in the hotel policies or in the room conditions.
Please note that your credit card may be pre-authorised prior to your arrival.
This hotel accepts the following forms of payment:

Visa, euro/mastercard
Don't forget

You can change or cancel your booking via our online self service tool my booking.com:
https://secure.booking.com/myreservations.html?tmpl=profile/myreservations;bn=[protected];pincode=6071
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Good evening!

I have been checking Your hotel trough the booking.com in January and I have made a booking, which I have cancelled not long after..
At the moment almost it seems that it hasen't been done!
please read the following letter what I have sent to the costumer service of booking.com..-which explains the situation ..-

"Good evening Sir/Madam!

My problem is that I have made some bookings trough your homepage in 3-4 hotels in Prague for 2 nights in the beginning of January, ~9th/10th..-theese bookings were for the past weekend-(.1st february.)
I have cancelled theese reservations a few days after, around the 10th 11th of January -I guess-, but at the moment it seems that theese reservations haven't been cancelled, and these hotels are still have them, so they might take the 'cancellation costs'from the credit card that was given, -becouse one of them has already done it.-

(the strange thing almost is that this hotel doesn't take place on the my booking list, under the 'past bookings' possibility..)
Unfortunately I guess I have deleted from my mailbox the emails of the cancellations..

I have already spoken with one of Your operators, with a kind lady, and I have called to the bank, what to do in this case, but I don't know what to do at the moment, becouse it is much money, to loose with no reason..I would like to ask You to help me to solve this situation, get in touch with the hotels and please try to find a solution for me not to loose my money in this case...My problem is also that in "my bookings" I don't find any cancellation under the list of 'cancelled bookings', but I don't find eighter in the "past bookings" that case, which was now charged as/for cancellation..
This is strange and wird for me.

I am 99% sure that I have made the cancellations- but Im receiving a lot of emails, -so I always delete the most of them..
Probably this happend to the cancellation emails too..And of course how would I be so stupid to make 3-4 bookings for the same time and than to keep them..
So please... this is very urgent and important for me also becouse the card which was used for the transactions is not mine, and also becouse if these reservations are active its easier to do something now, than later when they start taking the money...If they start...(If they haven't been cancelled..)
the booking numbers are the following:
[protected] PIN code 5667;
[protected]
PIN code 9050;
[protected]
PIN code 9622
And I guess there is one more, but I have deleted it from the my bookings..Could You check that too?
Please If these reservations are still haven't been cancelled, cancell for me all, !
-and whatever has been reserved and haven't been cancelled is also have to be cancelled!Tomorrow the person who owns the credit card will go to the bank to find out how the situation is, if there is anytihng blocked from any hotels at the moment on the credit card..If there is, I will need to get in touch with You again for the further tasks..I am kindly asking You to look after my problem and let me know about the situation..And Im kindly asking You to help please!Best regards:
Nóra Koós
[protected]@gmail.com"

Total fraud! Did you know that booking. com charges hotels 15% commission + tax?... Nd that is not all... To recommend a hotel with the "thumb up recommendation logo" they charge hotels an additional 2%! So 17% of what you pay, plus vat goes directly into booking. com pocket! So regardless of your performance as a hotel if you pay 2% more you are a recommended hotel!

We had made a reservation through booking.com for a hotel in Venice, Italy and we cancelled that reservation on 4 September 2012 when we found another hotel that we liked better. We thought that the cancelleation was complete, but we were still charged by the hotel 6 weeks after our original reservation date with them as a no-show. Similar to previous complaints, we don't think booking.com sent us a cancellation confirmation. It's absolutely ridiculous that we may be stuck with this charge because of what appears to be booking.com's flawed system. If the no-show charge is not returned to us, we will sever our long-standing history with booking.com and will never booking anything with them ever again.

Made for a hotel a client of mine a wrong price quote on the intranet of booking.com.

In tow hours time two reservations arrived to the hotel. The hotel right away called the guests two hours later after the reservation arrived and told them that their was a mistake in the pricing. ( Instead of 106 Euros for the room the correct price is over 800 Euros )

The guest at the phone did understand the situation and promised to the hotel to cancel the reservation at booking.com. Then he called booking and booking told them otherwise.

Since then the client does not want to talk with the hotel directly but only to booking as the lodging contract is clearly between the hotel and the guest. Booking.com is acting as an intermediary.

According to Austrian law a booking can be cancelled if the price difference is obvious.

Booking.com is stressing on a overbooking and wanting to gain the commission of the hotel where the guest are stated as a overbooking and the commission from the hotel where the client booked himself.

The lawyers of the Austrian and Dutch Hotel Association are surprised about the strange behavior of booking.com

I booked accommodation for myself and family at Guest Apartment Leipzig, the rate was good and in a location suitable for us. I received a text from the Hotel asking what time we would arrive and replied to it. We arrived at the Hotel slightly earlier than we stated and began the wait. 15 minutes after the booked time of arrival I sent another text asking what time the owner would turn up to let us in. I sent an email to their address shortly afterwards. I tried 16 phone-calls to the 2 numbers they advertised without any success. After an hour of waiting and some 50 minutes after we had said we would arrive we left the Hotel and crossed the road to catch a tram back to the city centre. We then booked into a centralised Hotel in Leipzig at a higher rate than I would have paid. I sent a complaint to booking.com and asked that the difference between costs be refunded to me. The contacted the Hotel owners who tried to claim that they turned up 30 minutes after we said we would arrive, but we had already left. This was not the case as we were at the tram stop opposite the Hotel with 4 suitcases and could see all activity. I told Booking.com that I had kept all attempts to phone the owners, timed photographic evidence of the time we were at the Hotel, text messages and emails. But despite all of this Booking.com say there is no way of proving which party is telling the truth. I have asked the Hotel to refund the difference, but despite this and other emails, they have ignored me and booking.com still advertise this Hotel on their site. It is not the 1st time I have booked accommodation through Booking.com and the Hotel has either been closed or depite showing the confirmation booking from Booking.com, the Hotel says they do not have the booking. Guest Apartment Leipzig is an unreliable establishment that would leave a family on the street, Booking.com don't care about the customer, even when they can provided, phone records & photographic evidence. Avoid Guest Apartment Leipzig, and try one of the other numerous sites to book Hotel accommodation. I am out of pocket by £100 and Booking.com don't care, if they did they would try to get me compensation and take Hotels like this off their site.