Booking.com review: defamatory review 49

I too have had the same issue and now its anonymous and we dont even know if its a real guest.
This is against the rights of the business owners and should be looked into immediately.

It is appalling that Booking.com are allowed to get away with this. They now allow the 'amateur critics' to slate hotels/properties with absolutely no checks as to the truth or validity of the comments. Now that the accusers are allowed to remain anonymous we, as a hotel, have no way of validating and thus acting on genuine complaints so improving the service for guests AND - this is the best bit - they will not even dignify us with the ability to provide a management response! Perhaps Booking.com could learn something from Trip Advisor and Laterooms.com who both provide a better facility to properties. An example, we have recently (6 months) had new, high quality beds put in all our rooms. A recent 'review' said that the bed was 'rickety' 'falling to bits' and 'uncomfortable' - I don't believe that it was this hotel but we do not know 'when' and 'which room'! How do Booking.com expect us to improve our service? Come on Booking.com - show a little respect for the businesses that are making you millions! Perhaps a compromise - If the guest wants to review anonymously then let the property decide whether it is posted or not?

Booking.com is a nightmare site, it will screw up your business good and proper stay away from it, we have had people stealing, trashing, causing mayhem, smuggling in extra people including prostitutes and when you pull them up about it or charge for the damages they write a complete pack of lies on Bookings.com review site, it takes you down to a point where no one books at all with no right to reply, its a nightmare, they have destroyed my business because of the small minded cyber bullies vandals and thieves that can now say what they like about you on this website without any come back, trip adviser was bad enough but this site is worse, it will screw you up good style, stay away from them, it will cost you your business, you have been warned.

Booking. com are becoming more and more arrogant towards hoteliers.
Reviews from anonymous guests, how are we supposed to improve if we have no idea which room the guest stayed in etc.
Promoted reviews "supposedly most useful" liked by a handful of visitors but permanently ahead of all other reviews permanently no matter how old, unjust or unfair the review is.
Email addresses of guest no longer on booking email
No right of reply to any review no matter how unfair, untrue or exaggerated

I have had the same issue, with a person who was very unhappy because her Director got a fine for smoking in the rooms. We nearly had to take her to court, but first got a threat from Booking.com than when she decided it was unreasonable and asked booking.com to alter her comment... booking.com refused! I only ask the right to comment on posted reviews and a verification process for people who continuously post bad reviews about all placed they go.

What is the point of this blog? Nothing gets discussed. We all see the complaints of hotel owner. Most of them I agree with. Over the last year I must have send at least 50 emails about being overcharged. I sent it to ALL existing booking.com email addresses. Not 1 reply. But again, what is the point of this blog? Booking.com does not discuss anything on it. They just say contact us so the rest can't see how they deal with this. What a joke!

That is what I mean.

I run a guesthouse in a Victorian town and am becoming increasingly frustrated at the attitude of booking.com to us the backbone of they're business. Without accommodation providers they have no business, yet having received a defamatory review the 'help' teams are totally dismissive and sometimes actually rude to us when denying us any right of challenge or reply. I have joined the British hospitality association and am seeking their advice regards legal action against a defamatory review as I am fed up with the dismissive attitude I receive from the help team. Tripadvisor at least show the reply from the proprietor or owner now which helps balance the feedback but Booking.com only allow us to reply to the guest direct which I have done, but the guest has failed to answer my queries as to why they said one thing to us at the time of staying yet slated us falsely after. I am now looking to use a variety of other agents and take my substantial business away from Booking.com as they have no care for the accommodation providers. Our rating varies between 9.6 and 9.5 so we are not a shoddy outfit and are ranked 17th out of 139 on Tripadvisor which reflects the truth of our business.

Thanks for your response Tal, but why is it that when We phoned your 'help' team we were told that its the customer prerogative to say anything they like on a review and that its their right and we have to accept that. Yet now that we have complained you suddenly want to have more details?. The reviewer tells the world what they want and you are accountable for the validity of it as you publish it on the World Wide Web. I can prove that at least one statement made by the reviewer is a lie and therefore you have published across the world a lie about myself and my business and have failed to respond to this when I have raised it to you through the procedure you state I should follow. You are therefore accountable for publishing this lie. It is my human right to defend myself against lies and the legal process is there to support me in this. Why should I give you another chance ?

Dear Mac,
Thank you for your sympathetic and patient response.
I have sent you the details after your instruction to do so.
Regards

So, as far as Booking.com are concerned it is perfectly acceptable for a guest to blatantly lie as long as they dont name the persons who run it or work in it. False statements are perfectly acceptable. It is worth noting that at no time has anyone from booking.com made contact with me over this to discuss what elements are lies by the reviewer so clearly the attitude of booking.com is that they accept responsibility for promoting false statements on their website.
I attach without edit the response from booking.com for you to see who they trust.

Dear Hotel Partner,

Thank you for working with Booking.com.

We have sent your email to our reviews team for investigation.

The response we have received back is as follows:

Kindly be informed that this review does not fulfill the condition of Booking.com to be removed. Our
system of guest reviews is based on the experience of a guest after his stay in one of the property
we have online.
In this particular case, the guest did not like the room, the internet service, the heating... ect.
The guest is only describing his experience and feeling about the hotel. The review is negative however
it is not discriminatory or does not mentioned any named of personnel working in this establishment.

Additionally, we wish to bring back to mind that the opinions expressed by our mutual guests are just
that: opinions. We invite guests to share their experiences so that others may potentially benefit from
them. Just as different individuals perceive the same experiences in different ways, so too will those
who read of them.

We understand the hotel concern about the review as it indeed expresses strong criticism; however, we
do not consider it insulting. Unfortunately, it is not possible for us to find out the true story behind
every negative review that we receive. Therefore, we apply the same rules to all our hotel partners
and unfortunately, we cannot make exceptions.

The average score of this hotel is 9.5 and makes it exceptional, the potential guest visiting the page
of this establishment never stop after reading only one negative review but will appreciate the global
score as reading a few reviews in order to make their own decision. Keep in mind that negative comments
bring balance to the guest reviews system by adding credibility to the positives ones. They can be used as a valuable source of information with regards to the service the hotel provides.

If you have any questions regarding this, please feel free to contact us.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Kind regards,

Completely agree! We run a guesthouse in France, an we have been very upset by the lack of honesty from certain guests and Booking.com's answer.
Example: this summer one of our small room was booked. Knowing that another visitor for a much larger room did not came we decided to upgrade our guests for free. Even thought, after leaving this visitor gave us the worst rating in our history with the following comment:
"Beds really small. No air conditioning No TV or wifi".
Our announcement gives precisely the size of beds, states precisely that we do not offer air conditioning, the room features a private lounge with TV and wifi works perfectly !
Our request to the teams Booking was however denied. How to fight against hosts that do not read the description of the place and then complain about what's missing? We really helpless in front of such acts and booking clearly endorse this type of behavior ...

We have received a bad review from a guest who stayed with us for two days. He was booked into a single room and he was upgraded to a double as it was available. At the time of his stay, he did not mention any of the negative points he raised in the review. He mentioned when he was here that the breakfast was superb, and that he was perfectly happy with the service he received and that he had slept well and was comfortable.

His review, however, stated that the room was not clean, which was not true, and that the hotel smells of dogs. We have five stars for food hygiene and cleanliness, so are at a loss to understand how he could have arrived at that conclusion. We have one medium-sized dog, who does not go anywhere near the bedrooms and who swims regularly. Surely, if the hotel were as bad as he stated and such poor value for money, he could have checked out and stayed elsewhere.

As mentioned above, booking.com does not give the right of reply to establishments; this is a major failing.

Stephen

I have just had this happen to me and my business. I was harassed by a guest, doorways blocked so I couldn't leave the room then blocked in the kitchen by a ranting abusive guest who is lying on their review, under anonymous but I know who it is. This person is saying I said things I never did, the whole thing is defamation and clearly as the only person running my establishment he is indicating a person ( saw earlier comments saying as long as it doesn't single out a person etc its allowed). I had to tell this guest I would call the police if he didn't leave my kitchen and stop abusing me for his to stop! Now booking.com wont allow me to respond nor will they remove his comments which are blatant lies and the complete opposite to every other comment I get.
Booking.coms response is to tell me my review rating is high so his comments shouldn't affect business. Not good enough, he is slandering the business and me personally and I should have a right of response or the ability to remove it. Booking.com charge the most of any provider I list with and i have had the most issues technically with regard to cancellations and so forth then any other provider. What am I paying them for?

I have sent you a direct message.
Seems my emails to booking.com are going unactioned and when I phoned I got given an email address to write to about my concerns that bounced back as "no longer a valid email"
Great customer service on that operators part providing an email that isn't in service.
Heres hoping something can be done from this as nothing is being done via the calls and emails I am sending
Regards
D

I too have a problem with this and it is not that the booking.com staff will DISCUSS this with us but take action into this... just let us, hotel buisnessmen, share OUR version of the story. in booking.com. we are telling you already if the bad review were in fact to be true we wouldnt complain about you but with ourselves.

I still haven't had anyone contact me regarding this

Unbelievable, despite numerous contact on here on messages that i will be contacted NOTHING has been done.
Very poor service

Still no contact from my Account Manager. It seems people like to put on here that something will be done and the matter looked into but NO ONE actually follows up on it.
When is this going to be sorted out?

Booking.com post on here with a reply for us to provide our hotelier details and they will look into it, but they DON'T. Numerous times and nothing from them despite their promises.

I am beginning to wonder if they just reply with that to make it look like they will do something, as I for one have had nothing done at al

it might be time for me to remove my listings with them I think

I agree with all the other hoteliers about the negative anonymous reviews. We have just received our first anonymous negative review (well not so negative but some items were negative) . How can we respond / react if we do not know WHO made the complaint and WHICH room they were occupying? We cannot " apologise" publicly on booking.com because we have no idea what we are apologizing for!
This (anonymous reviewing) has got to stop or I am sorry Booking.com, but we will have to withdraw OUR services.
You need us but won't help us.

I have now replied to Andrea at booking.com to have our negative review either removed or identified (so we can correct the "problem"!) . Will keep you all posted on outcome.

Forget it to ever have your reviews removed by the booking.com reviews team. They are stubborn and non understanding about the issues that are close to the heart of an accommodation operator. The fact they do not even provide the operators with an option to response to such slanderous reviews borders on negligence and facilitates the death of our reputation through comments made by the few disgruntled guests we all have to deal with occasionally.

Pathetic job, booking.com

The review in question is 232.286.795 and I have sent detailed information and proof of our points we raised to Marie. She promised me a call and I waited up for hours late at night and the call never came. - Tim

I have responded to that email from 3 days ago in great detail straight away and followed it up again yesterday, hence my post on this forum. I have not received and further emails and I am not satisfied with the outcome. Being accused a liar is defamation, especially when you can prove that you are not. This can not possibly be tolerated by the booking.com reviews team. - I don't get private massages here as I am not displaying my identity on this forum as you can see from my login names - please contact me by phone or email as you have all my details.

Same thing here. I run a small boutique hotel in Bogota and we had a very bad review from a guest thinking he was arriving in a Sheraton (these are his words), and very frustrated and rude since his arrival.
We tried to make him happy, upgraded him for free even though he had a 50% discount (that we will never do again, btw) etc. and even like that he gave us a very bad grade, WHITOUT any comment, and anonymously, obviously.
I had several email exchanges with our account manager in Bogota and it was like talking to a stubborn camel. Unfortunately, Booking.com is playing the game of the dirty competition, which means that if tomorrow my competitors want to send me a fake guest and a bad review just to put my score down, they can do it with complete tranquility...

We have been a big advacate of hotel.com since we opened, now two customers who probably thought it is fun just lied and ripped apart our motel and all the efforts and hard work we do every day. We have had many people cancel their reservations and when I called booking.com, expecting them to understand and want to keep our business, they just said there is nothing they are willing to do and people can lie about your motel and we are happy to publish it. So we are currently looking for a competitor of booking.com who cares about their customers.
Leonard Lords Manager
The High Country Motel Bellevue Idaho

booking.com cheaters and not careing at all about their customers. even customer services not helping you at all during any problem with hotels and also most of the hotels information about services and star rate not correct. what happened with me several time and i will add the booking number for your review .

my name is suhail from UAE i book a otel in dubai the hotel name was golden sands with booking # [protected] when i reach the hotel i found that this reservation for 3 hotels not only 1 hotel golden sands 3, 5 & 10 and the best one of them they which i book golden sands 3 they said its fully booked and they send me to the worst hotel is in my life i refused to take it, then i cancel the booking because they cheating me by changing the hotel. the booking.com they said we can not do any thing about this problem because the hotel not agree to cancel the reservation without penalty first night payment should be pay.

i send many email to booking.com but they answear me that we explain to you many time that the bank policy like that we cant do any thing to them they not accept. SO TO SAVE YOUR MONEY AND INJOY YOUR HOLIDAY BE AWAY FROM BOOKING.COM BECAUS THEY ARE NOT CAREING THEY ARE LOOKING FOR THEIR BINIFITS ONLY.

A customer in her review called me scam, without saying anything else, HOW CAN BOOKING.COM ALLOW THIS? Calling me a scam in her review may kill my business, which is a family business.

She argues that she was cheated, that we charged her 35% more and that we promised somehow a jacuzy, imagine how many complains I would have if that was the case, it is even childish and Booking.com says that they can't remove it. I asked to put it in hold at least meanwhile I send them documentation that shows that we never overcharge her.

Please booking.com help me here

Hello

Im facing also alot of issues with booking.com, i have a house and i rent it with them, im my house review was 10 total, suddenly they changed the guest review an people starting commenting as anonymous, they protect the people who are a booking, and not the hotel or guest houses owners, this is so un professional and im really thinking of closing my website and stop working with them, i had some arguments with one of the clients that was really really rude and unprofessional, one employee from booking.com sends me a very bad email telling me how to act with customers in a rude way, my review score 9.5 which shows how im professional, i really want to complain on that particular employee to complain

On the whole my guests give very positive reviews 9+ and I am steadily building up my score and trying to get it as close to 10 as I am able. I have just had an anonymous review with a score of 6.7 and this will no doubt undo some of the hard work I am putting in to my small business. There is no constructive feedback on the review and I have no way to reply. It seems out of kilter with all the other glowing responses and surely there should be someway to veto responses or at the very least respond to them. Compared to other posts on this forum, my complaint seems quite minor but every review is so important, especially when it comes to future guests booking their stay. Surely Booking.com wants to help businesses increase their bookings = larger commission!

It is typical to read so many times from booking.com 'customer help' that they will look in to it if we provide the details. It is obvious that they will not ever satisfactorily address the problem of false reviews and not being able to comment on them. So please stop saying you will look in to them and start saying WE WILL SOLVE THE PROBLEM. You are insulting us by pretending to be concerned, the business policy of Booking.Com is to screw over hotel owners in any way they can to increase their profits.

Subject: Reviews This guest stayed with us - during her stay they set fire to the carpet and we had to evacuate the house. This was a very serious matter, I called in to you on the day it happened and your colleague recorded "malicious guest". I corresponded with the guest and she paid £400.00 to replace the carpet, we did not report it to the police, as she agreed to pay. I have spoken to my solicitor and he has advised that because you are publishing the review, you are responsible for the defamation of our name and business. This review is to be taken down today, by 5 pm today this review is to be removed - if its not down I will be suing booking.com for defamation. Reservation ID: [protected]

Hi I have a B&B in Coromandel Town I am really disappointed that people can put up lies about my facility and I cannot do anything about it
For example I had a guest and he said no exhaust in the bathroom----he broke the switch and don't even let us know He put dirty towels and dirty carpet We just opened for the season on the 17th of November Each season we buy quality new towels, we just had the carpet cleaned 2 day before they arrived...we have a huge bathroom and large shower he complained about poor bathing facility ? Give me a break
These people can ruin our business and we just sit there and let that happen ?
I think as our provider Booking.com and trip advisory should be on our site and do something about it...
There should not be Anonymous feedback so we can even reply...
I have a 9.6 review and I don't think I got it if I don't have a clean facility and someone like them can just put up lies because they are miserable...
i will think twice to advertise in the coming year unless somehow you can figure out the way to deal with this problem...
Kind regards Ursula

There should be a name and shame site so we can put these people up I am almost positive we would have a same people that go around and putting false feedback...

Booking.com I am getting really angry with your support towards us business owners...People can walk out without pay and yet you still charge the commission even though I report it, stole from us, give us anonymous bad feedback, that we cannot reply too, false feedback and you say you cannot do anything about it...
Where is OUR RIGHTS as a business owners ?
I see above comments people complaining about the same thing ...
When we complain you don't even reply ...Not a good way to be a business representative I say...

Regards Ursula Mountainview B&B Coromandel town New Zealand

Hello to all owners who are trying to do business with this company!
I've got the similar problem as many here - defamatory, offensive, untruth review with mark 4.6. The story is very simple: reservation ID: [protected], there was a statement that "You have a booker that prefers communication by email". Not a problem, most of the guests prefer email. I sent them comprehensive information about the flat, phone numbers of our staff and WiFi info, on October 10th, eight days before check-in. They didn't reply to my emails at all. I also tried WhatsApp and Messenger, but with the same result. No reply, but the msg in WhatsApp was shown as read. I sent another several emails, but nothing. Try to call at last. I had to ask Booking.com to help me to contact the guest - nothing again. On October 18th I received a call from unknown (without numbers) number suddenly, the guests was there. They said that they stood near the door and couldn't enter. I helped them to get in. They merely forgot to include this in the review. I kindly advised them to check email. Since that there were no calls, no msgs, nothing. I was sure that everything was fine. But then surprise-surprise:) they left the review:
“4.6
2016-10-21 Reservation number [protected] Your Booking.com reviews page
Yeming, (GB)
Owner of this studio lives in Russia, never could reach him if you have problem!
Location is good
Wifi is not working. There is a Wifi note, but you never could find this Wifi. Owner of this studio is living in Russia, when we want to call him to ask wifi, never answer us, the phone number he gives us is a Russia number, if you have any problem during your stay, it's impossible to find this guy and reach any service. our neighbour booked same size apartment from another owner from airbnb, similar apartment they pay 250 pound for 5 nights, we pay 220 pound for 2 nights, that's shocked us. Castle view is outside, you can't see any castle view when you stay in the apartment.”

I really can't understand such behaviour. I always available by phone, email or messengers. Our experienced staff in Edinburgh are always ready to help as well. Also I was wonder to see "GB" near the name because he is from China actually. After this review my score has fallen to 8.9.
As everyone here I can't receive any help from Booking.com, they said during phone call that they are posting EVERYTHING what guests want to say without any obligation to verify. It is an absurd situation when it is possible to post everything if it is not breach Booking.com rules! Another absurd - there is Defamation Act 2103 in the UK, but Booking.com B.V. doesn't follow it at all. Regarding this Law I sent them Notice of Compliant with request to delete that review. And guess what happened? Right! Nothing! Booking.com thinks that the Law is not about them. Also, they don't know what client oriented approach means:) So I've been living with this review since October 2016. Spiteful joke - this review is automatically chosen as "Reviewer's choice" everyday! As result - many cancellations, just several bookings from countries where English is not native. Also, I don't understand advice from Booking.com review team to leave a reply. Why should I leave a reply to lie? I'd like to post review of these guests instead, so other owners can avoid to host them:)! The most interesting point - they know that the review contains absolutely lie, they confirm it during the call!
I think we can change this only if we gather and send one compliant to Booking.com or Regulatory organization or to the Court with thousand owner's signs. We have to stop such behaviour of the company, it is our business and only we must decide what is good for it! We're paying commission not guests! We must have opportunity to defend our rights and business!
Kind regards,
Dmitriy

As we all can see Booking.com doesn't care about owners problems - no replies to the latest posts.
From their site: Booking.com is a distributor (without any obligation to verify) and not a publisher of these comments and responses.

Brilliant, not rude and very professional:))))) reply from Booking.com:

Please kindly note that our different departments have already informed you multiple times that the review of this guest cannot be deleted. You are welcome to send us an official letter from your lawyer and we will see if there is anything else that can be done. At this point, this is just the personal opinion of the guest and it has not breached our policies. Please, note that you are not supposed to contact the guest or seek for more information from them about the review. You can, however respond to their review.
Unfortunately, there is nothing else we can do to assist.
Thank you for your cooperation.
Kind regards,
Zhala Labib
Booking.com Customer Service Team