Booking.comReviews 4,273

I don´t have much time to write the story here, I have used booking.com as a guest and also as a property owner, so I can compare both sides. While mostly there is no problem on the owner´s side, there is always terrible customer service on Booking.com side. And recently they just change what they call "a privacy". This means you will no longer see the contact e-mail to the guest. You have to call them and they have to call you, which I found disrupting. I am a business man and have no time to giving the personal info (date of birth, address, passport number etc.) over the phone and certainly I am not willing to send it to booking.com mailbox. Also the review system they use is a complete crap! You stay in an apartment and you suppose to answer questions related to hotel. If you do not answer, the system counts it as you gave zero points and dramatically lowers the final score to the property. So you either have to lie or your review will look like you were unhappy there, regardless you wanted to give 10 points... And on top of this, 15-20%% commission is what this site charges the owner! Even on breakfasts... Awful. That is the reason why some property owners have to add some extra fees, to get this large chunk of commission back... Anyhow, Booking.com is not a company I would trust.

This flat is in a wonderful old building. It has high ceilings and large windows with fantastic views of "the bridges".
The standard of the fixtures and fittings are very high.
There is a great selection of DVDS, books and toys.
We had our 20 month old grandson with us and Carole the owner could not have been more helpful, supplying cot, bedding, high chair etc.
Our very pregnant daughter enjoyed the roomy bath and comfortable bed.
My husband and son-in-law enjoyed the large selection of whiskeys in the pub on the ground floor. The pub had a quiz night the first night we were there and live music on the second night. The noise of the music did not disturb us up on the second floor.
This is a great flat

We have used booking.com on many occasions with no issues but will not be using this site again after our stay at Gemelos 22, Benidorm in April 2015. We had issues getting the keys, first we were sent to a near by hotel only then to be sent to an office on the beach front. Once there we could not collect the keys without paying a 50 euro cleaning fee which pays to clean the apartment on departure! This was not made clear when booking the apartment as otherwise I would have booked through a different site which was cheaper.
When we got back home I tried to complain to booking.com who after a few emails offered to refund half the cleaning fee. Although they felt the cleaning fee was clearly stated (however it is not in what their own site calls 'the fine print')they did admit that with the cleaning fee added on to the total their website did not meet their best price guarantee. For speed I agreed to the refund of 25 euros only to then have not one but five emails ignored when I tried to arrange this refund.
In the end I had to contact Trading Standards who advised my to get in touch again and if I had no response to pass on all correspondence between myself and booking.com on to themselves for them to investigate. So sent another email and then I was offered a refund of the full 50 euros cleaning fee. This was dealt with in a matter of days once Trading Standards were involved and the refund credited back to my card, a big difference to the weeks and weeks where my attempts to contact them was ignored.

I'd be very wary of using this shower! I booked a hotel in Vegas and cancelled it 3 days later as I changed my mind. They said on the site that no money would be taken and free cancellation. I checked my balance after I'd cancelled and the hotel had debited my card for nearly €150! I called them and they told me "this should not have happened and they'd contact the hotel". The next day they said they needed copies of bank statements, proof of address, virtually everything about me (statements had bic, iban, account number, name address etc. perfect for identity fraud!) I was very wary but felt I had to give then the info or I wouldn't get a refund. I gave them what they wanted and the refund came through. The problem then was I was left short on the refund because of the exchange rates and transaction charges. I pointed this out to them and asked for the difference but they basically told me where to go as I'd got a refund! And it wasn't their fault. They admitted that the money shouldn't have been taken in the first place, therefore it's definitely not my fault so why am I still out of pocket? In other words book at your own peril, be prepared to have money debited when you don't expect it and then be prepared not to get it all back after you've spent hours of your own time chasing their F**K UP! Disgraceful!

We had a truly excellent stay at Schwoagerhof. The place is very beautiful, easy access to a highway, room was very clean and the breakfast perfect. Alexandra was very kind and helpful, beyond any expectation. She helped us with a health problem, we are extremely grateful to her for that. We met very nice and hospitable people and we recommend this pension to everyone. If we visit that part of Austria again, we will definitely stay there.

Booking.com seem to be very much in arrears complying with with their refund policies. I was offered to cancel a booking due to the information supplied by the hotel being incorrect on the site free of charge. I had paid a deposit of 70 Euros. I confirmed with booking.com that the refund would be made in March. Guess what... I am still waiting for the refund today! I had lots of very friendly and helpful conversations with the Customer Services employees, but we are not getting any closer to a resolution. Todays reply was that Booking.com is now reimbursing me from their own pocket and that this kind of thing takes extra long... how long they could not say... I asked to speak to someone in charge and was fobbed of with the reply that any manager or supervisor in charge would tell me the same thing... I travel a lot and have so far used them exclusively with no complaints at all... Now I am having second thoughts.

You can be charged for a room before you even arrive at the place. We found out the hard way. We booked a room with "special conditions", that meaning that you cannot cancel this room once you book it unless you give 30 days notice. We booked less than a week before, but they STILL charged us the cost of the full reservation, even with 2 days cancellation notice. Read the fine print, not all hotels book the same way. booking.com does not make this information clear at all. Makes me feel unsafe when traveling, like thieves are allowed to steal from you with this site.

We finally got some of our money back no thanks to bookings.com. I will not be using them again. Best to jsut find hotels on there then contact the hotel yourself, better and at least you will find out the hotel policy.

Although I cancelled a booking WELL within the cancellation period, my credit card was billed for the stay. When my credit card was refunded, it was less than the original amount charged due to exchange rate fluctuations. Of course, it went in the property's favor. If the property had waited until the CANCELLATION DATE to bill, there would not have been a problem. Booking.com's response?
"The property is not liable for this loss, because they had the right to take the deposit and for understandable reasons they can't and should not refund you more then they have received."

Thanks for nothing, booking.com

I reserved a hotel in San Francisco 6 months in advance. The advertisement said that I could book now and pay later. The full amount ($1200) was charged to my card immediately. The reservation also stated that I could not cancel or make changes. Two months after booking, I received an email stating that the hotel canceled my reservation. In order to receive a refund, I would need to provide a bank statement showing that I had been charged for the stay. I have provided this twice with all personal bank information blocked out and only the last digits of the card info and the actual charge showing. Booking.com still insists that this is not enough proof to provide a refund. I asked that they contact the hotel directly to confirm the charge and amount, and they are unwilling to do so. I will not use this site again for travel.

We purchased a new Ford Freestyle in 2004. In 2008 the transmission failed and Ford said it was out of warranty because it was more than 36 months old even though it only had ******* miles on it.
Ford also said there were no recalls onthe car pertaining to transmissions. The dealer charged me $2200 to repair it.
The following april ford sent me notice of a recall on the transmission. Since I had it repaired Ford said send a copy of the receipt and they would reimburse me. I sent the information they requested and they sent me $1435. It seems the dealer overcharged quite a bit.
Ford balkegd at any additional payments.
One year later the transmission failed again and Ford said there were no recalls. The dealer charged me $1800. Ford refused any additional payments claiming now that any thing additional would have to come from the dealer. *******@aol.com

On the booking.com website they show the room price for $79.99 and the tax "TAX(12%" included $9.60".
When I rented the room they charged additionally for tax total being $89.59. Tax was not included. I received a confirmation email with the same information.:(
I called customer support and spoke with the rep and his manager. They both agreed their the website wording and pricing. They still refused to refund the miss charged tax amount.:(

I hope other's see this review before they rent from booking.com

They state they have a low price guarantee, but they do not. I booked a hotel room with them, then checked on the hotel website before my trip for directions, and saw that the room's standard cost is considerably less expensive than the price booking has. I wrote booking with the information. I received an answer stating the low price guarantee does not apply for reasons 1 (inform booking after checking in), 2 (lower price is due to reward points), and 3. Price advertised is not for same room, not for those dates, etc. I replied stating that neither 1,2, or 3 applied and that I would like them to honor the low price guarantee. I received another answer two days later with a screen shot that shows the price the same as booking's on the hotel's website. Only thing is, it was a screenshot from ANOTHER hotel and the price "list" was from 2014. I wrote them back again, and so far... nothing.
Update: received an email from booking offering me to reimburse the difference. Waiting for details...

Booking.com receives no stars in my book. I booked a hotel through them and one month before my trip I receive an email stating that my trip was canceled and showed a zero balance. I had already paid up front for this trip and had not canceled. When I called they said that the hotel had gone out of business and that I had to prove that I'd paid the balance. It took several weeks before I got my money back and this was after sending my statements proving the charges. They had no problem taking the money...

This is by far the worst booking.com reservation online service. I should have read the reviews before ever involving myself with them... Their representatives are clueless. Management is rude and even more clueless.

I was told two weeks ago when I canceled my reservation and the money was taken from account that it would be a week or two before I'd see any money.

A week or two later I'm being told a whole different story... We couldn't get a hold of the hotel or they had to see your bank statement... Just ploys to keep my money... and I still my money has not been reimbursed.

I told them my money should never have been taken in the first place and that's how I understood the booking process... You pay if you show up the day of the reservation and they take you money at that time.

I was called a liar... That's what the hotel stated... so all those hotels that say book now pay later was all in my imagination?

So I've been called a liar, lied to, and still my money, almost a $1,000 is still unaccounted for. The hotel doesn't want to give it back... Booking.com doesn't want to give it back...

Now what do I do... hire a laywer?

Please, please, please, anyone who reads this stay away from this booking site... horrible!

Anonymous guest reviews given with no thought for the hotel. It is just bad for everyone concerned we are seriously thinking dropping booking.com for having anonymous reviews of our establishment or any establishment. How do we know that they are real reviews because they say that they are? What a load of crap if you cant put your name to it then do not review it. What are you afraid of an email asking a question. That you can trash if you like how can a hotel improve on themselves if you just give a rating without being subjective.we the hotel are not anonymous