Booking.comReviews 4,273

We booked two family rooms through Booking.com in B&B in Hythe, Kent to attend a social event. Reviews on Booking.com were fairly good. Arrived to find our rooms double-booked and were offered no alternative, despite have received email confirmation of booking and having checked the previous day by phone. Ended up returning to Devon same night as other venues full, leaving our weekend ruined and two extremely exhausted children. Read reviews on Tripadvisor.co.uk to discover many other guests put in the same situation as us, and those that have managed to stay at same B&B have posted terrible reviews.

I have recently made a hotel reservation at Booking.com with an option of free cancelation.
At the same day my credit card was immediately charged ($163 for the first night of my stay). Now I would like to cancel my booking and I want to get my money back (cancel this charge).
How can it be possible - to have an option of free cancelation and, on the other hand, charging my credit card?
What steps should I take now?
If I cancel this booking, will it automatically refund my credit card?
I usually make many reservations at Booking.com and it never happened. Now it makes me worried.
Waiting for your prompt answer.

Terrible customer service. We stayed at a dump in London called the Carlton Hotel. We had no idea it would be so bad. We paid for two nights, but when we saw the room, we knew we could only stay one night. We called Booking.com to complain, they called the Carlton and then contacted us again saying that the Carlton was fine with us checking out after the one night. But in the morning when we told the Carlton front desk we were leaving, they said we'd have to pay for two nights. When we called Booking.com back, they acted like they never spoke to us the night before. DO NOT use Booking com.

They are not to be trusted. Used to use them for booking hotels, but no more. When they say that there is "NO CANCELLATION FEES", it actually means that the cancellation fees are about 25% of the booking's total value. You only realize this after you have made the booking and received their confirmation.

Also, I have booked rooms in Intercontinental directly cheaper than their advertised rate on their web site. Will not use them again.

Some years ago I had visited Boussetil rooms in Tinos island in Greece and I was satisfied. So I chose again to book there. Unfortunately, this time I was disappointed. First, the room was too small, not clean enough (there were tiny pieces of hair on the bedsheets), the wc was smelling piss (the toilet was broken and rejoined with af if with glue on its basis), and the flush out of order. Second, the yard outside of our room was crowded, so we had our window and door always closed (not fresh air). Besides, in the yard, there were $#*! not picked away smelling too bad, and on our arrival, the big trash can was turned over with the garbage out. At the other end of the yard also, there was a big gap towards a wild dingle, which is dangerous for kids and pets as well. Many cats were around the yard and the laundry was hanging around. In the end, the icing of the cake; after we had payed Manthos and we asked for a lift to the port, he refused with the excuse that he had to go out with friends. Therefore he suggested us to take a taxi (while on our arrival he came and picked us with his van). In a few words when he hear "Boussetil" we run away!

We booked a room in Nags Head, NC. The booking site showed various rooms and we booked a Queen room. The photos on Bookings should a very spacious room that was remodeled, a water view and small kitchen. When we arrived our room barely fit the queen bed. The small kitchen was a microwave, refrigerator and coffee maker. There was barely enough room to turn around. There was no small table or even a chair to sit in. The staff at the hotel was great, although the free internet was down both days, and most importantly the room was clean---old and dated but clean. My problem is with the misrepresentation in the site for booking.com. For me, it is a site with little trust to use again.

Was visiting my daughter in Ayr Australia so looked on booking.com which only showed me 4 motels so I thought I'd look at b&b, but at this point it redirected me to Ayr Scotland. Whether it was I was on a small phone I did not notice or see anything to indicate this, so I booked immediately realised what had happened and cancelled. The ad said pay at hotel but the hotel (beechwood guest house ayr scotland) took the money. Booking. Com said nothing to do with them but always evaded directly answering the point of how I came from Australia to Scotland, tried 4 times and never got anything but contact hotel, the hotel whom I contacted a couple of times just completely blanked me no response what so ever. As with many large companies now they feel so large you get the 'what's one person syndrome' what's it matter to us if one customer goes elsewhere!

I booked a room for a weekend in NYC and selected the more expensive "refundable" room. When I called the hotel on another matter they told me that they had taken a $289 deposit (that I was unaware would be taken) and that if I were to cancel I would lose the deposit. I called Booking.com and they said that "each hotel has their own policy." I do wonder how I was supposed to know that even though they told me it was refundable up until the day before that is, in fact, not true. I would not use this site again.

I booked a beach front villa six months prior to travel and duly received confirmation. I was then told two weeks before travel that it was overbooked and offered lesser accommodation. It would seem that confirmation does not actually mean that it is confirmed. Booking.com prefer to blame the accommodation manager than take any responsibility. I have assurance from manager of accommodation that he did not receive the booking until six months after original booking was made. Who to believe. Does it matter I did not get my holiday as booked so will never use this website again and will in future book and confirm my own holidays.

Booking.com have blocked me writing a review on pousada Ebano that was uninhabitable. I had to fight fir my refund. Booking.com gave the excuse the booking was made by my wife----FALSE. I used my Booking.com account and my credit card!
Booking.com then said I was too late to write a review----yet they did not send me the refund confirmation they promised. Who would write a bad review BEFORE getting their refund?! Finally, Booking.com said that only one review per booking was allowed. Customer services refuse to give me contact details of a senior person at Booking.com I no longe ruse this web site as I cannot trust any reviews.

I initially booked a room in a San Jose Valley inn found out it was a little cheaper on booking.com turn around and didn't leave any comment on the place cuz it didn't let me give a zero. I look back and it says that my review is a 7.2 No-one ever would give this san jose Valley Inn a 7.2 go look up any other review it's a wonder how it gets 1 star. I email booking and now it is blended with someone else's name at the same 7.2 don't believe any review on booking.com I just don't use the website!

So far, so good! I just booked a room for my daughter and I down in Wildwood, NJ next month. Right away I got a confirmation. If you read reach individual hotel policies, you will see that booking is only following hotel rules/regulations. They do not charge your card, the hotel does. Some hotels require a 1 night deposit, whereas others will charge your full stay. Again, it's on the site, you just have to read everything. If you don't like reading fine print, I would call the hotel directly to reserve. Booking.com, however, does make it very easy to navigate what each hotel requires to reserve.

Basically, we booked numerous rooms for a motorcycling trip of Europe. We couldn't make our hotel booked for July 3rd so booked another (through Booking.com) and cancelled the original booking. The cancellation policy for this hotel on my Booking.com app clearly states no fee if cancelled two days before arrival. We cancelled on 1st July. Initially Booking.com charged us the whole amount for both rooms. When I complained they reduced it by 50% and directed me to the conflicting small print in the email confirmation that I had received months earlier. The customer services just appear to be working for the hotels and not the customer. I'll be going through my credit card company and requesting a chargeback for the remaining 50%. If that's how Booking.com deal with customer dissatisfaction, I, and my travelling companions will not be using Booking.com again.

The absolute worst customer service experience ever. I will never use this site again and discourage anyone from using them. Priceline makes reservations through them, avoid at all cost. They agreed, in writing, to reimburse me after having to change my hotel. I emailed them documentation 5 times over two weeks with no response. Then I called them and was promised a response within 24 hours. That was 4 days ago. Today I spent an hour trying to get through to follow-up only to have my call 'dropped' seven times. Once I actually got a person on the phone I was promised an email... with a link... that would take me to a webpage... where I could request reimbursement... So instead of saying, "yes, we will get you a check out today" or "we will credit your card immediately" they essentially told me to start over at square one.

I had booked the super 8 in Ticonderoga, NY... but ended up having to cancel 5 days before... after I canceled it with Booking.com... the next day, I get a call from another motel telling me that Super 8 was overbooked and I was being sent to their motel... to make a long story short... I decided to look up reviews about Booking.com and found out that they never cancel the hotel when you asked them to... well... so I called the hotel direct and lo and behold... they still had a room booked in my name... so I would have gotten charged for the one night... I will never use this company again and certainly won't recommend them to anyone!

I recently booked 5 rooms at a hotel in Manila where I stay EVERY time I go there. I belong to the rewards program for that particular hotel chain, so I don't even know why I was stupid enough to book through booking.com. The 5 rooms were to be used by my wifes family who would be visiting from the neighboring islands. Unfortunately an emergency arose and the family will not be coming. I contacted booking.com and told them of the situation and they told me I had an no-cancellation policy booking. I told them I understood that but the reservation was still 30 days away and we had an unfortunate incident that was out of my control. They contacted the hotel manager and they refused to cancel it without a penalty. The penalty was the full price of the rooms, about $ 4000 US. Are you kidding? If I have to do that, I'll take some homeless people off the streets and put them up for 5 days. Booking.com told me it was out of there hands since it was up to the hotel manager, who, they say, said No. When I tried to approach the hotel manager directly, they told me to contact booking.com. The good old run around. Booking.com receives a commission from the hotel, that's why they don't want you to cancel. The hotel will not let you cancel because they have to pay booking.com no matter what. I will NEVER use either booking.com or this hotel again. The shame is, it's a hotel that I've really grown to love, but I guess making that one time bang on the customer is worth more than one who keeps coming back. Bottom line is, don't use booking.com. Go directly to the hotel site and make sure you read the fine print because even in an emergency, they don't care.