Booking.comReviews 4,274

I have been using booking.com for few years, I always been happy with the choice and service until the latest booking really disappoint me and I feel rip off by two parties.

1. Booking a apartment in Amsterdam through booking.com on 21st march 2014 for one night originally for present for my daughter birthday, she and her friends one to stay one night in Amsterdam. However due to flight changes and unavailability, I have to cancel the booking straight away and that was 25 minutes later.
Booking.com confirm the booking cancelled. I assume all cancel that I don't have to look at further about the confirmation. These are on 21st march 2014.

But then upon checking my credit card statement on first week of April 2014 as monthly check, I am shocked to find out I was charge full amount of the cancelled booking. Although communicated with booking.com regarding this apparently there is nothing they can do, as it was Living Capital the Amsterdam company charge me.
When I email them, I did have response but they too can't refund me because it already been charge.

Question is: why am I charge full amount on booking which cancel 25 minutes after booked., it wasn't even 25 hours, and the booking was for a month later.
Apparently this is a policy to avoid cancellation. What do trading standard think about this.

So it wasn't FREE cancellation, I can understand if I cancel 48 hours or perhaps a week before checking in.

Beware of booking with booking.com and Old West Area Apartments. It's s scammer although Old west Area Apartments charge me, the booking.com will get the commission too. Both parties are working together as scammers.

As a hotel business owner this site has been a bad experience for us. I would advise ther business owners to not list with this booking site.

The customer service is shocking. They do not reply to emails, are slow to send bookings information to our email resulting in double bookings on occasions.

Most frustrating is they have a lowest commission band of 15% which used to be 12% but they put it up.

They do not take guest payments and in any dispute are on the side of the guest booking and not the business.

There is no oppertunity to reply to reviews and unfair reviews are not removed.

They never reply to emails.

The change your listing with no warning and when this results in an incorrect booking do not claim any responsibility.

I am removing my listing.

I booked a hotel in New Delhi for a one-day week-end trip. They didn't provide any information about what kind of document I have to carry for identity. The room was most ordinary, not as it was reflected in site. Even in the hotel they didn't provide a bottle of drinking water. All those were still okay. But I doubt this site doesn't keep their clients data confidential, recently I have lost 8K INR from my credit card which I used to book hotel from this site and surprisingly the hotel charge I paid in cash when I checked-in. I didn't share my credit card details anywhere other than booking.com. The travel agency who Cheated the amount is another fraud it is fundootraveldeals.com. So friends better stay away from this site, especially in India where there is nobody to protect the consumers.

Used before to book several hotels and the most useful thing is that you can book with no advanced payment and there are lots of hotels.

However we are currently staying in London and feel like we have beem scammed. Arrived at this hovel of a hostel to be told that price quoted by booking.com was incorrect and we needed to pay VAT on top.

The quality of this hostel was just about forgivable at the price we have been quoted for two nights but with VAT on top which quite frankly feels like them taking the mick we're not paying much less than we would to stay somewhere nice.

Booking.com t+cs state that all prices inclusive of vat but they cannot be held responsible for pricing inaccuracies.

Buyer beware - will probably go direct from now on To avoid ffuture mishaps like this.

We wanted to look at canceling a hotel in Paris as our son could not travel with us.
Before we could find out what the cancellation fee was Booking.com sold our "cancelled" reservation. Instead of having an extra hotel room we ended up with no
Room and the $1037 full price forfeit versus just enjoying the hotel at the agreed on price.
Booking.com has enough market power they can do things like this with impunity.
Be very careful using Booking.com Book directly with a hotel if at all possible.

TAKE IT FROM AN INSIDER yes, the booking.com prices are cheap but truth is, if you book directly from the hotel is cheaper! The have to pay booking.com a commision, so they actually charge you a certain precentage so they dont lose that much money. I suggest you look at booking.com for the price then call the hotel themselves and ask for that same price! Especially if you are staying at a bed and breakfast, it is a lotbetter to book directly with them so they get to know you, like what you want for breakfast or what you are celebrating, or your plans! Dont lose that personal service, and book directly with them

I booked a room in London £40 for two nights, in May. I thought I had a great Bargain (and it wasn't a typo) because there were various other prices available and that price was also available in June so I booked it twice (May and June) and cancelled a pre-booking for another hotel I had booked in June at £50 per night.
I had an email this week to say that the (£40) price was wrong and that I had to pay £120 per night or have it cancelled. Now, (if) I chose to re-book the other cheap hotel, I can't because its fuly booked so now I'd be even more out of pocket.
2ndly. Booking. Com state Best Price Guaranteed
You are getting the lowest possible price at the time of booking – guaranteed.

Not only that but on the T & C's it sstates: By making a reservation through Booking.com, you enter into a direct (legally binding) contractual relationship with the accommodation provider at which you book.

So what's that all about?

I have a small hotel in Central America and we signed up with these people. After some time we asked if we could become unaffiliated with them. That was ten days ago and we are still not free of them. They have taken a presence on our TripAdvisor site and we cannot get them to stop. They are showing that our rooms are booked up all the time and they are killing our business. They do not respond to my emails and we don't know what to do at this time. I can see by this site that they have low rating and now I know why. If I can ever get rid of them I will never return as a hotel on their site. Be careful booking with these toads.

Stay away from booking.com.

During a visit to Argentina in January I made a booking through Booking.com at the Hotel Los Naranjos in Ushuaia. The price showing on Booking.com's website for a single room was US$90 per night, which on my budget was reasonable.

After inserting personal and credit card details I then clicked through and was shocked to discover Booking.com had deducted double - US$180 - from my Visa account.

When I checked in, the hotel receptionist said this happened before with Booking.com customers. As recompense the manager offered me a "free" breakfast, which was not included in the price, and transport to the airport. I declined both.

For the last month I have been completely stonewalled by Booking.com who refuse point blank consider a refund of the US$90 overpayment unless I can provide them with a screenshot of the web page when I made the booking.

How can I possibly produce a web page from many weeks ago which vanished into cyberspace's ether the moment I clicked to make the booking? And who prints off or saves the original web page anyway?

I have pointed out to Booking.com that Hotel Los Naranjos today still only charges US$90 per night maximum. This price is stated prominently on the desk in the hotel lobby.

Also no-one would choose to pay US$180 per night for what frankly is a very modest hotel in the remotest part of Tierra del Fuego.

After decades of consumer law I am astonished companies like Booking.com can use such stalling tactics to fob off customers in the hope perhaps they will drop their claim for a refund. Shame on them.

JOHN COOKSON

I have been using booking since last year for most of my traveling. But with what I had experienced today, I will no longer deal or recommend Booking.com to anyone. I have reserved a hotel near JFK airport and based my request on JFK airport along with airport shuttle. After I made my booking I found out from the hotel that they do not provide shuttle to JFK. Furthermore, after making my cancelation I called Booking and the representative did not handle the complain properly for that I have escalated the issue to her advisor. Who needs such headache. From now on I will not deal with Booking.com and I wish others will either be extra careful or not use it.

I booked an apartment with no reviews and immediately received a request, by email, to pay 30% up front by wire transfer. At no time was it stated that a wire transfer was required. I reported this to booking.com as possible fraud but they actually insist that I make a wire transfer or pay a cancellation fee. It's disgusting that they are promoting what is very likely fraud especially considering that they will not reimburse anything if I get ripped off.

It would be fine if I agreed to this when booking, but nothing about a wire transfer was stated in the listing. I'm really astonished that booking.com is trying to bully me into wiring hundreds of Euros to a no-review apartment based on a fraudulent listing.

We have been using Booking.com for the past few years.Our experiences have always been conclusive especially this last trip.We have just came back from the Philippines and had booked 2 hotels in Puerto Princesa. Did the first part and then when we moved to the Microhotel, I had made the mistake of booking it in MANILA.!
The hotel accommodated us last minute and I immediately called booking 24hrs number and they did all the leg work to cancel my reservation for that day in Manila and even got them to waive the cancellation charges! Koodos for booking, all our other reservations went smoothly. We will continue to use booking.com

We are a small agency that runs a few properties on the coast of Barcelona. The commission this company charges us and our customers is a total rip off. As we are promoting our properties on our own and other websites it is a frustrating experience for our customers to discover that they are being overcharged.
We had some problem with an overbooked property (We assume it was our fault, we did not know how the system worked) and they asked us to find alternative lodging for the customer. We spent lots of time looking for alternative properties and found some properties at the same level. After all the time, they charged us their commission, anyway and, what's more, they also charged the customer the commission for the other property: double win! After countless calls got to talk with somebody who told us to ask for a refund of the commission explaining that we had acted in good faith. I did, but nothing. Agencies, stay away.