Booking.comReviews 4,274

Our company has been a faithful user of booking.com for a good few months now for our corporate bookings.

During one attempt to cancel the booking for London Marriott within the free cancellation window, it was immediately reflected as [CANCELED] on the site and we safely assumed it was cancelled. We did NOT receive any cancellation emails (as we would have, considering the previous bookings/cancellations we have done). We safely then booked another hotel in view of this cancellation around the same vicinity.

HOWEVER, a week into the stay-period, we are shocked to have been billed a hefty NO-SHOW fee for London Marriott (which is cancelled then on site) and when we logged back in to check (it amazingly shows NO-SHOW, instead of CANCELLED!).

I do not know if it was on booking.com's rep's part that they failed to cancel promptly this Marriott booking and thus caused this big penalty fee but it is atrocious to blame the customer for (double-booking, according to the Customer Support) for your site's technical error and failure to confirm via email to us. We have always received confirmation/cancellation emails previously, but there was NONE for this.

The customer service (female, obviously I didn't bother to ask for her name as it would just be an alias) was pretty rude when she attended to my questions with sarcastic comebacks and all she could say was she'd forward a refund request (but according to her system, there were no cancellation requests ever done) to the hotel in respective and "get back to me" with the hotel's refund response.

Acting on behalf of a corporate entity, we would strongly advise the readers to book directly with the hotels themselves instead of booking.com agent. It's extremely saddening to know how actually middlemen agents like booking.com works to earn their keep.

Extremely disappointed.

I have read some other reviews of booking.com. I seriously strongly feel such sites need to be disbanded in customer interests. I had made a booking at Apartment k, Reykjavik. The condition of booking was that a one day tariff will be charged for confirmation. The card was declined. And one assumed the booking is cancelled because the necessary condition of reservation was not complied with. There was no correspondence for next almost two and a half months, no one day rent was debited to card, no phones, nothing, and suddenly a debit of 1000 euros lands up.Booking.com told me that they sent one mail, just one, saying even if card is declined, the booking is on until I cancel it. Like so many mails they send, this too landed in spam, and I realized it only when I went looking for what they call is their confirmation. This raises serious questions. If debiting one day tariff is not a condition for reservation, then why debit so many people. Indeed if a reservation made months in advance does not get cancelled with no money transaction or guarantee, then we should all give wrong card details, and enjoy cheaper tariffs. Afterall it does not seem that the booking is dependent on charging card for one day stay.
Any reinstatement of booking by definition needs customer consent. To say that you made a booking, it did not go through, you have not paid money as a guarantee for booking, but we will still debit you, does not stand test of common sense or justice.
Then comes the role of booking.com. Very conveniently they say its a policy of hotel, they have nothing to do. Then why be the interface and make money. Lets all start booking direct with hotels only.

Deceptive advertising. The room category that I booked at the Chalet Suisse in Valberg France was not the room I was given. I was given a much lower category for the price advertised. After discussion, I was given another r)room ( larger) but still not as advertized. I wrote a review on my stay at this hotel but my review was printed incompletely and presented in an inaccurate manner. User of this site BE AWARE and careful: You may not get what you are supposed to get and thre is no compensation for your lost disappointment.

The

I LOVE the book now and pay later feature! It is great because when you are planning for big vacations or small 'staycations" you don't want to pay the lump sum upfront. I only give it 4 stars because I haven't completed my stay yet. But I have been to the hotel before and know I will like it. Just need to make sure my check-in is seemless and that I truly dont get charged before then.

I will update my post accordingly. Thanks

CHEERS!

I booked a room for my fiancee. I used my card but put the reservation under his name. I have done this before from other websites and had NO PROBLEMS with him being able to check in. booking.com however, has it set up so that they have to have MY license and MY card at the hotel at check in because booking never goes directly through me. An hour later, the hotel is telling me they will have to charge my card again so that he can sleep there and I had to fax them photo copies of my license and card. Just an AWFUL hassle. I use travel sites a lot and I will NEVER use this one again or recommend it to anyone.

Booked a hotel on their site, was not as advertised. Paid for 4 nights but left after 1. Was initially told by hotel that I would receive refund but in check out they refused to give me my money back. Booking.com took no responsibility in trying to retrieve my money (even though they made money from the transaction) said the hotel refused to pay back my money and I was to try again. They washed their hands of the situation.The whole reason I contacted them was because hotel refused my promised refund. Totally useless, tried to make out that they had no power, despite this being a 3 way agreement. They asked me to send them discriminating photos which I did, however, they still did nothing and continue to advertise hotel despite the added photos and comments. Disgraceful and will not book with them again. Beware as they seem to side with the hotels and not the customers.

BE WARE OF EXCESSIVE CANCELLATION FEES ON YOUR CREDIT CARD! AVOID BEING SCAMMED!

My wife booked a hotel in Malacca on Wednesday early in the morning for our Saturday trip. On booking.com site, there was no warning about any fees relating to cancellation. The notification about the cancellation fees were sent via email when the hotel was booked and the credit card information was collected. We discussed about our weekend plans and didn't want to go. One hour after the hotel was booked she cancelled the hotel assuming that it was more than 72 hours before we can check in therefore no cancellation fee should be charged. To our surprise, her CREDIT CARD WAS PROMPTLY CHARGED FOR OVER $140 FOR THE ENTIRE STAY! When we called booking.com, the agent named Susan was very rude and said the fee was charged by the hotel and there is nothing she can do about it. She said it is entirely my wife's fault because there is a tiny "i" icon, which if my wife would have hovered her mouse, would have seen the fine print. She won't even bother calling the hotel to discuss. We asked IF WE COULD STILL GET THE ROOM, AND SHE SAID "NO" BECAUSE IT WAS CANCELLED! We will be basically CHARGED TWICE for the same room if it is available and book it again. Her explanation was that basically booking.com collect the credit card information for the hotels and ONCE YOU BOOK IT, THEY ARE NO LONGER RESPONSIBLE for any dispute or issue relating to the transaction. My wife has used their website for many of her trips but unfortunately that means absolutely nothing to them.

Booking.com LOST A CUSTOMER FOR LIFE, BUT I AM SURE THEY DON'T CARE!

I booked 3 nights at the Moderne Hotel in New York over New Year but decided to cancel as we were offered a very good package from Dial a Flight who i must say were fantastic and i would strongly recommend them to anyone. We cancelled the booking on line but received no confirmation from Booking.com. Both my wife and i checked to see if we had any bookings so we looked at the website and clicked on the booking button which shows upcoming trips and there was no mention of the booking with the Moderne Hotel so we logically assumed it had been cancelled. Wrong. According to Booking.com we never cancelled it so we have now been hit with a cancellation fee from the Hotel. Would i recommend Booking. Com no no no. Will i ever use Booking. Com no no no

We have used booking.com to book accommodation for our 6 week trip to USA and Canada. We have found one hotel in Newark that makes untrue statements and as this was the first we booked for our trip we did foolishly book the cheapest option which has cost us £112 to cancel both bookings! I was hopeful that if I contacted booking.com and told them how undisclosed extra charges learnt from an email to this hotel had forced us to cancel that they would help not wanting this type of hotel on their site? But after reading many posts on this site about the very poor customer service you have all received I do wonder if I too should cancel all bookings with booking.com and book personally myself? So if a booking.com customer service rep wants to reply and satisfactory deal with my concerns please do! As at present I am far than happy with booking.com!

I always speak as I find. So my advice to all the people that post complaining on this Booking.Com site is when contacted and requested to supply your booking numbers? Do it if you haven't done so yet? I did using the email address supplied? One day later I received an email reply from Booking.Com customer service telling me they had contacted the hotel direct and due to my concerns and circumstances the hotel have decided there would not be any cancellation fees made for cancelling my booking. So as far as I am concerned Booking.Com do care about their guests booking rooms with them and will step in to assist if you need them?
So we are now happy to leave all our booked accommodation in their capable hands for our road trip as I now know they will be there if I do need them all I have to do is ask!

My friends and i booked a hotel in Paris named Peace and Love Hostel for a week. They charged my dad's credit card for €73 while on the site you said it is free to book. Then i sent you an email and it was said that the charge on the credit card was only to make sure whether my dad's credit card was active or not. Whatsoever, it pisses me off because the hostel said the same way. I need my money back. This is very inconvenient. I don't get your procedure.

I am writing here with a complaint against the inaction of booking.com and China Hotel Marriott in Guangzhou, China.
The point is that I booked two rooms in this hotel on October 18,2013. Those were bookings for my colleagues who went to China for a business trip. I reserved the rooms via booking.com using my credit card but I indicated in the comments box that the guests would pay for their stay on their arrival by the card of one of the guests (it was written that it is possible to give my credit card number just as a booking guarantee).
Nevertheless, when the guests checked-in, I got a message on my mobile phone that China Hotel Marriott charged 1380 RMB from my card. I know that the whole cost of their stay was charged from the guest's credit card at check-out. I immediately contacted booking.com and they assured me that this sum of money was not charged but was only "frozen". They assured me that the money would be returned to my card within 35 days.
35 days passed and nothing happened.
I would like to point out that I am not a sheik's daughter and not an oil tycoon to forget about this money. This is a big sum of money for me.
I contacted booking.com again who promised to settle the problem as soon as possible. We have been corresponding for almost three weeks already, but this correspondence gave no results. I provided booking.com with my credit card bank account statement which they asked for. It is clearly stated there that the money was charged by the hotel but it was never returned to me.
They also asked me to send them a scanned copy of the invoice which the guests received when he checked out of the hotel. However, I do not have this document because it was sent to our auditing company two months ago and there is no possibility to get it back. Anyway, I am absolutely sure that China Hotel has all records of the guests' payments and it is not such a tall order to get it from them. Besides, it is written on booking.com that they have an office in Guangzhou, but for some reason they cannot send anyone to China Hotel Marriott to get the invoice and settle the matter.
They refuse to give my money back without the invoice which I am not able to provide through no fault of mine!
Now 2,5 months passed of wasted nerves and time. I cannot remain patient because any patience has an end.

Made a reservation in London 3 nights 3 doublerooms and 2 month in advance. Since we are a group of 6 people I wanted to make sure we had full right to cancel at least until we had found a reasonable flight. For that reason we didn't even aim for lowest price. When confirmation came from booking it stated full payment-no cancellation!

Booking refused to adjust and blamed the hotel. Hotel hides behind booking.com. £1250 gone if we can't arrange with flight for everyone.

Please Avoid, go directly to each hotel instead

/Mikael stockholm

Their booking guarantee is not to be relied on. "No booking fees. Booking.com services are always free, so you save money." I made a reservation last November for a weeks stay in July 2014. The Imperial Hotel debited my credit card for all 5 nights stay. Booking.com was unhelpful to say the least. The service is astrocious with customer service requesting proof of payment even after I sent them my credit card transaction details. It's been 2 weeks and I still haven't received my refund. No thanks to you, Booking.com

I booked a hotel for two weeks on Turks and Caicos on Dec 31,2013 for June 2014. According to booking.com, if you find a lesser price, that is exactly the same, they will honor this. On Jan 1,2014, I found a less expensive price on Expedia.com for nearly $500. I notified booking.com the same day. I have sent them 3 emails in a 9 day span with absolutely no reply from them of any kind. I sent the link and page copy of the lower price also. They either are very incompetent in what they do or they just plain don't care. When one runs a business, the least one can do is reply to ones emails, unless of course, one has no intention of upholding ones own policies and hope that the customer will just go away. I do not recommend any business that acts this way and wish I had read the reviews first. With this many unhappy people posting, it definitely raises a red flag. I hope this is the end of this scenario and that I do not have to come back here and post more problems.

I have until now used booking.com any time when I wanted to book a get-away, but am now having extreme difficulties dealing with their unhelpful representatives over the phone. I have yet to receive an email with the reservation details, which I have requested three times. The representatives even repeated my email address over the phone to me, and assured me that they would send it immediately. My problem is that a double-booking was made with my card, and I have been trying to cancel this. The money for both apartments has already been taken from my account and I am under the “impression” that the reservation cannot be cancelled. However, I am still left with no details regarding the reservation, nor any contact details for the apartments that are booked. The booking.com representatives have fobbed me off for a week now, providing me with different stories each time I have called. At first I was told that it was up to the resort, the next time I called, I was told it was up to the representative's manager to decide, then the next time I called, I was told it was up to the resort. I certainly will NEVER use this website again, and have found the whole service to be utterly DISGRACEFUL. If anyone knows how I can make a complaint about this, could you please let me know?

I had a real problems with my reservation in Istanbul. My boyfriend and me were going to have a romantic New Year weekend, but we got into a trouble with double payment for hotel and finding new place to stay in the night. We came to hotel witch we booked and hotel owner said that his hotel was totally closed. It took us to find new hotel 4 hours in the night and we made new reservation in another hotel via booking.com. So Booking.com has taken money for both reservations. booking.com agents promised me to resolve my issue and refund money but I didn't get my money back. Customer service even didn't answer to my emails. And finally I've found that my booking.com account doesn't exist anymore... Guys, what is going on?

P.S. Booking.com customer relations team has resolved this situation. I've got the whole refund and polite support. Thank you!

I booked a room on this website in September. The price for the room was 1400 and my card was charged within three days. I then, canceled the reservation a week later through the Booking.com site. After pressing the cancel button, the site indicated my room was cancelled. Two days after my original reservation date, I recd. A notice from Booking. Com, that they I was a no show. I spoke to customer service which told me to email them and they would contact the hotel to resolve the matter. I have not heard from them after three emails later. Based on reading the other reviews on this site, this is a common complaint. DO not use them!