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Booking.com is a terrible company in pretty much every regard. I've had a reservation to a hotel that was pretty full according to the website scare tactics, bu

by ratww 5y ago

Booking.com is a terrible company in pretty much every regard. I've had a reservation to a hotel that was pretty full according to the website scare tactics, but when I got there I was the only person to come in weeks. Also, their support is abysmal. Often when hotels fail to provide rooms as advertised, they play a "not my fault" game with the hotels, where the hotels claim they can't refund because the money is stuck with Booking.com while Booking.com claim the money is in the hotels account. Then they give you a "20% refund" that you can use on your next purchase there. It also happened twice to me that they "double charges" me, with a pre-charge (that is deleted in a few weeks) and then with a real pay, which might leave you without money in your credit card if you have a small credit limit.

thrdbndndn 5y ago
I agree with all your points. However, last time I travel for a extended time (hotel everyday at different place for a month), I found Booking has the best UI after some comparison between all the major players (keep in mind lots of them are from the same company), I still used it. Would like a recommandation about what to use instead.
- Reason077 5y ago
  As you point out, the vast majority of hotel booking platforms in the US and Europe are controlled by either Booking Holdings or Expedia Group. Whatever website you use, chances are it's really of one of these conglomerates. But some notable exceptions include: Trip.com Tripadvisor Lastminute (Trivago used to be another major independent, but Expedia Group now owns the majority of it's shares)
- ratww 5y ago
  I still use their UI but I just call the hotels directly. When I can't find anything, I use AirBnB.
dessant 5y ago
After snatching that alleged last apartment in a 3 story cabin, we ended up being the only guests, and the owner was snoring in the attic.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
woutr_be 5y ago
> Also, their support is abysmal. Often when hotels fail to provide rooms as advertised, they play a "not my fault" game with the hotels, where the hotels claim they can't refund because the money is stuck with Booking.com while Booking.com claim the money is in the hotels account. Then they give you a "20% refund" that you can use on your next purchase there. I'm going through the exact same dispute with VRBO (Expedia Group). The apartment that we rented wasn't at all what was advertised, so we left after one night. VRBO first said that because we left voluntarily, there was nothing they could do. After pointing out that we still have our booking as active, they said we need to talk to the owner directly. After pointing out that the owner is just ignoring our messages, they just said that they handle as a middle-man between us and the owner. After pointing out that the apartment isn't what is advertised, and that the reviews don't even match the property, they said that we agreed to their terms and conditions. I then spend a couple of hours looking at their other terms and conditions, and pointing out that the owner had agreed with these, but that they had broken several of their terms and conditions by apparently using the same listing for multiple properties. VRBO finally agreed and refunded us their 10% service fee, but claimed that the rest of the money is already with the owner, so we need to talk to them for a refund. (They have ignored us for weeks now) I'm still baffled that they would handle it this way. First completely dodging any responsibility, only taking some responsibility after highlighting that the owner had broken several of their rules, and only refunding us their service fees. I never paid any money directly to the owner, so I have no clue how the owner will ever refund me. At this point I don't even really care about the money that was lost, but the fact that both VRBO and the owner are willing to just take my money (1500 EURO), for a single night in their falsely advertised property infuriates me to no end. And I'm doing anything in my power to make their lives as difficult as possible.
- Aeolun 5y ago
  Small claims court?
  - woutr_be 5y ago
    That's exactly the route we're taking now.
  - 5y ago
virgilp 5y ago
As an opposing pov: we mostly use booking.com for our reservations, and have never had an issue with them, and found their support useful the one or two times we needed it. They're the best reservation site that I know (others are way worse), and are fairly customer friendly [+]. I still book directly whenever I can because I don't want the hosts to pay the rather large booking.com fees... but we often find places to stay through them, and use them for 1 night stays, or places that don't necessarily inspire lots of confidence (e.g. have custom-implemented payment methods), or places that require payment in advance while offering cancel-able options on booking.com. [+] Yes they use scare tactics but come on, they're easy to ignore. Who cares it's the only available room and 500 people are looking at it right now and 5 of them are already typing in the credit card details? Not me. If I can't get that particular room, I'll get another one, whatever. (I guess it also helps that we often book ~1year in advance, so we're reasonably confident that we'll eventually find something).
- robin_reala 5y ago
  I think the problem here is that while they may be easy for you to ignore, that’s not universally true.
  - MaxBarraclough 5y ago
    Right. They presumably do A/B testing. They wouldn't use these manipulative practices if they didn't work.
- grujicd 5y ago
  I'm using booking for 15+ years, mostly in Europe. I'm a satisfied user. These scare tactics don't bother me since it's easy to ignore. What I care about is that I see exact micro location of property, if I'm going with friends to a mountain cabin it's a real bonus if it's a bit further from other cabins or surreounded by woods. Airbnb burned me more than once with hidding this critical piece of info and only showing general area.
  - Terry_Roll 5y ago
Aeolun 5y ago
We arrived at a hotel, then found out we could get the room for a cheaper rate than we got on booking. The hotel was very helpful, and we cancelled the booking both from our, as well as the hotel’s side. Nonetheless it took Booking.com days to decide that the refund was legitimate.
- ceejayoz 5y ago
  Isn’t the hotel screwing Booking.com over in that scenario?
  - Freak_NL 5y ago
    In all fairness, Booking.com is screwing everyone over, so it seems to balance things out.
    - ceejayoz 5y ago
      Perhaps, but a hotel willing to screw over Booking.com to make some extra bucks might be similarly willing to screw me over.
    - techcode 5y ago
      If you go down that route of thinking - any online marketplace (e.g.: Amazon, mobile app stores, Steam ...) and even offline your local green market and groceries store are all screwing everyone over.
trymas 5y ago
> Then they give you a "20% refund" that you can use on your next purchase there. Consider yourself lucky. For me it was 20eur take it or leave it, on 500eur loss. <rant> I consider cancellation/refund policies that end before your arrival technically - a scam. The situation was like that - the apartment was booked with cancellation available 3 (or smth) days before arrival [0]. Upon arrival - the place was cigarette reeking, bedbug infested, with 30 year old completely worn out mattresses disgusting place. Owner says - "sorry - no refunds" [1], booking says - "we talked to the owner, cancellation policy has ended, the reviews are above average" [2][3]. Upon other calls they gave me 20eur. Bank could not issue a refund, because everything was up to policy. Though I still use booking.com. I learned to ignore those dark patterns, because it's obvious that 1 spot is left for an apartment, there are no more to it :) . I had only 1 horrible experience with them, but had much worse with AirBNB. Booking.com is great to search all types of accommodation and it's often possible to find a way to book directly and for cheaper, so using it sort of as a search engine. </rant> [0] from my experience it's usually like that, cancellations/refunds until your arrival usually add exorbitant amounts to the price [1] though owner suggested ordering cleaning services, but that place needed crime scene level cleaning and complete refurbishment [2] lesson learned: always sort reviews by newest and translate from foreign languages, because newest 3 reviews were horrifying. But I have not read them, because have not translated them, or have not seen them. Because default sorting shows by "relevant", i.e. foreign language reviews are on the bottom and the other sort order is a mystery to me. [3] it seams that people do not know how to vote in reviews. If you returned from vacation and infested your own home with bed bugs, and had multitude of other problems - do not give 7 or 8 as a review score - give it a 1. Booking.com used those reviews against me - "if it's above 8 - we cannot do anything about it".
- ratww 5y ago
  Oh, I wonder if we went to the same place. Exact same experience. The funny part is that you can cancel before arriving, but if you're set to stay multiple days, you can't cancel the other days. Might as well make N reservations instead of 1 with N days. About reviews: Booking.com didn't allow me to leave a review, since they claimed I could only spend one day at the hotel. Even though they charged me for a week. They are as crooked as it gets.
ezconnect 5y ago
In South Korea all the hotels we booked on booking.com cancels the booking when you arrive and you pay on the desk. That's how they do it not to pay the booking.com tax.
- Reason077 5y ago
  I guess they don’t care too much about staying on booking.com, then?
  - ezconnect 5y ago
    They politely ask you to cancel your own booking. I think we only experience a couple of hotels that cancel it themselves after informing us that they will cancel it. Maybe booking.com don't want to reduce their inventory so most are not penalize.
pjmlp 5y ago
I also have quite a few bad experiences with them, including some surprises with the actual hotel room, however I have had worse ones with other services, so I keep using them.
flippyhead 5y ago
I agree totally and, despite spending 3-6 months of most years traveling, we never use them anymore.

by ratww 5y ago

thrdbndndn 5y ago

I agree with all your points. However, last time I travel for a extended time (hotel everyday at different place for a month), I found Booking has the best UI after some comparison between all the major players (keep in mind lots of them are from the same company), I still used it. Would like a recommandation about what to use instead.

Reason077 5y ago
As you point out, the vast majority of hotel booking platforms in the US and Europe are controlled by either Booking Holdings or Expedia Group. Whatever website you use, chances are it's really of one of these conglomerates. But some notable exceptions include: Trip.com Tripadvisor Lastminute (Trivago used to be another major independent, but Expedia Group now owns the majority of it's shares)
ratww 5y ago
I still use their UI but I just call the hotels directly. When I can't find anything, I use AirBnB.

dessant 5y ago

After snatching that alleged last apartment in a 3 story cabin, we ended up being the only guests, and the owner was snoring in the attic.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

woutr_be 5y ago

> Also, their support is abysmal. Often when hotels fail to provide rooms as advertised, they play a "not my fault" game with the hotels, where the hotels claim they can't refund because the money is stuck with Booking.com while Booking.com claim the money is in the hotels account. Then they give you a "20% refund" that you can use on your next purchase there. I'm going through the exact same dispute with VRBO (Expedia Group). The apartment that we rented wasn't at all what was advertised, so we left after one night. VRBO first said that because we left voluntarily, there was nothing they could do. After pointing out that we still have our booking as active, they said we need to talk to the owner directly. After pointing out that the owner is just ignoring our messages, they just said that they handle as a middle-man between us and the owner. After pointing out that the apartment isn't what is advertised, and that the reviews don't even match the property, they said that we agreed to their terms and conditions. I then spend a couple of hours looking at their other terms and conditions, and pointing out that the owner had agreed with these, but that they had broken several of their terms and conditions by apparently using the same listing for multiple properties. VRBO finally agreed and refunded us their 10% service fee, but claimed that the rest of the money is already with the owner, so we need to talk to them for a refund. (They have ignored us for weeks now) I'm still baffled that they would handle it this way. First completely dodging any responsibility, only taking some responsibility after highlighting that the owner had broken several of their rules, and only refunding us their service fees. I never paid any money directly to the owner, so I have no clue how the owner will ever refund me. At this point I don't even really care about the money that was lost, but the fact that both VRBO and the owner are willing to just take my money (1500 EURO), for a single night in their falsely advertised property infuriates me to no end. And I'm doing anything in my power to make their lives as difficult as possible.

Aeolun 5y ago
Small claims court?
- woutr_be 5y ago
  That's exactly the route we're taking now.
- 5y ago

virgilp 5y ago

As an opposing pov: we mostly use booking.com for our reservations, and have never had an issue with them, and found their support useful the one or two times we needed it. They're the best reservation site that I know (others are way worse), and are fairly customer friendly [+]. I still book directly whenever I can because I don't want the hosts to pay the rather large booking.com fees... but we often find places to stay through them, and use them for 1 night stays, or places that don't necessarily inspire lots of confidence (e.g. have custom-implemented payment methods), or places that require payment in advance while offering cancel-able options on booking.com. [+] Yes they use scare tactics but come on, they're easy to ignore. Who cares it's the only available room and 500 people are looking at it right now and 5 of them are already typing in the credit card details? Not me. If I can't get that particular room, I'll get another one, whatever. (I guess it also helps that we often book ~1year in advance, so we're reasonably confident that we'll eventually find something).

robin_reala 5y ago
I think the problem here is that while they may be easy for you to ignore, that’s not universally true.
- MaxBarraclough 5y ago
  Right. They presumably do A/B testing. They wouldn't use these manipulative practices if they didn't work.
grujicd 5y ago
I'm using booking for 15+ years, mostly in Europe. I'm a satisfied user. These scare tactics don't bother me since it's easy to ignore. What I care about is that I see exact micro location of property, if I'm going with friends to a mountain cabin it's a real bonus if it's a bit further from other cabins or surreounded by woods. Airbnb burned me more than once with hidding this critical piece of info and only showing general area.
- Terry_Roll 5y ago

Aeolun 5y ago

We arrived at a hotel, then found out we could get the room for a cheaper rate than we got on booking. The hotel was very helpful, and we cancelled the booking both from our, as well as the hotel’s side. Nonetheless it took Booking.com days to decide that the refund was legitimate.

ceejayoz 5y ago
Isn’t the hotel screwing Booking.com over in that scenario?
- Freak_NL 5y ago
  In all fairness, Booking.com is screwing everyone over, so it seems to balance things out.
  - ceejayoz 5y ago
    Perhaps, but a hotel willing to screw over Booking.com to make some extra bucks might be similarly willing to screw me over.
  - techcode 5y ago
    If you go down that route of thinking - any online marketplace (e.g.: Amazon, mobile app stores, Steam ...) and even offline your local green market and groceries store are all screwing everyone over.

trymas 5y ago

> Then they give you a "20% refund" that you can use on your next purchase there. Consider yourself lucky. For me it was 20eur take it or leave it, on 500eur loss. <rant> I consider cancellation/refund policies that end before your arrival technically - a scam. The situation was like that - the apartment was booked with cancellation available 3 (or smth) days before arrival [0]. Upon arrival - the place was cigarette reeking, bedbug infested, with 30 year old completely worn out mattresses disgusting place. Owner says - "sorry - no refunds" [1], booking says - "we talked to the owner, cancellation policy has ended, the reviews are above average" [2][3]. Upon other calls they gave me 20eur. Bank could not issue a refund, because everything was up to policy. Though I still use booking.com. I learned to ignore those dark patterns, because it's obvious that 1 spot is left for an apartment, there are no more to it :) . I had only 1 horrible experience with them, but had much worse with AirBNB. Booking.com is great to search all types of accommodation and it's often possible to find a way to book directly and for cheaper, so using it sort of as a search engine. </rant> [0] from my experience it's usually like that, cancellations/refunds until your arrival usually add exorbitant amounts to the price [1] though owner suggested ordering cleaning services, but that place needed crime scene level cleaning and complete refurbishment [2] lesson learned: always sort reviews by newest and translate from foreign languages, because newest 3 reviews were horrifying. But I have not read them, because have not translated them, or have not seen them. Because default sorting shows by "relevant", i.e. foreign language reviews are on the bottom and the other sort order is a mystery to me. [3] it seams that people do not know how to vote in reviews. If you returned from vacation and infested your own home with bed bugs, and had multitude of other problems - do not give 7 or 8 as a review score - give it a 1. Booking.com used those reviews against me - "if it's above 8 - we cannot do anything about it".

ratww 5y ago
Oh, I wonder if we went to the same place. Exact same experience. The funny part is that you can cancel before arriving, but if you're set to stay multiple days, you can't cancel the other days. Might as well make N reservations instead of 1 with N days. About reviews: Booking.com didn't allow me to leave a review, since they claimed I could only spend one day at the hotel. Even though they charged me for a week. They are as crooked as it gets.

ezconnect 5y ago

In South Korea all the hotels we booked on booking.com cancels the booking when you arrive and you pay on the desk. That's how they do it not to pay the booking.com tax.

Reason077 5y ago
I guess they don’t care too much about staying on booking.com, then?
- ezconnect 5y ago
  They politely ask you to cancel your own booking. I think we only experience a couple of hotels that cancel it themselves after informing us that they will cancel it. Maybe booking.com don't want to reduce their inventory so most are not penalize.

pjmlp 5y ago

I also have quite a few bad experiences with them, including some surprises with the actual hotel room, however I have had worse ones with other services, so I keep using them.

flippyhead 5y ago

I agree totally and, despite spending 3-6 months of most years traveling, we never use them anymore.