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Within the last few days I booked a hotel on Booking.com and then got a call the next day from the hotel saying they actually don't use the Booking.com anymore

Within the last few days I booked a hotel on Booking.com and then got a call the next day from the hotel saying they actually don't use the Booking.com anymore (and that their account is inactive so they can't log in) and that I needed to cancel the stay through booking.com (the booking was pay on arrival but I still entered a CC). I re-booked with the hotel directly through their site (small independently owned hotel in a ski town). The whole process felt _shady_ but also it seems like the owner couldn't find a way to get their Booking.com listing removed. I am regretting not using a virtual card number for the initial booking through Booking.com.

seabass-labrax 3y ago
Is this 'virtual card number' something that Booking.com provides as an option to you, or do you have a third-party service for this?
- ben_w 3y ago
  I don't know what kubectl_h does, but I have a virtual card from Revolut
- lakpan 3y ago
  A lot of banks offer those nowadays. Wise has virtual cards and Revolut even has single-use cards, just to mention the most popular ones.
- swozey 3y ago
  Privacy.com has a 1password integration so I have it create cards instead of filling in my real card https://blog.1password.com/privacy-virtual-cards/ https://blog.1password.com/privacy-virtual-cards/
  - flutas 3y ago
    Just an FYI, Privacy won't help you out if something gets charged fraudulently to a card. Had a place triple charge me, place ignored all CS attempts from me. Privacy refused to help basically saying all three must have been valid and "they have policies with banks" that meant they "couldn't chargeback".
    - bitvoid 3y ago
      Isn't that what the spend limit option is for?
      - LoganDark 3y ago
        While I agree that allowing a fraudulent charge to appear on your card in the first place is user error (they should all be paused when not in use, and anything that remains unpaused should have strict spend limits set to within a dollar), the inconvenience of doing this properly can be too great for someone who makes purchases regularly. Or someone who uses Amazon at all, because they don't actually charge your card when you make a purchase, they charge it randomly about 6 hours later. This trips me up all the time.
    - LoganDark 3y ago
      > Just an FYI, Privacy won't help you out if something gets charged fraudulently to a card. Yes they will. I tried to buy a VPS from OVH, and then they immediately locked my account, demanded ID, and refused to refund. Contacted Privacy support to file a chargeback, and they just gave me an equivalent amount of Privacy credit and said not to worry about it, since an actual chargeback would be far more inconvenient for me. How large was the fraudulent charge?
  - davchana 3y ago
    privacy.com is not good. one loses the cashback or points. privacy.com wants the bank account details aka access. one loses any credit card related protections like insurance, price protection, charge back, fraud etc.
- cultofmetatron 3y ago
  privacy.com is fantastic for this.
- bozhark 3y ago
  Your credit card most likely offers the service
- luma 3y ago
  For supported cards, this function is built straight into Chrome. Works on my AmEx for example, every time Chrome prompts to auto-fill payment details one of the options is a one-time virtual card that gets automatically handled by Chrome itself. Works a treat!
  - jksflkjl3jk3 3y ago
    That seems very shady. Surely there must be a financial institution behind the virtual number, no? Is Chrome a white label for one of these financial services?
    - ta1356356 3y ago
      Nothing shady, just an alias to your real account #/card number, its got to be supported by your bank and ties back to a real account. Thought it'd been commonplace for quite a while.
    - davchana 3y ago
      nothing shady. you add the actual card number in chrome. chrome saves it. chrome knows this card supports virtual card numbers. at the time of any payment, chrome gives option to autofill card details with actual card or virtual card. if virtual selected, chrome gives/send/syncs that virtual card with issuer/original card. capital one supports it. Amex too.
  - solardev 3y ago
    Is this only on Android, with Google Pay integration? Or desktop Chrome too? News to me!
- kubectl_h 3y ago
  Capital One makes it very easy to generate virtual card numbers that map to a credit card account.
nroets 3y ago
If a property asks you to cancel your booking on Booking, please make sure that Booking knows the real reason. (I'm leading a very nomadic lifestyle and I've used Booking over 50 times)
- throwaway290 3y ago
  I used Booking way more times. I'd say just call support and explain what happened. Also maybe do not provide card info "for card confirmation". It literally gets just sent to the place in the clear. Many of them print it and keep for who knows how long for anyone to see.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - kubectl_h 3y ago
    > Also maybe do not provide card info "for card confirmation". I could be wrong but I don't believe I was given the option not to. I was unaware it was sent in the clear until now.
    - throwaway290 3y ago
      Some listings support pay via Booking now, I prefer those unless I trust the place enough. Otherwise I would choose a debit card that I wouldn't have much balance on.
  - carlosjobim 3y ago
    > It literally gets just sent to the place in the clear. Nowadays they send a virtual card that has been generated by booking.com to the hotel. The card details of the guest stay with booking.com
    - throwaway290 3y ago
      A few years I saw paper sheets with my card info printed at the hotel. Good to know it changed
cjrp 3y ago
Is it possible they just wanted you to book direct so they don't pay the Booking.com commission?
- kubectl_h 3y ago
  Maybe, though the owner seemed legitimately annoyed with Booking.com having the listing still active. Their direct price ended up being 10-15% cheaper in any case.
- ChatGTP 3y ago
  I've heard from friends o friends who use Booking.com that their payment system broke down earlier this year and booking.com still has not paid them hundreds / thousands they are owed. So might be why they're avoiding taking bookings through the site.
  - neilv 3y ago
    > that their payment system broke down earlier this year and booking.com still has not paid them hundreds / thousands they are owed. "Aw, shucks, the payment system is still broke. Just be a few months before the repair company can be by to fix it. Nothing to worry about here. No need to contact a lawyer or the AG's office." ?
xnx 3y ago
Sounds a lot like the bad-old-days of taxi's where the driver would say "the credit card machine doesn't work.
- flemhans 3y ago
  Copenhagen, 2023. And Uber is banned.
- Our_Benefactors 3y ago
  lol, this is still how NYC operates at large
isotopp 3y ago
If you booked with Booking, and the hotel called you back, and told you they don't use Booking any more, how do you imagine did they get the information needed to call you back and knew of the booking? What you have here is commission fraud on behalf of the hotel against Booking.com, and if you call back Booking.com and tell them about it, they will set the hotel straight. Or you get back to the hotel, tell them you understand how commission fraud works and if they are willing to split that commission (18%) half and half with you.
- pxeboot 3y ago
  > how do you imagine did they get the information needed to call you back and knew of the booking? Maybe booking.com sends an email to the hotel, but they legitimately don't have the login credentials to cancel the reservation?
  - baz00 3y ago
    Had this. That was exactly what happened to me. It was refunded and I decided never to use booking.com ever again.
    - codr7 3y ago
      Good choice, for several reasons.
  - kubectl_h 3y ago
    This was it. They add calendar events too apparently.
  - carlosjobim 3y ago
    There's 0% chance this is what happened. Hotels can get in touch with booking easily by phone or e-mail to fix any login issues, or to delist from booking if they don't want to be partners. Also, why would they have to log in? Booking.com sends their invoices by e-mail as well. This case was commission fraud by the hotel against booking.com
  - 3y ago
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

seabass-labrax 3y ago

Is this 'virtual card number' something that Booking.com provides as an option to you, or do you have a third-party service for this?

ben_w 3y ago
I don't know what kubectl_h does, but I have a virtual card from Revolut
lakpan 3y ago
A lot of banks offer those nowadays. Wise has virtual cards and Revolut even has single-use cards, just to mention the most popular ones.
swozey 3y ago
Privacy.com has a 1password integration so I have it create cards instead of filling in my real card https://blog.1password.com/privacy-virtual-cards/ https://blog.1password.com/privacy-virtual-cards/
- flutas 3y ago
  Just an FYI, Privacy won't help you out if something gets charged fraudulently to a card. Had a place triple charge me, place ignored all CS attempts from me. Privacy refused to help basically saying all three must have been valid and "they have policies with banks" that meant they "couldn't chargeback".
  - bitvoid 3y ago
    Isn't that what the spend limit option is for?
    - LoganDark 3y ago
      While I agree that allowing a fraudulent charge to appear on your card in the first place is user error (they should all be paused when not in use, and anything that remains unpaused should have strict spend limits set to within a dollar), the inconvenience of doing this properly can be too great for someone who makes purchases regularly. Or someone who uses Amazon at all, because they don't actually charge your card when you make a purchase, they charge it randomly about 6 hours later. This trips me up all the time.
  - LoganDark 3y ago
    > Just an FYI, Privacy won't help you out if something gets charged fraudulently to a card. Yes they will. I tried to buy a VPS from OVH, and then they immediately locked my account, demanded ID, and refused to refund. Contacted Privacy support to file a chargeback, and they just gave me an equivalent amount of Privacy credit and said not to worry about it, since an actual chargeback would be far more inconvenient for me. How large was the fraudulent charge?
- davchana 3y ago
  privacy.com is not good. one loses the cashback or points. privacy.com wants the bank account details aka access. one loses any credit card related protections like insurance, price protection, charge back, fraud etc.
cultofmetatron 3y ago
privacy.com is fantastic for this.
bozhark 3y ago
Your credit card most likely offers the service
luma 3y ago
For supported cards, this function is built straight into Chrome. Works on my AmEx for example, every time Chrome prompts to auto-fill payment details one of the options is a one-time virtual card that gets automatically handled by Chrome itself. Works a treat!
- jksflkjl3jk3 3y ago
  That seems very shady. Surely there must be a financial institution behind the virtual number, no? Is Chrome a white label for one of these financial services?
  - ta1356356 3y ago
    Nothing shady, just an alias to your real account #/card number, its got to be supported by your bank and ties back to a real account. Thought it'd been commonplace for quite a while.
  - davchana 3y ago
    nothing shady. you add the actual card number in chrome. chrome saves it. chrome knows this card supports virtual card numbers. at the time of any payment, chrome gives option to autofill card details with actual card or virtual card. if virtual selected, chrome gives/send/syncs that virtual card with issuer/original card. capital one supports it. Amex too.
- solardev 3y ago
  Is this only on Android, with Google Pay integration? Or desktop Chrome too? News to me!
kubectl_h 3y ago
Capital One makes it very easy to generate virtual card numbers that map to a credit card account.

nroets 3y ago

If a property asks you to cancel your booking on Booking, please make sure that Booking knows the real reason. (I'm leading a very nomadic lifestyle and I've used Booking over 50 times)

throwaway290 3y ago
I used Booking way more times. I'd say just call support and explain what happened. Also maybe do not provide card info "for card confirmation". It literally gets just sent to the place in the clear. Many of them print it and keep for who knows how long for anyone to see.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- kubectl_h 3y ago
  > Also maybe do not provide card info "for card confirmation". I could be wrong but I don't believe I was given the option not to. I was unaware it was sent in the clear until now.
  - throwaway290 3y ago
    Some listings support pay via Booking now, I prefer those unless I trust the place enough. Otherwise I would choose a debit card that I wouldn't have much balance on.
- carlosjobim 3y ago
  > It literally gets just sent to the place in the clear. Nowadays they send a virtual card that has been generated by booking.com to the hotel. The card details of the guest stay with booking.com
  - throwaway290 3y ago
    A few years I saw paper sheets with my card info printed at the hotel. Good to know it changed

cjrp 3y ago

Is it possible they just wanted you to book direct so they don't pay the Booking.com commission?

kubectl_h 3y ago
Maybe, though the owner seemed legitimately annoyed with Booking.com having the listing still active. Their direct price ended up being 10-15% cheaper in any case.
ChatGTP 3y ago
I've heard from friends o friends who use Booking.com that their payment system broke down earlier this year and booking.com still has not paid them hundreds / thousands they are owed. So might be why they're avoiding taking bookings through the site.
- neilv 3y ago
  > that their payment system broke down earlier this year and booking.com still has not paid them hundreds / thousands they are owed. "Aw, shucks, the payment system is still broke. Just be a few months before the repair company can be by to fix it. Nothing to worry about here. No need to contact a lawyer or the AG's office." ?

xnx 3y ago

Sounds a lot like the bad-old-days of taxi's where the driver would say "the credit card machine doesn't work.

flemhans 3y ago
Copenhagen, 2023. And Uber is banned.
Our_Benefactors 3y ago
lol, this is still how NYC operates at large

isotopp 3y ago

If you booked with Booking, and the hotel called you back, and told you they don't use Booking any more, how do you imagine did they get the information needed to call you back and knew of the booking? What you have here is commission fraud on behalf of the hotel against Booking.com, and if you call back Booking.com and tell them about it, they will set the hotel straight. Or you get back to the hotel, tell them you understand how commission fraud works and if they are willing to split that commission (18%) half and half with you.

pxeboot 3y ago
> how do you imagine did they get the information needed to call you back and knew of the booking? Maybe booking.com sends an email to the hotel, but they legitimately don't have the login credentials to cancel the reservation?
- baz00 3y ago
  Had this. That was exactly what happened to me. It was refunded and I decided never to use booking.com ever again.
  - codr7 3y ago
    Good choice, for several reasons.
- kubectl_h 3y ago
  This was it. They add calendar events too apparently.
- carlosjobim 3y ago
  There's 0% chance this is what happened. Hotels can get in touch with booking easily by phone or e-mail to fix any login issues, or to delist from booking if they don't want to be partners. Also, why would they have to log in? Booking.com sends their invoices by e-mail as well. This case was commission fraud by the hotel against booking.com
- 3y ago

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]