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Spread the word: Never use booking.com (or other online travel agencies)

by xnx 1y ago

netsharc 1y ago
They're terrible, but according to the article the hotel requested the cancellation, and now booking.com has reinstated the booking and apparently paying the difference... seems like they're "the good side" here (or, paying to avoid the bad publicity). Eugh, I feel dirty defending them.
- mikeocool 1y ago
  I wonder if the hotel would be less likely to cancel on a direct booking with the same mistake — when their brand would be more directly on the line.
goda90 1y ago
You can find a list of other companies owned by Booking Holdings here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booking_Holdings https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booking_Holdings Priceline, Agoda, Rentalcars.com, Kayak, OpenTable, Rocketmiles, FareHarbor, HotelsCombined, Cheapflights, momondo
- no_wizard 1y ago
  I constantly get recruiter emails from Agoda. Anyone ever work for them? They want to move me to Thailand which doesn’t make a ton of sense to me, considering I’d be asking for an American level salary regardless
glitchc 1y ago
Since the hotel called her directly to inform her of the pricing error, I don't see that as the booking platform's problem. After all, the hotel is the platform's client. The same thing would have happened if she had booked directly from the hotel.
r0fl 1y ago
I’ve used hotels.com and Expedia forever Each time a hotel has had an issue Expedia and hotels.com has fixed the issue for me by refunding the difference or giving me a credit for another booking Cancelling through hotels.com has always been easy. Even for bookings that have been non refundable, they can call the hotel and make exceptions. I would never not use it. Dealing with sites directly is a nightmare.
Syzygies 1y ago
I always book directly with hotels, airlines, and auto rental agencies. One gains privileges by cutting out the middleman. For example, one can generally check out early. We had followed a hotel reservation from locals in Nagoya, and found ourselves in a stodgy "classic" hotel. We were able to pivot to possibly the nicest corner suite in the entire city, at a steep last minute discount. I did get trapped once, not realizing that my Hiroshima hotel became nonrefundable several days before check-in. With a phone call they moved my reservation to a few days later as a courtesy. The web page then let me cancel.

Spread the word: Never use booking.com (or other online travel agencies)

by xnx 1y ago

Spread the word: Never use booking.com (or other online travel agencies)

They're terrible, but according to the article the hotel requested the cancellation, and now booking.com has reinstated the booking and apparently paying the difference... seems like they're "the good side" here (or, paying to avoid the bad publicity). Eugh, I feel dirty defending them.

mikeocool 1y ago
I wonder if the hotel would be less likely to cancel on a direct booking with the same mistake — when their brand would be more directly on the line.

goda90 1y ago

You can find a list of other companies owned by Booking Holdings here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booking_Holdings https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booking_Holdings Priceline, Agoda, Rentalcars.com, Kayak, OpenTable, Rocketmiles, FareHarbor, HotelsCombined, Cheapflights, momondo

no_wizard 1y ago
I constantly get recruiter emails from Agoda. Anyone ever work for them? They want to move me to Thailand which doesn’t make a ton of sense to me, considering I’d be asking for an American level salary regardless

glitchc 1y ago

Since the hotel called her directly to inform her of the pricing error, I don't see that as the booking platform's problem. After all, the hotel is the platform's client. The same thing would have happened if she had booked directly from the hotel.

r0fl 1y ago

I’ve used hotels.com and Expedia forever Each time a hotel has had an issue Expedia and hotels.com has fixed the issue for me by refunding the difference or giving me a credit for another booking Cancelling through hotels.com has always been easy. Even for bookings that have been non refundable, they can call the hotel and make exceptions. I would never not use it. Dealing with sites directly is a nightmare.

Syzygies 1y ago

I always book directly with hotels, airlines, and auto rental agencies. One gains privileges by cutting out the middleman. For example, one can generally check out early. We had followed a hotel reservation from locals in Nagoya, and found ourselves in a stodgy "classic" hotel. We were able to pivot to possibly the nicest corner suite in the entire city, at a steep last minute discount. I did get trapped once, not realizing that my Hiroshima hotel became nonrefundable several days before check-in. With a phone call they moved my reservation to a few days later as a courtesy. The web page then let me cancel.