Booking.com concern, Seattle area

Jules, try contacting booking.com Customer Service via the link in the dark blue menu bar at the top of the page; click the question mark in the circle. I had an issue once with a host that wanted info from me but wasn't returning my messages, and customer service was very responsive; got the problem cleared up. You probably need to be logged in and have your current booking info handy.

In the same menu bar is open messaging; you can use that for contacting Customer Service too if you have a current booking.

Why don't you book somewhere else? I'm assuming you're doing some sort of private apartment type thing? I'd bail and book with a hotel. I see some reasonable choices west of I-5 in the Northgate area. I don't know your exact travel dates, but they're all looking to be just over $100 a night.

I would contact booking. You are right, that is not Kerry Park or Magnolia by any stretch of the imagination. Wallingford is south of Green Lake. Across from Northgate would be Greenwood/Broadview.

I use Booking all the time, but this would give me pause and I would want this sorted out, or find another place.

Hampton inn and Suites Northgate is your alternative.

PS. I was actually born at Northgate😀

There are some pretty sketchy blocks in neighborhoods that might be described as " west of Northgate". Magnolia and Kerry Park are nowhere near Northgate (not by a long stretch). Wallingford, maybe but that's a stretch, too. Something funny is going on there.

Why not look at the location on their website? Unlike annoying services that deliberately obfuscate locations (looking at YOU, AirBnB...), booking dot com should show locations quite accurately.

I'm looking at booking dot com right now, their map of available properties shows the locations. I see two kinds of properties "west of Northgate": hotel/motel types, scattered around (which may be fine, or may be...interesting...), pus a smattering of residential places in two areas: just east/west of Highway 99 (Aurora) – that can be a very sketchy strip – and some more sprinkled around the NE fringes of Greenlake. Those (around Greenlake) may be OK or not, depends on location (and the hours). I would avoid anyplace within a block or two of Highway 99.

Thanks for the responses. Yes, I can easily cancel. When I was trying to reach booking, the site kept navigating to”chat” and the bots were making me nuts. I have since found and called an 888 number and Booking is investigating.

The appeal of this particular unit is that it is walking distance to my son’s place. We won’t be renting a car. Plus, my son’s place is small and he is married and has a toddler and a baby expected in January, we thought we could gather at the rental. No hotels in walking distance, Best Western, Hampton, Courtyard all 2+ miles away.

This is the 2nd problem I’ve had with a Booking property this month. I had to use Booking for New Zealand since that is the way most properties that I was interested in do business.

For a place I booked in Lake Tekapo, New Zealand, the property contacted me a day later and told me the property was unavailable and to cancel. I couldn’t find something else so I called Booking and they put us in a different property that appears to be nicer and Booking will pay the difference.

Booking said depending the outcome of the Seattle investigation, they will take care of us. Problem is the area doesn’t have a lot of options, so we’ll see.

So my takeaway so far. I will always try to book direct to the property. If need be, I still will use Booking because they seem to take care of their customers. For non hotel type properties, one is usually stuck with a rental company, AirBnB, VRBO or Booking. I have and will communicate personally with every place I book because that seems to provide some assurance of legitimacy. I think, even with Booking, the traveler needs to do some of their own vetting.

I will report back on this situation.

Ah yes, David, some sketchy areas. It’s a mixed bag. My son’s block and west is a nice residential neighborhood. A couple blocks east, and my son’s comment was the motels “book by the hour”.

I’ve walked past the property in the listing several times. It is on the way to the park. The photo matches the address matches the property on Google maps. My son walked over to see if there were for sale signs, or anything of interest. My son said maybe someone got the pics from a real estate listing. It’s only a couple years old.

I would expect something like this on Craig’s or VRBO or AirBnB, less so Booking, but again, I haven’t used it much.

Hi Jules, I would have red flags going off in my head if the description keeps changing. Also, how many reviews does it have? I won’t select a place with less than 30 - just my threshold to reduce running into issues. Personally, I would go with the hotel and use Uber.

You are so right, Jean. Its new, so it had about 5 reviews. I guess I thought since it was Booking, maybe I could trust it more than Airbnb et. al.

My son has not lived in this area long, less than 3 years. They are watching for something to buy. In any case, we've visited a handful of times. It is a difficult area to find accommodations. We've stayed at the Nexus (fine, but I wouldn't recommend), and when I go alone, I stay at their place.

I'm waiting to hear what Booking has to say, and maybe they will find somewhere else for us. There are a lot of AirBnB type places, I just prefer not to use them.

If this turns out to be a scam, my son is debating letting the folks in the townhouse complex know that the property is listed on Booking.

Jules do be careful on hotels. The area around 125th and Aurora is to be avoided.

Jean, I think we've usually stayed at about 110th. From what I've seen a fair amount of Aurora should be avoided. . .
I keep lobbying for them to move to Bainbridge. . .

Yes, 125th/Bitter Lake is a bit eye opening. However, go west of 99 to Greenwood (parallels 99) and then just a couple blocks from there is the Broadview area which is quite nice. Both of our kids lived in this area until last Nov. when they each bought their first homes.

I live close to Northgate and the Hampton Inn suggestion is a good one if it fits your budget as it is a very short walk from the Northgate light rail station and is in a very safe spot. If your son is located west of I-5, you can use 92nd Street to easily get across the freeway and your son should be very close by based upon your description.. Avoid staying anywhere near Aurora Avenue.

Thanks for the suggestions, I'm still waiting on Booking to get back to me. The listing is gone from Booking so I'm quite sure it wasn't legit.

I agree with the assessment of the area. My son lives between Aurora and Greenwood, more in the area of 90th, which is where this townhouse on Booking is located. They are also just living there until they buy a house.

When we visit, we usually take the link from the airport and my son picks us up. He is almost 2 miles from the station and he doesn't consider it a safe walk. We'd like to stay closer to my son because we won't have a car. Also we will want to come and go during the day and probably will want to cook some meals. My purpose in posting was this situation was strange and it surprised me to have this happen with Booking. I'm not concerned about finding a place to stay, just hoping we can come up with something more convenient than the hotels.

Lots of good transit options you could use to round out your transportation options. Look at the Metro trip planner or city mapper. Both work well.

Here’s a thought: since they are looking to buy a home, and you are hoping they will choose Bainbridge Island (which is a great place to raise children) why not rent a vacation home there and invite your son’s family to come stay with you for a little “getaway”? They could get a feel for island life (annd the commute if there would be one), and have a chance to look around at the different areas. These two are among the listings I found on booking.com with availability for a 4-night stay on random dates I chose in March. They are around $850 and $520 for the 4 nights, respectively. There are other listings for more $$$. And probably others on AirBnB.

https://www.booking.com/hotel/us/farmhouse-chic-retreat.html?aid=318615&label=New_English_EN_CAUS_19115483305-K4sycmwYORFOenBugxUC5QS640874780779%3Apl%3Ata%3Ap1%3Ap2%3Aac%3Aap%3Aneg&sid=1a8a4b76b5c2bbf59a65491d54f2659a;checkin=2024-03-08;checkout=2024-03-12;room1=A,A,A,A,2,0;homd=1;srpvid=28907101e5020114;srepoch=1702483485;atlas_src=hp_iw_title

https://www.booking.com/hotel/us/bainbridge-island-retreat.html?aid=318615&label=New_English_EN_CAUS_19115483305-K4sycmwYORFOenBugxUC5QS640874780779%3Apl%3Ata%3Ap1%3Ap2%3Aac%3Aap%3Aneg&sid=1a8a4b76b5c2bbf59a65491d54f2659a;checkin=2024-03-08;checkout=2024-03-12;room1=A,A,A,A,2,0;homd=1;srpvid=28907101e5020114;srepoch=1702483541;atlas_src=hp_iw_title

I lived on Bainbridge for 16 years and my kids went to the schools there. The public schools are excellent, and overall it is a great place to live—-a nice safe place with a strong feeling of “community”. One can have space for a great garden if they want, and pets. It is an easy commute to work if one works downtown, as I did—-I just walked on the ferry and to my workplace in Seattle; no traffic issues at all. For those who work outside the downtown area, there is good public transportation to many areas, or one can leave a car parked on the “Seattle side” as some of my friends did (there are garages in downtown Seattle with monthly rates).

Hi Lola, Thanks for the terrific suggestions and the links. Yes, I think Bainbridge would be a great place for them to live. My son's previous boss lives in Bainbridge and has children and loves it. She biked to the ferry and then biked to work.

Unfortunately, it doesn't work for March. Baby will be about 6 weeks, and my son will be back at work. He doesn't work very close to the ferry and his bike is in our garage (in Minnesota). Baby's toddler brother will be going to daycare (near Northgate) to maintain consistency though we will pick him up early.

So to those interested, I'm not thrilled with Booking in fact, very disappointed in them. They may be all great, until you need customer service. They said they'd get back to me in 24-72 hours. I ended up calling them 15 days later. They said the listing is legit. Yet, they can't reach them via phone or email and neither can I. The property is no longer on Booking because they didn't pay their fees. Booking claims that they have no record that the company was changing the label and asked me if I had taken screenshots. I tried to explain why its fishy using Paris as an example (Let's say the property is in the 12th, yet the listing says the 5th, and they next day the 1st and the next day the 8th. . .

Booking says that even though they are no longer listing it, we can still stay there, thus they will not help us find an alternative. If we get to the property in March and it ends up bogus, then they will help us. Except, the property is in a heavily residential area, and thus there are fewer properties. At the time I booked the current one, there were several other options. Right now, there is one, it has 3 more bedrooms than we need and is $500, more. The hotels within walking distance are on Aurora and, um, frequented by "working women" and their guests. If they put us at a hotel further away, we no longer have cooking facilities and would need a car. Yes, there are buses, but, with my son's small town house and a baby, we can't stay there all day, so the three of us could be back on forth on buses all day. If there was just one of us, we could likely spend the day, and help some, and actually likely stay there overnight. Three extra people in a small townhouse all day is too much.

Just so you don't think my kid has his family living in a slum, houses in his neighborhood are over 1 million, townhouses about 3/4 of a million and 3 -4 blocks away are 2 million dollar homes and higher.

Anyway, my post is not so much about finding a place to stay as it is about Booking and their customer service. I would love to say that I will no longer use them. I actually have rarely used them in the past as I prefer to book directly. However, we have a trip to New Zealand planned in a few months and lodging there predominately uses Booking.com. The small motels, and B & B's we are staying at may often have their own website, but when I get to reserving the websites navigates to Booking.

So to those that use Booking, I would monitor the bookings, and know that if you have an issue, you may or not get help.

thanks for your post warning people about Booking.com. I've used them a lot with no problem, but if it looks like a private apartment then I'll send an email question to the host to see how they respond. And I've found sometimes that I can find better deals booking directly with a hotel, even with my Booking Genius discount. Looks like you were smart to be suspicious!

Jules, I am really sorry that they are giving you the run around this way. This is so frustrating !! And at a time when you just want to be able to focus on your son and new grand baby.

I wish that something magically could work out !! I am so sorry.

Thank you for sharing your experience and warning us.

Redfin considers this--
https://www.google.com/maps/@47.6939882,-122.3512662,3a,75y,262.55h,86.94t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sNju9Oo-6apRV2fBK_Qg4yQ!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DNju9Oo-6apRV2fBK_Qg4yQ%26cb_client%3Dsearch.gws-prod.gps%26w%3D86%26h%3D86%26yaw%3D254.15726%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu

..a $1,000,000+ property. It is in the area defined by OP as where her son lives. Just noting that a million bucks in Seattle looks different than most other places in the country. Nice area, but not luxurious as some might think given the housing prices.

The area OP describes, between Aurora Ave and Greenwood Ave and near 90th would be considered by most locals as the "Greenwood" area, not Green Lake , and definitely not any of the other area/locale descriptions OP found used by the landlord

Hopefully it works out and having to rely on Plan B does not come into play.

I'm sorry the OP has been having such a hard time finding a place to stay - that's Seattle. And it's disappointing to hear they've had less-than-ideal interactions with booking dot com. I'm going to offer a contrasting experience with that company. I've used them many times all around the world, and have had what I would consider generally great customer support with them in the past, and will continue to use them when needed.

On one trip to Mexico a few years back, we had booked a nice-looking condo in a resort area of a medium-sized city in Baja. The condo was a bit dated (very 1970s or early 80s style) but the place was generally fine, comfortable, and mostly as advertised, spacious, with nice views, great restaurants just steps away, private pool and nearby beach, even free parking . But there were multiple issues, some minor, some less so. When we arrived, we found dirty dishes in the sink, leftover food in the fridge. Trash rotting in the trash. Our unit which was listed as including its own dedicated free parking, had none. When I tried to resolve that with the management office for the complex, things went downhill. No, there would be no parking for us (not the end of the world, but given the location it was a moderate annoyance involving a lot of walking). The management also started giving me a hard time about, well, everything. It eventually became apparent that the owner of the condo had not been paying their required homeowner/maintenance fees, so the management was in no mood to be helpful to me. In addition to the lack of parking, we were denied the use of the complex's pool, and we were physically blocked from walking the short path to the complex's beach. At that point I called booking dot com. Got right through to a live native-English-speaking human, who listened to my story, apologized, and promised to get back to me within an hour. We went out for dinner, and about 30 minutes later I got an email from booking dot com. They apologized again, said it was unreasonable for me to be put in the position between the owner and the complex management. They told me we would not be charged for our 2 nights there, and would be issued a 100% refund. They contacted the owner, asked them to intervene and address our issues. It turned out that the owner could not reach an agreement with management while we were there (they were apparently in a long-running dispute) but they offered to send someone to finish the condo cleanup (we declined). The complex staff grudgingly allowed us to use the pool and beach path the next day. We left after 2 nights and with a 100% refund we saved almost $300 for the two nights.

Point being: sometimes things go sideways, and that can happen with any business. At least in my experience, booking dot com has been there for me, provided excellent customer experience, and did the right thing. YMMV.

Can't help you much with Seattle housing. The city is a complete cluster in so many ways. Good luck.