Never use Booking.com

They accidentally charged us twice for the same room.

You didn't contact your credit card company to challenge the duplicate charge when it first showed up?

As a first-time poster you should provide more details such as what country the hotel was booked in. Also writing "they tell me that my money is on a card that only booking.com has access to" leaves it vague who "they" refers to. The hotel? Booking.com? Someone else?

If this ever happens again, dispute the charge on your credit card statement right away. That will take care of it. Six months out is probably too late, but you can try.

Sorry this happened to you. What did your credit card company do about this situation? What was the name of the hotel and where is it located? When you say a digital card, do you mean that Booking.com has a credit for you to use in their system on another hotel booking? If that is the case, then that is as good as money for your next hotel. Think of it as a store credit good at any hotel in the future.

Many posters and forum members here never have issues with Booking.com, so if you want to make an impact you should come back and explain the situation better.

Agreeing with the others that we need more info to your story/situation.

I’ve been using Booking a lot for several years. And being a frequent mover during a trip, I usually have 10+ reservations per trip, not including the ones I cancel several months ahead while planning - which are easy to manage in Booking.

Helpful hint: in our current tech world, I still print out a copy of each reservation and have the payment confirmed printed on the backside of the page. It is very helpful to show them when I check in that the payment has already been processed. Years ago, I did have a hotel in Paris who wanted to charge me for the room twice when I checked out. When I showed her my payment confirmation, it was “suddenly “ cleared up which was suspicious to me. Maybe this was your situation?

I believe a lot of people on here, myself included, have suggested that people use Booking.com for information but book directly with the hotels. Hopefully you can resolve this issue with the credit card you used. Double charging you then giving you a credit is definitely a scam.

Yes, please clarify. We booked an airport pickup through booking.com this past June. They never showed, gave some BS reason. We contacted booking.com, explained situation, we had a refund in 3 days to our credit card.

As many others here I am sorry you have had problems with Booking.com. I have used them for many years for both search and for bookings and never had a fiscal problem.

Twice I have had problems because they (=booking.com) don't distinguish between "private bath" and "en suite bath", but that is all.

I hope you get your money and have better luck in the future.

If booking big hotels, eg, Motel One or something similar, I normally use booking. com, always booking the non-refundable rate.

When I don't use booking.com, it is because of the proprietor of the small hotel, ie, for his/her benefit, or I will get a lower rate paying the entire amount in cash instead of using the credit card. Never any problems at all.

I have never had a problem with booking.com and I have used them for years.

Hopefully Jen comes back to address the questions that have been brought up.

jenniferva202,
I am sorry you are having this problem. I, as are others here, am not too sure I understand your situation. I would file a dispute with your credit card compoany for the double charge. The digital card you mention, could that be a credit with Booking.com? I have never come across the term "digital card" with the company. Or is this coming from the lodging? I have used Booking.com for almost 20 years, without a problem, either in cancellations or charging, or in changing my reservations.
I hope your problem is resolved soon. I wish yoyu the best of luck.

jenniferva202,

Just remembered...I reserved a room for 5 nights at a hotel in Hawaii for last January. About two weeks before our trip I found the same room type at the same hotel for a few hundred dollars less. I reserved it at the lower rate, then cancelled my first reservation without any problem. I do reserve at the cancellable rate however. (We are in our 80s, so who knows what roadblocks may appear with our health before the trip? The ability to cancel is a no brainer for us.)
This is typical of our experience with Booking.com. My guess is that your problem may originate with the lodging.
Once again, I hope you get your money back soon.

Thanks for for the tip. I have stayed at just over twenty properties for some fifty plus nights, across seven countries with Booking.com just this year. I guess I do not recall any problems, but they must have been terrible, Will try to be more careful in the future.

As above, sorry you had an issue; it would be nice to have more of the details. It's unclear who "they" are? Had you ever used the platform in the past and so are reasonably familiar with it?

I've been using booking.com without any problems for years too but cross-check the property reviews on other platforms, have only paid the hotels & not booking.com, and have selected the non-refundable option only for single, near-future nights. We've never used it for car rental or flights and can't see why we ever would.

In your case, I would have done as others suggested and contacted your credit card company.

I long ago decided not to use Booking.com, or any other booking website, because I discovered that they generally do not offer the most economic properties.

Not that I look at Booking and then avoid places they offer. I don't look at Booking at all! I start my search for accommodations with places shown on the town's website. I pick a place based on price, location, and facilities.

In one town I stayed at in the Spessart, 13 accommodations were shown on the town website. Five were listed by Booking and those were the five most expensive places on the towns list of accommodations, maybe even more when shown on Bookings website. I've done similar analyses many times, and I've always found that the simple, inexpensive places I most like to stay at are not offered by booking websites, in general.

It's not surprising; Booking charges 15% or more to the property as a booking fee, so the business has to have a lot of excess profit (can we say "overpriced") in order to list with Booking.

Occasionally, I find that a place where I stay IS offered on Booking, but I always find I have gotten a better price by not using Booking. One time I stayed at a mountain lodge in the Hartz that was also listed on Booking. For what Booking charged for just 5 nights accommodations with breakfast, I got five simple but nice dinners thrown in by booking direct. Another time, at a spa town in the Black Forest, I booked a two night package direct with the property that was not offered on Booking. For the same price as two nights with Booking, I also got admission to the spa in town by booking direct.

I find that there are a plethora of very nice, economical places to stay in Germany that are not listed on Booking.com.

So, I don't use Booking for simple economic reasons, but it's nice to know I am also avoiding some scams.

We've used booking.com a lot in Europe. Sometimes they may be a little bit more, but the ease of having all my reservations in one place is nice. The only time we had a glitch was in Denver, when at last minute driving around we got on the phone and booked something. When we arrived at the hotel, they said they didn't have any rooms. We called booking and they quickly found us a much better hotel (very upscale) and only charged the same price we would have paid at the cheaper hotel. Worked out great in our favor, and they were very helpful. Never had any issues with hotel bookings in Europe.