Booking.com - warning and kudos

Good to know that they "did right" by you, Laurel. I use that site a lot too so I was initially concerned when I saw your post. Hopefully this "new thing" they're trying out will be history soon if it upsets a lot of loyal, long-time users?

Thanks Laurel. I use booking.com all the time as well. Good to know.

Thanks for the head's up Laurel.

Thanks for the heads up Laurel. Good knowledge for future bookings. Great customer service!

The key is always to read the small print before clicking the purchase button, no matter on what site. Unfortunately, technology and easy checkout options are "training" people into auto-pilot behavior (most likely to make money off their innocent mistakes when transactions are closed in haste). I used to be on autopilot on Amazon, thinking their prices were always the best. I stopped myself one day and actually checked around. Boy was I wrong. No more autopilot behavior for me, that was a lesson learned.

Good customer service when you got a person on the phone. But an example of why I prefer booking directly with hotels. Booking.com is a good search tool but you had to go to some trouble to overcome its defects in the transaction part.

I didn’t have the issue the OP had. Mine was a reservation with a hotel that offered airport transfers but at check in said they never had offered transportation. I got Booking.com on the phone and was moved to a hotel with shuttle service.
Another time I checked in and I didn’t have a reservation. I had my confirmation in hand and thankfully the hotel still had rooms available. Again, it was a short phone call to get the problem rectified.
I have also made reservations directly with hotels only to check in and no rooms available!

you got that right about being on autopilot; sometimes it is not good to store a credit card number in site that you use often

I seemed to have found a difference in what you see and what is shown depending on where you are booking from - the starting web address. When I started in Britain, I got some different info than when I started in the US (for cheaptickets.com). There may be different rules in different countries about what is required to show.

Booking.com might offer this "helpful" option only with certain properties. So if you don't see it, consider yourself lucky.

Thanks for the heads-up, Laurel. I'll probably use Booking.com again soon and will watch out now. When you trust a site for so long as I have too, you don't expect them to pull this kind of nonsense. Discouraging...

I'll echo all of the above. Thanks for the heads-up, but this is discouraging (so many businesses try to pull sneaky tricks like this after they have established a large base of users, thinking that they can get away with it once they have a big enough footprint). Hope this isn't a sign of things to come.

Booking.com has been a wonderful tool, and for my six week trip last summer I used it exclusively. So glad you posted this, I'll be on the alert.

I called them. I got a very nice rep who apologized. Said that "they"
are always trying new things on the site and she could understand my
situation as a long time user of their service. So she converted both
reservations to cancellable ones.

Wow, I did NOT see that coming. I am relieved for you and pleasantly surprised that the agent did right by you, a dedicated customer.

Glad things worked out for your and thanks for posting the "heads up" for those who use that and other third party sites. Many people use third party booking sites and I respect that -- to each his own. We don't use third party sites simply because we prefer to deal directly with the hotel(s). Regardless of how one books, always remember the devil is in the details -- and they do change.

Thanks, Laurel. Like you we use Booking.com for most of our reservations and it's easy to reserve on auto-pilot since we've done it so often. I'll have to be more alert in the future. Glad to hear they Booking did the right thing and your experience had a happy ending!

Sometimes hotels do not take bookings themselves and you have to use booking.com

And when you're booking shortly before arrival, you know you'll get an immediate confirmation from booking.com (or other booking websites). If you're depending on a human being at the hotel, you just don't know when you'll hear back.

It is always smart to look for a dedicated hotel website after you've identified an attractive property if you have time, since you may find a better deal or more options there.

I’ve tried usung Booking.com many times but found their website extremely user unfriendly. I like Hotels.com better by far.

I've used many different booking sites over time. Rarely, but occasionally, I have a problem with a booking when I get to the hotel. Also rarely, but still occasionally, I'm given what must be the worst possible room in the place. After filing these away in the back of my mind for awhile, I concluded that every single time I've had an issue, with either the booking or the room, it's been with booking.com. That means I have had zero problems with hotels.com, tripadvisor and a few others. I'll still use booking sites, but booking.com has lost my business forever. If they become the last booking site, I'll no longer use a booking site.

This relates to hotel bookings in Europe. When booking in Europe, you may get a slow response with email. It's way better to call and talk to someone at the hotel. If you can take advantage of it, Ultra Mobile is a great SIM card option for your unlocked smart phone. I only buy unlocked smart phones and don't use any of the big cell phone companies' plans. The price and services are about the same as other companies. I chose them because I can call landlines in something like 60 countries (virtually all of Europe) free. They also give you an allowance to call foreign cell numbers - but it's not completely free.

Never had that experience with Booking.com. I do have my browser set to no pop ups if that makes a difference. I am an avid user and fan of Booking. com, have used it for years with a great deal of success and wonderful stays. But I am quite obsessive about reading and re-reading every detail of the booking before I click.
Recently, I did have an issue where I cancelled a hotel in Rome because I found a better choice through Booking.com. I then saw the cancelled hotel had charged me the full amount of the booking. I knew that I had booked a room with free cancel and when I phoned the EXCELLENT customer service they agreed and called the hotel while I was on hold!
Turns out the hotel and made the error, which I think was just an oversight based on the high reviews for the hotel.
A few days later I got a link from Booking.com to put the amount charged back to my credit card.
So even more so now...a loyal Booking. com user.

Glad things worked out and enjoyed reading all the comments about booking.com and other ways to book hotels. I will share two of my experiences.

When I booked our hotel in New Orleans, the rate on Booking.com was $239.00 per night. When we arrived I asked what the walk -in rate was...$179.00. I said well we would like that rate. The front desk clerk looked baffled and said I would need to go through Booking.com to get lower rate. I said I don't think so. We go to our room and I get a call from manager who said they would give us lower rate and she lowered it for all the 4 nights we stayed. I saved us about $200 bucks!
Then I used a hotels website to book a room in Ireland last summer. The room had a generous cancellation policy. Later, I canceled the booking as I decided to stay elsewhere and I was within cancellation period. On my Visa bill, there was a charge for 12euros. After some investigating, turns out the hotel did not have a cancellation charge, but the booking engine they used, did! (Avvio). Now, I email hotel direct if I see that booking engine being used! I did get the charge taken off, but it was a hassle. Lesson learned.

One thing I will agree with one of the posters above is that the web site for booking.com is not particularly user friendly. That being said, I have used it often with no problems.

One thing I will agree with one of the posters above is that the web
site for booking.com is not particularly user friendly.

Really? I haven't found it difficult to use at all. Hmmm.

I frequently use Booking.com and have not had a problem with their service. But booking and other hotel sites charge the hotel 15% of what you pay. That’s fine if you are using the site for all your research, but if I’m getting my recommendation from the Rick Steves book then I reserve directly from the hotel and save them the 15%. It only seems fair.

Actually I always check the hotel website and Booking.com and choose the best deal. There is a lot more information most people don’t know about hotel booking sites although it’s probably better on a separate post.

I have used booking. com quite a bit and they have helped me out of a couple of situations of my own creating. The reason I am posting is I had a job awhile back working in reservations for a hotel and was told to put any reservations from booking sites not our own into the less desirable rooms kind of like a penalty for now booking direct with the hotel. Needless to say I no longer work there and I just use the site now to search for hotels and then book directly so I don’t have to worry about anything like that

Kregg,

I am so sorry to hear that! I hope not every hotel,does that. I love the cancel ability of booking.com so have to weigh the good with the (possible) bad. We have had some great places, I have to say, through Booking,com. But we usually stay in small properties.

The one and only time I used booking.com, the hotel had no record of my reservation when I tried to check in. We ended up in a better room for less money than the one I had booked! Lesson learned.

Since this post is still running I’ll add another fact about hotel booking sites that most people are unaware of. Hotels are not required to list all of their rooms. Some hotels only list 50% or 75% , knowing that they will book the rest through referrals, walk ins, and local advertising. So when booking.com or Expedia says “there are no rooms available on our site for your dates” it DOES NOT MEAN THE HOTEL IS FULL! There may still be rooms available if you check directly with the hotel.