DON'T trust Booking.com! They still won't give me my money!!

How very disappointing and upsetting for you! I am quite surprised as I have used booking.com multiple times with only positive results. I hope you are able to get this situation resolved to your satisfaction soon.

Thank you; actually the reason I use Booking.com was that I too used to think it was trustworthy, and I had been reading positive experiences on this website too. So, I thought I should make this post, as people may not have a realistic view of it (or it may have actually changed in recent years, who knows...)
Let's see if anything else happens, I will certainly update you

I stopped using that platform 5 years ago after 2 different bookings in Europe got screwed up, badly (the hotels had no record of the reservations). While it all turned out OK, it was unacceptable to me.

Fool me once, shame on me...you know the rest of it...

I hope you can address with your credit card company. It's a pain, but I have successfully contested charges related to travel issues.
I am sorry to hear of your bad experience, and surprised, as I am one of the Booking.com boosters. I have used them for at least a decade with no issues whatsoever.

I am extremely surprised too, as I've been using them for years. I even have reservations with them for the next months, but thankfully they're all in my country (I live in Cyprus, a small island, so if i'm not happy with where I'll stay I'll just come home lol). Actually, one owner just cancelled, let's see how they'll handle it this time

Now that I think of it though, I had trouble with Booking.com last month too: We stayed at a place in Mykonos, which had 10/10 reviews, with the exception of one review, which gave it 1/10, saying the worst things. When we stayed, we realized that it's the bad review that is right, and wondered how anyone could give it a good, perfect even, score. Then we noticed that all the others had reviewed it on two different dates (e.g. 5 people one the one date, 5 on the other), everyone commented on how wonderful the owner was, everyone stayed just for a night, and, trust me, there's no way anyone could breathe in that place. So, their reviewer verification system is flawed too...

How much more was the place you stayed compared to the place you originally booked?

430 euro more expensive, as it was much closer to the date we'd be staying, so we were extremely reluctant to accept it. However, we had no option as we hard organized everything based on that trip, and also Booking.com had reassured me REPEATEDLY, on the phone AND in writing that it would send me the price difference of up to 440 euro if we provided them with an invoice at an alternative accommodation showing zero balance. We did (I also sent them the receipt the owner gave me, plus my bank statement, plus they had the original confirmation since it was booked through them), and now they're going back on their word :(((

I recently had my first issue with Booking.com after using them many times for the last several years. I booked a stay at a hotel and it was not pay in advance. Yet, I got my CC statement and I had been charged the full amount for my one night stay. I started the process of making an inquiry about it, but when I realized how many hoops I needed to jump through with Booking, I gave up because well, we were going to stay there. It has given me some pause, but with fingers crossed, I will probably still use them. It’s so darn convenient.
At my zoom travel meeting last weekend one of the other folks also said this issue happened to them as well.

I do hope your situation will be resolved!

I use Booking.com a lot and plan to continue to use them. My trips entail many lodging reservations (14 for the last trip), and Booking is so easy to keep track of everything in one location. When my husband died unexpectedly at home while I was on this last trip and I was in shock, I really appreciated that I could immediately go into Booking and cancel the remaining refundable reservations all on one site with no issues.

A couple of things I noticed in your details to help others in the future:

If an owner cancels, then that reservation is cancelled. I would not accept an alternate promise from Booking or from the owner, if they have alternate properties. I did have one cancel on us when I was making plans in the Cotswolds in 2023. It was a small place and probably had a wedding party wanting the whole place.

I only correspond & pay through Booking. I also keep a screenshot of every piece of correspondence through their website messages. If someone cancels a reservation, you lose that history, otherwise.

I see further down in the comments that a place you stayed only had a few reviews. The minimum number of reviews for my threshold of even considering whether to reserve a specific lodging is 35 for small towns and 50 for larger. I have seen in one tiny town in Spain where there were reciprocal people leaving reviews of each other’s places by staying one night at each. (I check this type of thing since I like to stay in small towns.)

I did have one suspect email, supposedly from Booking this year, that said there was an issue with my credit card and my reservation would be cancelled immediately if I didn’t address it. Yes, it was a scam, and I contacted the property through their Booking messages to double-check. Soon afterwards, Booking also sent me an email that it wasn’t them sending that scam.

”I booked a stay at a hotel and it was not pay in advance. Yet, I got my CC statement and I had been charged the full amount for my one night stay. I started the process of making an inquiry about it, but when I realized how many hoops I needed to jump through with Booking, I gave up because well, we were going to stay there.”

Tammy, I had a hotel in Paris - probably five years ago, that was going to charge me for my already paid room through Booking. I’m one of those old-school people who bring paper copies. : ). So, I showed them on my credit card charges that the room was already paid. “Suddenly” they acknowledged it was paid. So your situation may be that link of communication.

I hope you can s issue cause we also use booking.com quite often. Sometimes small venues only book through them cause they aren’t large enough to sustain a website. We have a booking with them for September in Tomar, Portugal.
In June we had booked an airport pickup through Booking.com in Rotterdam. The driver didn’t show how on time, was over an hour late - by now we had taken a taxi - and booking.com refunded us our money 2 days later.

I did have one suspect email, supposedly from Booking this year, that said there was an issue with my credit card and my reservation would be cancelled immediately if I didn’t address it. Yes, it was a scam, and I contacted the property through their Booking messages to double-check. Soon afterwards, Booking also sent me an email that it wasn’t them sending that scam.

I had one of these emails this morning. Shortly after the hotel responded with a message to ignore the message, and that they would never ask for credit card info in an email. The reservation was already paid for, so I knew it was a scam, but it concerning that Booking.com can't get this on-going problem under control.

Experienced traveler here, but Bookings.com newbie.
I used them for my upcoming trip to make one reservation. The process seemed to be "OK" but several recent events have me wondering if using them was a mistake.
I needed to update the bookings account to include the mobile number that I will have active while I travel.
No problem there. I made the change. They verified the number.
What has happened since is a bit worrisome. I have had two verification notices (a 10 minute pass code) sent to me that I did not request. Why? What triggered these? The email says that if you did not request them, ignore them. Yeah, but WTH?
I'm not sure I will use them again after this. I'm not trusting the process.

”I needed to update the bookings account to include the mobile number that I will have active while I travel.”

Mack, I have used Booking a lot and never needed or was asked to do this. That might be the issue, if it didn’t come from them.

Thanks Jean. They did not request that. It's just me in travel planning mode. Anywhere that I left my US number (that will not work in Europe) I have gone back to update my accounts with the travel number.
I've been in so many situations where a service or site needs a verification before allowing you to log. An inactive contact number can throw you into a do loop death spiral. There was the time in Taipei (another in Vienna) when I had about $2.00 and was unable to access my band accounts or cards..... and I was hungry.
Anyway, I did update it on their. That update did result in a verification number being sent to me, as expected. It's the other two that have me puzzled and a bit concerned. Hopefully all is well?

Update: They said they had the invoices, that they would give me my money back, they put it on my Booking.com wallet AND THEN THEY CANCEL IT AND THEY TAKE IT BACK!!! Isn't this stealing? I call them (like 30 times) and each time they keep telling me they're investigating it!! There's NOTHING to investigate! I'm really frustrated :(

Does anyone know where I can write this up as a story? E.g. send it to yahoo or something? Other travelers should be warned... I wish I'd never trusted Booking.com :(

You can try contacting the Elliot Advocacy. They are a non-profit that helps mediate disputes between consumers and travel companies.

https://elliottadvocacy.org/help/

Thank you so much for this. I will give it a try...